Welcome to our SEO guide for beginners!
At Bluesoup, we know that good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is essential to increase visibility, attract organic traffic, and drive conversions to your website. Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, the following SEO top tips will help explain the basics of SEO and set you on the path to optimising your website and improving your search engine rankings.
So, what is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of improving a website's performance, relevance, usability and authority, thereby increasing its visibility and organic ranking in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO is a long-term strategy that is more cost-effective, offers long-term results, provides credibility and authority, and has higher conversion rates than other digital marketing strategies. So let’s delve a little deeper into the opportunities and processes.
User Experience
First things first, it’s important to bear in mind that Google’s algorithms prioritise user experience above all else, so make sure that the content you write is aimed at your audience and their needs. Also, make sure your website is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and quick to load. A seamless user experience will not only improve your SEO but will keep your visitors on your site for longer!
Keyword Research
Effective SEO starts with understanding what your audience is searching for. Keyword research tools can identify key words and phrases that relate to your business, like “SEO in marketing” or “website SEO optimisation”.
SEMRush and Wordstream offer free tools that enable you to research core keywords as well as related keywords. Focus on keywords that reflect the correct search intent (Navigational, Informational, Commercial, or Transactional) and incorporate them throughout your page or article. For example, as this guide is an informative guide about SEO, it’s targeted towards keywords such as ‘SEO tips’ rather than more transactional keywords such as ‘SEO services’ or ‘SEO agency’. Avoid overloading your content with keywords or using the same keywords on multiple pages!
Content Creation
Great website content should be high-quality, informative, unique, and relevant to the reader. It can include text (such as blogs, guides, and case studies), images, videos, and more. Consider your users' search intent and offer solutions, answer questions, or provide information. Your goal is to be seen as an industry expert! Also, ensure your content is linked to other related content or pages to keep the user on-site and guide them to the next steps in the buying process.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO focuses on optimising a page for both humans and bots. This includes optimising your page structure (with H1, H2, and H3 headings), titles and descriptions, internal and external links, and navigation elements. You can also add alt text your images which will improve your ranking within image search results and help with accessibility.
Technical SEO
Now for the technical bit! Technical SEO relates to how bots crawl and index your website’s content to improve its visibility and ranking in search results. Your sitemap and website navigation will help Search Engines understand the structure of the pages on your site, whilst your robots.txt file will highlight which pages you do and don’t want it to crawl. It's also important to ensure your Core Web Vitals are up to scratch, focusing on factors like page load speed, interactivity, and stability.
If you’re not technically minded, don’t panic – the SEO experts at Bluesoup can provide you with a technical site audit and highlight some key areas for improvement!
Mobile Optimisation
Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it prioritises your website's mobile version over the desktop version. To follow SEO best practices, ensure your site is fully responsive, easy to navigate and adapts smoothly to any screen size.
Backlinks
Links to your web pages from other websites show search engines that you are trustworthy. These sites need to be relevant to your industry, and you should avoid spam websites where the content doesn’t look like a natural fit at all costs. You can grow the number of links to your site by producing great content that acts as a resource worth linking to and reaching this out to relevant websites or press contacts. Links can also be gained from any existing partnerships you have, whether it’s a charity you support or an organisation that your business is a member of.
Next Steps
We hope these beginner SEO tips have given you a good insight into improving your website visibility. There’s so much opportunity to improve your site ranking through SEO, and whilst it can be daunting, with careful planning and a user-focused approach, you can drive measurable results.
At Bluesoup, we’re an SEO agency specialising in helping businesses develop and implement SEO strategies that support organic growth, increase visibility and improve ranking. Don’t just take our word for it; find out how we helped Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire improve their organic ranking!
Reach out to find out how we can help boost your website’s performance and help your business succeed.
