This is the complete guide to SEO for beginners.
We’ve made it easy to understand the SEO basics. And start building a strategy that boosts your website traffic.
What Is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of improving the performance, experience, and authority of your website so it can gain better visibility in search engines like Google.
Specifically, SEO is about ranking higher in organic (unpaid) search results. Not paid or sponsored results.
Here’s what both types of results look like:
Paid results are results that advertisers pay for through Google Ads. The ranking system is completely separate from the one used for organic results.
Google’s organic results are ranked based broadly on relevance, quality, usability, and context. And are not “pay to play.”
SEO becomes important in the organic results.
Why Is SEO Important?
SEO is important because it can bring more traffic, leads, customers, and revenue to your business. Even basic SEO strategies can deliver a huge return on investment.
There are billions of searches on Google every day. And 45.1% of desktop users click on an organic result, according to Semrush’s State of Search 2023 report.
(Typically, the higher you rank, the more clicks you get.)
By comparison, only 1.8% of desktop users click a paid result. Even though ads are usually at the top of the page.
And when SEO is done right, the results can add up fast.
Amazon got 546.3 million visits from Google users in the U.S. in November 2023, according to Semrush’s Organic Research tool.
It would cost the company around $336.9 million to get that much traffic via Google Ads.
And unlike paid traffic, these organic visitors come in whether or not Amazon is actively running ads.
To be clear: SEO is an ongoing process that takes work. But once you rank for a set of keywords, your rankings typically remain somewhat stable over time.
In short, SEO ensures your brand is visible when potential customers search on Google (or other search engines).
This can help you:
- Get more organic traffic and conversions (e.g., online orders)
- Increase brand awareness
- Gain a competitive advantage
SEO 101: Ensuring Google Can Index Your Site
If Google cannot crawl and index a page properly, the page cannot appear in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
It’s not necessarily a bad thing if a page isn’t indexed. Some pages (e.g., order confirmation pages) aren’t supposed to be accessible through Google.
But if you do want a page to rank, you should make sure it’s indexed. The best way is to use Google Search Console, a free tool from Google.
After setting up, explore the “Indexing” report.
If a URL isn’t indexed, you can easily find out why. Then try to fix the potential crawlability issue.
One of the best ways to fix crawlability issues is to create an XML sitemap.
This is a digital document that helps search engines understand the structure of your site.
How exactly you create a sitemap depends on what content management system (CMS) your site runs on (WordPress, Shopify, etc.)
Whatever method you use to create the file, submit it through the “Sitemaps” section in Google Search Console.
Which looks like this:
To learn about all the other things you can do with this tool, check out our Google Search Console guide.
Otherwise, let’s get into the meat of this beginner’s guide.
Starting with one of the more critical SEO concepts: keyword research.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of finding what queries people search in Google. And identifying the ones you want to rank for.
With Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, you can find keywords related to any topic.
Just enter a term to base your search around. Then, choose your country and click “Search.”
The tool provides a list of “Broad Match” terms by default, which contain your starting term(s) or close variations.
There are lots of other filters that can help you focus on the most relevant results.
When choosing keywords for your site (or a specific page), relevancy is the most important thing.
For example, there’s no point in targeting “Royal Canin dog food” if you don’t sell these products.
After relevancy, you can focus on these two keyword metrics:
- Volume: The keyword search volume, or average number of monthly searches
- KD %: The keyword difficulty score, which measures how hard it’ll be to earn a high ranking
Obviously, the higher the search volume, the more potential traffic you can get. But higher-volume keywords tend to be more competitive.
For example, “Royal Canin dog food” has a volume of 49,500 and a difficulty score of 81% in the U.S.
Whereas “Royal Canin hydrolyzed protein dog food” has a volume of 1,900 and a difficulty score of 39%.
Generally, you’re better off getting a high ranking for a low-volume keyword. Rather than a low ranking for a high-volume keyword. Because most people click on a top result.
You can always scale up to more competitive keywords as your site’s SEO improves.
In the next section, we’ll explain how to create content centered around your target keywords.
Content
Content is a big deal in SEO. So let’s cover exactly how to create SEO-friendly content.
Understand What Searchers Want to See for a Query
The first step to creating SEO-friendly content is figuring out the search intent for that keyword.
What is search intent, exactly?
Search intent is the underlying reason why someone searched for a given keyword.
For example, take the keyword “organic dog treats.”
Do they want to buy something (transactional intent)? Find out the best products to buy (commercial intent)? Learn what organic dog treats are (informational intent)? Or go to organicdogtreats.com (navigational intent).
Why is this important?
Google can figure out whether or not your site is satisfying search intent.
If so, you could get a rankings boost. If not, you’ll have a hard time ranking on Google’s first page.
So, before writing a single word, you need to know whether a searcher intends to see blog posts, product pages, service information pages, or something else altogether.
To do this, enter your keyword(s) into Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool.
In the “Intent” section, you’ll see the type of search intent.
For more insight, scroll down to “SERP Analysis” and see what types of pages are ranking.
Click “View SERP” to analyze the results page for yourself.
For example, when you read through the first page results for “organic dog treats,” you’ll notice that many of the top-ranking pages are review pages.
Although a few are ecommerce category pages:
(This is known as “mixed intent.” Which is common. It’s not always the case that 100% of the people searching for a given keyword want the same thing).
But considering that most of the results are product review pages, that’s probably the type of page you’d want to create. Assuming it fits with your wider marketing goals.
Also look at the content itself to get a feel for word count, readability, layout, and more.
This gives you insight into what’s working. And helps you develop your own plan.
Create Content That’s the Best of Its Kind
Now you know what will satisfy search intent, it’s time to create content that’s the best of its kind. So you can earn the highest ranking on the SERP.
Use the Semrush SEO Content Template to produce a framework for each page.
Enter the keyword(s) you’re primarily targeting, and it will analyze the top 10 organic results. To provide a list of recommendations.
You’ll be able to get insight into the recommended text length, semantically related words to build in, recommended sources of backlinks, and more.
Combine this with the insights you gained from manually analyzing the top 10 results, and you’ll be set to focus on creating content that’s primed to rank on the first page of Google.
Once you’re ready, click “Real-time Content Check” > “Open in SEO Writing Assistant.”
You (and your brief) will go to the SEO Writing Assistant.
This tool lets you monitor SEO, readability, and tone of voice while you’re writing.
It also has built-in AI copywriting tools and a plagiarism checker.
Optimize Your Above the Fold Section
The “above the fold” section refers to the first thing a user sees when clicking on your webpage.
This is an important section because it’s your webpage’s “first impression.”
If users see content that indicates they’re in the right place, they’re likely to scroll down.
Here’s an example of a nice above the fold section:
If not, they might bounce back to the search results to read the many other articles on the topic.
User Experience
User experience (UX) refers to the overall experience of a person exploring your website.
UX has a direct and indirect impact on SEO.
UX can directly impact your SEO, as a bad UX can mean that Google’s users spend less time on your site. And leave quickly without completing any desired action.
This suggests your site may not be worthy of the first page of search results.
The opposite is also true: A site with a solid UX suggests that you’re making searchers happy.
UX can indirectly affect SEO because a great UX shows others that your site is a helpful resource, leading to more backlinks coming your way.
For example, well-known finance site NerdWallet picked up a huge number of backlinks in its early days. And one of the key reasons was likely its trustworthy design and excellent UX.
Use Enticing CTAs
Great call-to-action (CTA) buttons draw the user in without being intrusive or gimmicky.
For example, this CTA appears at the end of one of our articles.
As you can see, this CTA flows naturally with the page and actually provides value for a user that’s wondering what to do next.
Avoid Walls of Text
When you’re writing and optimizing your content, it’s important to consider the white space on your webpages.
Frequent paragraph breaks give readers a visual respite from text walls. Making your content easier to read and skim.
For example, this post uses short paragraphs, images, and headings. Which makes it very “skimmable.”
Use Listicles, Bullets, and Numbered Lists
In addition to using white space as a visual respite for users, you can also break content out into bulleted and numbered lists.
Here’s an example from our blog:
Lists aren’t a direct ranking factor. But numbered and bulleted lists tend to have a better chance at securing a featured snippet like the one below.
On-Page SEO
Now it’s time to optimize your page around a keyword (also known as “on-page SEO”).
Here are a few critical on-page techniques that every SEO beginner should know:
Title Tags
Title tags can appear as the title of your SERP listing. And they are a key ranking factor.
At the most basic level, you’ll want to make sure that the title tags of your site’s pages include the main target keyword for the page (and variants, where natural).
But there’s more to optimizing these than simply adding keywords. Our guide on how to write title tags outlines a few other tips to keep in mind as you write your title tags:
- Keep titles about 50-60 characters long
- Make sure each title is unique and descriptive
- Check the SERP to see how you can make your title stand out
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are page summaries that can display under the page title on SERPs.
These are excellent opportunities to encourage users to click on your listing over your competitors’ listings.
Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor. But a compelling description can positively impact CTR (click-through rate), which is crucial.
Here are some quick tips to optimize them properly:
- Keep them about 105 characters long
- Include your primary keyword
- Add a CTA if it’s relevant
- Avoid duplicate meta descriptions
- Make them meaningful and descriptive, matching your content
Heading Tags
Heading tags are HTML tags that help Google understand the structure of your page.
Each page should have one H1 tag that contains the main title. And use H2-H6 tags for subheadings, depending on their level in the structure.
Like this:
In addition to using subheadings to organize your content, include target keywords and related terms inside of each subheading. Where it’s natural to do so.
Page URLs
Each page’s URL should describe its content concisely.
Think about it this way:
If you had two page URLs:
- /shoes/2789469760/
- /red-shoes/
Which one would you say is better optimized?
The second, of course, for the simple reason that it’s descriptive. By looking at the URL, you can identify that the page is about red shoes.
As a general rule of thumb, URLs should:
- Be descriptive and include the page’s primary keyword
- Use hyphens to separate words
- Use lowercase, rather than mixing in capital letters
- Be as short as possible while still describing the content of the page
Images
Optimizing images helps you provide a better user experience. It can also help you rank higher in search (particularly in Google Images).
Our guide to image optimization offers a few tips to help you get started:
- Use descriptive file names
- Reduce file sizes and compress images to decrease loading times
- Write descriptive alt text to help search engines and improve accessibility
- Try to use unique images rather than stock images
Adding Links from Other Pages on Your Site
No guide to website SEO basics would be complete without at least touching on internal linking. Linking between pages on your site can:
- Help search engines understand your site’s structure
- Pass authority (aka PageRank) between pages
- Encourage users to navigate between pages
With Semrush’s Site Audit tool, you can check for common internal linking issues. Such as:
- High crawl depth (i.e., pages that take lots of clicks to get to)
- Broken links
- Nofollow attributes (which can prevent authority from passing)
- Non-descriptive anchor text
Link Building
Another central pillar of SEO success comes from building your site’s authority in the eyes of Google.
How do you do that? Use link building to earn backlinks.
In short, a backlink is one website giving a link “back” to your website—essentially giving you a vote of confidence and supporting you. As long as the site linking back to yours is a trustworthy and relevant site, that link can help you rank higher on Google.
Let’s explore some of the most accessible link building tactics for SEO beginners.
1. Build Links from Associations, Suppliers, and Connected Business
One of the quickest wins for building links is reaching out to real-life connections your business has.
These connections include:
- Your suppliers
- Associations that you’re a member of
- Your office block’s website
- Your local chamber of commerce
Often, all you need to do is reach out to your contact at that site. And they’ll be happy to add your link.
2. Submit Your Site to Quality Directories
If you’re a local business or work in a specific niche, you’ll likely find that there are directories in your space. This can be a speedy way to build a few solid links for your site.
Just make sure that they’re high-quality directories with strict standards for who they’ll include.
With Semrush’s Listing Management tool, you can automatically submit your business information to top directories like Yahoo, Apple, and Bing.
3. Use HARO to Earn Links from the Press
HARO is a platform that connects journalists with business owners and marketers just like you.
Three times a day, Monday to Friday, HARO sends out an email that includes requests from journalists like this:
If there’s a relevant request that makes sense for your business, go ahead and respond. This could result in a high-quality backlink that drives referral traffic, brand awareness, and SEO benefits.
HARO can be very hit or miss. But even a single link from a relevant site can make a difference in your Google rankings (especially if your site is brand new).
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is about making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines and performs well for users.
If you have not done so already, connect your site to Google Search Console. And fix any indexing problems.
Then, dive into these other technical SEO basics:
Check Your Robot.txt File
Depending on your site’s CMS, you may have a robots.txt file set up. It’s typically found at: https://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt
And it should look something like this:
If you don’t have one, you’ll want to create one.
But what is robots.txt for, exactly?
Robots.txt instructs Googlebot (and other website crawlers) on how to crawl your site. For example, it can block certain pages from being accessed.
You should ensure that Google has access to unique, high-quality pages that you want to be indexed. And block access to duplicate or private pages.
Optimize Your Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are page speed metrics that can affect Google rankings.
In addition to being better for SEO, a faster website is better for users. When you improve load times, you may see lower bounce rates, increased dwell times, and better conversion rates.
You can check your Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console.
Click through to your mobile or desktop report to get more detailed information. And advice on improving your metrics.
Or use the Core Web Vitals report in Semrush’s Site Audit tool.
Check out your other issues, too. The tool performs over 140 checks to help you optimize your technical SEO.
Setup HTTPS
HTTPS has been a ranking factor since 2014.
Yet there are still sites that aren’t secure and still sit on an HTTP domain. Run a check on whether you can access your site using https:// rather than http://.
If you can, then great! There’s no further action needed.
If you find that your site still sits on HTTP, speak with your developer or website host and carefully plan a migration to HTTPS.
Otherwise, your visitors might see a warning like this:
And your rankings and traffic might suffer.
Mobile SEO
Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means the mobile version of your site is the “main” version in Google’s eyes.
So, it’s crucial to prioritize mobile SEO. In other words, deliver a great experience to users on smartphones and tablets.
Here are a few basic guidelines for making your website mobile-friendly:
- Use a responsive website layout that automatically adapts to the user’s screen
- Don’t let your navigation bar get too cluttered or too long, as this will be harder for mobile users to sort through
- Use animations sparingly as these can slow down mobile page speed
Again, you can check for issues via Google Search Console or Semrush’s Site Audit tool.
Measuring SEO Success
Before you put this SEO guide into practice, you should collect some benchmark metrics. And understand how to track your success.
Let’s look at some of the most important SEO metrics:
Organic Search Traffic
Organic search traffic refers to the number of visitors to your site from unpaid search engine results.
The best way to measure organic traffic is using Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
(Haven’t set up GA4 yet? Check out our Google Analytics guide for advice.)
If your organic traffic numbers are going up, that’s a good indicator that your content resonates with people, your keywords aren’t too competitive, and the links you’re building are working.
If your traffic numbers are trending down, your site may be running into technical SEO issues or targeting overly competitive keywords.
Or perhaps your site just needs more time to start seeing SEO results. It typically takes at least four months for SEO to work.
Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings indicate whether your SEO strategy is paying off.
Remember: You want to rank in position one (or as close to it as possible). That way, more people should see and click your result.
You can track your Google rankings in Search Console.
Go to “Performance” > “Search results” and check all the boxes at the top.
Then, scroll down to the “Queries” table. To see up to 1,000 top keywords for your site.
For more insights, use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.
It allows you to:
- Track all your target keywords, even if you don’t rank for them yet
- Get alerts about important ranking changes
- See whether your site ranks in any SERP features (e.g., the “People also ask” box)
- Compare your overall visibility against competitors’
- Quickly reference useful data, like keyword volumes and difficulty scores
And much more.
Engagement Rate and Bounce Rate
In GA4, the engagement rate is the percentage of sessions (website visits) that:
- Last longer than 10 seconds,
- Include a conversion event, and/or
- Involve at least two page views or screen views
On the other hand, the bounce rate is the percentage of disengaged sessions.
A high bounce rate can indicate that your content isn’t well-aligned with users’ search queries. You may have to do further keyword research or streamline your content to serve your site visitors better.
Conversions
You can set up conversion events in GA4 to track when users take desired actions (e.g., place an order or submit an inquiry form).
However, it may be more helpful to look at:
- Session conversion rate: the percentage of sessions (website visits) that generate conversions
- User conversion rate: the percentage of unique website visitors who’ve converted at least once
If you’re failing to convert traffic into leads and customers, you’ll want to determine if:
- Your desired conversion is something reasonable (like a new visitor signing up for a newsletter)
- You’re targeting keywords potential customers use in Google
- Your site has a UX that encourages people to stick around
Start Your SEO Journey
Now that you’ve read this beginner’s guide to SEO, you’re probably keen to start optimizing your site.
Semrush tools can streamline the process and provide all the insights you need to succeed.
We recommend starting with a free website audit. So you can fix any crucial issues that are holding your rankings back.
Simply enter your domain here, click “Start Audit,” and follow the step-by-step instructions.
Then, start putting SEO basics into action.
SEO Statistics & Google Stats
- Google has 85.53% of the market share of the search engine optimization market
- The no.1 result on Google’s organic search page has a CTR of 27.6%
- URLs that have a relevant keyword in them have a 45% higher click-through rate
- Google gets 168.67 billion visits per month (as of December 2023)
- 75% of users do not go past the first page of Google’s search results