Starting out in the world of SEO can be a bit daunting, especially when you’re working on a new site. Nevertheless, getting just a few basics right can be enough to start seeing real results, whatever your marketing goals are. A good rule of thumb is to begin by tackling the fundamentals first, and leave the more complex SEO techniques for your SEO marketing team – especially since the more exotic methods tend not to have as great an effect on your results as simply doing the basics correctly.
Here’s a list of things you can do when working on a new website.
Understand what SEO is
In a nutshell, SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, so any techniques and methods you use to improve your visibility to search engines like Google. You can pay for traffic and clicks (PPC), but SEO is largely used for organic results. People tend to click overwhelmingly on the first few highest-ranking results and ignore the rest – hence the need for SEO to make sure you appear in these top coveted positions.
The main goal is to make sure that search engines can easily find your page. Your content, keywords and technical SEO will affect how you show up in search results, but you need to understand exactly how a) the search engine is viewing your site and, more importantly, b) how your visitors are viewing it.
Both search engines and users are looking for content that is actually relevant to their search terms. Though keywords are important, the overall quality and richness of content makes the difference. Your content should be posted regularly, and needs to be trustworthy, useful, authoritative (i.e. you’re an expert voice or link to one) and somewhat novel.
Setting up Google Analytics
Whatever SEO methods you end up using, you’re going to need a way to track and monitor their effectiveness so you can adjust as needed. The most popular (and free) way to do this is via Google Analytics. You’ll first need to create and then sign into your account. Set up what’s called a “property” (i.e. your website) and then set up a reporting view for this property – the app itself will guide you through this process. Finally, you’ll need to add a tracking code to the website so Google can begin gathering and analysing data from it.
Once you’ve acquired some data, you can look at how your site is performing. Take a look at your main page and click “All Sessions.” Look at the audience overview and select “organic traffic.” From these menus you can customise which data stream you look at.
Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a fantastic free tool that tells you how often your site has been crawled, what Google thinks of your site, and any issues that it may have. Here you’ll find valuable data such as how often your site appears in Google’s search results, which search queries conjure your site, and how often users click through for those queries. You could also use a rank tracker to see how specific keywords are performing, and adjust as you go, making sure that you’re staying relevant compared to your competition.
Keyword research is another thing you can get started with even as a beginner, bearing in mind that a huge proportion of sites ever created are never actually searched for. Understanding your niche and what your customers want can help you brainstorm keywords, but you can also check what words work for your competitors, or use a keyword discovery tool. Here, you put in “seed keywords” (broad terms relating to your niche) and it generates some ideas to further investigate.
Starting a Blog Page
A simple way to begin creating useful content (with keywords) is to start a blog page. Whatever platform you’ve used to create your site, simply spend some time making a well-indexed blog page with content that genuinely addresses your readers’ problems and adds value. A blog is a great way to build content and increase your ranking and visibility. To brainstorm topics, think of your visitors search terms, and use these as keywords to organise an article or guide.
Once you’ve generated some content, you can begin to optimise those keywords, and build in internal and external links. Take the time to include keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and title tags – and don’t forget to include them in your image tags and captions, too.
The next steps
As you begin to feel more comfortable with various SEO tactics and your new website starts to flourish, you can also start various other tasks, such as:
- Schema markup, which will improve the search result appearance – for both search engines and humans.
- Signing up to Google My Business (GMB), to help ensure that your local area can find your business online, so they can visit you later.
- Submitting your sitemap.
- Optimising your site for mobile and ensuring that it loads quickly for your online visitors.
As your website continues to grow, the number of SEO strategies to use will increase. But by applying the tips above, you’re already on the right track.