A Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Begin your SEO journey or revisit the basics with our helpful guide to all things SEO.
Maybe you’re just deciding to get your hobby site off the ground, or maybe you’re an established site owner who’s never quite understood all the hubbub surrounding SEO. With all the acronyms and considerations that come into play when dealing with SEO, it can be tempting to ignore the industry jargon. Whatever your reason for reading, we hope to clear the air about SEO with our helpful guide. This guide should be taken in conjunction with our handy SEO ebook, which you can download (for free!) here.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It refers to the way that Google (or other search engines) read through a page and then present it within a user’s search results. If your page has a high SEO, it will appear towards the top of the search engine results pages (SERP). Pages that sit at the top of a user’s SERP are more likely to get clicked. Think of SEO as an equation: High SEO = more traffic. And if your site is monetized, more traffic = more revenue. Simply put, SEO is the executor of who’s coming to your site.
Why is SEO important to me?
SEO is certainly something you should have on your radar as you’re setting up your site and creating content. SEO should be treated as a blueprint for site building. You can make adjustments or omissions as needed, but SEO needs to be considered for the vitality of your site.
Even if you have incredible content, you won’t find much of a footing on the SERP if you have a poor SEO ranking. Search engines are where you’ll find your organic audience, so it’s important that you think about SEO morning, noon, and night.
How do I use SEO?
When you’re creating content for your site, think about where your users are coming from. SEO can help you access an enormous audience, but the quantity and quality of that audience is determined by your SEO ranking. There are two questions you should ask yourself when identifying an effective SEO strategy. What search results are you hoping to appear under? What are users searching for to bring them to your page?
In a perfect world, the answers to these questions would be the same. But often the intended search destination of the creator (you) doesn’t line up with the actual keywords and terms users are searching for.
A great start would be to adjust the information that search engines read to decide your site’s SEO. Every bit of text on your page is an opportunity to improve your SEO. Start with your titles and headers, then revamp your meta descriptions and tags. Some site hosting softwares can even offer SEO plugins that will advise you on different aspects of your page to improve for a higher SEO rating.
Where can I learn more?
If you’re looking for a more detailed rundown of how SEO works, be sure to download our SEO Basics ebook if you haven’t already! Ready to graduate to something more advanced? Check out our blog on some pro tips for SEO.