Optimizing your website for SEO helps you generate more traffic, leads, and conversions without paying for ads.
Organic search refers to the results that appear on a search engine results page (SERP).
If you were looking to buy a friend some hypoallergenic jewelry, you might type that into a Google search.
Here are two examples of the results that would appear from your organic search:
But these efforts rely on a solid SEO strategy and an optimization plan for various factors that affect your search engine rankings.
This guide explains how to go from beginner to pro and optimize your site in an afternoon.
Understanding Search Engine Optimization
SEO is not just one thing.
There are many ranking factors in search engine algorithms. Each factor plays a role in where your site and specific pages appear in SERPs.
We’ll address these five key ranking factors:
- Technical SEO: Makes it easy for your website to be crawled and indexed by search engine bots (crawlers)
- On-page SEO: Makes your content easy to understand for humans and search bots
- Content strategy: Maps your website’s content to relevant keywords and search terms
- Off-page SEO: Establishes site authority to help improve your search rankings
- Local SEO: Optimizes your site for local search features to increase brand awareness and foot traffic in a physical location
So now what?
The following steps will help you learn how to optimize your website for SEO.
Step 1: Audit Your Website
Perform an SEO audit to see where your website should be improved to achieve higher search engine rankings.
It gives you a place to start and provides a general order of importance for SEO problems your site’s experiencing.
Using Semrush:
Click “Site Audit” under “On Page & Tech SEO.”
In the text box, type the URL of your website. Click “Start Audit.”
Note: If you already have a project set up in Semrush, you’ll need to click the blue “+ Create project” in the upper left-hand corner to add a new domain and run a new audit.
In the “Site Audit Settings” dialog box, select the number of pages you want Semrush to crawl and audit. Click “Start Site Audit.”
Tip: The number of pages you select should be more than the total number of pages on your site to make sure you audit every page. You can crawl up to 100 pages with a free account.
Pro tip: Once you’re comfortable using Site Audit, you can customize the settings in this dialog box.
Semrush will crawl the pages on your website and review your content, images, and links.
Once the crawl is complete, click on the project name to see a report like the one below.
At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a list of “Top Issues.” These will help you prioritize and fix specific problems to optimize your site for SEO.
In the “Number of issues” column, click on a number to see a detailed list of specific issues that need to be fixed.
Alternatively, look at the prioritization widgets across the top of the Site Audit page. (Click “Overview” to return to see the full list of issues on your website.)
Here, you’ll see issues categorized into three groups:
- Errors: Issues that should be addressed immediately and likely have the greatest impact on your site’s SEO performance
- Warnings: Issues that should be fixed but can wait until after the “Errors” are resolved
- Notices: Issues that should (technically) be fixed, but probably won’t significantly affect your SEO performance
With these issues identified, let’s move on to the SEO work.
We’ll refer to the results of the Site Audit for the rest of this guide.
Step 2: Fix Technical SEO Issues
Technical SEO issues affect a search engine’s ability to crawl and index your site. And ultimately, these issues affect your SEO performance.
If your website can’t be crawled and indexed, then it can’t rank. If it can’t rank, then you can’t expect to get much traffic.
That’s why we’ll address these issues first.
You’ll notice that the Site Audit report includes a section called “Thematic Reports.”
Of these reports, we’ll focus on three that include technical SEO errors that should be addressed: “Crawlability,” “HTTPS,” and “Site Performance.”
Crawlability
First: What’s a crawler?
Search engines use crawlers or crawl bots, which are specialized bots that click from page to page across the web to analyze them.
When Google crawls your website, it means that they know it exists. It’s on the map.
From there, the content can be indexed and ranked—it can appear in SERPs.
But that won’t happen if it can’t be crawled in the first place.
Crawlability errors and issues include:
- Redirects that send users to the wrong page
- Pages that can’t be accessed
- Pages that have been marked as “noindex,” telling search engines not to include them in the search results
- XML sitemaps that send search bots to incorrect or outdated URLs
Referring back to the “Site Audit” page:
Click the number under “Errors.”
This takes you to the “Issues” tab and filters the list by “Errors.” Click the “Category” drop-down menu and select “Crawlability.”
Here you’ll see must-fix crawlability problems.
Start by understanding the problem. Click “Why and how to fix it” on the first line item.
In this case, there are broken JavaScript and/or CSS files. The fix is to remove the reference from the code or update them to point to the correct file.
But which pages have the problem and which scripts or styles are broken?
Click “XX issues” on the line for the error you’re fixing.
Now you’ll see an itemized list for errors of this type. The “Page URL” column shows which pages contain the broken code. The “Resource URL” column shows what is broken.
To fix the issue, you might replace the code or update it to point to the correct file.
When you’re finished, go back to your list of crawlability errors to work your way through the list.
Further reading: Crawlability & Indexability: What They Are & How They Affect SEO
HTTPS for Site Security
Having a secure website can improve your site’s ranking.
Plus it’s good practice to guard against hackers, malware, or other threats.
If your site doesn’t have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate in place, the Site Audit tool will let you know.
In the Site Audit tool, click the “Issues” tab.
Click the “Errors” tab. Then click the “Category” > “Security & HTTPS” (you may have to scroll down to find it).
A report displays any issues there might be with the HTTPS status of your website or specific pages.
Click on each error type to see the problem and instructions for correcting it.
Note: There is some overlap among these categories. If you see errors you’ve already addressed (like in this example), you can ignore them. Or click “Rerun campaign” at the top of the page to re-crawl the website and verify that the problems are fixed.
Repeat the process for each error type.
Further reading: What Is HTTPS: The Definitive Guide to How HTTPS Works
Site Performance
Faster site speed can improve your site’s search rankings.
This is because website performance (e.g., page speed) is a Google ranking factor.
Plus, Google data suggests that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load.
Return to the “Errors” list in the “Issues” tab. Click “Category” > “Site Performance” (you may have to scroll down to find it).
Here you’ll see issues affecting your site’s load speed.
Click the number to display the list and address the errors.
Further reading: What Is Page Speed & How to Improve It
Step 3: Optimize On-Page SEO
Once technical issues are resolved, improving your page structure, schema markup, and metadata will help to optimize your website for SEO. We call this on-page SEO or on-site SEO.
On-page SEO affects how bots (search engine crawlers) understand your content and how users experience it.
For example, search engines use a page’s title tag to determine its content. A title tag helps users understand the content of that page.
Key on-page SEO factors:
- Meta tags and indexability: Proper markup helps search engines and users to understand what the page is about
- Heading tags: Descriptive headings (e.g., H1 and H2) structure your page and allow for skimming
- Accessibility: Good alt text (short for alternative text) for images lets people using screen readers hear descriptions of the images
- Mobile optimization: Google uses mobile-first indexing, so optimize your site for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets
Meta Tags & Indexability
Write your meta tags (meta title and meta description) to make it clear to your target audience and search engines that your page contains content relevant to the topic.
Click “Issues” > “Errors.” Then click “Category” > “Indexability” to check for errors in your HTML header tags, like missing meta descriptions or pages with duplicate title tags.
Click “Why and how to fix it” to learn what the issue is and how to address it.
Heading Tags
Every page on your website should have a unique H1 tag.
The Site Audit tool looks for pages that do not contain an H1 tag or that have multiple H1 tags. It also tells you when the same H1 is being used on multiple pages.
H1 issues are a “Warning” rather than an “Error.”
To see them, leave the “Category” filter set to “Indexability'' from the previous step. Click the “Warnings” tab.
Click on the number to open the list of issues or pages that need attention.
Accessibility
Accessibility is important for user experience. It also aligns with on-page SEO best practices.
In particular, you should include alt text for all images on your website.
Images with missing alt text (or “alt attributes”) are displayed in “Warnings.”
Click “XX images don’t have alt attributes” to see where you should add an alt attribute.
Further reading: Alt Text: What Is It & Why It Matters for Accessibility & SEO
Mobile Optimization
Your website’s mobile experience will impact your position in SERPs.
In fact, as of 2021, Google defaults to mobile-first indexing and evaluates your site predominantly from the perspective of a mobile visitor.
Because of this, it’s important to optimize your website’s design, functionality, and page speed for mobile users.
Responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes will make your content, links, and images usable on most devices.
To optimize your site for mobile SEO, click the “Errors” tab if you’re not already there, then click “Category” > “Mobile SEO.” (You may have to scroll to find it.)
Click on a number to see a list of issues that could be hurting your site’s mobile SEO.
Tip: You can also use Google PageSpeed Insights to get a detailed report on your site’s performance and ways to optimize load speed.
Step 4: Content Strategy
Each page on your site should address a single topic. Page topics are determined by your content strategy.
Say you want to rank for the keyword “grapefruit juice.”
Identify a single page on your website—maybe your homepage, a blog post, a product page, or a category page—that targets this specific keyword.
Then optimize the page for that specific term.
Keyword Research
Conduct keyword research to identify search terms that users type into Google and other search engines.
Identify the best keywords for each page (after all, not every keyword will be “grapefruit juice”) to create high-quality, valuable content that meets the searcher’s needs and expectations.
Use the Keyword Magic Tool to quickly identify hundreds or even thousands of possible keywords that would make sense for your page or website.
From the left-hand navigation, click “Keyword Magic Tool” under “Keyword Research.”
Type the topic of your page or website in the text box. Click “Search.”
The Keyword Magic Tool uses this keyword to generate a list of similar or related suggestions.
Keywords with high search volume are more popular and have a higher potential reward (more traffic). But keyword difficulty (“KD %”) indicates how difficult it will be for your site to rank.
Keywords with a higher KD % are more competitive and you may have a hard time ranking at all (or getting any traffic).
A good strategy includes a mix of high-volume keywords and some lower-volume, long-tail keywords (queries with lower search volume). They may offer less potential traffic, but you might receive more actual traffic because you’re able to rank more easily for these keywords.
You can filter the keyword suggestions based on the specific terms or phrases they contain. Select a category from the left-hand menu to automatically apply a filter.
Choose at least one keyword for each page on your site.
Pro tip: It’s helpful to target multiple keywords and pages within the same topic. We call these topic clusters.
It might be helpful to create a spreadsheet for each page and the keywords you’re planning to target for each one. This makes content optimization easier.
How to Optimize Website Content for SEO
To generate organic traffic (traffic from search engines), your website pages should be optimized for search.
Each page should target one topic. That topic is defined by the primary keyword and one to five secondary keywords from the spreadsheet you created in the research phase.
For example, say one of your pages targets the topic “blueberry pie.”
- Primary keyword: blueberry pie
- Secondary keywords: blueberry pie recipe, blueberry pie filling, recipe for blueberry pie
Optimize your content for the target keyword by including the keyword in these key places:
- Title tag
- H1 (main heading or headline)
- Subheadings (H2, H3, etc.)
- Meta description
- First paragraph of the content
The Semrush On Page SEO Checker makes it easy to optimize any piece of content by following a step-by-step process.
In Semrush, click “On Page SEO Checker” from the left-hand navigation menu.
Type the URL of your site into the box (i.e., name.com). Click “Get ideas.”
Note: If you already have an existing project in Semrush, click “+ Create project” to add a new one and run a new report.
In the “Select target location” dialog box, click the drop-down menu to choose a location, language, and device for the audit. Click “Continue.”
Note: If these options feel overwhelming, keep the default setting and click “Continue.”
On the “Add pages to optimize” screen, click the “Manually” tab. Then type or paste the URL of the page you’re optimizing. Type the primary keyword in the “For keyword” text box. Click “Add Page.”
Note: If you’re new to SEO optimization, select “Auto Import” to see a list of recommended pages and keywords on your website.
Once you’ve added all the pages you’re optimizing, click “Collect ideas.”
Now you’ll see the results in the “On Page SEO Checker” report.
Review each page in the “TOP pages to optimize” list or click the “Optimization Ideas” tab.
Click the green button that says “X ideas” for specific action items.
The tool provides recommendations for using your target keyword (e.g., in the H1). It’ll also look for instances of keyword stuffing, which means the keyword has been overused or used in an unnatural way.
Here is an example of recommendations for improvement.
You’ll see a list of related keywords you can add to your text to further optimize it. These recommendations are based on topics covered in high-quality content on this same subject. In-depth coverage of the topic and related subtopics can help your content rank higher.
For additional help with the body copy or main content on the page, try using the SEO Writing Assistant. This tool provides a score based on your content’s readability, SEO, originality, and tone of voice. It also recommends specific steps for improvement.
As part of your content marketing strategy, use these SEO tools to plan and optimize new pages on your website.They help to ensure that all of your new pages follow best practices and have the best chance of ranking for target search queries.
Step 5: Improve Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO helps search engines and users see your website as trustworthy and authoritative. This is accomplished with an SEO strategy that includes link building—links from other reputable websites that point to your website and boost your site’s authority.
So let’s talk about backlinks and internal linking.
Backlinks
The more high-quality links that point to your site, the higher your content will rank.
That’s the general rule. It’s not always a perfect correlation.
Backlinks, often referred to as inbound links, act as endorsements or upvotes for your website. So, the more links you have, the more endorsements you’ve received. This is often called “authority,” “site authority,” or “domain authority.”
Search engines use these signals to help determine the quality of your content and how well you rank in search engines.
Using the On Page SEO Checker in Semrush, click the “Optimization Ideas” tab.
Click the “X ideas” button, then scroll to see a section for “Backlinks.”
This section recommends websites that could link to your site.
How do you earn backlinks?
Here are a few proven methods:
- Write a guest post: Submit an article to the website and include a link to your website
- Promote a relevant resource: Create a resource, article, or original data set that other websites might want to reference and link to
- Ask for a link: Reach out to someone from the website and ask them to add a link to a relevant page or article on your website
Internal Linking
Internal links from one page on your website to another page on your website help to strengthen your site’s authority.
Include at least one internal link on every page of your website. Even better, include five or six links per page.
Internal links guide visitors deeper into your site, increase page views, and reduce the bounce rate.
They also distribute the authority from incoming links to other pages on your site. (We sometimes call this “link equity” or “link juice.”) Think of it as a vote of confidence or a testimonial. When one page ranks well on Google or backlinks from other sites, it is sharing that vote of confidence with internally linked pages. This helps more pages rank better in the organic search results.
Step 6: Local SEO Optimization
Local SEO optimizes your website and your business for local searchers.
Think “food near me.”
There are specific considerations for local businesses because SERPs for local queries look a bit different.
SERPs highlight local businesses based on a combination of proximity to the searcher and the other SEO factors that we covered in previous steps:
- Keyword relevance
- On-page SEO
- Content optimization
- Mobile-friendliness
- Site performance
- Quality of backlinks
- Quality of internal links
- Accessibility
When optimizing your website for local SEO, focus on your Google Business Profile and managing reviews.
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business or GMB) is a listing you create with information about your business. It’s free, but you do need to set it up.
Your Google Business Profile allows you to add information like your location, services, products, and prices. You can also add photos.
To provide relevant information to potential customers in your local area, follow our guide on setting up your Google Business Profile.
Use the Semrush Listing Management tool to optimize your profile.
Managing Reviews
The number and quality of reviews that your local business receives can impact your local SEO.
They aren’t a direct ranking factor, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important for local SEO.
Positive reviews convey trust to potential customers.
They increase the likelihood that a searcher will choose your business from the list of local options.
Remember that responding to reviews—both positive and negative—shows that your business is committed to customer service and satisfaction.
Use the Review Management tool to easily monitor and respond to online reviews.
Start with a Plan
Optimizing your website for SEO is complex. There are many moving parts that all work together to make SEO work for your business.
Having a clear action plan makes it easier to get started.
Before you dive into optimizing your site, use the Site Audit tool as a roadmap. The Site Audit report will help you understand exactly what needs to be done on your site, how to fix it, and what impact it might have on your rankings.
You won’t get lost along the way.