The SEO industry is an ever-evolving one that can be difficult to keep up with. With new updates, algorithm changes, and the like coming out every single day, it’s hard for even the most seasoned veterans to know what works anymore. And while some of these changes are welcomed, many of them are downright scary.
One thing is for sure though: there will always be people who want to rank well in search engines so they can get more traffic and generate more business. But how do you go about doing this? Well, we are here today to give you a few tips on getting started with SEO so you don’t fall into any traps or make any mistakes that could cost you dearly in terms of rankings and online presence.
Contents
What is SEO?
In its most basic form, SEO is the art of getting traffic from organic search engines by optimizing your pages so that search engines can find them more easily. Since this might sound a bit vague to someone who’s just starting out, maybe visiting https://codestaff.io/ can help understand all of this a bit better. To get started, though, you should know that optimizing your pages means enhancing their content so that they are more easily understood by both the crawlers and the users.
If you want to rank high in search engines, it’s important to understand how they work. They can basically be divided into two categories: Google and other search engines. Google is far and away from the most popular search engine in existence, so it’s often just referred to as “Search.” But there are other search engines out there too.
What do I need to know/do?
It might seem like getting started with SEO is a lot more complicated than you thought, but it’s actually really simple if you have good content. Well-written content is a cornerstone of any good strategy because it’s the only thing that will define your site. Keep in mind, though, that you have to optimize all of your content if you really want to succeed. Let’s look at a few more do’s and don’ts so we can see what this entails.
Do #1: Do optimize all of your content
As we said before, content is the cornerstone of any SEO strategy. Good content will get you high rankings and lots of traffic. If you don’t want to optimize all of your web pages, then how are search engines supposed to find them? You can use special tags in order to tell search engines what they should be paying attention to when they crawl your site.
Do #2: Do your keyword research before optimizing your content
You should know the keywords you want to rank for before you start creating pages of content because it will determine whether or not they are optimized correctly. This isn’t something that can be done afterward, so make sure you spend some time on it beforehand. If you don’t, then you might end up optimizing your pages for the wrong keywords and that can make a lot of difference in terms of rankings.
Do #3: Do write interesting content that people will want to link to
Specialists agree that social signals play a big role in SEO. If you want people to link back to your site (which will help with rankings) then you need to offer them good content that’s worth talking about. If it is interesting, unique, and engaging, people won’t mind giving the page a high PR because they know it’ll be good for their visitors.
Do #4: Optimize your meta tags appropriately
It’s important that you make sure all of your images have an alt tag and that each of your web pages has a title tag and a meta description. If you ignore these, then Google will probably ignore you as well because they don’t want to rank sites with poor SEO practices high up in the rankings.
Do #5: Do keep up to date with the latest news
Keeping up to date with the latest news in SEO is a surefire way of finding out what works and what doesn’t. This means that you won’t have to spend hours doing your own research and you’ll always know the best way of going about things, but don’t get caught up in all the hype or it will do more harm than good.
Don’t #1: Don’t ever buy or sell links
While some people might tell you that buying or selling links is fine, it’s not true. Google has been cracking down on this practice for quite some time now, so if you are caught doing this your rankings will go down the drain. Even worse, you could get blacklisted altogether which would make it impossible for you to rank.
Don’t #2: Don’t try to cheat the system by using bots or anything like that either
Whether you are trying to use something like SAPE links in order to get more power out of your website, or whether you are thinking about creating an army of automated accounts with the sole purpose of pushing your rankings up, it’s not going to work. Google put a lot of effort into stopping these kinds of things from happening and you will do well to stay away from people who claim they can make this happen for you for a price.
Don’t #3: Don’t spam comments or forum posts with links back to your site
This kind of link building is considered to be a gray hat practice because it’s not entirely above board but not exactly black hat either. The reality is, it can get you into hot water if you aren’t careful about how you do it. As with buying or selling links, Google frowns upon this kind of thing and they are getting better at finding offenders each day.
Don’t #4: Don’t use too many keywords
Keeping the number of times you use your target keywords low is a good idea because it will make your site seem more natural and thus rank higher in Google. However, if you don’t use them at all then it’ll be like you’re not even trying. The trick is to use them in the right places and in a variety of ways, but don’t make them too obvious or you will run into problems with Google.
Don’t #5: Don’t try to replicate someone else’s success
The truth is that there is no way you can guarantee that you will get on top of Google’s rankings by simply copying someone else’s strategy. You have to do your own keyword research, create your own content and use your own personalized strategies so that it is truly optimized for your intended audience.
SEO is a pretty complex beast that’s been known to baffle even the most seasoned veterans of the trade. In an effort to clarify some of the misconceptions, we’ve put together a list of do’s and don’ts for those who want to get started with SEO. Not only will it help you avoid some common pitfalls but it’ll also give you a better understanding of what this profession entails. If all these things sound intimidating and you need help enacting them, do not hesitate to consult with or hire professionals!
