SEO Made Simple: a beginner's guide

SEO is often thought of as some kind of mythical beast, one that can only be tamed by the most technically-adept or magically-whizzy of us… but this is simply not true! So, where to start with SEO for beginners?

Because a lot of the ‘talk’ around SEO includes scary-sounding terminology like algorithms, metadata, meta tags and keyword planning, many small business owners run away screaming or pretend they haven’t seen it and try to ignore learning about SEO completely.

October is all about DEBUNKING the “SEO is so complicated!” myth!

During October, I'll also be launching a comprehensive self-study course for beginners - SEO Made Simple. You can check it out here.

Let's face it, nobody clicks all the way through to page 5 of Google's search results.png

So, if you're a newbie to SEO, over the course of the next month, I’m going to be showing you:

What SEO is,
Why it’s important,
and the simple steps you can take to improve your own!

The SEO factors that have the MOST impact on your ranking online are often actually the EASIEST to implement!

Here's some good news:

Click to Tweet.png — The SEO factors that have the MOST impact on your ranking online are often actually the EASIEST to implement!

- Dani Juson, Thrive Marketing

There are plenty of comprehensive guides to SEO out there, but frankly, they’re enough to confuse even the best of us. I’m committed to breaking this often-overlooked topic down into bite-size chunks so that you can actually understand what it’s all about and do the small things you need to do to improve your own online presence.

So what is SEO?

Simply put, Search Engine Optimization covers a collection of improvements, tweaks and ‘things’ you can do with your website and social media presence to make yourself more ‘visible’ online (essentially, to Google - that big mother-daddy of a search engine that we all know and love).

It’s pretty important that our potential customers can actually find us online, right? If they don’t know we’re here, they can’t buy! So, we want to be ‘ranking’ for our top ‘search terms’ (arghhh! please don’t run away just yet! I promise to explain!) so that if somebody searches say, for example “physiotherapist in gloucestershire”, they’re damn well going to find your website, social media platforms, (ideally, great reviews) and an easy process to book an appointment online! Simples...right?!

So how do you achieve that?!

The SEO factors that have the MOST impact on your ranking online are often actually the EASIEST to implement.png

How do we make sure that when somebody searches for a solution that is an exact fit to what we do, sell or offer, that Google shows us to them?! For SEO beginners, making small changes can mean the difference between being in the top 2 or 3 results on a search term and only coming up on page 5 (and let’s face it, NOBODY clicks all the way through to page 5).

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is what we call all the small things, tweaks, changes, and implementations we can make to ensure WE get in front of those potential customers before our competitors do. Not that competition’s a bad thing, ever, but let’s give ourselves a head start, yeah?

SEO “experts” like to claim that it’s all extremely complicated and secretive in order to charge small businesses extortionate sums of money to ‘manage’ their SEO.

The reality is, no one can ‘guarantee’ to get you onto Page 1 of a Google Search, nor are they probably actually doing much to warrant that exorbitant monthly retainer you’re paying them. Sure, there's some upfront work involved, but once you understand the principles, it’s a case of applying smart SEO actions to your posts, blogs, and new site pages as you publish them.

SEO is not a magic pill that will grab you thousands of clamoring prospective customers overnight. It’s a cumulative, ongoing effort that over time will yield you better and better results (particularly as you add content to your site - more on that later).

SEO is often thought of as some mythical beast that can only be tamed by the technically-adept or magically-whizzy of us - but this is simply not true!.png

Nobody truly understands how the Google search bots work and what their algorithms are - and they’re changing all the time. If you were around in the online space back in the early 2000s you’ve probably heard of, or come across, what we call ‘black hat’ SEO techniques such as keyword stuffing - this shit no longer works; Google wised up to it years ago, and if anybody tries to suggest they’ll do this for you or you should do it yourself - give them a strong swerve!

In the most basic of nutshells, Google rewards valuable content. So you see why, as a content marketing strategist, I feel it’s super important that my clients understand the basic principles of SEO?!

Ready to learn a little bit more about the small things you can do to get yourself and your online presence out there and in front of the eyeballs of potential customers? Then get your mitts on the SEO Made Simple self-study course.