SEO Tips for Beginners: How to Google Boost your Website

You have decided to make a website but are scared of the mighty SEO?

Or your website is ready but is not getting traffic?

Or you are looking for SEO tips for beginners as a novice?

Wait! Being scared of SEO is not the solution.

Solution is what I’ll give you today!

I’ll give you simple SEO tips for beginners to get handsome traffic on your website.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it means to optimize your web page in a way that it comes on the top of the search results or at least on the first page of the results shown in search engines.

But, how do you do that?

Well, it’s not a complex theory requiring high amount of technology, but a simple phenomenon that is easy to understand.

So, let’s get started with 20 SEO tips for beginners you must know as a website owner.

20 SEO Tips for Beginners

Update your website regularly

That’s the foremost SEO tips for beginners.

Your content plays an important part in the success of your website. It is the main and crucial factor that determines the interest of the user, and you know Google always takes care of its users.

Updated content shows that the owner still has an interest in his website. So the people will often come back for fresh content.

However, don’t use the same content over and over again on multiple pages of your site.

Use Meta headings

In simple words, Meta heading or Meta description is the summary of the website/particular post. (See the below image)

Please don’t confuse it with the title which only gives the name of the website. Meta heading is used by Google to take an overview of your website.

Google specially looks for the Meta heading. So working on it can improve your search listings making it as one of the important SEO tips for beginners.

Create a relevant and meaningful title

The page title should be brief and representative of the content of the specific page. Any mismatch between the title and the content will reduce your page ranking.

Never use long, difficult, and by default wordings for the title like name1, name2, untitled1, untitled2, page0001, page0002, etc.

Also use separate titles for different pages of your website.

Use appropriate headings related to the text below it

When creating content, make sure it’s organized. Never place a huge amount of data under one heading or smaller number of headings as compared to the quantity of the text.

Use appropriate headings to divide your content in small number of groups so that it is easily understandable.

Always make sure that one piece of information should come under the same sub-heading.

Any information unrelated to its subheading should be avoided at all costs. Follow this SEO tip for beginners for your entire website.

Pay attention to your anchor text

Anchor text is used to link to another page, either other website or other page (s) of your website. For anchor text, use words or keywords that are related closely to that type of page.

For example, see this anchor text linking to another blog post.

How a Beginner can do SEO keyword research?

Avoid long sentences and paragraphs for anchor text or words that do not make sense to the target page.

Use images

Using images on your website is a good idea and can contribute to the search ranking of the webpage.

However, use images that are relevant to the content on your page. Also, use free stock images to avoid copyright issues on your website. Look for free images on Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, Canva, etc.

Insert images in .jpg format to avoid increasing the loading time of your page.

Always add a relevant alt-text and description of the image using your keywords. (see below)

Label your documents with an appropriate description

When using documents on your website, Google will be happy if you give them a name relevant to your content. In return, it will rank your page up.

Never use the default names of the documents like Untitled.html or similar ones.

Although Google can go inside any type of web page and documents, whether complex or simple, it is good to name the attached documents with a simple and relevant name.

Also, keep the names as small as possible.

Check your site’s loading time

Please mark this as an important SEO tip for beginners.

Make your website by using tools supported by majority of the devices. One of the examples is Flash. Flash is not supported by many devices. So if any website uses Flash, it will take time to load and reduce your page rankings.

You can check the speed of your website with tools like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom.

Mobile version of your site

There are differences when a website is viewed on mobile devices and the desktop. So make sure to create a mobile version of your website.

If mobile version is not available, then the desktop version would load consuming a huge amount of data and time. This creates a session that takes longer to load.

Keeping this in view, Google will lower your ranking.

Let mobile users know your website exists

As more and more people use mobile devices, Google search on mobile devices increase.

Google search works differently for mobile and the desktop.

So it is important for Google to know that your site has a mobile version.

The website should be easy to navigate

Navigation means ways of going from one page of the website to another. It basically gives an overview of the objective of the owner. It shows which pages are important.

Google also terms it as one of the important factors in determining the rank.

Although Google is least affected by the navigation, it uses it to analyze the content of the site, making it an important SEO tips for beginners.

One of the important page is the Home page. So your navigation must be related to this page. It should connect the home page to other pages.

Make sure to receive backlinks from other sites

Adding backlinks for your website on different platforms can play a vital role in increasing the visitors for your page.

The purpose of this should only be the promotion of your website, so that other people know your presence.

You can also use different social media platforms to build backlinks.

Have an ‘About Us’ section

‘About us’ is a page dedicated to the description of the owner or the business, and will increase your search listing.

It should include things like location, timings, and any other data that might be helpful to the users.

See our ‘About us’ page to get an idea of how to write yours.

Do not use negative techniques for SEO

Unethical techniques used to deceive Google so that the page comes at the top won’t work.

Placing an invisible text on the website to deceive Google for higher ranking will only result in downgrading of your page.

Other techniques that Google takes seriously are automatically generated text, sneaky redirect, cloaking, using irrelevant keywords, etc.

Your website should be safe for online browsing

Make sure to make a website with https://. This makes online web session secure and free from any security-related issues.

https:// is basically internet protocol that uses security system so that data exchanged between the user and the site is secured. It cannot be hacked or used by any person for any type of illegal action.

When you employ this technique, it ensures Google that a website is secure and will boost your rankings. Google does not want its users to go to insecure websites and will decrease the ranking accordingly.

Use Google Search Console

Now you have used all the techniques to make your website optimized, but how to know if it is working fine? As SEO tips for beginners, this tip can make you clever.

The answer is Google Search Console. It is a set of tools to monitor the performance of your website.

It gives you critical information about how the user came and what they did on your website. How much time they spent on your website? It can also give you page-specific information about user experience.

It can help you to choose good keywords so that your website can be up on the rankings. You can also use it to inform Google about your website if for any reason Google is unable to find it.

What’s more?

It can also send you alerts if anything bad happens to your site.

Use Google My Business

When people search for something, Google displays the item that is more relevant to their location.

For example, if the term “Computer Shop” is searched in any country, the results will be different for the same term searched in other country. These also appear on Google maps.

The way to include your listing as location-based is adding your web site to Google My Business.

You provide information such as location and hours of working. You can also add photos of your business. Be sure to verify the location with Google for having a smooth availability on Google search.

One of the important factors here is Reviews. Make sure to give answers to the reviews given by your users or other random people.

Follow the Google webmaster guideline

Always make the structure of your website in accordance with the guidelines laid down in Google Webmaster Guideline. This guideline gives details about the positive things that can increase your ranking and negative things to avoid that can harm your ranking.

Have a customized 404 page

Wondering about 404 page in SEO tips for beginners?

Well, 404 page error is often the case when your requested link is not present.

Reasons may be many; a broken link or page under construction or being updated or sometimes the server error. During this process, if a page is requested it is automatically diverted to a page showing error 404 status.

It shows that the page is not present at the requested location.

But now what to do? Either you wait here or come back again? And if you want to go somewhere else, what you should do to avoid this?

 The Google SEO loves that you have a custom made 404 page. That effectively explains the cause of this occurrence.

In addition to this, it also helps the user know what to do and what options you have.

You can give guidance through links to other pages of your website or where to contact and lodge the complaint.

Use simple and short URL

Like the website, Google also inspects the URL for the search ranking of your website.

Lengthy URL’s that are difficult to remember and have unnecessary characters should be avoided.

By default names like page001, page002, untitiled1, untitled2 should not be used at all costs.

Never use keyword in a suspicious way (like more than one time) trying to get ranking on a search engine.

The URL should be simple, small as possible and reflective of the content of the website.

Conclusion on SEO Tips for Beginners

SEO is becoming an important property of the business and in future, only those websites will be receiving traffic which have done their SEO effectively.

More than 90% of the visitors prefer opening a website that is listed on the first page of the search engine.

Thus, by following the above SEO tips for beginners, you will be able to take the first step in getting your website SEO optimized and Google boost your website.

So, which SEO tip you’ll start with?

Liked these SEO tips for beginners? Share it on social media to benefit other website owners.