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Why is search engine optimization (SEO) important? To put it bluntly, you want to find what you are searching for, or you want to show up in others’ searches. It also helps your website be more visible without adding marketing dollars. Learning a bit of SEO can earn and save you lots of money in the long run.

This guide will help build your knowledge of SEO to a basic level to boost your visibility. To get the most from this guide, be willing to learn, test, and track what is working for you.

What To Avoid

There are many accepted practices to build your SEO content and some that will make you rank lower in search results. These practices have to do with the content and keywords used on and behind the webpage. Before we talk about good practices, let talk about a few to avoid first.

• Duplicated Content: When trying to be relevant for a search, some people will duplicate their content to add that keyword or content repeatedly. Repeating content will hurt your ranking as search engines like Google will penalize this practice.
• Keyword Stuffing: Like duplicating content, keyword stuffing is when keywords are hidden on a page such as by the extra text made the same color as a background.
• Redirecting: Redirecting is when someone owns several keyword-heavy domains that direct traffic back to a single site.
• Poor Linking (buying): Purchasing a cheap link-building package can do damage to your SEO. Build links by getting relevant links through content and similar websites to your niche.

Good SEO Practices

Now that we’ve covered what to avoid, we can focus on the good part. Building good search engine optimization relies on relevance, content, links, and compliance. As search engines have evolved, it is more important to create quality content that acts as a resource to solve problems. If your content solves a problem, it builds authority on a topic, resulting in higher rankings.

Solving problems isn’t the only reason for searches. People are doing online shopping, selling, research, entertainment, or looking for inspiration. A strong understanding of intent is needed to craft the proper system of keywords to drive traffic to your website. Building keywords around yard work isn’t the best way to market lawnmowers.

Tips for Content Creation

• Intent: Match the content to what the reader wants when they get to your page.
• Headers: Break up the text in your articles, so it is more skimmable. People will spend more time looking at your content if it is easy to digest.
• Actionable Content: Answer the question you set out to answer, then suggest checking out more valuable content. Driving viewers in this manner is a natural feeling progression and will get more views on additional content.

Keyword Research

After creating some high-quality content, it’s time to get to people looking for it. Keywords help people find your content by giving search engines a list of words or phrases that match. There are tools to support researching keywords like Google Ads Keyword Planner. This tool is great because Google is an SEO authority and will break down words by monthly searches, competition, and more.

Using keywords with high monthly searches and low competition will benefit your search engine ranking. We recommend using long-tail keywords as much as possible; they are short and specific and have very little competition. Long-tail keywords will also more closely match search intent and provide more value to the people finding your site. Matching search intent can also improve your site’s bounce rate by giving content more relevant to their search.

Be patient; coming up with a high-quality set of keywords can significantly affect your site’s traffic. Getting quality content in front of your traffic by using keywords with the relevant intent will build trust.

Links

Another critical factor to consider in SEO is link building. Link building provides something of value in exchange for a link posting. One of the most common ways this is be achieved is by writing an article. Being linked through other high-quality pages will increase the ranking in which your site will appear. Linking is a great way to increase traffic and create more trust from your users. Let’s look at a few ways you can build links.

• Guest Blogging: Find a site relevant to your industry and write a blog article to post there. Create a post that lives up to the services you provide and isn’t spam. Link building is about adding value.
• Social Media: Being active on social media will create a network of fans of your content. By sharing posts, images, videos, and updates, you’ll boost visibility overall.
• Create Infographics: Are used to make data easily digestible. Articles with infographics still do better than those with just text. People like to skim.

Conclusion

I hope you learned something helpful from this article. There is a lot of information about SEO available, and it is also shifting. Remember above all else that the quality of your content will pay off if you go the extra mile. SEO isn’t something to skim over; it should be crafted, tracked, and tested.

Put in the effort and give it some time to show results. Going viral isn’t easy or even overnight anymore. Create great content, provide relevant keywords that match its intent, link to quality sites, and be seen!