Beginners Guide to SEO: What It Is and How to Utilize It

There are over 24 million eCommerce websites online today, which means maintaining a competitive edge is crucial for your business’s success. The crux of gaining visibility on search engines is understanding search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your rankings and get your content in front of prospective customers. Whether you are new to SEO, or just want a deeper understanding of how to leverage it for business success, this article is for you.

We will be covering the beginner’s guide to SEO, including what it is and how to utilize it. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about SEO.

The Basics of SEO: What Is It?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your website content and functionality to better appeal to Google search engine requirements. When someone types a keyword into a search bar, Google will crawl existing sites to find the most accurate results for the user.

There are multiple moving parts that go into SEO, including keyword optimization, crawling accessibility, and the quality of your site’s user experience. Each of these factors is considered to determine who ends up on the front page of Google.

Multiple studies have shown that only 25% of users will go to the second page of Google. When you put this into perspective, an ongoing SEO strategy is necessary to boost your rankings and ensure you don’t lose out on potential customers.

So, you might be wondering, well I’m a small business, how will I ever compete against large industry competitors? Developing a competitive SEO strategy is not about tapping into the most saturated keywords and market topics.

Every business must be honest about its competitors, so target similar businesses that are within your threshold of revenue and customer popularity. In the beginning, SEO is about building a strategy that helps you rank for low-hanging fruit, and mid-range difficulty keywords, as you continue to build up your site’s credibility.

The Most Important Areas of SEO

Crawl Accessibility

Crawlability is one of the more technical pieces of SEO, which involves setting up a user-friendly and robust site that enables Google to index your site. Some pieces that can enhance crawl accessibility are a good site structure, navigation, page indexing and site mapping. Watch out for orphaned pages or unindexed files.

Compelling Content

Google strives to provide the best results for users. That being said, you need to create genuine compelling content that answers your customer’s questions. If your site is perfect in all categories but lacks valuable content for users, you still won’t achieve the level of engagement you desire.

Keyword Research and Inclusion

Every business needs to develop a keyword research strategy that targets low to medium-range competitive keywords. These should be incorporated into your site pages, blog posts, titles, URLs, image alt text, and tags.

When someone searches on Google, your keyword inclusion will signal to search engines that you are providing the most accurate content per their request. There are a variety of keyword research tools you can use to determine relevant keywords for your business.

Seamless User Experience

Websites need to be optimized for both computer and mobile viewing. The loading speed of your site, UI and UX design, and ease of use will all influence the user experience. A poor user experience will lead customers to exit your site before ever reading your content or purchasing a product.

Producing Shareable Content

It’s important to incorporate shareable content into your site to enhance links, citations and engagement. If more people share your content and link back to your site, your traffic and search rankings will increase substantially.

Optimize Title, URL and Description

If you want to create a competitive SEO strategy with a high click-through rate, make sure you optimize titles, URLs, and meta descriptions according to Google’s best practices.

Schema and Rich Snippets

Schema and rich snippets are another piece of SEO that can give you a competitive edge. Schema markup is behind-the-scenes code that makes it easier for Google to understand the content, structure and purpose of your site. This is a technical part of SEO that can be slightly difficult to grasp for beginners.

How to Utilize SEO In Your Business

Nearly every business today has a website that operates as its online storefront. The quality of your site is crucial to building industry credibility. A continuous SEO strategy can be developed by publishing SEO-optimized blogs that add value to your customers by answering their pressing questions. In this case, focus on being a genuine hub of knowledge and credible resources, instead of merely promoting your business.

When it comes to the structure of your site, you’ll need to ensure both on and off-page SEO is up to par. Websites are not the area of your business where you want to skimp on budget and professionalism. Put in the work upfront to create an optimized site that’s easily identified by Google and enjoyed by customers.

If you are a beginner, SEO can feel overwhelming in the beginning. Instead of getting overwhelmed by the technical side of things, start by taking small steps every day to improve your rankings and SEO strategy.

The longer your site is live and active, the more your search rankings will improve through the years. If you get stuck, utilize AI-driven tools to take the pressure off the technical requirements, and focus on getting great informative content out there for your audience! Or partner with us, one of the top SEO agencies in Ohio!