What Is SEO? Learn the Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Several online tutorials are available to help you build your skills. Our research suggests that the most well-rounded SEO service provider for small businesses is SmartSites. If you’re looking for a full-service SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) agency, you might want to check out HigherVisiblity. Funnel Boost Media is excellent for local SEO while OuterBox is exceptional at e-commerce SEO.

How search engines work

Janette Novak is a freelance journalist and consultant who specializes in teaching online business and small business marketing. Previously, Janette owned a boutique marketing agency and served as a Chief Marketing Officer for a leading professional training services provider. When working with an SEO agency for the first time, you may be presented with several SEO service options, with tier pricing relative to the level of service you’ll receive.

Digital Marketing Blog

• By optimizing your website and content according to these systems, you can gain more visibility.
• It is a measurable, repeatable process used to send signals to search engines that your pages are worth ranking in organic search results.
• You already have connections with other businesses, so turn those relationships into links.
• SEO is one of the most important and effective marketing channels for various types of businesses.

You can use a free tool like Namechk to see which names are available across all social media networks. As a side note, check out this guide if you still need a little help coming up with a name for your blog. If you Google “Kinsta,” you can see that our Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube profiles all rank on the first page.

How do search engines work?

Analyze the volume, sentiment, and recency of your competitors’ Google, Yelp, or local/industry directory reviews. Local directory submission still very much matters when it comes to establishing local authority and visibility. In other words, those areas where your business has established some authority and visibility relative to your competitors. Furthermore, at a local level – and depending on the service or product – you may very well find large players like big box stores or ecommerce offerings appearing in the search results. A business you consider a competitor offline may or may not be a competitor online, which will determine whether or not you can learn and apply anything from how their web presence is structured.

To see how strong your organic traffic performance is compared to your main competitors, use Traffic Analytics. Focus on building relationships with journalists rather than just asking for links. Getting mentioned in news articles and industry publications is one of the best ways to build powerful links. You already have connections with other businesses, so SEO Anomaly turn those relationships into links. If you’re doing keyword research with the Keyword Magic Tool, find any keyword’s intent by looking at the “Intent” column.

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is the creation of relevant content on a website to attract ideal customers mostly through paid search engine advertising. You can increase traffic by creating new web pages or optimizing existing ones. A good starting point for competitive analysis is to uncover which keywords your competitors are targeting and where they rank. You can use keyword tools and either study individual competitor pages or their entire websites to learn what terms they’re targeting. You might find, for example, that a competitor is using the phrase “women’s leopard print jeans” on a collection page.

Other tools like Ahrefs can also help you see all links pointing to specific pages or whole domains. A reliable way to generate new, quality inbound links is to get interviewed on podcasts that cover topics you’re experienced in and speak to audiences that align with your customers. Also, it’s wise to include your main keyword in your meta description. Google will highlight the search term in bold when displaying it in search results. By dividing your keywords into small, manageable groups of related keywords, you’ll cut down on your workload (significantly), while still creating targeted, specific pages. Your last step should be switching to off-page SEO where you try to build links with other sites by writing guest posts or sharing other types of content like infographics.