SEO is the process of optimizing a website to improve its ranking in search engines. We really cannot remember the exact date when SEO was introduced. But ever since Google was launched, the voyage of search engine optimization started. With time SEO has evolved, and right now, it is an essential marketing strategy for every industry.
Search engine optimization focuses upon organic search results. And all the actions that you make in SEO are establishing your website as a quality source and ranking it higher for some desired search queries. It is difficult for even an SEO expert to know all the factors and exact algorithms Google uses to rank a website. But if you, as a beginner, are in the process of learning SEO, there is a lot to learn.
If you want to understand SEO in short, there are three most important factors that you need to consider. Imagine the SEO to be a bowl of soup. The top three ingredients that will help the soup taste better are quality backlinks, technical stuff, and great content.
As soon as you start learning SEO, you might come across some standard terms. And we want you to stay prepared beforehand to avoid any hiccups while learning. Most of the vocabulary used in SEO will come up with a literal meaning. Thus they will be understandable for you. But still, some terms would be a bit difficult such as:
Both are parts of your SEO activities, but they differ in the places where you perform them on your website. On-page SEO means everything you do on the website, from optimizing the content to all the technical steps. On-page SEO may include:
On-page SEO means providing your website with perfect content and UX. The purpose of on-page SEO is to show the search engines what the page is about. If somewhere you get to hear the term technical SEO, it is the same as on-page SEO.
Off-page SEO is mostly all about getting quality backlinks from other highly authoritative domains to your web pages. The link-building process may involve some techniques such as:
Off-page SEO is highly connected with other aspects of online marketing, such as social media marketing. Off-page SEO is highly connected with other aspects of online marketing, such as social media marketing and brand building.
Additionally, off-page SEO has an indirect impact on building the authority and trust of your website. A successful SEO strategy would need both on-page and off-page SEO activities. ected with other aspects of online marketing, such as social media marketing and brand building. Additionally, off-page SEO has an indirect impact on building the authority and trust of your website. A successful SEO strategy would need both on-page and off-page SEO activities.
If you remember the old Western movies, the white hat represented the good guys while the black hat represented the bad guys. In SEO, the terms are also usually used to describe two different SEO practices.
Suppose your SEO practice adheres to the rules set out by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. In that case, you are using white hat SEO, and if you don’t, it’s a black hat SEO technique.
White hat SEO refers to all the standard SEO techniques that follow the guidelines and rules. It is a long-term strategy to rank your website with optimization, quality content, and a user-oriented approach.
On the other hand, Black Hat SEO is a set of unethical SEO practices to improve your website’s ranking. Though the black hat SEO technique can take you higher on the search results in no time, you might end up getting penalized by Google.
There are a couple of resources that you can use while learning SEO, such as:
There are many trusted sources from where you can read and learn about search engine optimization. Moz and Ahrefs are some of the most trusted tools that can be advantageous for you as a beginner in learning SEO.
You can also find some courses for SEO or other digital marketing techniques from those websites. The best part of learning from those resources is that you can learn at your own pace, and you will also get dozens of resources that they link to throughout their chapters.
Listening Podcasts: Podcasts nowadays have become an inevitable part of marketing. Apparently, podcasts are good resources for learning, too. There are various podcasts on SEO by experienced SEO experts to help you learn SEO.
The best part of learning from podcasts is that they are informative and fun. If you prefer listening to audio over reading articles, podcasts are bliss for you. Find some of the top SEO podcasts here to start learning.
If you think a guided and structured learning process is going to help you, then choosing a free SEO course is in your best interests. This way, you will have someone to guide you and teach you some SEO skills.
And the added benefit is that there are various courses that offer certification when you complete the course. Some of the high-quality options are:
SEO is continuously evolving; algorithms are getting updated, and new trends are turning up every other day. For instance, Google recently added a new “E” to the existing “E-A-T” guidelines, which means experience to make sure that the content is relevant and helpful and is created by someone who actually has experience with the subject.
This change has become more important as AI-generated content is becoming popular. These E-E-A-T guidelines are what make humans and computers separate. So, you have to stay updated and know all the latest trends that are going on to stay updated.
It is important that you learn from your competitors and what has helped them grow. You can also do a competitor analysis to know things like keywords to leverage, where they are getting their backlinks from, and what they are doing to capitalize things.
The Internet is a huge place, and it is difficult to do a few essential things manually. This is where SEO tools come in handy. They save a lot of time and energy and help you get quick results. Here are some of the tools mentioned that can help you in the process.
Getting hands-on experience while learning is the best thing you can ever do. When you readily apply everything that you learn, you learn better. You can search for freelance SEO jobs and work as an assistant to apply what you have learned.
Search engine optimization has created great opportunities for students and job seekers. Remember that everyone starts somewhere before they become a pro.
All you need is to follow the steps attentively and apply your learning effectively. Like anything worth knowing, it will take time to understand SEO completely. However, to learn SEO, you have to be patient and keep up with the changes in the industry.
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A self-proclaimed Swiftian, Instagram-holic, and blogger, Subhasree eats, breathes, and sleeps pop culture. When she is not imagining dates with Iron Man on Stark Tower (yes, she has the biggest crush on RDJ, which she won’t admit), she can be seen tweeting about the latest trends. Always the first one to break viral news, Subhasree is addicted to social media, and leaves out no opportunity of blogging about the same. She is our go-to source for the latest algorithm updates and our resident editor.
