Beginner’s Guide to SEO

SEO, short for search engine optimization, in its simplest form is the practice of choosing the right keywords and page structure to help search engines show your page near the top of search results. This beginner’s guide to SEO will help to simplify the key elements you need to know in order to get started the right way. Build the foundation that can be built upon. The better the SEO applied to your page, the more organic visits your page will get; which, then, leads to more attention and more sales.

Keywords for Best SEO Results

Your page’s SEO must begin with the right keyword research. These are the words or phrases that your customers and clients are entering into search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, in order to find the products or services you offer. In modern times, tools such as Moz or Ahrefs have become the industry standard for locating the right keywords for your needs.

Many marketers and entrepreneurs overcomplicate choosing the right keyword, or spend far too much time stressing over which word to target. The simple formula will help you to avoid this mind-trap. The right keyword is simply one that directly relates to your offer or topic, has a large amount of search volume each month, and a low competition; meaning that not many other people are trying to gain attention from that search term.

Structure for Best SEO Results

Again, another important element of best SEO practices that often gets over complicated for beginners, is the structure of the content on your page. The key factors to remember are: only use the keyword when it makes sense in the sentence, try to use the keyword within the first two to three lines of the page, be sure to use the keyword in one to two headers within the written content. In fact, if you look at this very post, you will see that “beginner’s guide to SEO” is used in both the header at the top of the post, as well as within the first three lines.

The Amazon Method

We all know what Amazon is, I’m sure. According to StockAnalyst.com, Amazon’s market cap reached $1,752.13 as of August 9th of 2024. Millions of people visit the site every day thru organic SEO as well as word of mouth. Many think that the retail giant grew so large and popular because you are able to purchase nearly anything there. However, the truth is, its initial growth is because the creator focused on books. Yes, books.

Think about how many people are looking for a specific title or author at any given moment of the day. Now, imagine capturing the attention of everyone looking for any one of thousands of books, or authors. That is how Amazon grew. At the start of Amazon, when it was still known as ‘Cadabra’, the site was full of only book titles and authors. Because of the massive amount of searches done for these books, or the author themselves, the site grew very rapidly. In fact, it wasn’t until 1998 that the retail giant began expanding beyond books. This is how Amazon used SEO to grow quickly. Thousands of book titles and authors were very low competition at the time, so they were easy to ranks for on search engines. Only later after it had grown in popularity and become a recognizable name that people were talking about, did it begin to expand with less need to worry about SEO as much. Now, because of its popularity and high ranking in search engines, it easily ranks for keywords every day with very little effort or even intent on the site-runners’ part.

Let’s Summarize

Since you are at the start of your SEO journey, let’s summarize what you need to remember most. Do your research to find the right keyword or key phrase that your customers or clients would search for in order to find you on the web. Use your chosen keyword tool to find those with low competition and a high search volume.

When writing your content, be sure to include your keyword or key phrase in the title, at least one header, and within the first three lines of your content. Make this a habit and you will lay a great foundation to build upon as you learn more of the more advanced ways to use SEO to gain new sales and business. As in most things, never stop learning, and never stop using what you learn to better your business.