SEO Fundamentals – Complete Guide for Beginners

A well-documented study reveals that nearly 90 percent of the web-users don’t go beyond the first page of search engine results. This figure is an indication of something very important. That is, whether you have a business or a personal site, you can’t have a reasonable share of traffic unless Google ranks you higher.

Here is an important question that how can you stand out in the eyes of Google when thousands of blog posts are published every day? Well, the answer lies in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Unlike the common assumption, you don’t have to get to the bottom of SEO’s technical aspects yourself to be noticed by a search engine. You can simply seek out a quality internet marketing agency to take care of the technical aspects of SEO for you. Although it will likely yield less fruitful results, you can also attempt to fuel your SEO campaign on your own.

As a beginners, you should consider basics SEO fundamentals, which will help you to improve your rankings in major search engines.

Quality Content

Ever since Bill Gates said “content is king”, content marketing has always been around. If anything, it has only gained steam over the years. Content marketing is the essence of SEO because it allows you to adjust keywords properly and lays a strong foundation for the link building strategy.

At the same time, you can’t afford to go astray with your blog posts. You have to write about the stuff that is completely in compliance with the respective niche. Otherwise, you might have to consult a link building agency like LinkBuildingHQ. For example, if your website is dedicated to fashion, the content must be the reflection of that particular genre.

Besides, you must have an eye for trends because public interests keep on changing with time. Keep in mind that publishing an article once in a blue moon will have little to no influence on the overall ranking. Because the whole point of generating content is that Google wants to know whether your site is still churning and burning or you have dropped the guards.

The content should also be well-structured. If not, the visitors will be quick to skip the site and all your hard work will go down the drain. So, here are some valuable instructions that will aid you to craft easy-on-the-eyes content:

• Divide the text into catchy sub-headings. The majority of the readers want to read only what they are looking for – nothing more, nothing less. Sub-sections will make life easier for them.
• Write short paragraphs. That way, it becomes very easy to digest information properly.
• Incorporate infographics. Lately, infographics have taken the digital world by storm. They are very handy in terms of communicating your authenticity on the subject.

Build Links

In the real world, we consider a brand or product more trustworthy if it is recommended by a large number of people. More so, if these people happen to be reliable. Similarly, Google has a strategy along the same lines to determine the credibility of a website. It goes like, the more the backlinks, the higher the trust ratio. For example, if a well-reputed company directs its visitors to your site, Google will take it as a vote of confidence and boost your standing.

Perhaps, the best thing about links is that they help you to maintain the top position for a long time. As a part of the link building strategy, adding social sharing buttons is a must. Once your blog goes viral on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, the links will follow.

Keywords Research

There is a set of particular words which is used by people to find relevant information. In the world of SEO, they are called Keywords.

Since keywords vary from industry to industry, you must unearth the ones that are commonly preferred by your audience. That’s where keyword research swings into action. However, unlike the past, the research is not as demanding – thanks to the availability of online tools.

Typically, keywords are divided into two categories: short-tail and long-tail terms. Make sure your content has an ample representation of both these types or else Google will barely entertain it.

Being a beginner, you might end up stuffing too many keywords. This practice does not go well with search engines and you may be in for a penalty. Thus it is recommended to walk the tight line of the following guidelines:

• Use the keyword in meta description twice, at maximum.
• If your title contains the keyword, there is nothing better than that. But the usage should be natural.
• Try to use the keyword as the anchor text.

User Experience

Google wants its users to reach out to the required information with minimum hassle. In technical terms, this is called user experience. There are quite a few things that may irritate the visitors and scare them away. Some of them are as follows:

• Navigation: By all means, you must pay attention to the appearance of your website. But at times people get carried away and end up designing a complicated navigation menu. This is one of the chief culprits behind poor navigation. So keep it simple.
• Chatbot: There are times when visitors need constant assistance, especially on e-commerce websites. They expect real-time answers to their queries for quick transactions. If not, they will skip the site and won’t return anytime soon. Chatbots can take this problem out of the equation, subsequently, enhancing the user experience.
• Page load speed: Though this factor is not directly connected to user-experience, it has a lot to do with user satisfaction, in general. If a website takes more than three seconds to load, about 53 percent of the mobile users will bid farewell to it. Deleting unnecessary widgets and optimizing images are one of the top measures to deal with this issue.

URL Structure

We all have seen those long, complex and cluttered URLs. This is not an ideal structure by any stretch of the imagination. An ideal URL is one that can easily be decoded by the search engine as well as users. Lastly, always use lower-case in URLs because it might result in a duplicate URL, and eventually your ranking will bear the dent.

The final verdict

Being a newbie, if you were skeptical regarding whether you are capable to engage in SEO or not, all your doubts must be put to rest by now. As the article unfolds, one does not have to be an expert to conduct a successful SEO campaign. Also, be mindful of the fact that SEO is not going to produce overnight results. Just stick to the above SEO fundamentals and the results will be just a matter of time.So stay resilient.