Search engine optimization can seem like a daunting task, many website owners do absolutely nothing before consulting a specialist. However, if you can put in place some basic actions and gauge the results yourself, it means when you do bring on board professional help you can see the difference of their impact versus your own efforts.
A lot of reputable SEO companies actually provide you this sort of advice on their own blogs without you having to be a client. For example, we picked up some of the tips from browsing the articles at this Philadelphia SEO company. Have a read of these 10 basic SEO tips to get you started and see what you can brainstorm up to work on, either by yourself or with the help of a specialist.
1. Keyword research
This is one of the most important SEO tips for beginners. To achieve high rankings in SERPs, your content and website should contain the most relevant and popular keyword for the search query. You will notice that when you search for something in Google, the search results will include a list of keywords. The search engine will only list the most relevant content, which means that all other content will not appear in the first ten search results in the SERP.
2. Title tags and meta description
Your title tags and meta description should contain the keywords of your content. The title tags should be descriptive and include the keyword. For example, if you have a blog post on the topic of WordPress, you should have a title tag that reads “WordPress – Getting Started Guide”. Your meta description should be clear and descriptive, but it should not include long paragraphs. It should also include the keyword that you want to rank for. You can use SEO titles and meta descriptions in the Yoast SEO plugin.
3. URL structure
Your URL structure should be simple and easy to understand. This will make it easier for search engines to know what your website is about. You should use hyphens or dashes instead of underscores and you should use keywords in your URL.
For example, if your website is about travel, you should have a URL structure like this:
http://www.ourwebsite.com/travel-to-mexico
http://www.ourwebsite.com/travel-to-mexico/mexico-city
http://www.ourwebsite.com/travel-to-mexico/mexico-city-travel-guide
4. Meta description
Your meta description should be clear and written in a way that people can understand what your website is about. It should also be interesting to read. In addition, it should contain keywords that you want to rank for.
5. Page load time
This is another important SEO tip that you should always remember. Your website should load as fast as possible so that people do not get frustrated and close your website. A slow page load time can affect your ranking in SERP. If you have a slow website, you can use the WP Fastest Cache plugin to improve your page load time.
6. Page speed
When people search for something on Google, they want to find the information that they need as fast as possible. If your website takes a long time to load, you can lose potential customers.
7. Content length
When you write content for your website, you must focus on quality rather than quantity. Many people make the mistake of trying to write as much content as possible but that is not the right way to do it. Google wants to see that you are focusing on quality content and they will rank you higher if you do.
8. Keyword density
When you write content for your website, you will need to include keywords, especially if you are targeting a specific keyword. You should not go overboard with it though. If you have too many keywords in your content, it can be seen as spam and Google can penalize you for it.
9. Image alt tags
If you are writing product descriptions or blog posts, you will use images. You should write alt tags for every image and make sure that they contain relevant keywords. This will help you rank higher on the search engine result page of Google.
10. Internal linking
Internal linking is important because it will help Google understand what your website is about. If you write a blog post about SEO tips, you should link every keyword that you have used in your post to the homepage.
