SEO is a difficult skill for marketers to master because it takes years of experience, knowledge, and skill in order to be considered an SEO expert. Much like any other field in marketing, there is always something new that could help you improve your skills and grow your expertise.
What is SEO?
SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct or paid traffic.
SEO can be broken down into 7 steps:
Download Now: The Ultimate SEO Checklist [FREE GUIDE]
1. Keyword research – Keywords are words or phrases that people type into search engines to find information on specific topics. So if you are optimizing your webpage with keywords, you would want to use around 15-20 on a page. Using too many of the exact keywords is terrible for SEO and will do the opposite effect you are looking for. Make sure you update your keywords every few months to make sure they are still relevant to your business.
2. Competitor analysis – The first step entails conducting a competitive analysis. Keeping your SEO strategy in line with what your competitors do will help you win more search traffic. In addition, identify keywords used and the number of outgoing links and internal links will help you understand why they are ranking higher on searches.
3. On-page optimization – the purpose of on-page optimization is to optimize each web page for specific keywords to help rank higher and be more visible to relevant traffic. You can do this by writing blog posts on search queries people may be searching about your product or service.
4. Off-page optimization – The off-page search engine optimization process examines different actions outside of your website, which determines where you rank in the search engine results pages and how you can attract more traffic to your site, such as influencer outreach, social media engagement and forum posting.
5. Headline – Headlines are essential as it is the main subject that gets your targeted audiences attention to your page. According to Impact, 36% of search engine optimization experts think the headline/title tag is the most important SEO element.
6. Title tags – Search engines and people are able to understand your website’s topic through title tags. Search engines also use them to determine whether your site is relevant to a search. So, your title tags must accurately represent the content that appears on your page.
7. Meta Description – Meta descriptions appear alongside your title and URL on the results page so that they can increase click-through rates. Having your keyword in your meta description is an important thing, as it will help with your search engine ranking.
So why is SEO a hard skill to master?
The main reason it’s so hard to master is that it’s very oversaturated, and everyone is trying to find a new technique to one-up their competitors. To master SEO, you must know every tiny detail that will help bump your site to the top of search results, and since many people are trying to do that at the same time as you, it’s hard to learn all the new ways of getting to that top spot.
What is the best way to get started with SEO?
So you want to get started with search engine optimization and wonder what are the keywords I need to use. I recommend a fantastic tool called semrush. This tool has helped me a lot with their Keyword magic tool, topic research tool and the primary tool to use that they offer is the SEO writing assistant. This tool will help you know the best keywords and how often you should use them. The keyword tool will help you with what are the best questions to answer; semrush will also help you see what your competitors are getting the most traffic from, such as a blog on a specific piece of content.
Conclusion
The importance of search engine optimization is almost undeniable when one talks about online marketing. The fact that most people use Google to search for information has made it necessary for marketers to create SEO-friendly content to ensure that they are ranking higher in the organic search engine results.
