SEO for beginners: part 1
In this SEO blog series we delve into what to think about when you’re thinking about SEO. Search can get a lot more full-on if you want it to but these fundamentals will see you off to a good start. This first blog in our series deals with getting set up with Google and content being the core of good SEO.
SEO isn’t rocket science!
In fact, getting better search results for your site is pretty easy – especially if you aren’t in a market dominated by the ‘big guys’. What, why, how!?!?
Get into Google, right now
- Open up a Gmail account. Something like yourbusiness@gmail.com, or better yet, use GSuite to connect a custom domain for your business (e.g. n.sidoti@popdotmedia.com).
- Go to Google+ and start up a page there (this can also be done through Gmail). Be sure to include your physical address. Why? This will add your business address to Google maps search results. While we’re talking about it, Google+ isn’t on-topic as say Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn etc but it pays to share your content there as well (just remember who owns it!)
- Sign up to Google Analytics and get your ID. This helps search engines index your site – something for the little robots to hold on to. You can also very quickly your site’s traffic and basic user dempographics. In a later blog we’ll go into how-to/what’s-that in Google Analytics.
- Google Webmaster tools goes with Google Analytics but is a bit more hard-core. We’ll also be chatting about this down the road.
- If you decide to advertise to boost your traffic, get Google Adwords – it basically tracks how your ad spend is going. But another day, another blog for that as well!
Content, content, content
Your business provides customers with a product or a service but your website serves up content to potential customers. The quality of this content is king and quality content means more people will actively link to your site.
Your content needs to be informative, relevant and well written. Try to engage your customers with copy that is enjoyable to read. Do you fall asleep reading your website? If you do then there is a good chance other people do as well. You want people to stay on your page, read everything and then click to somewhere else on your site. Keep this in mind when writing blogs and page content.
Blogs
Blogs are where you can really add personality to your website and regular blogging is great for SEO. Try to make your blogs informative – think about making your website a repository people will use and recommend to others looking for information in your area of expertise.
Your blogs can be off topic occasionally which is a good human thing but make sure the majority of them are on topic. Google’s (and Bing’s and Yahoo’s etc) web crawlers are programed to rank sites produced by people for people better than automated sites. If you ever feel like writing a rollicking good yarn only loosely based on your core business as a blog, do so. A good story can bring people back to your site for more and help spread the word!
Lastly, share your blogs on as many social media platforms as you can. Another great tip is to enlist your family and friends to share your content as well. Every little bit (and link back!) helps boost your ranking.
In Part 2 of our series on SEO for Beginners we’ll be looking at key words, key terms and meta data.
Thanks for reading!
Photo by Elyssa Zornes on Unsplash
