In today’s competitive market, search engine optimisation (SEO) is more essential than ever for companies who want to achieve greater visibility and search ability. According to Search Engine Journal, organic search is still the primary source of website traffic, making SEO a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy.
If you work in marketing or own a business, it’s vital for you to know the SEO basics. Even if you plan to hire a digital marketing company to run your campaigns, learning SEO will help you understand how search engines work.
Beginners may feel overwhelmed, at first, when it comes to learning everything about SEO. But the fundamentals are easy and straightforward enough to understand. To drive quality traffic to your website through organic search listing, here’s a simple beginner’s guide to SEO from the experts at Media Crew.
What is SEO?
When learning SEO from scratch, start with the meaning. Search engine optimisation is the practise of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic search results on search engines like Google and Bing.
Organic searches typically draw in the bulk of website visitors, making them the most effective way to acquire leads and drive revenue. You also don’t have to pay for organic results, making them a cost-effective way to promote your business.
How Search Engines Work
In organic search, the results show up in a specific order to deliver the most relevant pages for the query. When you type or speak a question into a search engine, it generates a results page with a list of links to websites that could answer your question.
A search engine determines relevant pages by crawling or gathering information about the content on the Internet. The crawlers bring back their findings to the search engine to form an index, using an algorithm to rank a link based on factors such as:
- Authoritativeness of links to the domain
- Quality of link sources on the page
- Content relevance
- Content readability
- Load speed
- Traffic from browsers
- Quantity and quality of shares on social media
What’s in it for Your Business?
SEO’s goal is to optimise a page so that it reaches the first page, or preferably the top spot, on a search engine results page (SERP). Optimisation takes on many forms, like creating quality content, building links and making sure the metadata is informative and at the right length.
When done effectively, SEO brings an improved user experience for your target audience. With relevant information and easy navigation, website visitors will find it easy to look for the answers to their questions. This builds trust and earns you leads that could turn into sales.
Building an SEO-Friendly Website
Now that you’ve learned the basic terms of SEO, how do you now optimise your website? Here are the best SEO marketing practices for beginners:
1. Create relevant content that matches search intent
To perform well in search results, you have to know what your consumers want and how your products or services intersect with their desires. Write content that’s relevant, current and topical.
You also need to incorporate keywords that will attract visitors. For instance, if you want people to find your page when they input ‘best furniture company in Melbourne’ into the search bar, you should include that keyword in your web page title, meta description and body content. You also need to conduct in-depth keyword research to ensure you identify the most valuable search terms for your business.
2. Build your site’s authority through links
Links on the Internet are a way to show credibility. If other reputable websites direct visitors to your site, search engines will consider you as a trustworthy source. This means that you need to build a respectable network of links for your website. You can do this through backlinks and internal links. Backlinks are links from other sites to your pages while internal links are links from one page on the same domain to another.
3. Focus on user experience (UX)
Search engines track the behaviour of users when they’re interacting with your web pages post-click. These are called user experience or UX signals and they reflect the perception of visitors on your website. UX is an essential part of SEO since the more visitors you attract, the more traffic and returning visits you gain.
To optimise your website and improve user experience, you need to focus on designs that fit SEO principles. These include clear navigation paths, call to action buttons, fast page speed and more.
4. Design your website for the mobile user
Around 95 per cent of Australians use smartphones to search for something online. If your website loads slowly on mobile or if the site doesn’t adjust to fit the screen, you risk losing potential customers.
When creating a mobile-friendly website, take note of three key components: a responsive design, simple navigation and fast loading speed. Choose a site design that adjusts itself based on the screen sizes of different devices. Maximise the small space of a smartphone by turning your navigation site into a drop-down menu. Speed up your website by enabling browser caching and adjusting your time to first byte (TTFB) to 200 milliseconds.
5. Boost your SEO campaign with social media marketing
Social media is an excellent way to build brand awareness and engage with potential and current customers. Sharing your content on relevant platforms opens your business to a wider variety of customers who need your products or services.
When launching a social media campaign, remember that authority and authenticity are the keys to success. Update your networks regularly with relevant content that builds your brand’s authority. Interact with users by liking, retweeting and replying to their comments. Doing so improves the authenticity of your brand and drives more conversions.
Master the Basics of SEO with Media Crew
Knowing the fundamentals of SEO helps beginners understand how they can optimise their site to drive revenue. Now that you know the basics of search engine optimisation, it’s time to put theory into practice. Even though you’ve learned how search engine optimisation works, it’s often best to leave the campaigns to an experienced and professional team.
At Media Crew, we provide SEO strategies for small and medium sized businesses in Australia. Our goal is to help you achieve success through digital marketing. We work closely with you to fully understand what your goals are and how best we can help you achieve them.
For more information and enquiries, contact us today.
