Search Engine Optimisation, popularly known as SEO, is the leading inbound marketing strategy to drive more visits to your website. SEO plays such a huge part in a brand’s outreach strategy that 61% of marketers say improving it while growing their organic presence is ranked as their primary inbound marketing priority.
The process of creating SEO-friendly content and fine-tuning codes to get your website rank higher in the search results is a big part of achieving the best possible outcome for your brand. With a special combination of using the right keywords, website coding, intelligent technical indicators and using the appropriate keyword density, your SEO can lead to unbeatable ROI.
Since SEO is such a broad area, we’ve put together a list of the things that you must keep in mind as a beginner. Keep on reading to learn how to start your SEO from scratch.
1. Optimise Your Site to Be Mobile-Friendly
Smart Insights found that 48% of consumers start mobile research with the use of a search engine. This is why fine-tuning your site for optimal performance and load speed is a critical option if you want to gain credibility and convert every visit into a sale.
A delay in website loading speed may be a missed opportunity in engaging with a new visitor. In fact, the average visitor will only wait for your site to load within 2 seconds. This is why optimising your site to become mobile-friendly is a top choice if you want visitors to trust your brand. People trust their phones, make them trust your site too.
Needless to say, mobile consumers spend more time on their phones and have varying searching habits compared to a traditional desktop user. Keep in mind of your own searching habits when you’re time-poor and in a hurry. What makes you click the first results you find interesting? What makes you stick to reading a certain blog post?
2. Understand the “Searching” Psychology
Keyword testing is not the entire goal of creating SEO-friendly content. Focusing on the searcher’s intent while using the most effective long-tail and short-tail keywords can lead to an increase of traffic to your site.
Once you understand your target audience and the reasoning why they search online, you can effectively optimise your site with the right content they are actually searching for.
Searches are becoming more and more dynamic and complex- ranging from food deliveries to answering simple queries. In fact, the impact of mobile search amplified SEO to a tenth-fold, as 51% of smartphone users discovered a new brand or product through the power of mobile search.
3. Produce Readable Content
It’s a common myth to pick up only the good keywords and use it repeatedly to improve your site ranking. In the SEO world, we call this ‘keyword stuffing’. Keyword stuffing is the elaborate use of keywords to promote the right density; this is a common move for content marketers. Though this might sound convenient, search engines now penalize content that does not appear to be authentic and well-written.
Creating content that is relevant to your audience and is highly engaging lets search engines know that you are putting valuable content online. This helps them rank your site higher. 97% of digital marketers publish prescriptive content, or content that outlines a formula or solution. This makes it easy for the readers to resonate with the brand, giving them a quick response to their curiosity.
The key to ranking higher in the search engine results page (SERP) is to produce more relevant content frequently. HubSpot found that brands that publish about 16+ blog posts every month generate about 3.5 more traffic than companies who come up with only zero to four monthly blog posts.
4. Analyze The Search Traffic Your Brand Gets
47% of buyers skim 3-5 pieces of content from your brand before moving on to their buying decision. Look at what your competitors are doing and what keywords your audience usually key-in when accessing your published content.
Regularly update your high-performing content to help it stay relevant to trends and algorithmic changes. Slowly comb through your top 10 best-performing posts and observe their common traits you might want to adapt to your next post.
Your search traffic coming from social media and from organic search will help you determine what are the strengths of your blog posts and how you can further improve them.
5. Keep up with the Latest Algorithmic Changes
To be able to succeed in your SEO efforts, it is a must to follow the latest trends that might affect your overall SEO tactics. It can be your website loading speed, your use of negative keywords, your keyword density and other aspects that can affect your ranking. As with every newly-learned skill, it’s a must to keep yourself tuned to any recent changes.
Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google stated in an interview from WebPromo that “It’s content and links pointing to your site.” Work on the best content you can produce with the most vital information infused with the right search intent keywords. This will help you stay relevant and evergreen in the search engine.
Final Takeaways
MarTech found out that 70-80% of search engine users focus only on organic results. That’s why maximising your SEO-promoting strategies rather than paid search lets you enjoy the credibility and the freedom to amplify your conversions.
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is a fundamental inbound marketing strategy for all businesses. If you want to establish a reputation by creating a strong digital footprint, SEO is the best way to go. About 22% of brands are satisfied with their conversion rates after applying SEO methods – and it can help you boost an unimaginable amount of ROI without spending on ads.
Invest in improving your SEO tactics through back-end development, content creation and curation, and high-performing UI/UX design for maximum website speed. From there, you’ll know you’re off to a great start.
If you’re looking for more long-term SEO assistance, contact us today to get in touch with our highly skilled SEO team.