Top SEO Basics You Should Master

Getting search engine optimization (SEO) right pays off big time. Nail your strategy, and you’ll be well on your way to getting more organic traffic and becoming a trusted voice of authority in your industry.

That can mean big things for your business.

Don’t have a good grasp of SEO? Not sure where to start?

Don’t worry. In this post, I’ll get you up to speed on the SEO basics, including keyword research, link building, and improving the user experience (UX).

Key Takeaways

The SEO fundamentals don’t require a lot of technical expertise—meaning even beginners can get good results.
A solid foundation is essential for SEO success. Make sure you have an SEO-friendly domain name, a reliable hosting platform, and a logical site structure.
Keywords are crucial. Understanding your target audience, identifying phrases related to your business, and researching your competitors’ keywords can point you toward the right ones.
User experience also affects SEO. How you organize your website, how it appears on mobile devices, and how quickly pages load are important.
Links to and from websites with high authority help boost your SEO rankings.
SEO is no longer just about search engines. It’s also vital to consider how you rank on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
Regularly revisit and adjust your SEO strategy to stay at the top of the search engine results.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. This refers to the process of improving the performance, experience, and authority of your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

This means that when users search for something related to a product or service you offer, your website pops up as one of the early results towards the top of the page—ideally in one of the top three spots.

Neil Patel's blog ranking in the top position on Google

Even with AI Overviews (formerly the Search Generative Experience, or SGE) now live on Google, it’s still important to focus on your SEO. That’s because your content can shape what shows up in the overviews.

That’s not the only significant recent shift in the SEO world.

When people think of search, they think of traditional search platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. However, social SEO is now more important than ever.

More and more people, especially Gen Zers, use platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to find content that answers their questions.

Why Is SEO Important?

When promoting your content, you want to be where your customers are.

Over 85 billion people visit Google every month. That’s a lot of potential customers. Social SEO’s potential to reach new customers is off the charts, too, with 2 in 5 Americans using TikTok as a search engine.

When you have the basics of SEO in place, you become more visible and stand out from your competitors.

SEO ensures that you don’t just appear in front of people, but that you appear in front of the right people.

By focusing on search intent and the keywords your target audience is searching for, you can prioritize the customers most likely to convert once they reach your site.

Setting Yourself Up for SEO Success

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of SEO for beginners, let’s look at the foundations you need in place to achieve the best results.

Your domain name is a critical aspect of SEO success. Something straightforward that is related to your business will get more traffic.

Pay attention to the extension—a .com domain is the gold standard, but .net and .co are also good options.

Your hosting platform is another important aspect of SEO. Make sure you choose a platform with speedy page loading and robust security. Faster loading speeds can help your site rank higher and support a better user experience.

Finally, a logical site structure helps search engines find and index all your site’s pages. It also ensures visitors can quickly navigate between the pages of your site to find the content they are searching for.

Worried that all this sounds a little overwhelming? Focus on getting that first piece of content up and work from there, says Jonathan Hoffer, SEO Manager at NP Digital:

“Often, when starting an SEO program, perfection is the enemy of starting. Spending time honing in on your brand voice and identity is great, but not if it prevents you from putting content on your site and reaching out for backlinks. Other times, people can be overwhelmed by keyword research and where to start. Zeroing in on your audience and what they’re searching for can help. The journey to the top of the SERPs begins with a single article being published.”

With all this in mind, let’s look at the SEO basics. Here’s an overview of what they are and our top SEO tips for beginners.

SEO Basics #1: Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of identifying the specific words and phrases people use when looking for information on search engines.

For example, a vegan restaurant could use keywords like “vegan restaurant near me” and “best vegan burgers” in its website copy and blog posts to help it rank on the first page of Google.

Keyword research helps businesses understand what potential customers are searching for online, improves online visibility, and uncovers new ranking opportunities.

Keyword research can reveal valuable insights such as:

How many people are searching for a specific keyword or phrase.
The search intent of your potential customers. For example, are they just looking for information, or are they ready to buy?
How relevant a keyword or phrase is for your target audience and your content.
How difficult it is to rank for specific keywords based on competition with other websites.
Long-tail keywords that can provide further insights into your audience’s pain points and that you can use to develop content topics.

To effectively use keyword research, bear the following in mind:

Brainstorm relevant topics for your business/website.
Use a keyword tool like Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush.
Use the keywords in your content, such as in your headers, page copy, page titles, and meta descriptions.
Monitor and adjust your strategy regularly to accommodate changes to search engine algorithms and your competitors’ approach to SEO.

Quick Tips for Keyword Research

Brainstorm seed keywords. Come up with a list of basic terms or phrases relevant to your business and industry. You can use these as the jumping-off point for your research.
Understand your audience. Explore what keywords potential customers type into search engines when looking for your product or service. Use a keyword research tool to identify these words and phrases.
Target long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that people often use when they’re closer to making a buying decision. They tend to have less competition and higher conversion rates.
Analyze competitor keywords. Look at keywords your competitors use to identify gaps and opportunities you can leverage.
Explore related keywords. Identifying other terms and phrases closely related to your primary keywords or topics can help you avoid keyword cannibalization.
Consider search intent. The term “search intent” means what ideal buyers are looking for online. There are four types of search intent: informational (question-based queries), navigational (website- or web page-specific queries), transactional (product- or service-specific queries), and commercial (product research-based queries featuring words like “best” or “review”).

SEO Basics #2: Create Content

Good content is fundamental to SEO.

When you create amazing content, whether articles, infographics, videos, or e-books, other websites will link to it. Not only this, but prospective customers will see you as a reliable, credible, trustworthy source of information.

Here’s what my colleague Matthew Santos, SVP of Product and Services, SEO, at NP Accel, has to say about content marketing:

“Over the past 20 years, we have seen so many new features come out from Google that have caused SEOs to adopt new tactics, but one constant we have never seen Google move away from is the importance of high-quality content. As we have continued to double down on high-quality content, we have seen thousands of customers over the last five years survive every single one of the major core algorithm updates.”

Regularly creating informative, relevant and optimized content is one of the primary ways to increase your organic presence. It’s not a guarantee, but will help stack the deck in your favor combined with other SEO best practices.

You can add your keywords to your content to improve your SEO and search engine presence. The trick is to add your keywords where they feel natural and relevant.

Stuffing keywords into your copy doesn’t just make it unreadable. It can lead to your pages dropping in the rankings.

Don’t know where to start with creating content? Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find keyword suggestions and top-ranked content to help guide the way.

Content Ideas in Ubersuggest for the keyword 'BBQ sauce'

Quick Tips for Content Creation

Brainstorm content ideas based on audience needs. Use your target keywords to come up with topics. For example, if you run a plumbing business, “how do I fix a sink” could suggest an article on why it’s better to hire a plumber to fix it instead of DIY-ing it.
Write clearly and concisely. Make sure your content provides helpful information and avoids “fluff.” Use headings, bullet points, and formatting to improve readability and make content skimmable.
Implement E-E-A-T. E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. By making these values prominent in your content, you increase the odds of ranking highly in search engine results. You can do this by adding expert quotes, writing well-researched, accurate content, and citing sources. One of the most effective ways to build E-E-A-T is through known authors in your niche with proven credibility. To enhance that, build out author bio pages on your site showcasing their expertise.
Incorporate relevant SEO keywords. It may seem obvious, but ensure you include your target keywords to optimize content for SEO.
End with a call to action. Make it easy for your audience to respond by providing a link to a page where they can register for a demo, request more information, or purchase your product or service.
Try different types of content. Infographics, blog posts, and case studies are different formats you can use to inform, educate, and even entertain. Experiment to see which ones resonate best with your audience.
Repurpose and refresh old content. Repurposing your old content is one of the best ways to get the most value from it. For example, long-form content could become an e-book or a series in a newsletter. Refreshing old content by updating dated references, stats, and facts helps keep it relevant and valuable to your audience over time.

SEO Basics #3: Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions tell search engines what your site is about, helping them match your pages to the right search queries.

Optimizing them can drive more traffic to your site and give searchers insight into what you offer. These also help with the all-important click-through rate (CTR). CTR is the percentage of users that see your site in a SERP result and decide to click it.

Google results for the best online bicycle store.

Title tags serve as a signpost for what visitors can expect to read. They should ignite curiosity and encourage your audience to dive deeper into your content.

Similarly, think of meta descriptions as a quick sales pitch: They’re a chance to attract and engage your audience right off the bat, guiding them from the SERPs to your site.

Quick Tips for Crafting Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Include relevant keywords. Just like using keywords in the body of your content, keywords in title tags and meta descriptions enhance your content’s visibility.
Place keywords close to the beginning. Search engines want to display the most relevant content. When you put your keywords at the start of your title tag and meta description, Google gets your signal loud and clear.
Keep them focused and concise. Aim for no more than 150 to 160 characters for a meta description while conveying the main benefit or unique selling proposition.
Use action-oriented language. Words like “now” and “today” convey a sense of urgency, while action verbs like “discover” and “accelerate” can pique readers’ attention.
Test variations. Try using different keywords and sentence constructions to see which drives the highest click-through rates.

SEO Basics #4: Focus on User Experience (UX)

User experience, or UX, refers to the ease with which people can use your website and find what they need.

Many people ignore this aspect of SEO fundamentals, but that’s a big mistake.

A user is coming to your site to find a product or information. Your cutting-edge design or best-in-class graphics can be valuable in terms of the user experience, but you can’t neglect things like page speed. After all, your users want to find what they’re looking for, fast.

Unbounce proved this. It found that 70% of users admitted page speed influences their purchase intentions:

A graph showing how Slow Load Times can impact sales.

A positive user experience keeps visitors on your website longer. It can also encourage them to explore multiple pages.

Engaged visitors are also more likely to interact with your content by signing up for a newsletter, downloading a tip sheet or guide, or leaving a comment on your blog. These actions show search engines that your website is useful and relevant.

Quick Tips for Improving UX

Increase site speed. Page speed is one of the most important ranking factors. Deleting plugins, compressing images, and removing third-party widgets you no longer use can help pages load more quickly.
Simplify navigation. Make sure your website’s main menu is logical and easy to understand. Avoid overwhelming visitors with too many options—use submenus or drop-down menus to organize additional pages.
Reduce clutter. Too many ads and pop-ups are distracting, particularly on mobile.
Provide clear calls to action. Don’t make visitors search a page or, worse, your entire site trying to figure out how to schedule an appointment or view a demo. Chances are they’ll give up very quickly.
Make sure your website is accessible. An accessible website means everyone can use it and ensures you don’t fall foul of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations.

SEO Basics #5: Prioritize Mobile Experience

Over 59 percent of online searches come from mobile devices, so catering to mobile users is critical if you want your content to rank in the SERPs.

Further, Google uses a mobile-first approach to indexing. This means it crawls the mobile version of your website to understand and rank your pages.

A mobile-responsive website is essential. That means designing and coding your website so it automatically adjusts the layout, content, and functionality based on the device it’s viewed on, such as a phone or notebook.

Example of how a mobile-responsive website works

One of the best ways to optimize for mobile is with Google’s Lighthouse tool for Chrome.

It will give you a report and tell you how to fix any errors on your site.

Results of Google's Lighthouse tool for Chrome

Quick Tips for Improving Mobile Experience

Design for touch interaction. Larger buttons and clickable elements make it easier to navigate your site on a small screen.
Keep content concise and scannable. This is a good SEO practice in general, but it’s even more important when users read on phones and notebooks.
Streamline forms and checkout processes. Minimize and simplify fields to make them easy to fill out on a mobile device. Also, make sure error messages are clear and easy to see.
Optimize for local SEO. Using local keywords and phrases helps your business appear in local search results.
Take advantage of mobile-specific services. You need to make sure you take full advantage of the mobile platform. Options unique to mobile like click-to-call can prompt users to take action.
Optimize for voice search. Twenty-seven percent of mobile queries use voice search. Think about how people use language when using voice search and incorporate relevant keywords.

SEO Basics #6: Build Links

Backlinks from high-authority, relevant sites send a trust signal to Google. It’s like having somebody vouch for you. The more people that vouch for your website, the more likely you are to rank high in the SERPs.

For example, here’s the backlinks report for my own site. I’ve got a good spread of backlinks from a range of sites, which shows the search engines that my website is a reliable and trustworthy source of information.

Traffic overview results for Neilpatel.com.

Links also drive organic traffic and grow brand awareness by getting more people to visit your site, both through search engines (Organic traffic) and links on other websites (Referral Traffic).

Quick Tips for Building Links

Create high-quality, valuable content. This is one of the best and easiest ways to get people to link to your site.
Focus on quality, not quantity. It’s better to get one high-quality, relevant link than hundreds of spammy, irrelevant ones. Poor-quality links can even harm your SEO efforts.
Prioritize “evergreen” content. Evergreen content is content that stays relevant and fresh for a long time. This content is more likely to get and keep backlinks than time-sensitive information.
Contribute guest posts or articles. Reach out to prominent websites or blogs in your industry and offer to write guest posts or articles. This is a great way to build authority and credibility in your niche.
Link to relevant content to encourage links. Linking out to relevant content might seem scary, but I always do it in my blog posts. If you don’t link to relevant content, you can’t expect people to link to you.
Ask for links. You can’t always expect people to link to your content without asking. After you’ve created some quality content, do some basic outreach.
Collaborate with other businesses. Working with other organizations on projects, events, or publications is an opportunity to generate links back to your website.
Submit your website to relevant directories. Industry and professional associations often have online directories and listings for businesses and members. This is an easy way to get a link from a site with high authority.

SEO Basics #7: Don’t Neglect Technical SEO

While you don’t need to be a technical whiz to get started with SEO, understanding and implementing some technical SEO basics is an important foundation for the rest of your SEO program. Without a site that performs well, is visible for search engines, and has a good UX, your content can’t shine.

Why is this the case? When missed or executed poorly, technical SEO can lead to issues that prevent search engines from properly understanding and ranking your site, no matter how great your content is. By addressing these technical aspects, you’re ensuring that search engines can easily access, crawl, and interpret your website’s content.

Tips for Improving Technical SEO

Optimize your site structure: Create a logical, hierarchical structure for your website. This helps both users and search engines navigate your website easily.
Improve site speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix issues slowing down your site. Compress images and leverage browser caching as a start.
Implement SSL: Secure your site with HTTPS. This not only protects user data but is also a Google ranking factor.
Create and submit a sitemap: Generate an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines through their webmaster tools. This helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.
Fix broken links: Regularly check for and fix broken links on your site. Tools like Screaming Frog can help identify these issues.
Manage duplicate content: Use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of a page when you have similar content across multiple URLs.
Optimize your robots.txt file: Ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured to guide search engine crawlers on which parts of your site to index or ignore.
Monitor crawl errors: Regularly check your Google Search Console for crawl errors and fix them promptly to ensure all your important pages are being indexed.

By implementing these technical SEO basics, you’re laying a solid foundation for your overall SEO strategy, making sure that your on-page and off-page efforts aren’t undercut by problems under the hood of your website.

SEO Basics #8: Measure Your Results

By monitoring your SEO strategy’s performance over time, you can make data-driven decisions to improve it and boost your website’s rankings in search engines.

Analyzing results can also help you identify additional opportunities for SEO optimization, such as replicating high-performing content or pinpointing technical issues hurting your website’s SEO rankings or performance.

Regularly tracking and analyzing your SEO results can help you adjust your strategy to ensure you’re targeting the right audience, using the most effective keywords, and providing relevant content. This ultimately leads to higher organic traffic and better business outcomes.

Finally, measuring SEO performance helps quantify and demonstrate its value to company stakeholders.

After all, in business, it’s all about the numbers.

Quick Tips for Measuring Results

Define clear key performance indicators (KPIs). Choose the KPIs most relevant to your business that you can act and improve on.
Use analytics tools. These tools make it easy to monitor your stats and make decisions. Good tools to get you started include Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ubersuggest, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Create a regular tracking cadence. This allows you to identify changes in performance, spot issues or threats, and uncover new opportunities to optimize your strategy.
Benchmark your performance. Compare your results to industry standards and competitors to see if your website performs at the same level.
Conduct A/B testing. Compare different variations of your content, website structure, and keywords to see which performs better.
Act on your results. Tracking your KPIs is one thing. However, there’s no point to it if you don’t take steps to resolve or improve any issues.
Continuously optimize. Applying the SEO fundamentals you’ve learned and monitoring the results is the best way to see if the techniques work for you.

FAQs

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing your website to increase the chances of it ranking high in search engine results.

It includes a wide range of elements, including keyword research, content creation, backlinks, and mobile responsiveness.

Why is SEO important?

Good SEO helps search engines understand the value and context of your website, meaning it can show your pages in the right search results.

It also shows prospective visitors that you’re a reliable, respected, and trustworthy source of information.

I am a beginner. Where should I start with SEO?

I recommend auditing your existing content as a starting point.

Make your pages more readable, add keyword-optimized headings, and create unique title tags and meta descriptions.

What are some common SEO mistakes beginners make?

Some of the most common SEO mistakes I see beginners make include:

Focusing on high-volume keywords instead of niche long-tail ones.
Ignoring technical SEO like mobile responsiveness and page load speed.
Using black-hat SEO to try and boost rankings (for example, paying for spammy backlinks).

Conclusion

SEO is often like trying to fire an arrow at a moving target.

However, learning the basics of SEO makes it much easier for you to hit the mark.

The great thing about SEO is that there’s a lot you can do to boost your search engine rankings, even if you have no or limited technical skills.

A great start is to review your existing content. What can you do to add value to your pages and make it easier for visitors to find what they need?

Think of your audience and the search engines when working on your site. What steps can you take to show them your site has all the right answers?

Finally, don’t forget to optimize for mobile.

That’s SEO 101. With enough practice, anyone can do these things—and reap the rewards.

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