Why is SEO, or search engine optimization, important? Over a billion searches go through search engine sites like Google every day. Many of these searches are for products and services, and the websites that rank highest organically experience the most clicks. Research shows that 80 percent of users never look past the first page of results. If you are interested in improving the rank of your webpage in search engine results, here are some easy SEO tips for beginners.
1. Quality content is king for SEO. What does this mean exactly? You need to post content on your website that is both engaging and relevant for your users. Did you know that 40 percent of US companies have blogs on their websites? This is not by accident. Blogs not only lead to sales, but they increase pages for search indexing by over 400 percent. If you do not have a blog, get one. If you have one, update it at least once a week.
2. Remember that SEO content, whether it is blogs, articles or infographics, should not resemble ad copy. The point of your content is to increase your rank, not necessarily market for your product. You have PPC and other forms of marketing for that. This is not to say you cannot market subtly. For example, write a four point guide to finding the best pizza place in the city that highlights your strengths… without mentioning the name of your pizza company. Include interesting facts for your readers about what people order, or pizza history, et cetera.
3. Place text below all your images. Images are great to use with content because they draw reader eyes down the page, and help break up text for easier reading. However, search engines tend to ignore images without text. Describe what is occurring in the image you post so that search engine spiders pick up on it. Top SEO tips for beginners would also remind you to make sure that any images you use are ones you have the rights to use.
4. When you need search engine optimization help, it is a good idea to keep in tune with the SEO industry. SEO blogs can be a great way to learn SEO tips and techniques. It is important to understand how changes to the Google algorithm are constantly altering how businesses approach SEO. The Panda and Penguin updates, for example, decreased the importance of syndicating SEO content.