SEO Starter Guide: The Basics Google Search Central Documentation

By May 29, 2025News

This guide is perfect for anyone looking to learn SEO for beginners. In addition to linking to your homepage in social media profiles, you should also be regularly sharing your blog posts with your feed. This earns you referral traffic, and the more eyes on a post, the higher the chances of generating backlinks.

search engine optimization

To this end, we recommend making sure you have the following data sources set up. Providing relevant, high-quality content on your website will help you rank higher in search results, and more importantly, it will establish credibility and trust with your online audience. Despite the acronym, SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines themselves. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to connect to the people who are searching online for the solutions you offer.

search engine optimization

Use Alternative Methods to Drive Traffic.

search engine optimization

Consider compressing large image files where possible to aid load speed without losing out on quality and limiting large animated images. If you have the means to produce original imagery rather than stock photos, it’s worth exploring, as this can aid ranking in image searches. Leverage tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and the Web Vitals Chrome extension to monitor your site’s performance in terms of UX and Core Web Vitals. These tools provide actionable insights, helping identify areas for improvement. Off-page SEO is about improving a website’s search engine visibility without performing any changes on that website. A blog post targeting the keyword ‘best video editors’ should primarily focus on top video editing software.

What is a Keyword or Gap Analysis Against Your Competitors?

  • You can concentrate on your core business by entrusting SEO Inc. with your search engine optimization strategy through our cutting-edge SEO services.
  • SEO can be a complex and tedious process, especially when you don’t have the expertise and experience.
  • Then an SEO plan is crafted to tackle marketing and business challenges head-on.

The list of the results is known as a SERP (Search Engines Results Page). The search engines try to analyze and understand the pages, categorize them, and store them in the index. Crawling is the process in which search engines scan all the internet webpages continuously.

A good user experience is an important part of your SEO strategy, so you should take the time to make sure your website is healthy. This can also attract new backlinks, which should be part of your SEO strategy. When high-quality websites link back to your site, it tells the algorithm that your content is accurate and trustworthy. Optimize your Google My Business listing to improve local search visibility. Actively engage on social media platforms to increase brand visibility and drive traffic.

Content Optimization

All our plans include recommendations for making your site mobile-friendly, and in some cases, we create a mobile-friendly version of your website for you! White label SEO is when one entity performs the SEO services, but the services are promoted and sold by another agency. It’s not uncommon for marketing firms with strong expertise in SEO Anomaly design, copywriting or marketing strategy to outsource their SEO work to white label SEO providers. For some marketing agencies, it can be more affordable and effective to use white label SEO than developing in-house SEO capabilities. Another way to learn more about what you can expect in terms of service quality is to ask your professional network whether anyone has worked with a specific agency.

search engine optimization

Download our free guide to discover the holistic approach that results in effective social selling. To successfully promote your business on social media, combine SEO with other essential elements of the LinkedIn strategy. Many professionals don’t seem to get noticed on LinkedIn, despite their expertise and qualifications. If you’ve ever launched a business website, you probably faced the same issue at some point.

Add the keywords that matter most for your business, and the tool will track your rankings daily. Links from other websites to yours (called backlinks) are like votes of confidence that can lead to better rankings. A URL is the address of a specific webpage or file on the internet, and it can help search engines understand your page better. Knowing search intent lets you produce content that users are more likely to find useful.

The accompanying screenshot highlights how our strategic GBP optimization, regular updates, and targeted backlink strategy have propelled Pape-Dawson to consistently dominate the local map pack. This multi-faceted approach not only drove significant local traffic but also solidified their reputation as a leading civil engineering firm across every market we targeted. Implementing LocalBusiness schema is essential for conveying critical business information—such as your name, address, phone number, and operating hours—to search engines. SEMrush’s Backlink Analysis and the Google Disavow Tool are reliable link analysis tools you can use to spot harmful links and toxic backlinks. Your link management process should involve changing URLs, removing pages, and directing pages to new destinations.

Todd has had a long career in SEO, formerly of Salesforce and other top agencies and businesses. Like me, he was a moderator at the old WebmasterWorld Forums, only he’s been doing SEO for even longer. Although he’s younger than I am, I totally consider him my elder in the SEO business. Todd Friesen, along with Greg Boser, was an SEO podcasting pioneer with their SEO Rockstars show. Things can get a bit confusing because many people today use SEM interchangeably with PPC.

Leave a Reply