5 SEO Tips for Beginners

When you’re just starting to learn SEO, it can feel scary or overwhelming, and that’s not good. I want to make SEO easier and more exciting so you learn how to use it to help your business. Here are 5 SEO tips for beginners just like you. Follow along and do what I teach you in this blog post, and you’ll start to get results. If you want to learn even more, take my free SEO class.

SEO tip #1 for beginners – use different keywords for each page or blog post

Many times I see people make the mistake of using the same keyword on every page or every blog post on their website, thinking it will help them have a better chance of ranking at the top of Google for the keyword. But the reality is, doing this hurts your website’s chances of ranking high because Google will only show you two times for any keyword. This means if you’ve used the same keyword on 10 pages, you now have the chance to show up 2 times instead of having the chance to show up for 10 different keywords.

Choosing a unique keyword for each page or blog post is super important.

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SEO tip for beginners #2 - You must learn how to choose the right keyword for each page or blog post.

Choosing the right keyword is critical to your SEO program’s success. If you choose a keyword your website can’t rank for, you won’t get traffic because you won’t rank, and if you choose a keyword your ideal customer doesn’t use, you may rank, but you won’t get traffic because no one is searching that keyword.

You have to find the right keyword, and that’s the one your website has the best chance of ranking for that your ideal customer uses. Choosing anything else won’t lead to traffic or sales. An easy way to do this is to use a keyword research tool to look for a keyword, look for something with lower competition rather than higher competition. Go to Google, open an incognito browser window (so your personal search history doesn’t impact your results), and search the keyword you’re considering. Who shows up on page 1? How similar are they to your website? Are they competitors or similar sites, or are they big sites? If they’re similar to you, you’re likely on the right track, but if they’re big brands, you need to look for another keyword.

SEO for beginners tip #3 -write a Title Tag for your page and use your keyword

You want to create a Title Tag for your website page or blog post. Some website builders do this by default and use your page name as your Title Tag; however, this is not ideal for SEO because your Title Tag shows up in the search results and entices searchers to click and come to your website. You want to write your Title Tag for searchers and optimize it for Google. Create a Title Tag that’s 60 characters or less, including spaces, and uses your keyword.

SEO beginner tip #4 – write a Meta Description and use your keyword.

Like your Title Tag, your Meta Description is for both the searcher and Google. It needs to be less than 160 characters, including spaces, and it should include your keyword. You want to write it in sentence format and use it to help searchers understand what your page is about so they’re more likely to click through to your website or blog to read more.

SEO tip for beginners #5 – use your keyword in your picture file names

You will have photos on your website page or blog post, and those photos are one more thing you can optimize for Google. Rather than uploading your images with the file name from your camera, you can optimize them by using your keyword, and – you can even include your business name. Format your image file names this way – keyword-keyword-keyword (if you’re using a keyword that’s long-tail, meaning it’s got several words together), and then you can add your business name, and your photos can show up when people search the keyword or your business name.

An extra quick bonus tip: use your keyword in your image ALT text when uploading your pictures to your site.

These are 5 quick, easy SEO tips for beginners that will get you started and help you get more traffic to your content. This isn’t everything you want to do for SEO, but it’s enough to get you started. If you’re ready to learn more, request a copy of my SEO Content Quick Start Guide, take my free SEO class, and learn what you need to do to get more traffic from Google.