SEO Basics: A Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
Welcome to the wonderful world of SEO! If you're running a website or a small business, you might have heard the term SEO thrown around a lot. It can sound daunting and scary at first but it’s super important tool for getting your website or content seen. But what exactly is it, and why is it important?
I’m not an SEO expert but I’m going to try my best to help you understand the basics a little more. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it's all about making your website more visible to search engines like Google. The higher your website appears in search engine results, the more likely people are to visit your website.
But how do you get your website to appear higher in search results? Well, that's where SEO comes in. By optimizing your website and its content, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
So, what are some basic SEO tactics you can use to improve your website's visibility? Let's dive in!
1. Do your keyword research: Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines when they're looking for something. By doing keyword research, you can identify the keywords and phrases that people are searching for in your niche, and then use those keywords in your website's content. I’ve heard that Google's Keyword Planner is a useful tool for this although I haven’t used it myself.
2. Optimize your content: Once you've identified your target keywords, it's time to optimize your website's content. This means using those keywords in your headlines, meta descriptions, and throughout your website's copy (think product descriptions, about me page etc.) in a natural, non-spammy way.
3. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: With more and more people using their phones to search the web, having a mobile-friendly website is crucial for SEO. Make sure your website is responsive and easy to navigate on mobile devices.
4. Improve your website's loading speed: Slow loading times can hurt your website's SEO. Make sure your website is optimized for speed by compressing images and minifying code.
5. Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more authoritative your website will appear to search engines.
Etsy SEO
If you're selling on Etsy, there are some specific things you can do to optimize your listings for search. Here are some tips:
- Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles for your listings.
- Fill out all the relevant attributes and tags for your listings.
- Use high-quality images that showcase your products.
- Offer free shipping or offer a discount for bundled purchases.
- Use Etsy's Promoted Listings feature to increase visibility for your listings.
Shopify SEO
If you're running an online store on Shopify, there are some specific things you can do to optimize your website for search engines. Here are some tips:
- Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions for your product pages. You can even use Shopify’s new AI tool to help you write product descriptions.
- Optimize your website's loading speed.
- Use a mobile-responsive theme.
- Add a blog to your website and regularly post high-quality content. Blog = more words. More words = more keywords.
- Offer free shipping or offer a discount for bundled purchases.
By implementing these basic SEO tactics, you can improve your website's visibility and attract more visitors to your online shop. But remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires patience and persistence. Keep working on your SEO, and over time, you'll see the results in the form of increased traffic and sales. I won’t sit here and say that I do every single one of these things, nor that I do any of them perfectly. It’s something that I work on bit by bit each month and will continue to do so!
Don't forget to check out my Patreon for more helpful blog posts, tips, and tutorials.
Happy SEO-ing!
Lucy x