SEO for Beginners: What Is It and How it Works?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is certainly nothing new and arguably has been as old as Google itself, being around for more than two decades.

Unfortunately, many people still don’t completely grasp what SEO is and why it is important. Many others understand the basics but don’t really understand how it works and how to make it work for them. 

This is where this SEO guide for beginners comes in.

Simply put, SEO is the process of improving a web page’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) for certain search queries or phrases.

According to Forbes, more than 90% of online activities today now begin with a Google search. On the other hand, a huge majority of searchers simply won’t go past the first page of Google’s result pages before clicking on a result.

This means that if your website isn’t ranked high enough on the search results for relevant keywords, you won’t be able to attract enough visitors to your website. Consider the fact that some of these visitors may be potential customers for your product or service. If you can’t generate enough traffic, you won’t get sales, period.

In this beginner’s guide to SEO, we will explore all you need to know about SEO and how to implement it to improve your website or business.

We’ll cover the following:

• How the search engines work and how they rank websites
• Debunking common myths surrounding SEO
• How SEO works
• A step-by-step guide to planning and executing your SEO campaign

Without further ado, let us begin this guide right away.

Demystifying the Black Box: How Search Engines Rank Websites

How do Google and other search engines work? How do they rank websites on the search results pages?

We won’t be able to completely understand SEO if we can’t answer these things, so let’s delve deeper into the inner workings of search engines.

Imagine the internet is a giant library full of books. Here, you want to find a book about how SEO works. So, you go to the librarian and ask them to help find this book. This librarian will then look at their big logbook listing all the book titles and descriptions and then will suggest you some books that might match what you are looking for.

On the internet, Google (or the other search engine of your choice) is the librarian, just that the books are websites. They use an automated sequence of instructions (called algorithms) to help people find the websites they are looking for. The algorithms work by taking into account a lot of different factors: the website’s content quality, the age of the domain, popularity, and so on.

We can basically explain how search engines work by dividing the process into three main elements:

1. Crawling and indexing

As a librarian, to be able to quickly and accurately help people find the “books” (the websites) they are looking for, the search engine must first create a big logbook listing all these different websites’ information.

To do so, the search engines use automated programs (robots) called “crawlers.” These crawlers crawl the whole internet, following links from one website to another to find new websites. When they stumbled upon a new website, it is then added to the logbook—the database—, and then the website is indexed.

Indexing here means the crawler reads this new website and stores relevant information: the title, description, keywords, content, etc., so later on, the search engine can easily find this website on the database.

When a searcher performs a search on this search engine, the search engine will then look at the index and compare the words/phrases used in the search with the keywords used by the websites in the index. 

The search engine will then display the websites that are the most relevant to your search and will rank them based on the ranking algorithms, which we will discuss below. 

2. Ranking algorithms

After the search engine has found the different websites that match the user’s search query, it needs to decide how to display them to the user: which should be placed on the very top and which should follow. 

In short, the search engine needs to decide how to rank these websites, and this is where the ranking algorithms come in.

Simply put, the ranking algorithm is a complex formula, taking into account a variety of factors, that allows the search engine to quickly and automatically rank different websites.

In practice, Google takes into account more than 200 ranking factors—and those are only the known ones—in their ranking algorithms, but we can categorize them into three big groups:

1. Relevance: how well the website matches the searcher’s search query. Google takes a variety of factors into account when considering a website’s relevance, including:
   • Keywords used in the content, title tag, meta description, etc.
   • Whether the content aligns with the search query
   • The freshness of the content (how recently it was published/updated)
2. Authority: authority is the measure of how credible and trustworthy a website is. Factors that affect authority include:
   • The quantity and quality of backlinks the website has
   • The age of the domain
   • The website’s popularity (i.e., traffic)
3. User experience: Google and other search engines also consider the user experience level of a website when ranking it. This includes factors such as:
   • Mobile-friendliness
   • Page speed
   • Overall design
   • Website structure/sitemap
   • Presence of typos and grammatical errors

The search engines’ ranking algorithms are constantly being updated. Factors that are considered important today may not be very important next month or week, and vice versa. However, focusing on publishing high-quality and informative content on a user-friendly website will most likely be a timeless SEO strategy.

3. User intent

While the ranking algorithm is mostly automated, the search engines will also consider the user’s intent before publishing the search result and its ranking. 

The objective of search engines is to provide search results that directly cater to what the user is looking for and answers the question they are asking. By comparing the ranking algorithm and user intent, search engines can offer a more personalized and valuable experience for each user.

In practice, search engines consider a variety of factors to determine the intent of each search query, including the words/phrases used in the query, the user’s past search history, and the context of the search, among others.

Debunking Common SEO Myths

First, however, let us debunk some of the most common myths surrounding SEO, and what SEO is not:

Breaking Down SEO: A Holistic Approach

Now that we’ve understood the basics of how Google and other search engines work, we can discuss SEO.

In correlation to the search engine’s ranking algorithms, SEO is basically about optimizing the website and its content so that it aligns with these ranking algorithms. Thus, SEO is simply about optimizing our website’s relevance, authority, and user experience, which can be broken down into three main processes:

1. Keyword research: the process of finding the keywords to target in the website’s content. Targeting the right keywords ensures the search engine can “match” the website with the right audience.
2. On-page optimization: optimizations performed on the website, which can be further divided into two:
   • Content optimization: creating great content that is valuable for your users while also making sure the search engine crawlers can properly understand what your content is about.
   • Technical optimization: optimizing the technical elements of your website to ensure optimal user experience and also making sure your pages are crawlable and indexable by the search engine crawlers.
3. Off-page optimization: optimizations made outside the website to improve the site’s credibility and authority. Some of the most important off-page optimizations are:
   • Link building
   • Improving social media engagement and gaining social mentions
   • Getting more online reviews
   • Getting more brand mentions

That’s it, the very basics of SEO. Later on in this guide, we will discuss each of these three elements of SEO in a more in-depth manner.

It’s also a good time to discuss what SEO is not, which we will do in the next section. 

Debungking Common SEO Myths

Unfortunately, despite the fact that more and more people are getting more familiar with SEO, there are still various myths and misconceptions surrounding SEO you should be aware of.

Here are some of the most common ones: 

Myth #1: SEO is simply about using a lot of keywords

This is not true. SEO is much more than just keywords, and in fact, including too many keywords in a piece of content can actually hurt its SEO performance. Google is now getting much better at detecting keyword stuffing and may penalize your website—even permanently.

Besides keyword optimization, Google also considers the relevance and context of the content. If your content uses a good number of keywords but the usage is not relevant to the content’s context, it won’t bring any value, and in fact, Google may suspect it of over-optimization.

So, it’s important to naturally use your keywords and make sure your content is relevant to the keywords you are targeting. Use your keywords strategically, and don’t solely focus on quantity.

Myth #2: Only short-tail and popular keywords are worth targeting

Short tail keywords are typically (very) popular with very high search volume, so it makes sense that most SEO advice will tell you to pursue them. However, consider the fact that these short-tail keywords are typically very competitive and, thus, very difficult to rank high for.

Instead, while long-tail keywords (keywords that contain more phrases/words and are less generic) are less popular with lower search volume, it’s typically easier to rank for them. Not to mention, targeting long-tail keywords may allow you to attract a more specific and more qualified target audience that is more likely to be interested in your offers.

There are scenarios when long-tail keywords can be just as, if not even more valuable, to target than popular short-tail keywords. If you are just starting out with a limited budget, it might be a good idea to target them first.

Myth #3: If you can’t get enough backlinks, you are doomed to fail

While it’s true that backlinks are very important, you don’t actually need to have a lot of backlinks to rank well. A single backlink from a very popular and relevant website in your niche can be worth more than getting 50 links from low-quality, spammy websites. In fact, having too many of these low-quality backlinks can actually hurt your SEO performance and get your site penalized.

So, when planning and executing your link-building strategy, it’s important to focus on only getting backlinks from high-quality, authoritative, and relevant websites. On the other hand, consider monitoring and eliminating links from low-quality websites to avoid getting penalized.

Myth #4: SEO is a quick fix to get more customers

Unfortunately, this isn’t true.

SEO is a long-term game, and it will take a lot of commitment and effort to succeed. There’s no shortcut around it. Even after you’ve executed a well-planned SEO strategy without mistakes, it can take months before your site gets on top of search results and generate enough tangible benefits for your business.

However, consider the fact that after your SEO has generated results, the benefit will also be long-term and sustainable. You may need to be patient at first, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Myth #5: You can do SEO for free by yourself

This is true to some extent. If you do have the know-how, time, and results, SEO is not rocket science, and you definitely can do it on your own.

However, in practice, SEO execution can be time-consuming and very complex. If you don’t have the time, or you simply don’t know where to start, consider hiring an SEO expert or a marketing agency.

Step-by-Step Guide to Planning and Implementing SEO

This section will cover a step-by-step guide to planning and implementing SEO, from defining your SEO objective to executing the optimizations and link building. By the end, you’d have a solid understanding of the SEO execution process and start implementing SEO on your business today.

Let’s start with the first step.

Step 1: Define your SEO goal

Wait, isn’t SEO’s goal is to rank higher—and on top—of Google’s SERPs?

When planning and executing SEO, it’s critical to understand that ranking should not be the end goal of SEO. Why? Because ranking high in the SERPs alone will not bring any benefit to your business.

Consider the fact that it’s possible to rank #1 on a keyword without any search volume at all, so it doesn’t generate any traffic to your business. This literally brings zero benefit to your business.

Instead, we have to think that ranking is only a means of bringing traffic to your website. It’s only after you’ve successfully generated traffic to your website that you can actually achieve beneficial objectives, such as generating leads, building brand awareness, or driving more sales.

Make sure your objectives are clear, time-bound, and measurable, for example:

• Generate 1,000 leads per month in 6 months
• Increase the time spent on your website by 20% for organic visitors within 3 months
• Drive $10,000 in sales from organic search next year

To identify your SEO goals and objectives, consider the following tips:

• Your SEO goals should align with your business’s overall goals and marketing goals. Make sure to first identify and really understand your business goals, and then develop SEO goals that will help you achieve them.
• Your goals should be attainable and realistic. For example, it’s unrealistic to expect to rank on the top 3 spots of the SERPs overnight. Having realistic goals can help maintain your and your team’s morale. 

Once you’ve identified your SEO goals, also plan how you are going to track and measure your progress against these goals. For example, you can set up Google Analytics to keep track of various metrics related to website traffic.

Step 2: Identify your target audience

Once you’ve identified your goals, the next step is to identify who should you target with your website.

What type(s) of the target audience will help you achieve your SEO goal?

Here are some tips:

• Analyze current visitors/customers: if your website has been around for some time or if you already have a substantial number of customers, then you can simply analyze your data. Use your social media analytics tools and try to find patterns and trends (demographics of your followers, etc.) Do the same with your website analytics tool (Google Analytics.) and other tools.
• Surveys, interviews, focus groups:  Invite your existing customers for interviews, conduct online/offline surveys, or invite a few of them for a focus group discussion. Doing so can help you get more in-depth information about their demographics, needs, pain points, and interests. Use this information to develop a buyer persona.
• Analyze your competitors: another effective approach, especially if you are starting a brand new website or business, is to take a look at who your direct/indirect competitors are targeting. You can either try to target the same audience or identify gaps and opportunities.

This is not an exhaustive list, and you can use other approaches to identify who you should try to reach with your website. 

Once you’ve identified your target audience, try to gather as much information about them so we can move on to the next step: keyword research.

Step 3: Keyword research

Knowing who your target audience is will enable you to conduct proper keyword research. If you don’t know who your target audience is, it’s simply impossible to know what search queries and phrases they are using, and you may end up targeting the wrong keywords, which will be counterproductive.

In performing keyword research, there are three main principles to uphold:

1. Relevance: the keywords you choose should be relevant to your business’s goals and your SEO goals. Not all keywords that are popular with your target audience will be relevant, and you may end up attracting visitors who are not interested enough in your product or service.
2. Search volume: search volume refers to the number of times the keyword is searched (by your target audience) at any given time, typically per month. Search volume indicates popularity, and you obviously want to target keywords with high search volume. However, keep in mind that the higher the search volume, the tighter the competition will be.
3. Competition: refers to the number of other websites also targeting the keyword. The higher the competition, the more difficult it will be to rank for those keywords. Depending on your available resources and timeline, choose a keyword with manageable competition.

Here are the basic steps for performing keyword research according to these principles:

• Start by brainstorming: start by listing potential keywords that your target audience might use when they are trying to find information related to your brand or your product/services. List as many as possible. These are your seed keywords.
• Leverage keyword research tools: there are a wide variety of keyword research tools available, both free (i.e., Google Keyword Planner) and paid ones (Ahrefs, SEMRush, etc.). Now, input the seed keywords you’ve identified into these keyword research tools. They will provide you with a list of more suggested keywords, along with relevant metrics to evaluate them, like search volume, keyword difficulty, etc. Alternatively, you can also leverage Google’s autocomplete feature to get suggestions for more keyword ideas.
• Analyze: by now, you should have a list of potential keywords. Analyze them to determine which ones are ideal to help you achieve your objectives. Refer back to the three principles we have discussed above when evaluating potential keywords.
• Choose your target keywords: based o your analysis results, choose and prioritize the target keywords you deem the best fit for your website.

Some additional tips for performing keyword research:

• Consider long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords use more words/phrases and are more specific than generic/short-tail keywords. They tend to have less competition and may help you in targeting very specific (and potentially qualified) audiences.
• Consider search intent. Some keywords are more likely to be beneficial and may lead to conversions than others. Consider the user’s intent behind each keyword and your SEO objective. If your objective is to drive more sales, for example, target keywords with commercial or transactional intent like “buy ___ online.”
• Monitor and adjust. After you’ve implemented the results of your keyword research, continue monitoring your keyword performance. Don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy and add/remove more keywords from your list. Also, keep in mind that the search landscape is constantly evolving, so it’s important to keep your keywords up-to-date according to the latest trends and developments. 

Step 4: Content creation and on-page content optimization

Once you’ve got your keywords, the next step is to develop and publish high-quality content targeting the keywords you’ve identified.

How good and relevant your content is will literally make or break your SEO efforts. Google wants to provide its users with the most relevant, helpful, and informative content, so if your content is good, it’s more likely for your website to rank higher in the SERPs.

When creating content for SEO, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Focus on providing value. Do not focus on simply using keywords in your content, but instead, make sure your content is well-written, informative, and provides value to your target audience. Write for your audience, not for the search engines.
• Include your keywords naturally. It’s still important to use your target keywords throughout your content but use them naturally, sparingly, and strategically. 
• Use images and videos. Images/photos, infographics, and videos can help break up blocks of text and make your content more engaging. Using images and videos may also send a signal to the search engines that your website is visually appealing, which may help improve your SEO.
• Keep it fresh: Google’s ranking algorithms will prioritize first and up-to-date content. Regularly publish new content, and update existing content regularly (i.e., adding new information, using newer images, etc.)

Remember, before we jump to content optimization, that there’s no shortcut to actually publishing high-quality and relevant content. No amount of optimization can help low-quality content rank higher, while sometimes high-quality and relevant content can do well even without too much optimization.

On-page Content Optimization

The objective of on-page content optimization is to make sure the search engines can properly crawl and understand your content, and here are how you can do it:

• Keyword placement: including your target keywords in the right places to help search engines understand what your page is about.
  • Title tag: the title tag will appear as the title in the user’s browser when accessing your website and on the search results for your website. Thus, it will determine whether potential users will or will not click on it to visit your website (click-through rate.) Include your target keywords in the title tag, but focus on making your title compelling and relevant for your target audience. 
  • Meta description: Meta description is a short snippet of text that appears below the title tag in the SERP. Similar to your title tag, include your target keyword in your meta description (you get more flexibility due to the number of characters allowed,) but focus on making your description informative and compelling for your audience.
  • Content body: a good practice is to use your target keyword in the first 100 words of the content’s body. Doing so can help tell the search engine what your content is about. Then, naturally and sparingly, use your target keyword throughout your content, but don’t overdo it. Using your target keyword too many times, and Google may suspect you for trying to manipulate the ranking algorithm, which may get you penalized.
  • Use keyword variations: use synonyms/variations of your main target keyword and related keywords throughout your content. This can help you avoid being suspected of keyword stuffing and may also help your page rank for a wider range of search queries.
• Non-text content: for non-text content like images, infographics, or videos, use alt text and include your target keyword in the alt text. This won’t only help search engines understand your non-text content better but can also help visually impaired users consume your content.
• Synonyms and related keywords: In addition to including your main keywords throughout the content, consider using the synonyms and variations of your target keywords, as well as semantically-related keywords throughout your content. Not only can this help your content’s keyword optimization to be more natural, but it may also help you rank for a wider range of searches.
• Keep your content fresh: Google and other search engines always prefer new or fresh content. Make sure to publish new content (i.e., new blog posts, social media posts) on a regular basis and update existing content with new information, new images/photos, etc., to keep it fresh.
• Use an SEO-friendly CMS: use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal that allows you to easily publish, manage, and optimize your content for SEO with features like a meta description editor and keyword tagging.
• Optimize content readability: it’s critical to optimize your content so it’s easier for your target audience to read and understand your content. Better readability will lead to a higher dwell time and engagement on your website, which can contribute to your site’s SEO. Here are a few tips:
  • Use short sentences and paragraphs, no more than 20 words long per sentence and no more than 6 sentences long per paragraph.
  • Use active voice
  • Write in a conversational tone to make your content easier to read and more engaging.
  • Speak your target audience’s language. If you are speaking to a non-technical audience, avoid using technical jargon and advanced terms, and vice versa.
  • Break down blocks of text with images, videos, and blank spaces.

Remember that the goal of on-page content optimization is to make sure your content is optimized for your human readers first, and the search engines second, not the other way around. When your content is easy to read and valuable for your target audience, it will lead to more people staying on your website and reducing bounce rate, both are now important ranking factors. 

Step 5: On-page technical optimization

On-page technical optimization refers to the process of optimizing the technical elements of your website with two main objectives: 

1. Ensuring your web pages can be crawled and indexed by the search engine crawlers and for the search engines to properly understand what your page is about
2. Optimizing user experience and accessibility of your website for your human audience

Here are some of the most important technical aspects of your website to optimize:

• Website speed: one of the most important technical factors to optimize for SEO is to make sure your website loads quickly. According to Google, more than 50% of mobile users will leave a website that loads more than 3 seconds on 4G, and you wouldn’t want to be one of these sites. Slow websites can lead to a poor user experience and a high bounce rate. To optimize your page speed:
  • Use Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your site’s current speed and get suggestions on which areas you should optimize.
  • Minify your site’s codes (removing unnecessary comments, whitespaces, etc.) and eliminate unnecessary codes. 
  • Use a caching plugin to store static content in the user browser’s cache. This can improve page speed by reducing the number of times the user needs to request the stored content from the server.
  • Optimize and compress your images, videos, etc. You can use various tools to compress your files without sacrificing quality.
  • Invest in a good web hosting service (or, even better, get a private hosting service) to improve server response time.
  • Avoid using too many redirects, which can slow down your website
• Mobile-friendliness: with the majority of users today browsing the internet on mobile devices, it’s critical for your website to be mobile-friendly. Also, Google now prioritizes mobile-friendly websites to rank higher in the SERPs:
  • Adopt a mobile-responsive website design. If you are on WordPress, it’s as simple as installing a mobile-responsive Theme
  • Optimize images and videos for mobile devices by compressing them and using the correct file format
  • Make sure your content is readable on mobile devices. Use large enough fonts, and avoid using too much text on the page.
  • Avoid using Flash and other unsupported formats
  • Use large buttons, links, and forms. Don’t include too many fields in a form

• URL structure: your website’s URLs should be short/concise, descriptive, and easy to read by both human users and search engines. Include your target keyword in the search engine, don’t use symbols, and use hyphens to separate words. Avoid using query strings (part of a URL that comes after a ? symbol). Don’t forget to maintain a consistent URL structure for all pages on your website.
• Schema markup: or structured data markup, is the practice of adding attributes/properties to the website’s elements so the search engines can better understand the context and meaning of each element. Using schema markup will also allow your site to be eligible as rich snippets and rich search results. 

When optimizing the various technical aspects of your website, put yourself in your user’s shoes and try your website. Is the site user-friendly enough for you? Is there any hiccups in performance? Be the most critical user of your website, and optimize accordingly.

Step 6: Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to all efforts of improving your site’s SEO performance that are made outside the website. Off-page SEO is mainly performed to improve the website’s authority and credibility.

The main aspect of off-page SEO to focus on is getting backlinks/inbound links from high-quality websites.

Link-building

Backlinks, or inbound links, are links coming to your website from another website.

The ranking algorithms treat backlinks as votes of confidence and are one of, if not the most important ranking factor. When website A links to website B, website A is essentially saying that website B is trustworthy and credible. Google will get this signal and promotes website B on the search ranking.

So, how can we get links to our website? The most important factor to consider is your content quality. 

When your content is high-quality and relevant, sooner or later, you’ll get linked by others. When promoted well, this high-quality content shouldn’t have any issue in getting the backlinks.

On the other hand, no amount of tactics and techniques can really help low-quality, spammy content get these links.

Here are some actionable methods you can try:

• Outreach: sometimes, all it takes is to reach out to potential website owners and simply ask them to link to your content. The key here is finding the right websites, and you can leverage various tools such as Ahrefs, SEMRush, or even simple Google Search to do so. Then:
  • Find the right contact person. You can typically find the contact person’s email address on the website’s “contact us” page.
  • Send a personalized email. Learn about the website and the webmaster/website owner, then personalize your outreach email to their specific interest.
  • Offer something valuable. It can be your great content, a link back to their website, a discount for your product/service, etc.
  • Be patient, and consistency is key. It’s okay if you don’t get the link right away, what’s important is to build fruitful and lasting relationships. 
• Guest posting: guest posting or guest blogging is when you author an article for another blog or website. You can include a link back to your website in this guest post. Search for websites that accept guest contributions, and offer a pitch of your content.
• Press release: when you send a press release to relevant media and publications, you can include a link to your website in the press release.
• Broken link-building: finding broken/dead links in other websites (that are potential backlink sources) and offer your page to replace these broken links.  You can leverage tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush to easily find these broken links.

Other Off-Page Tactics

Besides getting backlinks, there are other off-page tactics you can try to improve your website’s credibility and authority, such as:

• Improving social media engagement: while social signals are not a direct ranking factor, high engagement rates on your social media can show the search engines that your brand—and your website—are relevant and popular. When your content is frequently shared on social media, it will also tell the search engines that this content is worth ranking.
• Brand mentions: brand mentions are when other websites mention your brand name without linking your website. Although it’s not as valuable as an actual backlink, a mention is still valuable for increasing brand awareness and driving traffic to your website. You can also try reaching out to these websites mentioning your brand and asking them to also link your site.
• Encouraging reviews: more (positive) reviews for your website and your product/service will signal the search engines that your website is popular.
• Citations: citations refer to when other websites list your website or business information (name, address, phone number) in their directory and/or contact page. Citations can be very valuable, and will tell the search engines that your website is legitimate and credible.

Step 7: Monitor and adjust your SEO strategy

Since SEO is a long-term game, it’s critical not to treat it as a “set it and forget it” campaign. Rather, it’s crucial to continuously monitor your SEO performance and adjust your strategy along the way. 

Some of the most important metrics you should monitor include:

• Search ranking: pretty obvious, you should monitor the position of your web pages in the SERPs  (search engine results pages.) Your ranking should climb gradually as you implement your SEO strategy. If it’s too slow to climb, static, or too fast, adjust your strategy accordingly.
• Organic traffic: your organic traffic should also climb (or decrease) along with the movement of your site’s search ranking. If, for example, your ranking is climbing, but you don’t see any increase in traffic, you’ll need to analyze other metrics and adjust accordingly.
• Click-through rate (CTR): the percentage of people who see your website in the search results and then click on it. Low CTR indicates your title tag and meta description aren’t properly optimized.
• Bounce rate: the percentage of people who leave your website after viewing just a single page. A high bounce rate is a sign that your site’s content doesn’t meet the visitor’s needs.
• Conversion rate: the percentage of visitors that take the desired action (purchase your product/service, sign up for a free trial, download gated content, etc.) A low conversion rate indicates your content isn’t properly optimized for conversions, or your content isn’t valuable/relevant enough.

This is not an exhaustive list, and you can definitely monitor other metrics and KPIs to measure how your SEO campaign is performing according to your goals. To track these metrics, you can leverage various tools, such as Google Analytics, SEMRush, or Ahrefs. 

What’s important is to keep track of the important metrics over time and adjust your strategy along the way.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have thoroughly discussed the basics of SEO for beginners.

We have covered the concept of SEO, how the search engine works, important factors that affect search engine rankings, and a step-by-step guide to planning and executing a successful SEO campaign. 

If you are an SEO beginner, we hope that this guide has given you a solid foundation and understanding of SEO so you are ready to start your first SEO campaign. If you are already familiar with SEO, we hope that this guide has given you new insights and actionable tips.

While SEO is a complex and ever-evolving field, it shouldn’t overwhelm you. By following the tips and step-by-step guide in this article, you are ready to improve your website’s ranking in the SERPs and attract more organic visitors.