Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works by using different strategies and techniques to develop noticeable improvements for your user’s experience and your performance in organic search results. In a nutshell, SEO helps search engines find and rank your site over all other sites in response to a user’s search within an online search engine.
The process to improve your ranking is often about making small changes to your website over time instead of an all-at-once process. Learning how to make the most out of SEO and your website’s content can be easy to pick up but mastery takes time.
To help with that process we have compiled a list of 10 SEO Tips for New Marketers.
SEO Basics.
1. Create Compelling & Useful Content. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site’s reputation with both users and search engines, and it rarely comes without quality content. Marketers are able to increase their site’s recognition on their own by consistently creating compelling and useful content. Remember that SEO is about putting your site’s best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but humans are still your primary audience.
2. Organic Keyword Optimization Strategy. When starting off with SEO, aim for a long-term organic keyword optimization strategy. This is ideal because it can produce many new qualified prospects who are already shopping in your niche. You also won’t have to rely on purchasing expensive Google Adwords.
When Writing Content.
3. Keep Your Audience In Mind. Use a good mix of keyword phrases when writing your content. This will allow you to anticipate differences in users’ understanding of your topic and Internet searching skills. Users who know little about your website topic will probably search for different keywords than users who are well-versed in the same topic. (E.g. searching food festivals in DC vs. a specific one)
4. Write Well. . .Not Good! Users and search engines both enjoy content that is well written and easy to read. Writing with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes can hurt your user’s brain and the ability of search engines to properly search your content for keywords and phrases.
5. Avoid content dumping. Content dumping can be defined as tossing many different unrelated keywords and topics into your content in an attempt to increase your SEO. Don’t try to cheat your users and search engines by dumping different types of content onto a page unless there is good reason to do so. And if there is, use separate paragraphs, subheadings, or layout separation for users to easily discern different content types.
6. Always create content for your users, not for search engines. While search engines might help attract users to your site, the users are the ones that will keep you in business. A great strategy for success is to design your site around your visitors’ needs while keeping it easily accessible to search engines.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
7. Promote Your Own Content. Effectively promoting your new content or features will lead to faster discovery by those who are interested in the same subject. Use your own social media profiles and blogs to post information about new announcements. Of course, a new blog each day about your website color variations would not be ideal but saving these promoted announcements for BIG changes allows users who are following your site or RSS to pick up the story.
What is your site impact?
8. Understand Your Incoming Traffic. After improving the crawling and indexing of your site using Google Webmasters Tools, use Google Analytics to better understand the traffic coming to your site. Google Analytics is a wonderful free tool that will provide you with insight into how users arrive at and behave on your site. As a marketer, this information can be valuable in three main ways: it allows you to tweak aspects of your site that aren’t doing so well, to discover the impact of those changes and to understand the most popular content on your site.
Use social media to improve your SEO.
9. Ride The Wave. Marketers and social media go together like peanut butter and jelly these days. Luckily, your social media profiles and blogs can be used to increase your SEO thanks to Google indexing social media content in real-time. Keep track of trending topics that are relevant to your audience and integrate them into compelling pieces of content. (E.g. a Shark Week-related marketing blog)
10. Look Into The Future. Schedule your social media and blog posts in advance of upcoming events to stay ahead of the game. Holidays and major events typically attract a huge wave of social interactions that turn into the focus of trending topics. As a marketer, do your future-self a favor and prepare business and event-related content well ahead of time that will be ready to ride the trending topic wave when it comes along.
11. Bonus Tip. Search engines update their SEO algorithms regularly, so it pays to stay up-to-date and play fairly! If you have additional tips to suggest for new marketers, please include them in the comments below.
