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Beginner's Guide to SEO

Ryan Mitchell
Ryan Mitchell
Managing Director
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Published on
July 29, 2022
Category
Marketing
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5
mins
Beginner's Guide to SEO

It is likely that you have heard of SEO, or search engine optimisation if you are a business owner or website administrator.

Being able to use SEO to its fullest potential requires an advanced understanding of SEO and how it can help you to earn more website visitors and increase your revenue.

Our guide explores not only what SEO is, but also what types of SEO you can use and a basic description of some advanced topics and concepts associated with it.

Let's get to know the basics of SEO, search engine marketing, and how you can use it to increase your profits! It's all about knowing how to speak in a language search engines understand so they can find your site!

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

The process of search engine optimisation (SEO) involves optimising a website in order to generate more traffic and improve its visibility on Google's search engine.

SEO companies in Napier and New Zealand agencies and specialists focuses on the various ranking factors Google considers when determining where a website will appear on its search engine results pages (SERPs).

Inbound links and the quality of the site's content can all be considered ranking factors.

Search engine optimisation is more than just optimising for Google or Bing. It can be applied to a variety of platforms powered by search engines or even just featuring them. For best results, your digital marketing campaign should incorporate each type of SEO.

Any website owner, marketing manager, or business owner seeking more traffic and revenue from their online presence should consider SEO.

Google search engine optimization
(Source: Pexels)

What are the types of SEO?

There are different types of search engine optimisation (SEO) you can use. The major types of SEO and some basic information about each are listed below.

Standard SEO

The standard SEO process involves optimising individual web pages to rank higher in Google's search engine. An individual web page's content, structure, and HTML are optimised to make them more visible and relevant to Google's search engine.

You should apply standard search engine optimisation to a web page in order to ensure that it ranks for your target keywords on Google and other search engines. On digital properties like websites, this is the most common and most generic type of SEO.

When it comes to gaining search engine traffic through SEO, this is generally the best approach.

Local SEO

The next type of SEO is local search engine optimisation. Local SEO involves optimising a website to rank higher in Google's search engine for local queries. By using this type of search engine strategy, websites are made more visible and relevant to users in a particular geographical area.

Businesses that want to attract local customers need a local search engine strategy. To conduct keyword research, you will need a keyword tool and considerable SEO experience to understand where to focus the most attention.

Having a brick-and-mortar store or providing services in a particular area requires local SEO in your digital marketing strategy.

Social SEO

It's important to remember that the concept of SEO doesn't just pertain to major search engines or traditional websites. Social media can also be used for SEO. Any high-level SEO strategy should include this specialised practice.

Social SEO aims to appear when users interact with content or search for content they like on social media sites. The most common social media site where this type of SEO is applied is Facebook, but it can also be applied to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Investing in social media SEO is paramount to ensuring you have maximum exposure to your target market.

Directory Linking

For some business owners, it can be difficult to gain site authority fast enough to be able to rank their own site organically. That's why some turn to something called "directory linking". This means that the business owner will leverage the authority of a much larger site to rank higher in the search results and gain web traffic.

A good example of this would be a directory site like Yelp. If you aren't able to rank your own site high in the results for a term like "plumbers in Auckland" in the organic search results, then you might try to instead rank your business high on the first page of Yelp results or other search engines, which do rank high for that search, so that when people click on the Yelp page, they see your business.

This is less effective than the traditional search engine strategy but is still a good strategy to use since it can bring in business at effectively no cost.

Mobile SEO

The last type of SEO strategy that we want to cover is mobile SEO. It's important for any business to optimise their site for mobile SEO, and make their websites responsive, which means optimising the page for a mobile browsing experience. 

More and more searches are being conducted by mobile devices, and search engines are certainly taking note. 

Websites that provide a good mobile experience are being prioritised now more than ever. Google has even issued guidance saying that sites without a good mobile experience could be penalised or disqualified from certain features. Ignoring mobile optimisation would be throwing away potential traffic opportunities needlessly.

If you want to have a successful SEO strategy, it's crucial that you take this into consideration and optimise your business's website for mobile searches. 

SEO analytics
(Source: pexels)

Why is SEO Important?

Now that you know the different types of SEO, we can start to examine why exactly each of them is important. If you want a well-rounded SEO strategy that meets all of your needs, you shouldn't ignore any of the types of SEO that are available to you. In order to provide you with as much information as possible, let’s go through the benefits.

More Website Traffic and Revenue

SEO is important because it can increase website traffic, which is the first and most obvious reason. Your site will be more likely to be clicked on and visited if it is visible and relevant in search results.

The primary goal of SEO is to increase impressions, clicks, conversion, and ultimately, revenue. 

Businesses benefit from more website traffic when they sell more products and generate more revenue. For this reason, SEO is a good strategy to use if you want your website's traffic and revenue to increase.

Increased Brand Awareness

Another important reason why SEO is important is that it can help to increase brand awareness. When people see your site in the search results, they'll become more familiar with your brand.

And, as we all know, familiarity breeds trust. The more familiar people are with your brand, the more likely they are to trust your brand and do business with you.

More Affordable Lead Generation

Getting people interested in your product or service is the process of lead generation. And, usually, the more leads you have, the more sales you'll make.

One of the great things about SEO is that it's a more affordable lead generation strategy than many others. For example, pay-per-click advertising can be expensive, and social media marketing requires a lot of time and effort.

But with SEO, you can generate leads without spending a lot of money or time. In other words, it's a more efficient lead generation strategy. 80% of our business leads come from our organic search strategies so we are our own proof that we can keep costs down and increase our business profile using Managed SEO services

more website traffic and revenue
(Source: pexels)

Search Engine Results Pages Ranking Factors

Now that you know a bit more about SEO, you're probably itching to get started! One thing that you need to know before you can start an effective SEO campaign for your website is what the key ranking factors are. By familiarising yourself with these ranking factors, you can vault your website up the search engine results pages in no time!

Backlinks

The first ranking factor that we're going to look at is backlinks. A backlink is simply a link that points to your website from another website. And they're important for two reasons.

Firstly, backlinks help to improve your website's visibility. When other websites link to your site, it shows search engines that your site is relevant and trustworthy. This, in turn, can help your site to rank higher in the search results.

Secondly, backlinks can help to drive traffic to your website. When someone clicks on a link to your site from another site, they'll be taken to your site. This is a great way to increase your website's traffic.

You can talk to expert Link Building Services to help advise you on a strategy to boost your visibility.

Search Engines Content

The next ranking factor that we're going to look at is content. Content that has on-page optimisation that complies with search engine guidelines is important for SEO because it helps to show search engines what your website is about.

When you create high-quality, relevant, and keyword-rich content, you're more likely to rank higher in the search results. This is because search engines will see your content as being more relevant to what people are searching for.

So, if you want to improve your website's SEO, make sure to create lots of high-quality content.

Technical Factors

There are also a number of technical factors that can affect your website's SEO. Technical SEO is the process of making sure that your website is easy for search engines to crawl and index.

The major factors that contribute to technical SEO when it comes to search rankings are things like external links, meta descriptions and titles, meta tags, internal links, title tags, internal link structure, and more. These are all items that you can usually do by yourself, as it is really about supplying as much information as possible to Google and other search engines.

Some of the other technical factors that you should keep in mind include your website's load time, its mobile-friendliness, and its structure.

Make sure to keep these technical factors in mind as you work on improving your website's SEO.

Investing in SEO Has a High ROI!

Now that you know a bit more about SEO and what the key ranking factors are, you're probably wondering if it's worth investing in.

The answer is a resounding yes! Investing in SEO can have a very high ROI. In fact, businesses that invest in SEO tend to see an average ROI of 13X their investment.

This means that, for every $1 you spend on SEO, you can expect to see an average return of $13.

As you can see, SEO is a very effective strategy for improving your website's visibility and ranking in search results. And, when done correctly, it can have a very high ROI.

If you're not already investing in SEO, now is the time to start. Your business will thank you for it!

Get in touch with us and we can supply you with a site SEO Audit and strategy to start the leads rolling in.

Ryan Mitchell
Ryan Mitchell
Managing Director
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