New to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and feel that you’ve bitten off a bit more than you can chew? If you’re staring at a long list of different SEO strategies it is understandable if you feel overwhelmed and aren’t quite sure where to start.
The fact of the matter is that when it comes to SEO, it is always best to start with the basics – and there are three fundamentals that you definitely need to understand.
Keyword Research
Keywords are what people plug into the search bar when they want to find something. For example it could be ‘best SEO strategies’, or ‘SEO basics’.
Broadly speaking, there exists 2 different keywords. They are known as short-tail, and the other is long-tail. These short-tail keywords normally are keywords that have one or two words, while long-tail keywords have three or more words.
The basic idea behind keyword research is to find specific keywords that you want to target. To do that you need to look both at the popularity of the keyword (i.e. the search volume) as well as the competition (i.e. the other websites trying to rank on it).
Search Intent
At the end of the day the goal of every search engine is to provide their visitors with results that are relevant and match what they were thinking about when they started the search. That is why the intent behind the search is important.
Suffice to say you need to match the keyword that you want to target with the right search intent before you use it in your content. If it does not match even if you are listed for that keyword it won’t be relevant and will not rank well.
On the other hand if you do target the right intent, you can not only get more traffic but reduce bounce rates and increase conversions.
Link Building
For some time now search engines have used backlinks (i.e. the links that point to a website) as a way to judge how good it is. A simple way to understand it is by thinking of each backlink as a ‘vote’.
The one thing that you need to appreciate however is that not all backlinks are equal. Some backlinks from popular websites that have high authority count for a lot, while other backlinks from dubious sources may count for next to nothing – and could even get your website penalized.
At the end of the day your best bet when it comes to link building is to make sure that you only build high-quality and relevant links, while staying away from anything shady like ‘buying’ backlinks or exchanging them.
Final Words
Make no mistake there is a lot more to SEO than the three fundamentals listed above, but they are a good place to start. If you want a shortcut you can always opt to look for an SEO agency in Cornwall like https://www.hookedonmedia.com/, or somewhere near your location instead.
Always remember than SEO is by no means stagnant and it is constantly changing. In other words not only do you need to learn all about it, but you need to keep yourself up-to-date at all times too.