SEO for beginners – Become a Search Engine Optimization expert in an afternoon

If you’re new to SEO and have a website, an online shop, or a blog, or just want to learn more about what SEO is, how it works, and what to do, you’ve come to the right place to get started with search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization, even for beginners, is a crucial discipline when it comes to increasing your online presence and getting your website to rank high on search engines like Google. In this guide, we will explore all aspects of SEO, from basic concepts to more advanced techniques.

Whether you’re completely new to SEO or already have a basic understanding of it, this post will give you the insight and expertise to improve your website’s visibility and attract more traffic. So let’s dive into the world of SEO for beginners!

Introduction to SEO for beginners

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method of improving a website’s visibility in organic (non-paid) search results on search engines like Google. When people search for relevant keywords, the goal of SEO is to make your website rank higher on the results pages, increasing the chance of users clicking through to your site.

SEO is a crucial step in reaching your potential customers and increasing traffic to your website. It’s not just about manipulating search engine algorithms, but rather creating a user-friendly and informative website that delivers valuable content to your visitors.

Many SEO agencies, consultants, and freelancers like to tell SEO newbies that SEO is so incredibly complicated that you can’t do it yourself. They claim you have to pay them $150/hour or you can forget about being found on Google.

Let’s start by debunking that myth.

SEO is only as complicated as people make it out to be. Sure, there are elements of SEO that are complex. If you’re really going to geek out and be a hardcore SEO expert, it requires a certain level of technical expertise and basic programming skills.

With this post for SEO beginners, you’ll get really, really far on your own. If you implement it all, I have no doubt that you’ll get some top rankings, page 1 rankings, and have a generally very good starting point with a lot of traffic. In practice, I’ve seen small business owners with zero SEO background achieve first-page rankings within 3-6 months by consistently applying the fundamentals covered in this guide.

When you eventually reach a point where your own skills run out, you can get external help with the final technical elements, hire a skilled copywriter to hone your message, or acquire a few more relevant links. But for most beginners, that point is much further away than you think.

Technical SEO for beginners

Even if you’re not technically inclined, there’s a good reason to keep reading. Technical SEO can sound difficult if you’re a beginner and don’t have a background in IT.

However, the technical part is the foundation for both the functionality of your website and your future success with search engine optimization. Think of technical SEO as the foundation of a house – without a solid foundation, everything you build on top will be unstable.

We cover the basics of technical SEO so that you, as a beginner or intermediate, can join in. The good news is that most modern website platforms handle many technical elements automatically, so you’re likely already ahead of where you think you are.

Crawling and indexing

Crawling and indexing are two important processes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that help search engines understand and organize content on the web to provide relevant search results to users. Let’s take a closer look at how these processes work:

Crawling:

Crawling refers to the process in which search engine bots, also known as “spiders” or “crawlers,” scan the internet to find new or updated content on various websites. These bots typically begin their journey from the search engine’s own database of URLs, also known as a crawl queue or crawl seed.

When they find a URL, they visit it, follow internal links on the page, and navigate to other pages. This is repeated over and over again, creating a list of landing pages that the search engine has crawled or visited.

The goal of crawling is to find as many relevant landing pages as possible and update the content regularly to ensure that search engine results are as current as possible. Think of crawlers as tireless librarians who constantly update your library’s catalog.

Indexing:

Indexing is the next important phase after crawling. When search engine bots visit a landing page, they analyze its content and structure. The information they find is then organized into a large database called a search engine index.

The index acts as a comprehensive list of all the words, phrases, and other relevant information on each URL. Indexing also identifies the important keywords on a page, which helps the search engine understand what the page is about.

This information is later used when a user performs a search to match relevant pages with the search query. If your page isn’t indexed, it’s essentially invisible to search engines – like having a store with no address and no sign.

Here are 4 great beginner SEO tools:

• Morningscore: The All-In-One Solution. Monitor your organic rankings with our rank tracker, monitor your site health with our SEO website checker, view your links in the backlink tool, and create missions to improve your rankings.
• Google Search Console: Monitor your site’s indexation, get notifications with error messages from Google, and monitor your keyword performance. See the official Search Console documentation.
• Semrush: An extensive professional tool for beginners to perform site audits and track visibility. Go to Semrush.
• Ahrefs: A leading industry platform for deep keyword and backlink analysis. Go to Ahrefs.

Sitemaps and the importance of having one

A sitemap is an XML file that contains a list of all the pages, content, and structures on your website. This file format is specifically designed for search engines and helps them understand the overall structure of your website and find all its important pages.

A sitemap is important for SEO for several reasons:

• Improves crawling: Once you’ve created a sitemap, you can submit it to search engines like Google. This lets them know which pages are available on your website and allows them to crawl and index them more efficiently. This way, you ensure your pages are visible in search results.
• Optimizes crawl budget: Search engines have a limited amount of time and resources to crawl and index your website. A sitemap helps optimize this crawl budget by telling the search engine which pages to prioritize. This is especially important for large websites with hundreds or thousands of pages.
• New page discovery: When you add new pages or content to your website, it can take time for search engines to discover them. With a sitemap, you can instantly inform search engines about the new additions so they can index them faster. In practice, new pages submitted via sitemap can be indexed within hours instead of days or weeks.

To create a sitemap, you can use different tools and plugins depending on the platform your website is built on. For example, if you’re using WordPress, plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath automatically generate and update your sitemap.

Once you have created it, you can submit it to Google Search Console. Most modern content management systems create sitemaps automatically, so check if yours already exists by typing: YourWebsite.com/sitemap.xml in your browser.

Optimizing robots.txt file

It’s not unlikely that this is the first time you’ve heard of a robots.txt file. It’s a bit of a technical thing, but nevertheless, it’s super important for the indexing of your pages in search engines – even if you don’t know you have a robots.txt file today.

The robots.txt file provides instructions to search engine bots on which parts of your website to crawl and index, and which to ignore. It’s important to optimize this file correctly to ensure that search engine bots can access all relevant pages and that they don’t crawl the pages you don’t want them to find on Google.

But shouldn’t all your pages be indexed on Google, you might be thinking? The answer is no, not necessarily.

There will be a number of pages that you can tell Google’s bots not to index by disallowing them. These pages might have no purpose in search results, or the content might be of such low quality that it has a negative impact on your site’s performance in Google’s eyes.

An example of a page you should ask Google not to index is your terms and conditions page. This could also include your privacy policy page, thank you pages after form submissions, or pages with duplicate content like printer-friendly versions of your main content.

Find your robots.txt file by typing: YourWebsite.com/robots.txt. If you don’t have one, don’t panic – most websites function fine without a customized robots.txt file, as search engines use sensible defaults.

Load speed

You might know the feeling yourself. You click on a page that loads for what feels like hours. Your patience runs out and you leave the page before you’ve even visited it.

A slow page load results in poor usability, and Google doesn’t reward bad usability. In fact, page speed is a direct ranking factor in Google’s algorithm, meaning faster sites have an advantage over slower competitors.

Besides the negative effect on Google, it will also directly affect your online sales. The faster your website is, the more conversions you get. Industry standards suggest that a one-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by up to 7%.

There are many things that affect your site’s load speed, and therefore it’s impossible to say exactly what you should do without an individual assessment. However, some of the elements that slow down your website are:

• Image size and compression: Larger images take longer to download. Optimizing and compressing image files can help improve load speed. Optimize your images with a modern tool like ImageOptimizerPro. As a practical tip, never upload images larger than 200KB unless absolutely necessary.
• Server performance: A slower server will take longer to process requests and deliver pages. A fast and reliable server is essential for good load speed. Shared hosting plans are often the culprit for slow sites – consider upgrading if your site consistently loads slowly.
• CSS and JavaScript files: Large and unoptimized CSS and JavaScript files can increase load time. Minimizing and aggregating these files can improve performance. This is technical and may require the help of a web developer.
• Browser caching: Taking advantage of browser caching allows visitors to store resources locally so they don’t have to retrieve them on every visit. This means returning visitors will experience much faster load times.
• Website hosting: Choosing a reliable and fast web host is crucial. Not all hosting providers are created equal – cheap hosting often means slow hosting.
• Responsive web design: A page that adapts to different screen sizes can have better load speed as it provides optimized resources for each device.
• HTTP requests: Too many individual HTTP requests for resources, such as scripts and images, can increase load time. Reducing the number of requests can improve speed. Each font, image, script, and stylesheet requires a separate request, so consolidate where possible.
• Server caching: Implementing server caching can improve load time by providing static pages instead of generating them from scratch for each request.
• Redirects: Too many redirects on a page can lead to extra requests, increasing load time. Each redirect adds another round-trip to the server, slowing down the final page load.
• TTFB (Time To First Byte): TTFB is the time it takes for a browser to receive the first byte of data from the server. A low TTFB is the goal for fast load speed. Anything under 200ms is excellent, while over 600ms indicates a problem.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): Using a CDN can reduce the geographical distance between the server and the user, which can improve load time.

Beginner tip: Test your website’s load speed here. Aim for a score of at least 50 on mobile and 80 on desktop as a starting goal.

Mobile-friendliness and responsive design

Mobile-friendliness refers to how well a website works and displays on different mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. A website is designed to adapt to different screen sizes and provide an optimal user experience when visited from mobile devices.

There are several good reasons why your website should be mobile-friendly, especially in terms of SEO:

• User experience: With more people using mobile devices to browse the internet, it’s crucial to provide a good user experience. If your website is not mobile-friendly, it can be difficult to navigate and interact with on small screens, which can lead to a negative user experience and lower rankings on Google. In practice, users will simply hit the back button and choose a competitor’s site instead.
• Google’s mobile-friendly indexing: Google and other search engines prioritize mobile-friendly web pages in search results, especially when searches are performed from mobile devices. Google has switched to mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of a webpage to assess and rank content. Your mobile version is now more important than your desktop version.
• Local SEO and mobile searches: Mobile-friendliness is also critical for local SEO. Many users conduct mobile searches to find local businesses or services near them. If your website is mobile-friendly, you increase your chances of appearing in local search results when potential customers search for something in your area.

Beginner tip: Perform a mobile audit with Lighthouse here. If your site was built after 2016, there’s a good chance it’s already mobile-friendly as most modern website builders include responsive design by default.

SSL Certificate – Secure your site

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a digital signature used to secure the connection between a user’s web browser and a website. It works by encrypting the data sent between the user and the website, making it difficult for unauthorized parties to intercept information.

SSL certificates are important for several reasons:

Data protection: SSL certificates protect personal information such as login details, card details, and other sensitive data while it is being sent over the internet. This helps prevent this information from falling into the wrong hands. Without SSL, data is sent in plain text that anyone can potentially read.

Authentication of the web page: SSL certificates also contain information about the identity of the website. When a user connects to a secured website, they can check if the certificate is valid and matches the real website. This helps avoid malicious websites that try to impersonate legitimate sites to trick users.

SEO benefits: Search engines like Google prioritize websites with SSL certificates in their search results. Having an SSL certificate can therefore improve your website’s visibility and ranking. Google has publicly stated that HTTPS is a ranking signal.

Customer trust: When users see a padlock icon or “https://” in the address bar, they feel more comfortable staying on your website. SSL certificates signal that you take security seriously. Modern browsers now actively warn users when they visit non-HTTPS sites, which can scare away potential customers.

Check if your website has an SSL certificate here. The good news is that most hosting providers now offer free SSL certificates through services like Let’s Encrypt, so there’s no excuse not to have one.

Structured data (Schema markup)

Structured data, also known as “schema markup,” is a type of metadata that is added to the HTML code of a web page to help search engines like Google and Bing better understand the content. It is used to define different elements on your website so that Google understands the content, such as products, reviews, events, and organization type.

Adding structured data helps search engines understand the relationships between different data elements, making it easier for them to index and display the data in search results in a more relevant and visually appealing way. Think of it as speaking Google’s language directly instead of making them guess what your content means.

The benefits of structured data for SEO:

• Improved visibility: By giving search engines a better understanding of the content, structured data increases the chance of the page appearing in special search results such as Featured Snippets or Knowledge Graphs. For example, if you use recipe schema, your recipe might appear with rating stars directly in search results.
• Better understanding of content: Structured data helps search engines understand the structure of the page, increasing the chance of ranking for the right keywords. This is especially important as search becomes more semantic and context-aware.
• Preparing for the future: As search engines become more advanced and use AI and semantic analysis, structured data will play an important role in providing necessary context. Voice search and AI assistants rely heavily on structured data to provide accurate answers.

For beginners, start with basic schema types like Organization, LocalBusiness, Article, or Product depending on your site type. Tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can guide you through the process without requiring coding knowledge.

OnPage SEO techniques for beginners

Kudos to you for staying with us this far. While technical SEO isn’t always exciting, it’s super important to have your foundation in place before building with content.

In this section, we will focus on OnPage SEO for beginners, which is all about optimizing the content on your landing pages. This is where you’ll see the most direct impact from your efforts.

Choose the right keywords

First and foremost, it’s important to perform thorough keyword research to identify the terms your potential customers are using to find services or products like yours using a keyword management tool. The whole idea of keyword research is to make connections between:

1. The words (content) we write on our landing pages
2. The words users use to find the products or services you offer

In this context, it’s important to point out that you can’t optimize your pages for every keyword. You need to write the texts for the keywords that are relevant, that users use, and that create value for your business.

Let’s take an example:

Imagine you run an animal health blog whose sole purpose is to inform. Since you don’t sell products directly, your income comes from advertising.

In the context of animal health, you will most likely write about dog food. For example, an important keyword for you is “what should a dog not eat,” but the keyword “buy dog food online” is not relevant for you because you don’t sell anything. However, if you ran an e-commerce pet store, the opposite would be true.

Focus on keywords that match your business goals. If you need phone calls, target keywords with commercial intent like “best plumber in [city].” If you’re building brand awareness, informational keywords like “how to fix a leaky faucet” might be more appropriate.

Beginner tip: Find the right keywords with a keyword research tool. Start with 5-10 core keywords that are most important to your business, then expand from there.

Create relevant content

To attract users, it’s important to create relevant and valuable content. Focus on answering questions, solving problems, and providing information that is valuable to your visitors.

So what is good and relevant content? Pages with 3,000+ words? Not necessarily.

Today, it’s not about the quantity of text, but the relevance, quality, and whether the topic is covered in depth. In my experience, a 1,500-word article that thoroughly answers a user’s question will always outrank a 5,000-word article that’s full of fluff.

In other words: Keep your blog posts, category pages, and product pages short, concise, and comprehensive. If you do this, the amount of text will come naturally. Think about what questions your customers actually ask when they call or email you – those are the topics you should cover.

It doesn’t hurt to write 3,000 words if that’s what it takes to write comprehensively on the topic, but don’t make text length a goal in itself. Focus instead on covering all aspects of the topic and providing actionable advice that readers can actually use.

SEO-friendly URLs

SEO-friendly URLs refer to web addresses that are structured, descriptive, and easy to understand for both humans and search engines. Your URLs should give a clear indication of the content of the associated landing page.

SEO-friendly URLs often contain relevant keywords that give users and search engines an idea of what to expect on that page. For example, “yourwebsite.com/seo-for-beginners” is much better than “yourwebsite.com/page?id=12345”.

To create SEO-friendly URLs, you should follow these principles:

Relevant keywords: The URL should contain keywords that reflect the content. This helps search engines understand what the page is about and improves relevance in search results.

Short and sweet: Avoid long and complex URLs. Short URLs are easier to read, remember, and share. Aim for 3-5 words maximum.

User understandable: The URL should be easy to understand for a person reading it. Avoid the use of cryptic characters, many parameters, and spelling mistakes. Avoid special characters or letters that are language-specific and non-international.

Use hyphens: To separate words in the URL, it’s best to use hyphens (“-“) instead of underscores or spaces. This improves readability. Google reads hyphens as spaces, while underscores are treated as connecting characters without separation.

Page titles and meta descriptions (metadata)

As a beginner in SEO, it can be difficult to navigate the definitions because there are often many words for the same thing. This is the case with page titles and meta descriptions, also known collectively as metadata.

Metadata are elements you find in your site’s code – and don’t worry, you don’t have to dig into the code to optimize them. Most content management systems have simple fields where you can enter these.

The page title is the text that appears in your browser tab and in the Google search engine results page (also known as “SERP”) as illustrated in the image below. The meta description is the longer description below the page title.

All your titles and descriptions should be unique, contain the primary keyword you are attempting to rank for (preferably as early as possible), and be neither too long nor too short.

Both pieces of metadata are important for your SEO work. The page title has a direct impact on your rankings on Google. In addition, it has a big impact on your click-through rate, because a well-written title will make people click on your page rather than your competitors’.

The meta description is also important, but doesn’t have a direct impact on your rankings. Instead, it can positively or negatively affect your click-through rate depending on how well-written it is. Think of it as your advertising copy.

Beginner tip: Make your page titles between 20-70 characters and your meta descriptions between 120-160 characters. Write your titles like headlines in a newspaper – they should grab attention and promise value. Include a call-to-action in your meta description when appropriate, like “Learn how to…” or “Discover the best…”

Headline optimization (H1, H2 and H3)

A well-structured page with proper use of headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) not only helps users understand your content but also helps search engines understand the hierarchy of information. Think of your headings as a table of contents that guides both readers and search engines through your content.

All your landing pages should have headings, and they should be optimized for the keyword(s) you want to rank for on your blog posts, category pages, and product pages.

Overall, there is only one guideline that is a must: Have only one H1 per landing page.

H1 – Your overall/primary headline that you only use once. This is typically your page title and should include your main keyword.

H2 – Subheadings for section divisions. Use these to break your content into major topics.

H3 – Sub-subheadings for paragraphs within sections. Used when you go a little deeper into a topic.

H4, H5, and H6 – For highlighted details. Rarely used for anything other than enlarging parts of texts without custom code. Most content never needs to go deeper than H3.

It’s important to use your primary and secondary keywords hierarchically according to how important they are to you.

For your remaining H2s and H3s, make sure they are relevant to the topic and, if possible, include related words (LSI keywords) to provide additional context. For example, if your main keyword is “coffee maker,” related terms might include “brew,” “espresso,” “filter,” and “grind.”

Beginner tip: Use your primary keyword in about 70% of your headlines. Make your headings descriptive enough that someone could skim just the headings and understand what your content covers.

Describe your images with alt tags

Alt tags are also known as alt text, alternative text, and several other terms. Alt tags are small tags in the code where you have the option to describe what’s in an image.

It creates context and helps Google understand an image to assess how relevant it is to your written content. In other words: image SEO.

The most common way to add alt tags to images is via your CMS’s media library, so you don’t have to mess with the code here either.

In addition, alt tags are the text that screen readers read aloud for visually impaired users. This makes alt tags an accessibility issue as well as an SEO issue.

When you hover your mouse over an image on a website and text appears, that is not an alt tag. It is the title text for the image, which is not the same thing.

An alt tag should be written as a complete sentence rather than in bullet points or abbreviations. If you can use your keywords naturally, it increases your chances of being found on image searches on Google.

Beginner tip: Make the file name as appropriate as possible for what’s in it and use only hyphens (-) and not underscores (_). For example, name your file “red-running-shoes.jpg” instead of “IMG_1234.jpg.” When writing alt text, imagine you’re describing the image to someone over the phone.

Internal links – create optimal navigation

Adding internal links between your different pages helps search engines understand the context of your content and navigate between pages.

In addition, it significantly increases user-friendliness by helping visitors navigate to relevant pages. This benefits you in several ways, as users stay on your website longer, read more of your content, and see more of your products.

It’s important that you don’t overuse internal links. Use internal links when they create value for your users. For example, throughout this post for beginners in SEO, I link to other relevant pages where you can read more about specific topics.

In this post, I use internal links to our other resources that go more in-depth. This way, I create value for you as you move from having basic knowledge to having a broader understanding of SEO.

Example:

If you’ve written a blog post about dog food, you’ve probably written about what types are available and what quantities are suitable for different dog sizes.

Here you can create another blog post about what a dog shouldn’t eat and link from one page to the other. You might also link to specific product pages for dog food brands you recommend, creating a pathway from informational content to commercial pages.

It’s super relevant to users and Google will reward you for it. Internal linking also helps distribute page authority throughout your site, potentially boosting the rankings of important pages.

Beginner tip: Place the link on the word you’ve targeted on the page the link leads to. This is also called “anchor text.” For example, if you’re linking to a page about “keyword research tools,” use those exact words as your clickable link text rather than generic phrases like “click here.”

Create consistency in your OnPage SEO

You’re well on your way to having your site optimized if you make sure you follow a common thread throughout the site:

• Page titles
• H1, H2 and H3 headings
• Texts
• Metadata
• Internal links
• URLs
• Structure/navigation
• Images and videos (descriptions)
• Structured data (Schema)

Make sure to use your primary keyword in all of the above elements and you’ll already be ahead of the game. Use an SEO checker to point out any OnPage issues to fix.

Consistency is key – develop a checklist that you follow for every page you create. This ensures nothing gets forgotten and maintains quality standards across your entire site.

Off Page SEO for beginners

Off-page SEO includes all the actions performed outside of your website to improve its visibility and ranking in search results.

It focuses on building a strong online presence and authority by getting other websites to link to your own site and engaging with users on different platforms. Off-page SEO is crucial because search engines consider inbound backlinks and online mentions as a sign that a site is valuable and trustworthy.

Think of it this way: OnPage SEO is what you say about yourself, while OffPage SEO is what others say about you. Both matter, but what others say about you often carries more weight.

Link building for beginners

When it comes to search engine optimization, link building is an important strategy that all website owners should focus on.

Link building is a practice where you actively work to get links from other websites to your own. These links act as “votes” for your site, as search engines see them as recommendations or proof that your content is valuable.

When other websites link to you, it signals that your website is authoritative and relevant. Not all links are created equal though – one link from a highly respected industry publication can be worth more than 100 links from low-quality directories.

Link building is important for SEO because:

• It increases your visibility: When your website has more quality links, it has a greater chance of ranking higher. Links pass authority from one site to another, helping you build credibility.
• It generates traffic: Links from other websites act as traffic channels. When users click on these links, they are directed to your site, increasing your organic traffic.
• It builds authority: Quality links from credible sites build your authority in the eyes of search engines. With higher authority comes higher rankings on Google.
• It helps get pages indexed: Search engines use links to find and index new pages. The more links you have, the faster your pages will be discovered and indexed.

“How to get links” for beginners:

• Good content: Create original, valuable, and shareable content that other websites will be interested (and willing) to link to. Content like original research, comprehensive guides, and unique data tends to attract natural links.
• Guest posts: Contribute guest posts on relevant blogs and websites to build relationships and get links. This requires an active effort to find relevant sites and contact the owner to offer high-quality content for their users in exchange for a link.
• Linkbait: Create content that is naturally linkable, such as infographics or interesting data-backed articles. Controversial opinions (backed by facts) and free tools are also effective.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with other businesses and organizations to exchange links and boost visibility. This can be done with partners, suppliers, and similar affiliates. Just ensure the collaboration is genuine and relevant.

Beginner tip: As a Morningscore customer, you get access to lists of free Danish and international link opportunities. Start with low-hanging fruit like getting listed in relevant business directories, industry associations, and local chambers of commerce.

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Local SEO – the goldmine for service businesses

Local SEO is an SEO strategy that focuses on improving visibility within a specific geographic area. The goal of local SEO is to rank high in local search results when potential customers search for local products or services, for example by searching: product/service + city (e.g., Hairdresser in Odense).

Local SEO is particularly relevant for service businesses, but can also be relevant for product sales. If you’re a plumber, dentist, restaurant, or retail store, local SEO should be your primary focus.

Working with locally targeted SEO includes:

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business): Creating and optimizing your Google Business profile is essential. Google Business is a free service where you can display information like opening hours, address, phone number, and reviews. This makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you. Your profile is often the first thing people see when searching for your services locally.

NAP consistency: Your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) should be consistent across all online platforms, including your own website, social media, and directories. Consistent information helps search engines validate your business. Even small inconsistencies like “Street” vs “St.” can confuse search engines.

Local keywords: Use relevant keywords that include the city name or locality in your content and metadata. This signals to search engines that your business is relevant to local users. natural way. Include your city and neighborhood in your page titles, headings, and content naturally.

Online reviews: Positive reviews from satisfied customers have a big impact on your local credibility. Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Google Business profile. Reviews influence rankings and conversion rates – many people won’t contact a business without reading reviews first.

Local backlinks: Get links from other local businesses, organizations, and news media. Local backlinks strengthen your local authority. Consider sponsoring local events or joining the chamber of commerce.

Measuring and analyzing SEO results

Measuring and analyzing SEO results is essential to understand how your website is performing and to identify areas for improvement. Here’s a simple guide on what to look for and how to do it:

1. Keyword rankings: Check how well your most important keywords rank. Use SEO tools with a rank tracker like Morningscore and/or Google Search Console. Track your top 10-20 most important keywords weekly to spot trends.
2. Organic traffic: Measure how many visitors you get from search engines. Google Analytics (GA4) is a useful tool to track traffic and analyze its source. Look at trends over time rather than day-to-day fluctuations.
3. Click-through rate (CTR): CTR is the percentage of people who click on your search result after seeing it. Analyze which keywords and meta titles have a high CTR, as it indicates they are appealing to users. A low CTR might mean your title and description need improvement even if you rank well.
4. Bounce rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after visiting only one page. A low bounce rate usually shows that users find your content relevant. However, bounce rate should be interpreted in context – a high bounce rate on a contact page might be fine if users found the phone number they needed.
5. Conversions: Identify how many visitors perform a desired action, such as filling out a form or buying a product. Conversions can be tracked with Google Analytics (GA4), but it requires some setup. This is ultimately what matters most for business results.
6. Backlinks: See how many external websites are linking to you and where they are coming from. Assess the quality of these links as they affect your website’s authority. Monitor for toxic links that might harm your rankings.
7. Keyword traffic: Find out which keywords drive traffic to your website. You might discover you’re ranking for keywords you didn’t even target, presenting new opportunities.
8. Content analysis: Evaluate which content performs best. Identify popular posts and consider creating more similar content. Look for patterns in what works – certain topics or formats might consistently perform better.

To make measurement and analysis easier, it’s recommended to use tools such as Morningscore, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush. These tools give you comprehensive insight into your performance. Morningscore offers a simple SEO reporting tool which allows you to create ongoing automatic reports about your performance.

Remember to measure and analyze regularly, as SEO is a continuous process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment. Set up a monthly reporting routine to track progress and identify issues before they become serious problems.

Avoid common SEO mistakes as a beginner

When it comes to SEO, there are a number of common mistakes to avoid. Here are some of the most common:

• Over-optimizing keywords: Using too many keywords in your content can lead to it appearing artificial and spammy. It’s important to use keywords naturally and make sure the content is still readable for users. Avoid keyword stuffing and write for humans first, search engines second.
• Ignoring mobile optimization: With the increasing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is crucial. Ignoring mobile optimization can lead to a poor user experience, which can negatively impact your ranking. Always test your site on actual mobile devices.
• Poor quality content: The content on your website should be informative, relevant, and unique. Poorly written or copied content will not get you to the top. Duplicate/copied content is directly against Google’s guidelines. If you wouldn’t want to read it, don’t publish it.
• Failure to use internal links: Internal links help connect different pages and give users easy access to relevant information. If you don’t use internal links, you’re missing out on “easy” points. Each page on your site should link to and be linked from at least one other page.
• Ignoring backlink quality: Having a lot of backlinks is good, but focus on the quality. Links from suspicious spam websites are worthless. Aim for links from websites that have some relevance to your niche. One quality link beats 100 low-quality links.
• Under-prioritizing technical SEO: Technical aspects like fast loading time, correct URL structure, and a proper XML sitemap are important. Not prioritizing technical aspects can slow down your website and affect visibility. Technical issues can completely prevent your site from ranking, no matter how good your content is.
• Ignoring analytics: Monitoring and analyzing performance is crucial to understanding which SEO measures are working. Ignoring analytics can lead to missing out on important insights. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
• Expecting instant results: This is perhaps the biggest mistake beginners make. SEO takes time – typically 3-6 months before you see significant results. Don’t give up after a few weeks if you’re not on page one yet. Consistency and patience are essential.

SEO tools for beginners

By the time you get to this point, you’ve gone from being a beginner to having a strong understanding of what SEO is. Before you get started, it’s important that you know which SEO tools you need. We’ve compiled a larger list of the best SEO tools, but here are our top recommendations for beginners:

• Morningscore (Find keywords, track keywords, track links, website health, guides, keyword analysis)
• Answer The Public (Get ideas for keywords and questions)
• SE Ranking (Robust all-in-one SEO platform with competitor tools)
• Semrush (Industry-standard site audit and marketing platform)
• Google Search Console (Traffic data, click-through rate, impressions, existing keywords)
• Google PageSpeed Insights (Load speed optimization)
• Yoast (SEO Plugin)
• RankMath (SEO Plugin)

Beginner tip: Don’t use just 1 tool. Several of the above are free and can be used alongside each other for different functions. Start with Google Search Console and Google Analytics as your foundation – they’re free and provide essential data. Then add specialized tools as your budget allows.

Many beginners make the mistake of buying expensive tools they don’t know how to use yet. Start with free tools, learn them thoroughly, then upgrade to paid tools when you understand what additional features you actually need.

Conclusion

In this post, we have covered the basic principles of SEO for beginners. We have learned that search engine optimization is a crucial discipline to improve the visibility and rankings of our website. For beginners, it’s important to remember that SEO is a continuous process that requires patience and persistence – so be careful not to give up too soon.

We’ve looked at important aspects of SEO, such as keyword analysis and research, where it’s crucial to find relevant and business-critical keywords that match the search behavior of our target audience. Then we focused on on-page SEO, looking at optimizing content, meta tags, URL structure, and internal links to make our websites more interesting for both search engines and visitors.

In addition, we’ve looked at the importance of off-page SEO, where we building quality links to establish authority and trust. We have also touched on the importance of technical SEO, making sure that our website is technically sound and user-friendly.

By implementing these basic SEO principles, beginners can build a solid foundation to improve website visibility and increase organic traffic. The key is to start with the fundamentals, measure your results, and continuously improve based on data rather than guesswork.

Remember, SEO is a continuous process and it’s important to stay up-to-date with changes in search engine algorithms. However, don’t get distracted by every algorithm update – focus on the fundamentals covered in this guide, and you’ll build a resilient SEO strategy that withstands algorithm changes.

So get started with SEO, be persistent, and achieve those high rankings. Best of luck to you!

Beginners in SEO often ask:

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It is a process of improving your website’s visibility on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The aim is to drive more organic traffic to your website and improve its ranking in search results.

Is SEO a one-off task or continuous work?

SEO is a continuous process. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing and competition for rankings is also changing. Therefore, SEO requires regular attention and maintenance to maintain and improve your website’s ranking in search results.

Competitors may also be working to improve their SEO, which can affect your ranking if you don’t keep up. Therefore, SEO should be seen as a long-term investment in your website’s success. Plan to spend at least a few hours per month on SEO maintenance even after achieving good rankings.

Why is SEO important?

SEO is important because most people, including your potential customers, use search engines to find information, products, and services online. If your website is not search engine optimized, it can be overlooked and you will miss out on potential visitors. Organic search often delivers the highest quality traffic because users are actively looking for what you offer.

What is the difference between organic traffic and paid traffic?

Organic traffic comes from search results where people click on your website because it appears relevant to their search. Paid traffic comes from ads (typically the top results marked “ad”), where you pay to have your website appear at the top of the search results (pay-per-click (PPC)). Organic traffic is “free” once you rank, while paid traffic stops the moment you stop paying.

How do search engines work?

Search engines use complex algorithms to analyze websites and rank them in search results. They evaluate factors such as relevance, user experience, quality of content, and links. Search engines crawl billions of pages, index the content, and then use hundreds of ranking factors to determine which pages best answer each search query.

When do I start seeing results from my SEO efforts?

It can vary, but it usually takes time to achieve visible results. Some SEO changes can have a quick impact, while others can take weeks or months to manifest. Be patient and persistent and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see big results after a few weeks – it’s perfectly normal.

As a general guideline, expect 3-6 months for competitive keywords, though you might see movement for easier keywords sooner. Brand new websites typically take longer than established sites to see results. The important thing is to stay consistent with your efforts.