SEO for Beginners: Learn to Rank #1 In Google (2024)
New to SEO? Discover the simple steps to rank higher on Google in today's beginner friendly guide. Hi, everyone. Welcome to my beginner search engine optimization SEO guide. If you're an SEO newbie or a seasoned marketer who needs a refresher, I will walk you through the key steps and strategies you need to start ranking your website higher in search results. You probably heard of some generic SEO advice like creating great content, using keywords, and making your site fast. That SEO stuff is still important, so let's quickly review some basics. Number one, you first want to create high quality and valuable content that helps your audience. Don't just throw up thin, low effort blog posts. Take the time to create in-depth, helpful content. Two, do a basic on-page optimization like putting your target keywords in the title, subtitles, and first 100 words of your content. This helps Google understand the topic of the page. Thirdly, make sure your website is fast-loading and mobile-friendly. These are a few signals of a good user experience, but ticking those boxes isn't enough to rank for truly competitive keywords.
You need a more strategic SEO approach. Understanding SEO objectives is important before diving deep into an SEO strategy. You need to know what you're aiming for. Common objectives include increasing organic search traffic, improving search rankings, and driving more conversions. Setting clear objectives will help guide your SEO content creation and optimization processes. In search engine optimization, having the right resources is key. This can range from having access to premium SEO tools, insightful blogs, forums, and communities where people share their SEO experiences and knowledge.
There are many free and paid courses available online that can help you hone in on your SEO skills, like the SEO video show hosted by YardsTruly. Staying updated with the latest SEO tech and technical SEO advancements is important for staying ahead. Conducting an SEO audit is a fundamental step to understand your website's current performance. This audit will provide an SEO report detailing areas of improvement. It looks into various aspects like site structure, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and back-click profile. Seo audit tools are available that can help in this process like Google Search Console. Some even provide a grader to show where your site stands regarding SEO health.
You can check out Paulandry. Com for a free SEO grader. In a strategic SEO approach starts in finding the right keywords to target. Generally, you want to go after long tail, low competition keywords. Avoid ultra competitive, short tail keywords like SEO or web design. A great way to find good long tail keywords is using Google to auto complete suggestions. Start typing a topic into Google and look at the suggested searches. These reveal questions and searches people are looking for.
You can also scroll down onto the Google page results and look into the other want to know and related searches section. You can use keyword research tools like Google AdWords, Keywords Planner to surface fresh, untapped keywords. The key is finding keywords relevant to your business that aren't yet oversaturated with competition. That gives you the best chance on rethinking. Once you have identified your targets, create content optimized for those keywords. Now, optimizing for keywords isn't just about stuffed in them terms as many times as possible. Instead, you need to understand search intent. What is the search you're trying to accomplish? Informational keywords require different content than transactional ones. If someone searches best webcam, they want to buy something. So a deals page or product category page would satisfy this intent. But a term like how to choose a webcam indicates the searcher is still researching. An informative comparison article works better. Nail down what the searcher wants from the keyword and craft content that fits. Google is getting better at detecting if the content satisfies search intents. Creating engaging SEO content is about providing value to users. It should answer their queries, providing helpful information, and be easy to read.
Using keywords naturally within the content will help Google understand the page topic better. Incorporating multimedia like images and videos and using subheadings, bullets, and short paragraphs can improve user experience. Paragraphs with 300 characters or less tend to rank really well and get pulled up as featured snippets. Onpage SEO includes optimizing page titles, meta descriptions, and HTML Tags, H1, H2, H3, et cetera. You can go as far as optimizing your div tags with keywords, but that's for a separate events SEO video. My favorite on-page optimization tools are Page Optimizer Pro and Kora. Use my discount links in the description to support the channel. It's also important to ensure the site is mobile-friendly as significant amount of traffic now comes from mobile devices.
Your content also needs to stand out from existing rankings. Avoid creating something generic or just rehashing what already is out there. Bring something new and different to the table so Google can see value in the ranking your page. For example, sharing personal experiences, creating original analysis, case studies, new data, or examples that other articles don't have. The goal is to create something that feels distinctly valuable, not just commoditized piece of content on already covered topics. You've created a valuable intent-based content asset targeting the right keywords, but you need to make sure it delivers a good user experience.
Avoid overly promotional language that feels spammy. Use an easy to read layout and front-load value toward the top of the page rather than burying it way down. Signpost information with well-formatted titles, subtitles, and callouts. Make sure your content is scannable and easy to digest. Avoid bigwalls are hard to read text. These design and UX optimizations keep people engaged from your site rather than bouncing. Google seems to care a lot about dwelling time and bounce rate from organic clicks. Off-page SEO mainly involves around link building. Highly quality back links are single to Google that your site is reputable. Various strategies can be employed to obtain back links, including guest posting, social media marketing, and email outreach to relevant sites, and my favorite, press releases.
The final piece of ranking wall in Search is building authoritative back links. Google uses links as votes of trust and credibility. There are many back link tactics, but an intelligent foundational strategy is to create a page targeting a very specific long-tail keyword phrases that lack intense competition. For example, rather than live stream statistics, target something like, Millionaire livestreamers in 2024. Craft a detailed, well-researched content around that phrase. Because the keyword is so niche, you can likely rank the page with minimal back links. Then it becomes easy to cite source for writers covering that topic. Links will flow to your helpful, specific data. Over time, accumulate these authoritative niche links, which compound into powerful domain authority that boosts all your content. Many SEO tools can assist in different areas of SEO marketing. Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, Ahrefs can provide invaluable insights can use website performance, competitor analysis, keyword research, and link building opportunities. Once you have implemented your SEO strategy, it's imperative to measure and analyze the performance.
This involves checking the organic search traffic, keyword rankings, backlink profile, and user behavior on the site. Over time, the data collective will provide insights into what's working and needs tweaking. For individuals looking to build an SEO career, gaining certifications, attending workshops, and networking with other SEO scholars and professionals is advisable. Constant learning and adapting to ever evolving SEO's landscape are important for a successful SEO career, which is why you should like and subscribe to the SEO video show. The SEO takeaways are to find untapped, long-tail keywords, create helpful content, optimize search intent, make your pages easier to consume, and build niche back links.
Those are the key ways to rank in competitive search results as a beginner. Thanks for watching and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and I'll see you on Friday. Peace out..
