Basic SEO Tips for New Digital Marketers
If you are considering the pursuit of a career in digital marketing or want to become a full-stack marketer than knowledge of SEO can help you get the right job.
LinkedIn says that 2,040,504 people have SEO down as a skill on their profiles yet people, including many marketers, have been saying SEO is dead since 1997. Yes, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) isn’t just about getting your website found anymore but that does not mean it is dead.
As Google’s search algorithm matures businesses and their marketers are becoming more aware of the importance of implementing solutions like long-tail keywords, content marketing and guest blogging. SEO is certainly not dead – in fact it is growing, changing and evolving at a rapid rate. It has become more granular and specific especially with searches on mobile device overtaking desktops.
If you are considering the pursuit of a career in digital marketing or want to become a full-stack marketer than knowledge of SEO can help you get the right job.
Are the basic SEO principles right?
Many people try to implement whatever the new trend in SEO is at that time. More often than not, something is fundamentally wrong. So, it’s always a good idea to go through the basic checklist of SEO before you tackle the big things.
But (always a but) Google updates its algorithms every year so the list can be expansive. I’ve created a simple checklist that you can start checking your basic SEO with. SEO is about many, many things and these are just some of them.
Alternatively, you can check out these resources
What will make the most difference right now?
Judging by my own experience using tools like SEMrush, SimilarWeb and more. The following items will make the most difference in your SEO process right now.
- Backlinks remain an extremely important Google ranking factor. The number of domains linking to a page correlated with rankings more than any other factor
- Based on SERP data, longer content tends to rank higher in Google’s search results. The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words (SEMrush)
- Site speed matters, pages on fast-loading sites rank significantly higher than pages on slow-loading sites (Alexa)
- Using data from SimilarWeb, low bounce rate was associated with higher Google rankings.
How do we know this worked?
If you can measure it, then you can improve it. Measurement is critical to success in marketing and that applies to SEO as well.
Many businesses are unique and every website will have different metrics that matter but these are nearly universal.
- Traffic – Measure your traffic volume and quality (pages per visit, bounce rate etc)
- Rankings – Higher SERP rankings are what we are after, are we getting there?
- Referrals / Backlinks – From high ranking websites
- Conversions – These are defined based on your specific goals
What should we do next?
Have a cup of green tea, I hear it’s good.
What you do next depends on the understanding gathered from the metrics in the previous step. I recommend keeping an eye on your competitors, your SEO success might make them change their strategy.