Here we have 5 basic SEO tips that even beginners can implement to improve your SEO:
- Research & use relevant keywords
- Optimise page titles & meta descriptions
- Optimise page content
- Optimise your business around the web
- Build relevant links
1 Research & Use Relevant Keywords
Keywords are the foundation of successful SEO. When your potential customers use a search engine what do they search for? For most small businesses this will be a combination of what you do and where you do it SEO company in Birmingham or plumber in Sutton Cold field.
There are some tools and strategies we can use here to make sure we get a good selection of keywords together.
Brainstorm potential keywords – here we simply write down everything that is relevant. What we do, the services we offer, and the locations in which we offer those services. Once you have all of these elements you can combine what you do with where you do it and form a basic list of keywords.
Use keyword research tool – there are a number of keyword research tools out there that can help you identify new keywords. Google has a tool that forms part of its Ads PPC service. There are other tools like ubersuggest and keywordtool . io that are useful in their free and paid variations.
Search for your keywords – when you search for your keywords you will often see suggestions in the search bar as you type and there will also be a list of suggested keywords at the bottom of the page. Add any relevant variations to your list (and search them again).
To effectively group keywords, it is important to focus on their underlying meaning and intent. For instance, let’s take a look at this article about SEO tips for beginners. The goal is to identify and categorize keywords that share similar meanings:
- SEO tips for beginners
- Beginners SEO tips
- SEO basics 2020
- Best SEO tips
- Beginners search engine optimisation tips
- Search engine optimisation tips for beginners
- How to do SEO
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- Basic SEO Tips
The intent behind those keywords is all largely the same so they can be grouped together. Any given piece of content can then be optimised for (i.e. feature) those terms. This then ranks the article for the widest range of possible terms.
Normally, I would input these keywords into a spreadsheet along with their approximate search volumes and a relevance score. It’s important to avoid overcomplicating this process. Our main objective is to loosely prioritize the language we intend to use.
Tip 1: Identify and prioritise the keywords that your prospective customers use when looking for the products and services you offer.
2 Optimise Page Titles & Meta Descriptions
Once you have your keyword list then you will want to optimize your page title.. Note that this is the behind the scenes HTML <title> element and not what is shown on the page. This is usually editable in your website control panel (CMS) or in your SEO plugin.
What we are trying to do here is get our keywords into the title of the page in a natural way. We have to remember that page titles are what is shown in search results so we are aiming to clearly indicate what the page is about and entice a user to click on our listing.
What I typically like to do is include the what, where, and who if possible. The keywords are the what, the location is the where along with your business name for branding purposes. In an ideal world, you want the keyword at the beginning of the title to aid click-through and for potential ranking improvements.
Plumber in Sutton Coldfield – Marcus’s Plumbing Service
If we look at service pages we can extend upon this:
Boiler Repair Service – Free Quote | Marcus’s Plumbing Service
Emergency Plumber – available 24/7 | Marcus’s Plumbing Service
Both of these page titles contain an element that prioritizes marketing over SEO: “Free Quote” and “Available 24/7.” These are elements we put there to increase the likelihood that someone will click your listing.
Keep in mind that a search engine listing functions as an advertisement, requiring a careful alignment of both marketing and SEO efforts. Interestingly, engaging with your listing can actually improve your rankings. Surprisingly, practicing effective marketing strategies can also yield positive results for your SEO.
A word of caution here is not to over-optimise your page titles and just cram them full of keywords – eg:
Plumber | Plumbing | Plumber Company | Emergency Plumber Company
Your page titles should include your keywords but not at the expense of readability or clickability (if that is even a real word).
When we are happy with our titles, the other component to consider is our meta description. Again, this should be editable in your website’s CMS.
Page titles hold significant SEO influence, while meta descriptions serve as content descriptions. While the title captures attention, the meta description plays a crucial role in persuading users to click.
In the case of this article, the chosen page title and meta description are as follows:
SEO Tips for Beginners – 5 Easy Wins
Five simple SEO tips for beginners. Easily optimise your site, improve rankings and drive more traffic from Google. By Marcus Miller of Bowler Hat
By providing a detailed description in the title, I clarify the content of the article. The meta description further expands on this premise, aiming to entice more clicks. Additionally, I include the name of our business (Bowler Hat) and my name to enhance brand recognition.
Note: It is true that meta descriptions do not actually influence rankings directly. However, getting listed is only half the battle – you need clicks. And where a result is clicked more than another this can help improve your ranking through engagement metrics that Google looks at. More worrying, a result that is not clicked at all will lose position and drop from the search results. The takeaway here is that whilst SEO is important, it should never be at the expense of creating good copy.
Tip 2: Write descriptive titles and meta descriptions that include your keywords and weave in your key marketing messages to improve your organic traffic and rankings.
3 Optimise Page Content
There are various components to a page with the main elements being:
- Header Tags – H1, H2, H3 etc.
- Body Content – the text on the page
- Images – the images you use to support your copy
Firstly, consider the heading and subheadings on the page. These can be optimized to include your keywords where it is natural to do so.
Secondly, focus on crafting copy that precisely portrays and promotes your business. Strive to incorporate all of your keywords in a natural manner throughout the content. Don’t worry about keyword volumes or specific instances of the terms – just write naturally and try to use the terms that you identified in your keyword research.
Images can also be optimized with the name of the image, the image alt text, and the image description being the primary factors. Placing the image in proximity to relevant text can provide additional assistance. Alt tags play a significant role in aiding visually impaired users by providing descriptions of the image’s relevance to them.
When executed effectively, your page will achieve visibility for a broader range of terms, enabling you to communicate effectively with a larger pool of customers. This, in turn, should aid engagement (and generating more leads and sales from your website). Win-win.
Tip 3: Optimize your headers, content and images to improve visibility for a wider range of search terms.
4 Optimise Your Business Around the Web
Your website is central to your SEO efforts, however, this is not the only place where your business is listed. Social media and business directories will also have details for your business. Search engines use this information along with information on your business to help build trust and an understanding of what you do and where you do it.
You will want to update all possible business listing that are relevant to your business with your correct address and a summary of what services you provide. You want to weave your most important keywords into these business listing along with a mention of any key locations.
You can also take a similar approach with your social media profiles. Whilst you may not be able to add a full address or comprehensive description here, you can still cover the essentials of what you do and where you do it.
Remember – these listings can rank well and potential customers can look at your business details here. Don’t just dial this in. Make sure you clearly describe what you do, where you do it and why they should consider your business. If you can weave in calls to action or any other marketing factors then do so.
Tip 4: Update business listings and social media profiles with what you do and where you do it
5 Build Relevant Links
Link Building is a crucial element to driving visibility for competitive keywords. However, link building has a bad reputation – and often rightly so. Links can help and hurt your search engine visibility.
Yet, developing strong visibility requires that you have the right kind of links pointing to your site. These links help Google and other search engines determine your relative importance and to order search results using these metrics.
Google expands upon this point with the following:
“Links play a crucial role in assisting our crawlers in discovering your site and enhancing its visibility in our search results. When presenting search results, Google utilizes advanced text-matching techniques to display pages that are both significant and relevant to each search query. In Google’s interpretation, a link from page A to page B is considered a vote of confidence. by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important.’”
So a good, relevant link is still a vote. And votes help show that you are important and relevant and help drive greater visibility in Google search results. It is just that they must be the right kind of votes.
It goes without saying that link building is the hardest part of SEO and is where beginners often get stuck. Nevertheless, there are a few straightforward strategies you can employ to secure safe backlinks that will enhance your visibility in search results.
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Highly Credible Directory Sites
Here we are talking about the likes of Yell .Explore reputable sources such as com, Thompson, and prominent business directories and portals in your industry. Conduct a search on Google using your keywords and location to identify any listings that rank on the first page. These listings merit further investigation. A good measuring stick here is whether your potential customers will find and click on these listings – if the answer is yes then it is worth seeking out a listing.
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Competitor Link Analysis
Reviewing your competitor’s links will often identify link opportunities. Examining your top 10 competitors using tools such as MajesticSEO, aHrefs, or OpenSiteExplorer can unveil a range of potential link opportunities. You are not looking to copy every single link here but rather to identify the cream of the crop from several competitors. Think quality rather than quantity, and again, ask yourself whether your prospects are likely to see and click on this link.
Certain tools provide the capability to input multiple competitors and identify sites that link to two or more of these competitors. This feature can assist in pinpointing links that hold greater significance and relevance. closely correlated with high ranking competitors. Correlation is not causation but it does help you better sift
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Testimonials & Existing Relationships
Offer to write testimonials for companies you work with. Your website designer. Your social media or SEO company. These are all sites that do work for you, are likely local, and can generate a relevant link.
Likewise, if you have existing relationships with suppliers or customers, investigate these sites to see if there is any way a link could be added to these sites.
Tip 5: Build relevant and quality links to your website and content