Step by Step SEO Guide for Beginners

What is SEO ?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a technical, analytical and creative process to improve the visibility of a website in search engines. The primary function of SEO is to drive more unpaid useful traffic to a site that converts into sales.

The free SEO step by step guide you will read on this page will help you create a successful SEO friendly website yourself.

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SEO Quick-Start Checklist -

Picking a Product

Analyze your product. Are you interested in it yourself?
Analyze your market. Is it over-saturated? Is it growing or changing?
Is it easy to order your product from the web? Or are you selling commodity dog food that is expensive to ship?
What can you do to be unique in the market?
What creative and original ideas can you add to your site?

Picking a Domain Name

FOR NEW SITES: Ponder your domain name choice. Depending on your brand strategy, it should either be highly brandable or have your primary keywords in it.
Consider buying different domain names for each targeted language or niche in your market.

Domain Registration & Hosting

Choose an ICANN accredited registrar.
Register a .com as soon as possible.
Register a country’s top-level domain if your primary market is local in nature.
Choose a host that supports the technology you will be using (ASP or PHP, etc.).

Keyword Selection

Use keyword tools and customer feedback to find the most targeted keyword phrases for your site.
Develop grouped themes of keywords that reflect the different sections of your site.
Keeping within a grouped theme, choose different keywords to target each page.

Page Optimization

Put your chosen words for each page in your page title tags. Make sure your page title tag text is unique to each page.
Write a description for the meta description tag. Make sure your description is unique to each page.
Use only one H1 header per page, and target similar keyword phrases as the ones you targeted when writing the page title.
Use sub-headers H2 and H3 on your page when necessary.
Use bulleted lists and bold fonts to make content easier to read.
Make sure your text is written for human consumption—not bots.

Home Page Optimization

Make sure your home page builds credibility and directs consumers to the most important parts of your site.
Target your most competitive keyword on your home page or a page that is well integrated into your site.
Link to major theme pages from your home page.
Link to your home page from every sub page.

Site Optimization

Use text-based navigation.
If you already have, or insist on using, graphic navigation, use descriptive alt text on the images, and link to every primary page from your sub pages in the footer of the sub pages.
Use descriptive keyword breadcrumb navigation.
Make a site map.
Check the text that links pages of your site to make sure it’s descriptive whenever possible.
Link to resources outside your own site that improve each user's experience.
Deep link to related articles and content from your page copy.
Rely as little as possible on the site navigation. Instead, guide your visitor through your site with links in the active content portion of the site.
Link to, and use, a cascading style sheet from every page.
Avoid duplicate content issues. Ensure that each page has significantly unique content that does not exist on other pages on your site or other sites.

Registering With Directories

Link Building

Make sure your site has something that other webmasters in your niche would be interested in linking to.
Create content that people will be willing to link at even if it is not directly easy to monetize. These linkworthy pages will lift the authority and rankings of all pages on your site.
When possible, get your keywords in the link text pointing to your site.
Register with, participate in, or trade links with topical hubs and related sites. Be in the discussion or at least be near the discussion.
Look for places to get high-quality free links from (like local libraries or chambers of commerce).
Produce articles and get them syndicated to more authoritative sites.
Participate in forums to learn about what your potential consumers think is important.
Issue press releases with links to your site.
Leave glowing testimonials for people and products you really like.
Start an interesting and unique blog and write about your topics, products, news, and other sites in your community.
Comment on other sites with useful relevant and valuable comments.
Sponsor charities, blogs, or websites related to your site.
Consider renting links if you are in an extremely competitive industry.
Mix your link text up, if you can.
Survey your vertical and related verticals. What ideas/tools/articles have become industry standard tools or well-cited information? What ideas are missing?

Quick Tips for SEO

Keep in mind these points while doing SEO(search engine optimization) for your site.

Don’t block search engines crawling your site
Don’t confuse or annoy a website visitor
Don’t block Google from crawling resources on your site or rendering specific elements on your page
Have a responsive design that works on mobile and desktop
Optimise for customers local to your business, if that is important
Register your website with Google Search Console
Geotarget your site in Search Console AKA Google Webmaster Tools (you do not need to do this you have a country-specific domain e.g. a .co.uk domain)
On-Page, include your keyword phrase at least once in the Page Title Element
On-Page, include your keyword phrase at least once in the Main Content on the page (at least once in page copy (in Paragraph tags)
On-Page, avoid keyword stuffing main content
On-Page, optimise your meta description to have a clickable useful SERP snippet
On-Page, ensure the Main Content of the page is high-quality and written by a professional (MOST OF YOUR EFFORT GOES HERE – If your content is not being shared organically, you may have a content quality problem)
Ensure the keywords you want to rank for are present on your site. The quality of competition for these rankings will determine how much effort you need to put in
On-Page, use synonyms and common co-occurring words throughout your page copy but write naturally
On-Page, add value to pages with ordered lists, images, videos and tables
Optimise for increased ‘user intent’ satisfaction (e.g. increased dwell times on a page or site)
Keep important content on the site updated a few times a year
Trim outdated content from your site
Avoid publishing and indexing content-poor pages (especially affiliate sites)
Aim for a good ratio of ‘useful’ user-centered text to affiliate links
On-Page, disclose page modification dates in a visible format
On-Page do not push the main content down a page unnecessarily with ads or obtrusive CTA for even your own business
On-Page, link to related content on your site with useful and very relevant anchor text
Use a simple navigation system on your site
Create pages to basic meet W3C recommendations on accessible HTML (W3c) (H1, ALT text etc)
Create pages to meet basic usability best practices (Nielsen) – Pay attention to what ‘annoys’ website visitors
Create pages where the main content of the page is given priority, and remove annoying ads and pop-ups (especially on mobile)
Develop websites that meet Google technical recommendations on (for example) canonicalization, internationalisation and pagination best practices
Ensure Fast delivery of web pages on mobile and desktop
Provide clear disclosure of affiliate ads and non-intrusive advertising. Clear disclosure of everything, in fact, if you are focused on quality in all areas.
Add high-quality and relevant external links (depending if the query is informational)
On-Page, if you can, include the Keyword phrase in a short URL
On-Page, use the Keyword phrase in internal anchor text pointing to this page (at least once)
On-Page, use Headings, Lists and HTML Tables on pages if you show data
Ensure on average all ‘Main Content’ blocks of all pages on the site are high-quality
Ensure old SEO practices are cleaned up and removed from site
Avoid implementing old-school SEO practices in new campaigns (Google is better at detecting sites with little value-add)
Consider disavowing any obvious low-quality links from previous SEO efforts
Provide Clear website domain ownership, copyright and contact details on the site
Share your content on the major social networks when it is good enough
Get backlinks from real websites with real domain trust and authority
Do not build unnatural links to your site
Convert visitors (whatever that ‘conversion’ is)
Monitor VERY CAREFULLY any user-generated content on your site, because it is rated as part of your own site content
Pay attention to site security issues (implement secure https, for example)
Make visitors from Google happy.

Also, if you have suggestions related to this topic that our readers can benefit from, let me know in the comments section.

Happy reading!

Dhrubajit Kundu