Photo by Tumisu on Pixabay Search engine optimization (SEO) is something that most businesses need to pay attention to. Unfortunately, it’s also something that can be a little bit confusing for beginners. With so many special terms and new concepts to take in, learning about SEO as a beginner can be tricky. There are also so many different ways you can implement it into your business that it can feel overwhelming at first. Fortunately, we have you covered! This guide will explain everything you need to know as a beginner when it comes to SEO. What is SEO? SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s the process of getting traffic from organic search engine listings, as opposed to paid advertisements. There are many different factors that go into how a website is ranked on search engine results pages (SERPs), but the main idea behind it is to give users the best experience possible. For businesses, this is incredibly important. When someone types in a keyword related to your product or service, you want your website to be the first result that pops up. This is how you get targeted traffic to your site and make sales from customers who were already interested in what you have to offer. Why is SEO Important? A lot of people think SEO is just a fad that will go away. Or they don’t understand why they should care. But SEO has been around for a long time and isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s only getting more important. In general, more people are using the internet to find new brands and products. They’re using online search engines, like Google and Bing, to find what they’re looking for, whether it’s product reviews, comparison shopping, or information on a specific service. This means that the majority of traffic is coming from online search engines. In fact, the percentage of traffic from search engines to websites has been steadily increasing for the past two decades. This shows no signs of slowing down and will likely continue to grow in the future. How to Track Your SEO Progress You can track your SEO progress by keeping a log of when you implement changes into your business. You can also use free tools, like Google Analytics, to track your SEO progress. In Google Analytics, you can track how much traffic you’re getting from organic search and determine if it’s growing or declining. You can also track your keyword rankings and see how your SEO strategy is affecting your rankings. Analyzing your data and tracking your progress is essential to improving your SEO strategy and ensuring that it’s working. When you track your progress, you’ll be able to see areas where you can improve and what’s working well. The 3 Step Process for Beginners to SEO The process for beginners to SEO is relatively simple. It can be broken down into three main steps: choose your keywords, optimize your content, and build links. Keywords - The first step is to choose your keywords. These are the words and phrases that people type into search engines when trying to find products or services like yours. Optimize your content - The next step is to optimize the content on your site so that it’s optimized for these keywords. This means that you’ll be making your website as “search engine friendly” as possible so that it will rank highly on search engine results pages. Build links - Finally, you want to build links to your site. These are basically “connections” from one website to another. They are a way for your website to get noticed and increase its authority. Keywords: Finding the Right Ones for Your Business Keywords are the single most important factor when it comes to your SEO strategy. This is because it’s basically what your product or service is. If you don’t choose the right keywords, you won’t get the right customers. There are lots of tools you can use to find keywords. One of the best is the Google Keyword Planner. Using keyword tools will help you identify the keywords that are relevant to your business and are being searched for in the online marketplace. You can then use these keywords to optimize your website for SEO. You want to choose keywords that have a decent amount of monthly search volume. You can find this information in the keyword tool. Ideally, you want to select keywords that have a low competition level. Content Marketing: Tried and True for Beginners Many people associate SEO with keyword stuffing, buying links, and other black hat techniques. And while some of these are still effective, the best way to get new customers is by creating amazing content. In today’s digital world, content marketing is king. People want to read helpful and interesting articles. They don’t care about pop-up ads or spammy sales pitches. They want to learn about a product or service from an honest and informative source. This means that if you create content that is top-notch, customers will be interested in what you have to offer. People often forget that SEO is also about making an emotional connection with your audience. It’s about giving readers useful information, not just trying to sell them something. These long-term effects of content marketing can last a lifetime. This means that it’s a tried-and-true way to get new customers and rank highly on search engines. Summing up SEO is the process of getting more traffic to your website by having it appear highly in search engine results. Beginners should start by choosing keywords that are relevant to their business, optimizing their content, and building links. The more high-quality links your website has, the better it will rank in search engines like Google. These links come from other websites, like Wikipedia or news sites, where the owner has given permission for other businesses to link back to them. The more links to your site, the more Google notices you and brings you up in search results.