SEO Basics for Beginners

Hey everyone, this is Mukul and today we’ll talk about SEO Basics.

Let’s Start With An Introduction to SEO, What is it?

1. Let’s start with the basics. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing a website for higher rankings in the organic search results, focusing on popular search engines like Google.
2. SEO isn’t just about tweaking your website or making some backlinks. It’s a multi-dimensional approach that includes:
   • Content marketing
   • PR
   • Branding
   • CRO
   • Developing Websites and Understanding Them
   • Content Design and Optimisation
   • User Experience And Good Navigation Practices
3. So, the sites that perform best in Google aren’t just good at SEO, they’re good at digital marketing and tech in general.

If you are learning SEO, you will pick up so many more skills than just doing one form of marketing. You will have to learn how websites work to approach technical SEO, you will learn how keywords work which will help you with paid ad campaigns too, you will learn CRO which will help increase sales and sharpen your design skills. You will learn how to manage a team and how different branches of SEO work together. It’s truly an amazing space to deep dive into.

Let’s Discuss Keyword Research Now

1. Keyword Research is the first step in SEO. It’s all about identifying the words and phrases that people are using in search engines.
2. When you optimize your web pages around these exact search queries, you can rank your blog posts and landing pages for those terms. For example, writing an article on ‘Best Laptops’
3. There are several tools available, like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush Ahrefs, and more, these tools can help you find relevant keywords.

Let’s Discuss Content Now. All About Writing SEO-Friendly Content

1. Once you have your list of keywords, it’s time to write content. But not just any content. You need to write high-quality content for each keyword on your list.
2. This means creating content that is original, valuable, and engaging, fulfills the search intent, and is topically relevant to your own niche. It’s not about stuffing your content with keywords, but about providing real value to your readers.
3. One thing I would recommend is learning how to build ‘Topical Maps’ or ‘Content Clusters’ which will not only help build topical authority but also organize your content in a better way. Koray coined the term ‘Topical Authority’ in SEO by publishing a lot of case studies I’ve personally attended one of the conferences he spoke at. I recommend checking his work and case studies out to learn more about Topical Authority.

Let’s talk about On-Page Optimisation Now. Which is Optimizing Content for SEO

1. We need to optimize each piece of content on your site around a single keyword. This includes:
   • Using your main keyword in the first 100 words of your webpage
   • Using your keyword in your title tag
   • Using your keyword in your page URL and all that good stuff
2. Also, use your keyword in an H1 and H2 subheader, use keyword-rich image filenames and alt text, add internal links, use synonyms and related terms, and write a relevant meta description.
3. This helps Google know what your page is about in a better and clear way.

Let’s Talk About the Technical Side of SEO Now.

1. Technical SEO consists of a lot of things. Here are some of them:
2. Creating an XML and HTML sitemap that helps Google and users understand and navigate around your site better.
3. Creating an SEO-friendly site structure
4. Optimizing a website for speed and mobile-friendliness
5. Fixing duplicate content issues.

These are only some of the things, I have a video on this topic where I talk about Technical SEO in depth.

Link Building and Outreach

1. Link building is another crucial part of SEO. If your site doesn’t have backlinks pointing to it, you’re probably not going to rank very well.
2. So, it’s important to promote your content via outreach and on social media. This could involve reaching out to other website owners or influencers in your niche and asking them to link to your content.
3. Backlinks act as a vote of trust from high authority websites so Google starts trusting your website more and ranking you higher.

Let’s talk about SEO Tools and Software

1. There are many SEO tools and software that can make your life easier. These include keyword research tools, backlink analysis software, and more.
2. For example, Google Search Console can help you understand how Google views your site and gives you insight into the traffic you’re getting from Google, while Google Keyword Planner can help you find relevant keywords.
3. I personally use Ahrefs, Semrush, and Screaming Frog the most. Ahrefs and Semrush for research and all things SEO. Screaming Frog for Technical SEO.
4. I use Detailed SEO Chrome Extension and SEOQuake to get insights about a page without the need of visiting a third-party tool. Also, SEO Quake can also be used to change search location quickly. You can connect Semrush with it and easily analyze manual SERPS. I also use SEO Minion to extract people also ask for a particular SERP result.

Let’s Talk Scaling. Taking Your SEO to the Next Level

1. Once you’ve mastered the basics, there are advanced strategies and tactics that a lot of SEOs use. These include techniques like using Schema markup to get rich snippets in the search results, optimizing for voice search, and implementing a solid local SEO strategy. This is very subjective and would highly depend on your goals. You can also start doing blackhat SEO which involves using PBNs, expired domains, and more. I’ll create a video on this soon. Stay tuned.
2. Also, remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and consistent effort to reach to the traffic level where you want to be.

The end.

And that’s the end of the video. This might be overwhelming and a lot to uncover as you’re a beginner watching this video and every single segment contains stuff that you would have to do a lot of research on. People have built careers off of specific stuff within SEO itself. On-Page, Off-Page, Local, Lead Gen and so much more. If you are keen on learning more, please check out my other videos on this channel and I’ll make sure I cover everything in detail here.