Effective search engine optimization, SEO, isn’t easy. It’s complicated. It requires multiple skills and tools. Depending on what sort of keywords you’re optimizing for, you may face strong competition with much more money to spend on ads than you. But without SEO, your site doesn’t get found on Google.
No matter where you’re starting, there are a few simple yet essential SEO tactics you can implement today to boost your website. Here at GreenHaven Interactive, we offer comprehensive SEO services for beginners and pros alike. Let’s talk about how to start SEO for beginners with five easy steps you can take today.
Contents
The Elements of a Successful SEO Strategy
Of course, SEO isn’t as simple as five steps–otherwise no one would need marketing agencies! Successful SEO strategy requires technical work, content writing, graphic design, online reputation management, local SEO efforts, social media marketing, and to tie it altogether, time and dedication. Our team has the expertise in each of these elements to help your website shine.
In a nutshell, we can break a full SEO strategy into a few key parts:
- Quality content
- On-page SEO and Off-page SEO
- Site design and structure
- Technical SEO
It takes time, and for most businesses, support, to check all those boxes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a headstart with a few SEO essentials.
Starting Simple: 5 Steps You Can Take Today to Better SEO
Let’s say you want to improve your site’s SEO. Maybe you plan to work with an agency and develop a comprehensive strategy, but for now, you at least want to make some small improvements. Here are five SEO strategy basics you can do in a few hours (depending on the size of your website, of course!).
1: Optimize Meta Tags
Meta tags determine what a webpage looks like in a Google search result. By filling this out strategically rather than letting it autofill from the page content, you can make sure your target keyword is in the meta title, meta description, and the URL. That’s good for SEO and it makes visitors more likely to click on the page thanks to a good description and relevant title.
Go through all your website pages and blog posts. Add or improve the meta tags for each one. The title, description, and URL should always include the target keyword. Try not to go over the character limits.
2: Link Building
Google loves links. Internal links help users navigate through your website, finding additional information. External links show that you’re supporting your content with authoritative sources.
Start link-building on every page and blog post. You can easily add internal links to other web pages, your contact page, or relevant blog posts. Try to add one or two external links to each page or post, too. Use authoritative sources that aren’t competitors, and set them to open in a new tab.
3: Add Images with Alt Text
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That ratio might not be accurate in SEO strategy, but images are important. They make your site more visually appealing and keep readers engaged.
Make sure web pages and blog posts always have at least one high-quality image. Use images and other visual elements strategically to break up large chunks of text. Do you know how else you can optimize with images? Fill out the alt text! Simply add the target keyword to the alt text of each image on the page.
4: Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Type your business into Google and see what comes up. If you haven’t already set up your Google Business profile, it’s time to do so. This free, easy-to-manage profile helps people find you online and gives them helpful information, like contact details and reviews. You can claim your Google Business profile and optimize it so viewers see the best of your business.
Google Business is also an essential aspect of off-page SEO and online reputation management–it’s the primary source of reviews, for most businesses. An optimized Google Business profile has accurate, detailed information, quality pictures, and reviews! Don’t forget to respond to reviews, too.
5: Use an SEO Plugin
You can do the four steps above without any tools, but the right tool makes it much easier. An SEO plugin for your WordPress site makes it easy to see your SEO score for each page and find ways to improve it. Try a plugin like Rank Math, Yoast SEO, or AIOSEO. These will give you a clear SEO score for pages and blog posts and suggest ways to get that score in the green. When it comes to SEO for beginners, these plugins can be an invaluable guide.
How GreenHaven Interactive Can Help
The five steps we just covered are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SEO strategy. And even these few elements can be time-consuming. Moreover, if you don’t have the tools or knowledge to do keyword research, you may be optimizing your meta tags with the wrong keywords.
GreenHaven Interactive can help you with everything from the basics to the nitty-gritty technical SEO. We offer the full package–content, on-page and off-page SEO, technical SEO, online reputation management, and more. Contact us today to start building your SEO strategy!
