What is SEO(Search Engine Optimization? - A Simple Guide

SEO or Search Engine Optimization helps to make your website visible and rank your website in the Search Engine Results Page(SERP).

SEO is important in Digital Marketing. Most businesses and individuals focus more on SEO to reach a wide range of audiences with the help of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

In this blog, I will share my experience and expertise in SEO and explain it in a beginner-friendly way to help everyone who wants to know about SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) helps to increase traffic to your website, rank it at the top of SERPs, and make it visible to a large audience.

To perform SEO, you need to do keyword research, optimize for on-page and off-page SEO, create quality content, and more.

For example, if you’re running a Digital Marketing agency, consumers will search for Digital Marketing Services.

So, you need to identify user intent and develop effective strategies for your SEO to be more visible in the search results. If you’re at the top, then you will be considered trustworthy and credible.

What are the Types of SEO?

There are three types of SEO

1. On-page SEO
2. Off-Page SEO
3. Technical SEO

1. On-page SEO

You want to optimize On-page SEO, which includes keywords, meta tags, URLs, headlines, quality content, internal and external links, alt text, and much more.

These are the things you want to do for your on-page SEO.

2. Off-page SEO

In off-page SEO, you want to add backlinks, promote on social media(social media marketing), and guest blog.

After completing on-page SEO, you need to do off-page SEO. By doing this, you can get more traffic with the help of social media.

Promote it on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media channels.

For example, if you’re writing a blog about how to do keyword research. After publishing it, promote it on your social media to get traffic and views.

3. Technical SEO

In technical SEO, you have to do site audits, mobile optimization for mobile-friendly websites, schema markup, crawability, indexing, identify website speed, HTTP, and more.

If you want to find any technical issues, use Semrush, Ahrefs, or other SEO tools. SEO tools will help you in many ways and improve your website performance.

These are the three types of SEO that you want to know about.

What are the Benefits of SEO?

Let's look into the benefits you will get from SEO.

Improve Visibility and Traffic

SEO can help you gain high visibility and traffic. By ranking at the top of the search results and having users click on your blog, you can gain traffic and more visibility.

Using target keywords helps you reach a targeted audience for your services or products. By using related keywords, you can attract the audience who are looking for your services or products.

Higher Trust and Credibility

Ranking at the top of the SERPs will increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your website and business.

If you frequently or continuously rank in the search engine, your brand authority will increase among the audience and in Google.

With trust and credibility, the consumers will trust you and often consider you a trustworthy product or service.

So, try to show your trustworthiness through your valuable and genuine content that helps your customers.

Brand Awareness

Implementing SEO on your business will improve your brand and make it visible to a wide audience.

Every business should implement SEO because every person searches on Google. Therefore, improving your brand awareness with SEO is crucial.

Cost-Effectiveness

SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy for improving your business online. It is based on organic search, and you want to optimize for SEO.

You don't want to pay for it.

But, SEO is a long-term and competitive goal. So, you need patience and the right strategy to get a decent ranking.

Targeted Marketing

With SEO, you can do targeted marketing with a specific keyword. You want to optimize for the keywords and the right content related to user intent and search.

You should give in-depth information about the products or services you’re offering.

But it won’t happen overnight. You want to use every strategy to reach your target audience through SEO.

For example, if you’re writing a blog titled 'Semrush Coupon,’ you first want to provide in-depth information, tutorials, tips, and much more about Semrush.

You can only rank Semrush Coupon in the top ranking to get sales.

These are major benefits you will get from SEO.

SEO Best Practices

Let's look into SEO best practices that you want to know about.

Do keyword Research with the Right Tool

There are many keyword research tools, both free and paid, available on the market.

It would help if you chose the right keyword research tool to find the keyword.

For instance, let's use Semrush for keyword research.

I suggest you use this because it is the leading and great tool for keyword research and helps improve your SEO game.

Let's begin,

In Semrush, click on Keyword Magic Tool in the SEO dashboard, enter your seed keyword in the box, and click Search, as shown in the image below.

In the image below, you can see I got 42 keywords with intent, volume, KD%(keyword difficulty), and CPC. My suggestion is always to use the broad match option to get the right keywords for your content.

You will also get a filter option.

Now, click the keyword that you need. For example, let's choose Semrush Coupon, which has more volume than the other keywords, and choose the one that is relevant to your content.

Clicking the selected keyword will direct you to the keyword overview.

You can see Global Volume by country, intent, trends, and keyword ideas there, and you can create keyword clusters automatically.

These are the basic ways to find and implement the right keywords in your content.

Note:Try using long-tail keywords, such as how to do keyword research using Semrush’. Most of the users, search for this type of information.

How to Create Engaging and Valuable Content?

Identify your target audience's problem, solve it, and give answers to all their questions; this will increase your authority.

Next, if you take a topic, cover every aspect of the heading in-depth. Include subheadings and images, and don't use complex words; use simple words that are easy for anybody to understand, particularly for newbies.

The content should be interactive and have an engaging tone, ensuring that the user is engaged until the end.

At least, always keep your content fresh and update it every month with new information. This will signal to Google that you’re providing valuable content and showing results to more users.

Link Building Strategy

Link building is also an important part of SEO. It helps increase our authority and trustworthiness, which leads to a higher ranking.

Here are the link-building methods that you want to do:

The first method is to create quality content and write related content for the blog. So, you can insert a keyword naturally and link to other blogs on the same website.

The second method is guest blogging(writing a blog for a reputable website) in the same niche and getting backlinks to increase your visibility.

The third method is to check your competitor's website to see what backlinks they have from reputable websites and try to get them.

These are the link-building strategies you can use in SEO.

What are the common SEO Mistakes?

Here are the 6 SEO mistakes you want to know,

1. Keyword stuffing - Don’t overuse your seed or primary keyword in a blog
2. Duplicate Content - Avoid using the same content in different blogs on your webpage. Otherwise, it is considered duplicate content
3. Ignoring User Intent - Don’t avoid user intent, it is the key to success in your SEO game. So, try to learn about the user problem and try to solve it.
4. Low-quality content - Avoid writing content just to manipulate Google, write it for humans with deep, high-quality content.
5. Not targeting the right keyword - If you target the relevant keyword and insert it in your blog, only Google will understand your content.
6. Ignoring Mobile Optimization - Optimize the website for mobile use because most users are searching on mobile devices nowadays. If you don't optimize for a mobile-friendly website, then the audience will not engage with your content or the site for a long time.

As an SEO expert or digital marketer, you want to know these SEO mistakes.

List of 12 Best SEO Tools

Here are the top 12 SEO tools you want to know.

1. Semrush
2. Google Search Console
3. Ahrefs
4. Moz
5. Google Analytics
6. KWFinder
7. Google Keyword Planner
8. Ubersuggest
9. Answer the public
10. Exploding Topics
11. Google Trends
12. Screaming Frog

These are the most needed and top SEO tools today.

FAQs About SEO

1. How long does it take to see results from my SEO efforts?

SEO is a long-term game; it takes a few weeks to several months to see the improvement. It depends on keyword competition, website authority, and the quality of your content

2. What are keywords in SEO?

Keywords are phrases that users type in the search engine for information. Identify the keywords, and start writing content about that topic. This also helps search engines to know about your content.

3. Is mobile optimization important for SEO?

Yes, mobile optimization is important for SEO. Because most of them have smartphones, so the mobile search is increasing, and everyone is searching for information on their mobile phones

4. How often should I update my website's content for SEO?

Regularly updating your website with new insights, information, and quality content keeps it fresh, and Google will notice that your website is active. You're providing valuable content to users, and you have the chance to rank in SERPs.

Conclusion

In this blog, I cover SEO, its benefits, types of SEO, best practices, common mistakes, and tools in a simple and beginner-friendly way.

Now, you turn to implement this SEO strategy and play a game with Google and its competitors.

This guide will help you learn about SEO, and I hope you get some ideas about it.

If you have any questions regarding this topic, please ask in the comment box.

I’m happy to clear your doubts!