Perhaps “Search Engine Optimization for beginners” would have a better title for this post instead of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Dummies. Nevertheless, this posts aims to give a beginners’ basic guide and introduction to SEO. Also, this is not to be mistaken for a SEO book with the same title. This article assumes you know what search engines results are.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a branch of Digital Marketing, an Internet marketing which focuses on improving a website’s visibility in Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERPs).

Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO needs helps in visualizing the necessities for a great SEO implementation. MOZ’s pyramid highlights the important factors to consider when in order to improve Search Engine Ranking Page position. From identifying “Crawl Accessibility” as a foundation element of a good search engine ranking delivery.

Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO Needs

Search Engine Optimization steps for beginners (based on MOZ’s 7-Layered hierarchy needs of SEO). You could see this as the DIY-SEO guide:-

1. Crawl Accessibility:- Ensure your website can be indexed

   As layer one implies, ensure your site is index-able. Make sure that your website or content is accessible to search engine or search robots. These steps are essential to your site’s being crawled by search engines i.e. Google Search, Bing Search, Yahoo, Yandex and more.

   1. Ensure there aren’t any crawling issues
   2. Ensure robots tag are well implemented.
   3. Create a useful sitemap informing search engines of website pages

2. Compelling page Content – Human first & SE friendly Content

   Write beautiful contents. It’s often a better idea to isolate the content writing to focus on few things:

   1. Content – What is the contents purpose?
   2. Demography – Who is the content for.
   3. Why should the audience care about the content.
   4. Is the audience satisfied post reading the content, You can insert a call to action here if otherwise (e.g. your details).
   5. Does the page answer the searcher’s query?

3. Keywords Optimized

   1. Naturally it’s tempting to write a content with predisposition to keywords bias. You should focus on writing the content for your target audience. However, your content should also identify main topics discussed within your article. One should be able to read your article or content and have an understanding of good understanding of what its about,

4. Great User experience, Usability and UI

5. Share Worthy Content

6. Title, URL and Description

7. Website Snippet/Schema Markup

   1. Ensure your site is compliant with the standards of the Technology being used.

You can check out MOZ’s free beginner’s guide to SEO for another interesting read.

Feel free to visit ShaCode’s SEO Services page.