SEO Tutorial for Beginners (7 Steps to Learn)

Q: How can a beginner learn SEO?

6 steps to learning SEO for free - Learn SEO at homeUnderstand the purpose of SEO. ...Master keyword research. ...Know the difference between on-page and off-page SEO. ...Learn to identify UX signals. ...Leverage SEO-friendly content creation. ...Start building links.What should I learn first in SEO? Keyword research should be the first step in SEO. This is especially important in two common scenarios: Exploring your niche - When starting a new site, keyword research can provide a great overview of what subtopics people in your niche or industry are interested in.

For many companies, their website can be their greatest brand asset, so it needs to demonstrate authority, trust and expertise.

Optimizing your site for your customers’ needs and displaying these characteristics is a fundamental SEO process.

However, before we delve into the ins and outs of SEO, I always recommend my clients to conduct a deep analysis of their relationship with customers and consumers.

My company does this in three ways:

Understanding this data and acting on it will put you in front of the first step to run the right SEO campaign.

So without further ado, let’s define the SEO process, what strategies to use and how it can help your online presence.

SEO Fundamentals

Contents

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website to capture as much organic website traffic as possible through search engines and convert that traffic into measurable business results.

Simply put, SEO is the process of trying to drive people to your website every time they type a query into a search engine.

For example, if you google [what is content marketing], there are about a million sites that have deliberately optimized a piece of content for that keyword phrase to make you click on their site.

When you click on this site, you will be browsing, familiarizing yourself with their brand and signing up for their newsletter.

Fairly simple, but SEO also involves a lot of jargon and nuanced strategies that can be hard to understand at first. To make things easier, I’ve decided to define a few terms that I can throw around in this tutorial.

Defining SEO Terms

Keywords: Keywords are words that users enter into a search engine when searching for information on the Internet.

Organic traffic: Organic traffic is any traffic that comes to your website as a result of a search engine search, excluding those who click on PPC links.

SERP: Search results page.

PPC: Pay-per-click advertising is an advertising strategy aimed at positioning products or landing pages above regular Google SERP results. Next to these links, it will say “advertisement”.

User intent: Intent to search for a keyword (e.g., is the user asking a question or wanting to buy a product).

Meta tags: snippets of text intended to describe a website to a search engine. For example, the title of the page is contained in the HTML title tag attribute.

Ranking Factors: Any algorithmic factor that affects a page’s search engine ranking for a specific keyword search.

Indexing: The ability of search engines to find web pages on your site.

Indexation: The ability of search engines to include your web pages in the web index.

Technical SEO: The details of a website’s backend, including website speed and mobile rendering, that affect its search rankings.

On-Page SEO: A list of ranking factors, including meta tags and header tags, designed to help a page rank higher in search results.

Off-page SEO: A list of ranking factors, including link building and acquisition, designed to improve your website’s visibility and authority.

Link building: The manual process of building backlinks or hyperlinks to a website, which is an important ranking factor for most search engines.

Algorithm updates: Any update to Google’s core algorithm (e.g. Penguin, Panda) that affects a wide range of search rankings.

Core Web Vitals: Technical SEO factors that Google considers important in determining the potential user experience on a page.

E-A-T: expertise, authority, trust. A set of guidelines that Google suggests to marketers to assess whether their content meets these criteria.

The Importance Of SEO

So the question arises, why is SEO so important?

I’ve met many developers, advertisers, and even high-level executives who either didn’t understand SEO or didn’t think it was necessary. It’s madness.

Done right, SEO is a gift that keeps on giving. I tell clients to think of it as compounding interest on an investment.

With these benefits in mind, the key to SEO now becomes understanding all its little intricacies and learning how to do it the right way.

7 Steps To Master SEO Once And For All

1. Build A Solid Technical Foundation

Unfortunately, everything I’m about to talk about is completely useless if your site has a serious technical bug that prevents it from ranking high.

I’ve seen countless companies create great chunks of long content only to be hampered by page speed or indexing issues.

Google values technical SEO because technical SEO has a big impact on the user experience. For example, if your website loads slowly and users tend to bounce, Google will adjust based on this information.

To reinforce this, Google unveiled its Core Web Vitals project in 2020. Without getting into the weeds, Core Web Vitals measures a website:

Core Web Vitals provides developers with a baseline to tap into to create a solid UX.

The Chrome UX report (Chrome users only) lets you test your site against these basic parameters to see if changes are needed.

In addition, I recommend focusing on the following factors to rank your site in the SERPs as best as possible.

Write down a list of issues you have with your site and work with the developer to resolve them before you start publishing content or doing keyword research.

For a more detailed breakdown of technical SEO factors, read Advanced Technical SEO: The Complete Guide.

2. Learn How To Properly Research Keywords

Now that you have a solid technical foundation, it’s time to move on to the more in-depth aspects of SEO: keyword discovery.

Basically, we divide keywords into two categories that we can use to build top-level navigation:

Your top-level navigation will contain initial keywords related to wide-ranging topics, services or product lines. For example, the top-level navigation on a Search Engine Journal site has the following format:

Screenshot from Search Engine Journal, November 2022

Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, will be used in informative, perpetually up-to-date blog posts or in various forms of content that appeal directly to the user’s intent.

In general, many small businesses like to focus on long-tail keywords for more niche services because they have less competition.

You can also consider building separate pillar pages around keywords on your website to help them rank higher in search engines. For example, having a comprehensive topic page related to mobile SEO won’t rank as high as an ever-up-to-date post discussing mobile SEO.

Again, Search Engine Journal provides another great example of a pillar page using the seed keyword and support pages that discuss subtopics taken from long tail keywords.

Screenshot from Search Engine Journal, November 2022

Next, we need to filter our keyword search for user intent.

Basically, there are two broad categories of user intent into which we can divide keywords:

To develop commercial keywords for top-level service/product pages and individual product pages, I recommend using the free Google Ads Keyword Planner.

To get started, enter an initial keyword related to your business.

Google Keyword Planner screenshot, November 2022

Google’s keyword planner even gives you extra long-tail search ideas at the top, and you can separate keywords by competition and other factors.

I like to filter keywords by “Top of page bids (high range)” to see which keywords advertisers have the highest bids for. This filter is also useful if you want to separate keywords by intent, with higher bids being commercial and lower bids informative.

Select a list of initial keywords – preferably with less volume – and export them to a CSV file.

Next, we will look for long-tail keywords with interrogative phrases. Interrogative phrases allow us to answer users’ questions directly, reduce search competition, and can be used to create pages that support our pillars.

You can filter your keyword searches in the Keyword Planner by including “what”, “why”, “when” and “how” in your search, or use a tool like Semrush to do it for you.

Semrush screenshot, November 2022

I highly recommend tools like Semrush or Ahrefs that allow you to create lists of keywords and topic ideas using related long-tail keywords. You can even filter keywords by difficulty, number, and intent.

Plus, tools like AnswerthePublic are great for finding extra question phrases.

Screenshot from Answer the Public, November 2022

Google Trends, Semrush, and Ahrefs also offer tools that let you browse popular topics and keywords in your industry for new ideas.

Semrush screenshot, November 2022

Finally, check what your competitors are doing if you’re looking for a list of keywords or topics and don’t know where to start.

Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs show you who your biggest online competitors are and let you explore which keywords and pages are driving the most traffic to your competitor’s domain.

Semrush screenshot, November 2022

Steal these keywords and content ideas to optimize your site based on which forms of content are ranked top by your competition.

Once you’ve compiled your keyword list in your spreadsheet, match your initial keywords with your navigation URLs and use long-tail keywords to create topics for your content calendar.

3. Create Content That Ranks And Converts

Building a content marketing strategy based on keyword research will allow you to develop your authority around topics and meet the intentions of users throughout the sales funnel.

Creating high-level content also helps you or your company become thought leaders in their fields.

For example, Neil Patel, Brian Dean and several others have used content to promote their personal and professional brands at the top of our industry.

First, let’s look at the factors that affect content ranking, such as:

In general, I like to build pillar posts using evergreen tutorials (like this one!) and then use long tail keywords to create subtopics.

For example, each step in this tutorial could represent a subtopic, and my strategy could become more specific.

Next, we need to discuss writing content for each stage of the sales funnel. While informative content and blog posts are great for attracting traffic, you need to create strategies to convert web traffic into sales or subscriptions as soon as they hit your site.

A typical sales funnel consists of at least three broad stages:

You will often find sales funnels on a customer relationship management (CRM) platform far more complex than this, but this should give you a basic overview of how you should approach your inbound marketing strategy with content marketing.

4. Optimize Your Web Pages For Search Engines

Once you start pumping content and creating service pages, you need to make sure that your content is properly optimized for search engines.

I know we’ve covered some ranking factors and technical SEO, but now it’s time to dive into the on-page optimization factors and SERPs.

Perhaps one of the most important SEO strategies aside from Google page and ranking factors remains the ever elusive link building which is outlined below.

5. Build Links To Your Website

According to research, inbound links are still a powerful ranking factor, although the quality of the links trumps the quantity.

There are literally dozens of link building strategies out there, from HARO to guest blogging.

To start building links, you need to create great content. Then, after building a link magnet, you need to place eyeballs in front of it so people can start linking to it.

Fortunately, tools like Semrush have greatly simplified the manual contact process by allowing you to collect contact information for targeted websites and manage the manual contact via email.

You can even connect specific keywords or competitors to discover link building sites.

Screenshot from the author, November 2022

If you don’t have a backlink builder, you can still reach people using site operators manually.

For example, links to competitors can be found using the following search: site:www.competitor.com -competitor.com

Screenshot of search [website search: searchenginejournal.com], November 2022

If there is a site you want to get a specific link from, you can also do a “site:” search and write in the subject line to see if they have content on that topic.

To find general popular topics to link to, do a “in title” search.

Screenshot of searching for [intitle: “link building”], November 2022

Site operators can also be used to find resource pages or guest post opportunities.

In conclusion, I’ve written a list of basic link building practices below:

Editor’s Note: As a free alternative to tools like Semrush, you can mine data from Google Search Console. For more information on how to do this, we recommend this resource.

6. Share And Promote Your Content

While I’ve covered some strategies to help your content rank high and get some backlinks manually, sometimes these strategies aren’t enough.

Unfortunately, SEO is notoriously competitive.

Instead, we also need to focus on different audience strategies designed to attract attention to our site.

Below are a few strategies I’ve outlined to help drive instant traffic to your content and help it rank higher.

There are a dozen other strategies to help you promote your content, especially if you’re trying to rank for specific media like TikTok, Substack, Twitter, or elsewhere.

7. Consult The Analytics

Finally, SEO is not complete without consulting our analytics tools.

The top analytics tools I recommend to any business are Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and a competitive research tool like Semrush.

Semrush screenshot, November 2022

Firstly, I love using a tool like Semrush to see which content is ranked at such a striking distance (rank 11-20) on Google to either repurpose existing content or create new content around that keyword and combine there and back between the two sides.

Your analytics will also tell you which pages are getting the most traffic and which need more promotion.

However, for more in-depth insights, we need to look at Google Analytics to study how people engage with our content.

I recommend setting goals or conversion paths to track how many people take the desired actions on your sites.

I also like to use Google Analytics Behavior Flow to show me what path users follow when they land on my site.

Screenshot from Google Analytics, November 2022

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) provided by GA to make changes to your site where necessary.

For me, the most important KPIs to keep in mind are:

In addition, Google Search Console is also a helpful tool, which allows us to see how many views our pages generate and how many people click on our links.

Setting up KPIs and checking your monthly analytics for improvements can help you understand which strategies work for your site and which ones need to be scrapped.

Put Your Skills Into Action

Now that you understand the basics of SEO, you’ll learn more as you troubleshoot your campaign.

Fortunately, many of the mistakes you make on your journey won’t cost you as much money as advertising, and any failed campaign can always be reused later to make it more successful.

Featured image: Vadym Pastukh/Shutterstock

Can I learn SEO in month?

While it’s a career-long road, you can actually learn SEO in about a month – enough time to make a huge impact on your website and therefore your entire business.

Do you need to do SEO every month? SEO is an ongoing process that needs to be constantly monitored and adjusted to be effective. Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so you need to adjust your SEO strategies regularly to keep up. If you don’t do SEO every month, your competitors will outperform you on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Can I learn SEO in 2 months?

Learning SEO at the basic level takes 1-3 months, and learning SEO at the advanced level takes even 6-18 months. How long it takes to learn SEO depends on how many hours a day you can devote to search engine optimization.

Is SEO difficult to learn?

SEO isn’t necessarily hard to learn, but it does take time, effort, and perseverance. If you’re just starting out and don’t know anything about search engines and how they work, you may feel a bit overwhelmed at first, especially if you’re trying to learn SEO on your own. However, it’s important to keep trying.

Can I learn SEO in month?

While it’s a long career path, you can actually learn SEO in about a month – enough to make a huge impact on your website and therefore your entire business.

How long does it take to learn SEO?

If you can study SEO for a few hours a day, you can master the basics of SEO in 4-8 weeks and find your first SEO job in 3-6 months. If you can study SEO full time, you can master the basics in as little as 1-2 weeks.

How long will it take to learn SEO?

Can I learn SEO in a month?

While it’s a long career path, you can actually learn SEO in about a month – enough to make a huge impact on your website and therefore your entire business.

Can I learn SEO in 2 months?

Average time it takes to learn SEO Experts say that it usually takes one to three months to learn the basics of SEO, and it takes a year or more to fully master the practice. The time it takes to master the basics of SEO depends on several factors.

Is it hard to study SEO?

SEO isn’t hard to learn, but it can be confusing and overwhelming to get started. Learning SEO means learning a long list of individual digital marketing strategies, which can be like adding new weapons to your arsenal as you learn how to wield them.

Is SEO difficult to learn?

Is SEO course easy to learn?

SEO is not easy. But it’s not nuclear physics either. There are things you can implement right away and there are concepts that will take much more time and effort. So yes, you can do SEO on your own.

Can You learn SEO by yourself?

You can learn SEO on your own, you don’t need to be a specialist or an SEO expert. The first thing to do is to convince yourself that SEO is not difficult. If others can do it, so can you. All you need is a willingness to learn and time.

How can a beginner learn SEO?

6 steps to learning SEO for free – Learn SEO at home

Understand the purpose of SEO. …
Master keyword research. …
Know the difference between on-page and off-page SEO. …
Learn to identify UX signals. …
Leverage SEO-friendly content creation. …
Start building links.

What should I learn first in SEO? Keyword research should be the first step in SEO. This is especially important in two common scenarios: Exploring your niche – When starting a new site, keyword research can provide a great overview of what subtopics people in your niche or industry are interested in.

What is the first step to start SEO?

Defining the right keywords is the first step in creating search engine optimized website content. By using keywords and building your themes around them, you’ll create content that answers Google’s queries.

What is the first thing to do before doing SEO?

Before you embark on any active SEO efforts, it’s important to make sure your site has content that engages and helps your visitors. Data shows that pages with 2,000 words of content typically rank higher in Google Search than pages with short, lightweight content.

Is SEO difficult to learn?

Can you learn SEO on your own? You can learn SEO on your own, you don’t need to be a specialist or an SEO expert. The first thing to do is to convince yourself that SEO is not difficult. If others can do it, so can you. All you need is a willingness to learn and time.

Is SEO course easy to learn?

How much time will it take to learn SEO?

How difficult is it to learn SEO?

Can I learn SEO on my own?

There are so many great places you can learn how to do SEO for yourself, including many that didn’t make it onto this list. Start learning SEO today and you too will know how to increase organic traffic to your website or online business.

How long does it take to learn SEO?

Can I learn SEO in a month?

While it’s a long career path, you can actually learn SEO in about a month – enough to make a huge impact on your website and therefore your entire business.

Can I learn SEO in 2 months?

Can I learn SEO in 3 months?

Experts say that it usually takes one to three months to learn the basics of SEO, and it takes a year or more to fully master the practice. The time it takes to master the basics of SEO depends on several factors.

Is it hard to become SEO?

How long does it take to become SEO?

Many SEO companies will tell you that the first results appear after 4 to 6 months. This is generally accurate, but keep in mind that this is when you start seeing results, and SEO scores increase over time. Whatever results you get after 6 months should be much less than what you get after 12 months.

Can I learn SEO on my own?

Will SEO exist in 5 years?

SEO will not be eliminated in the next five years as social media and search engines will most likely merge. Facebook has already started doing this: it conducts an average of more than 1.5 billion searches every day. Twitter did the same; have joined a partnership with Google.

Is SEO a long-term investment? Investing in SEO for your business is a long-term strategy that can help you rank higher on Google SITES and bring you more business in the years to come.

Does SEO have a future?

SEO will grow rapidly in the future. Just remember to follow SEO best practices like creating useful content, having a faster website, and following Google’s guidelines for better rankings.

Is SEO worth it in 2022?

Yes, SEO is worth it – in 2022, in the future, in the past and always. As long as websites and search engines exist, SEO is essential. SEO in 10 years will probably be very different from today’s SEO, but you always need to make sure that your website is sending the right signals to search engines so that you can be found.

What is the future of SEO in 2022?

By 2022, expect SEO rankings to be more competitive by providing quality content that is helpful to internet users. Content that only tries to fish for an audience by bundling unnecessary sources will not be as successful as it is today.

Will SEO exist in 10 years?

There is a lot of speculation, but it does not always give a reliable forecast of what is to come. However, one thing is certain: SEO will exist for a long time. As long as search engines exist and internet users use keywords and phrases to find what they are looking for, the search engine industry will continue.

How long will SEO last?

Most professionals expect results in as little as 2 months, but SEO can take up to 12 months. Although every company’s SEO strategy is different, most companies can expect significant results within 6 to 12 months.

Will SEO exist in 10 years?

Is SEO dead in 2022?

Not. SEO is not dead in 2022. SEO is still a very powerful digital marketing strategy. SEO will continue to change as Google updates its algorithm, but that’s to be expected.

Is SEO worth it in 2022?

Will SEO be obsolete?

And if you’re listening to the rumors, this time it’s search engine optimization. Rest in Peace, SEO: 1997-2022. There is only one small problem. SEO is still alive and well.

Is SEO going to end?

Not. SEO is not dead in 2022. SEO is still a very powerful digital marketing strategy. SEO will continue to change as Google updates its algorithm, but that’s to be expected.

Will SEO exist in 10 years?

Is SEO still relevant in 2022?

If you are wondering if SEO is still relevant in 2022, the answer is definitely yes, and there are good reasons for that.