Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is becoming harder with each year due to regular Google algorithm updates, and more people joining the SEO club. There were the days back in 2010 when people used to get away with spammy techniques like keyword stuffing, spam link building, and duplicate content creation.
But today, all these techniques are a big no-no in SEO point of view. There are still people who tweak some spam techniques and get their work done. But honestly, I always feel it’s a short-term strategy and a complete waste of time.
People would eventually get results, but it would become even more challenging for your website to recover and generate traffic when a Google algorithm suddenly hits your site.
Many beginner SEO’s do look up-to such strategies and techniques which are either meant to be black-hat. By implementing them, beginner SEO guys are falling into the wrong space.
There are grey hat techniques like content syndication which can help you get better ranking on Google with the use of softwares like Synd Trio. But to understand it and use it in an effective way. You need to good at primary and main SEO concepts.
In this article, I want to share the three beginner SEO techniques that you should try out. Once you understand what SEO is and how it should be done. I think you will approach your campaigns in a different way.
The three things every beginner SEO needs to try are:
1. SEO Audit
SEO audit is the very base to start anything related to SEO. If someone doesn’t know How to do an SEO audit?
Then they are more likely to fail in implementing SEO strategies, or you might not know what they are doing to get actual results.
In simple words, SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of how well a website is performing in terms of SEO. Majorly, SEO audit needs to focus on these three things:
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
The audit can be done manually or by using some tools. The best tool in the market to perform an SEO audit in Screaming Frog. Inside the audit, you need to know every aspect of the website from its Domain age, On-page results to its link building structure.
Apart from on page and off page SEO. Mobile optimization and website page speed is important. A fast loading site is better for rankings. Choose any hosting between BlueHost v/s Hostinger for good speed and affordable web hosting.
Before taking up any project for SEO, if you have done the seo audit correctly. Then you’re more likely to know what to do next in terms of SEO.
2. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the optimization technique implemented on your web page to make it Google friendly. There are various aspects of on-page SEO and I will explain the most important aspects here:
Meta Title & Meta Description: Meta Title and Meta Descriptions are the visible titles and descriptions appearing in SERP results for your website. These meta titles and descriptions are meant to be keyword-friendly. Both the meta title and description come with a character limit to be appeared on search results.
The main important thing to look for is any duplicate meta title and description. Your website shouldn’t have duplicate meta titles and descriptions. Because it leads the google crawler to view your two or more different pages with the same tags. Thus it’s not a good SEO sign.
Keyword Density: In the past, keyword stuffing could get you better rankings. But since the panda update, Google doesn’t like web pages to be filled with keywords all over the place.
So limiting yourself to use a keyword to a specific density is acceptable for Google’s Search Engine. Most of the people consider having 1-3% keyword density for their ON Page SEO. As a beginner SEO, you can tend to keep your keyword around that range of 1-3% and include long-term versions of it.
Image Text and Alt Tags: Google crawler doesn’t look at the images as we usually look at them. The photos on your webpage needs to be understood by the crawler.
To make your images crawler friendly,
- Name your image files based on the content and include the primary keyword. Thus having keywords would help the crawler understand what the image is about.
- Alt text is the text via which a crawler assigns the keywords to your image and this concludes on keyword is your image is based upon.
Having proper image files and Alt text for your images through the website can help the images rank them on Google’s image search.
Header Tags: Most of us know about H1, H2, H3, H4 Tags, but many beginners don’t understand how to use it.
In Google’s point of view, Header tags are used to separate each section of the content on a web page. Suppose your header tag doesn’t match with what your content is written. Then it ultimately doesn’t make any sense.
Most of the people try to stuff keywords in the H2, H3, and H4 tag. But in reality, this type of stuffing will make google’s crawler confused on what focus keyword is your content is about.
So remember that headers are meant to tell that different sections are available in your content, not to indicate your keywords.
Internal Linking: Internal linking is a significant part of On-page SEO if your website has proper internal links within your content. Then it is a good sign for the website.
Because eventually, once a crawler goes through your content and finds your internal links. The link juice is passed around the webpage, and the anchor text for an internal link plays an important role. So mostly intend to keep primary keywords as your internal links.
With the help of proper linking, you are going to be able to create pillar content. Pillar content is the most valued web page on your site from Google’s point of view. Thus a pillar content is the one page that ranks for multiple keywords and generates the majority of the traffic on your website.
3. Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is what the majority of SEO’s are focused on. Off-page SEO is the link building side of SEO. This is where a lot of spamming seems to happen and as a beginner SEO. It would help if you were focusing on these methods.
Directory Submissions, Profile links, and Bookmarks: I know these days, directory submissions, profile links, and bookmarks might not have the importance that it used to have.
But yet, if you are building a website from scratch and doing its SEO. Then these links should be your initial backlinks rather than going hardcore PR and guest post.
Because being a newer website on the internet, Google algorithm tends to put a website in Sandbox. So aggressive backlinking will not be a good sign while your website is still in your initial days of link building.
Guest Posts: To this date, Guest posts are the major off-page SEO strategy that works. But random guest posting on multiple sites will eventually harm your website. The guest posts should be done strategically. Such that Google doesn’t consider your backlinks as spammy.
Your guest post strategy should clearly focus on:
- Relevance Link Building: Links from relevant and authoritative websites weigh more value than links from unrelated sites. Thus always choose the website within your niche for guest posting.
- Anchor Text: Anchor text is a term from which you’re getting a link from a different website. Most of your anchor texts should be your primary keyword, and for the remaining occasions it can be branded (or) something relevant to your web page content.
Conclusion
As a beginner SEO, if you could understand and implement the above techniques, then you are on the right to rank on Google.
With your consistent efforts on these techniques and developing more new strategies along your way is a good sign for you to become an SEO specialist.