I assume that if you’re reading this post, then your adventure with SEO has just begun.
Great, everyone has been in this place. Me too, and I absolutely had no idea where to start. But don’t worry, this post will solve that problem.
You’ll find out how to:
- Begin your SEO journey painlessly and for free.
- Why content and technical aspects are so important (and enjoyable) in SEO.
- How to write so that others want to read (and buy).
Let’s dive into it.
1/ Choose & Start Writing in Your Niche
Choosing a niche is an absolute foundation.
At the very beginning of your search engine optimization journey, you must decide who you want to create SEO for. How do you do that?
Choose a niche you like and have experience in. It’ll definitely be easier for you to create content for your target audience, to whom you will have a lot to say.
Maybe cooking, traveling, or fashion excites you? Great, that’s precisely your niche.
If you want to go into more detail, you can create an ideal customer profile, also known as an ICP. Determining in detail who your audience is and why they would read what you write will save you a lot of time and money.
What next? Start writing!
Do thorough research and verify what your competition writes about.
Then create your own unique content. Write as much as you can and learn about SEO all you need to know to create desirable results.
Afterward, watch as readers come to your blog and your statistics increase. That is a great feeling!
2/ Buy a Domain
Choosing and purchasing a domain is the next and more serious step. But it’s necessary.
You need to buy a domain, and an integral part of that is purchasing hosting.
Hosting is, in other words, the engine of the domain. It provides space on a server for the domain. A domain cannot exist without hosting.
As for the costs—they are not high. You can buy a domain for $10 per year, especially if you choose a niche that is not very competitive.
How and where to select a good domain and hosting?
I recommend 3 hosting providers at this stage:
A less-known hosting provider, but reliable and adequate for starting an search engine optimization journey (and also for more advanced players).
It is a Polish hosting provider, offering services in English and Ukrainian as well.
Why is it a good choice? At this stage, three things are most important to you:
- Low price (let’s be honest).
- Ease site management and SEO creation.
- High technical support and customer service.
CyberFolks provides all of this. I definitely recommend it.
HostGator is another, more well-known choice in the market.
Price-wise, it can also be a great surprise—the lowest package starts at $3.75 per month. For a start, that’s a super solution.
Within this budget, you can count on 100 GB of SSD storage and an SSL certificate included in the price. Is that enough? For the beginning of your organic-growth journey, it’s certainly a good choice. Find more details at Hostgator.com.
The third and final option on this list, which I suggest, is A2 Hosting.
A tried and true choice from the USA. Its lowest price starts at just $1.99 monthly. You know what that means—it’s hard to find a better offer.
Here are 3 recommendations from my side, although this doesn’t mean there aren’t more providers in the market.
There are many, though some can be more complicated or expensive. At the start of your search engine optimization journey, what’s important for you is efficiency and a good education, not unnecessary expenses.
Check out these 3 hostings: CyberFolks, HostGator, or A2 Hosting and decide for yourself which one suits you best.
3/ Create a Blog and Content
Finally! Now that you’ve purchased your domain and hosting, it’s time to show the world what you have to say.
In this way, your adventure with search engine optimization, also called SEO, officially begins.
Creating search engine optimization involves many aspects related to on-page search engine optimization & off-page SEO. And, less technically speaking, it’s everything a human sees and what search engine crawlers see. You must know that Google’s bots perceive a page differently than a human does.
Okay, you probably thought, ‘what’s the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?’. We couldn’t skip this question.
In a nutshell:
>> On-Page SEO: Refers to the practice of optimizing web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It focuses on elements like content quality, keyword optimization, and HTML tags.
Example: Strategically placing relevant keywords within a webpage’s title tag, meta description, header tags, content body, and, of course; user experience (UX).
>> Off-page SEO: This is everything that users don’t see, but is accessible to search engine crawlers. Off-page focuses on building backlinks from other websites to enhance your site’s authority and reputation.
Example: Acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry.
As you’ve noticed, undoubtedly a key aspect of building search engine optimization will be robust content creation. If you like the copywriting, you’re definitely in a winning position.
You need to know one more thing. Content must be unique, original, and substantive. Why?
Google only ranks pages that generate unique content that carries a message in a given industry.
If you create content by copying it from other blogs or doing copy-paste from ChatGPT, your page will not rank highly in any search engine.
Create only the content that you would want to read yourself.
This 5-rule content decalogue will help you to manage this:
1. Create original content & do not copy from other sites.
2. Each post should have at least 1,500 words.
3. Support your knowledge with information from other sources.
4. Create internal links to your own pages as well as external ones.
5. Avoid keyword stuffing; the same word in your post should not be repeated too often.
4/ Diversify Sources to Get More Traffic to Your Website
Search Engine Optimization is great fun, but you must know one thing; results don’t come immediately.
Depending on your niche, you might wait for the first results in the form of high rankings and more frequent organic traffic to your site for several months. Yes, organic growth takes time, but it is really rewarding in the end.
There are various methods that can speed up organic growth. Their main focus is black-hat SEO. However, avoid it at all costs. It’s a temporary boost, and ultimately, your site may even get banned.
So, how can you increase traffic to your site more quickly?
Use external and trusted traffic sources.
Here they are, the ones I use every day:
My number one. This is a B2B platform created for people who work with businesses and are not strangers to marketing. Starting a blog? Use LinkedIn. Drop legitimate posts every day and see how people are going to love it.
The short message format still dominates there. And rightly so. You can generate more posts that will be more appealing to your audience. Writing for B2B? Great. Like cooking? No problem. Following the media, and that’s what you want to write about on your blog? Post daily news on your X profile. Initially, the result won’t be spectacular, but over time, the boost will be immense. After all, just like anything that we do in everyday life.
A B2B & B2C platform that became famous for being a place to ask questions and find answers. Quora is considered the best forum in the world. You’ll find yourself in any niche. How can you generate traffic to your site through Quora? Look for what people in your niche are asking, provide answers, and post a link to your blog—better yet, a post on the topic. A great and robust opportunity.
If you enjoy creating and watching graphics, then Pinterest is for you. Still, graphics are a main source for acquiring knowledge. Generate graphics, post on Pinterest, and always place a link to your blog. A great way to generate relevant traffic to your site.
Of course, there are many other platforms, but these 4 that I mentioned are the basics. I recommend you start with them.
5/ Learn & Implement SEO Tools in Your Strategy
To grow fast organically, you will need the right tools.
However, don’t delve into all of them and an excessive number of details.
Learn how to:
- Create clickable meta titles.
- Check the most popular subpages.
- Write desired & clickable content in your niche.
- What generates bounce rate and what lowers it.
- The amount of traffic on the site at specific hours.
Above, I’ve listed you the 5 most popular elements that will help you spread your wings in the field of organic growth.
What tools should you use?
Start with Google Analytics.
A free and popular tool that allows you to verify absolutely every piece of data on the site. Starting from the duration of the session, through the country from which your site is displayed, to the number of products sold (if you sell) in your store. Google Analytics is a good start.
You must also use RankMath.
It’s an SEO plugin that will make it easier for you to create content. You’ll learn exactly how to track keywords, how to write meta titles that are clickable, and even how to better name images on your website. RankMath is an excellent toolkit.
Then Senuto is a must.
A reliable Polish tool for creating unique content. Senuto will guide you step by step through the entire content, analyze the keywords, and help you write in a way that generates more organic traffic, and makes your site quickly rank high in the network.
You can think how to learn SEO from scratch because there are still many tools available online. However, don’t throw yourself to the wolves.
Constrain yourself at this stage to these 3 tools: Senuto, RankMath, Google Analytics. After mastering them, you can move further.
6/ Learn How to Write More Appealing Content
Over time, you’ll realize that SEO is mostly about content. Good and clickable content.
The first step in content creation starts with the meta title and moves on to the meta description. These are places where a CTA (Call To Action) must appear, encouraging the reader to click on the link.
Finally, content creation ends its journey in the body text. This is your post.
The more you write, the easier it’ll be to create appealing content.
Interesting and thematic content will be desired by your reader, and also by Google.
Write about topics that help solve problems in your niche—Google (or another search engine) will quickly appreciate it. In this way, your site will rank highly in the search results.
Here are 5 beginner tips for writing so that others want to read:
1/ Write as You Speak
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard about copywriting. Don’t use fancy words that you don’t normally use. But also, don’t swear and use drama. Write lightly. If something is difficult to pronounce—use a synonym. Write in a way that doesn’t tire your reader while reading your post. Then, they will like your style and read you more often.
2/ Use Fewer Words Per Sentence
Ideally, use between 6–10 words per sentence. Don’t stick to this rigidly. If there are fewer or more, it’s okay. Everything depends on the context.
3/ Use Fewer Sentences Per Paragraph
In an ideal scenario, that’s between 5–10. Similar to creating sentences. However, if your content requires a description, don’t hesitate. Sometimes more will have an impact. And sometimes 3 sentences will be enough.
4/ Avoid Keyword Stuffing
What does this mean? Your post should not generate more than 2–3% of a given keyword. Quick math:
Suppose you’re writing about coffee. Your post is 1,500 words, and the word coffee appears 15 times.
1500 / 15 = 1
1% is the number of times the word is repeated in your text. Great.
If you’re starting your adventure with blogging, use this tool: SeoReviewTools. It’s free and will quickly calculate the number of keywords for you.
5/ Write Controversially
“Your Blog Sucks—This Is How to Fix It”
Here’s an example of quick controversy and a good meta title. People love to read about controversy. And even more to click on it. Give it a shot.
7/ Get Insights about On-Page & Off-Page SEO
Understanding on-page & off-page search engine optimization is crucial.
Each affects your site’s visibility in search engines—Google or any other.
On-page SEO focuses on your website’s content. It involves optimizing titles, content, and HTML tags.
Off-page technicalities boost site authority through backlinks. And it gives you knowledge about how search engines work.
Knowing both ensures a comprehensive marketing strategy. This knowledge improves your site’s ranking, provided you implement it well.
Better rankings lead to more traffic and conversions. And that’s what you’re aiming for (or just you will be).
8/ Reach out to SEO Experts and Ask for Advice
I guess you weren’t expecting such advice. Maybe that’s good—let me surprise you!
And don’t worry about a bad surprise. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice from an expert who has been building experience in this field for years. After all, they owned something you didn’t—yet.
Simply—get started talking to experts.
I’m a huge fan of this advice.
The best place for this is LinkedIn, or directly through contact on a blog.
Reach out and see how many (and free) tips you can get. Good luck!
So, you’ve got 8 expert tips how to learn SEO from scratch. But if you’re not a novice, I hope you found something interesting for yourself.
What are your thoughts? Would you add anything?
Drop your idea in the comments, you might help someone who’s just about to start their journey with search engine optimization.
P.S. If you liked this post, you can always support my blogging journey with a good cup of late! 👇
Thanks for reading & contributing!
Simon
Author Profile
- Simon Gorlak is a Digital Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience. He specializes in 3 areas: SEO, Lead Generation on LinkedIn, and Email Marketing. Simon's blog gathers knowledge that helps Marketers & C-level to increase profits from their online businesses. Also, his content helps to reach the most difficult customers, make others' content to be read & purchased. Besides digital marketing, Simon speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish & works as a Head of Business at an Indian Start-up.
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I didn’t know about keyword stuffing. Can my website be banned if I insert too many same words in a single blog post?
If you have some article about keyword stuffing, it will help me.
Thank you
Hey Anika,
There’s some probability. Perhaps your website won’t be ‘banned’ right away, but if you exaggerate with keyword stuffing, you’ll never reach the highest rankings.
When it comes to the article—sure. I wrote something for that occasion. 🙂
Link’s here: https://simongorlak.com/keyword-stuffing-all-you-need-to-know/
Have a good read,
Simon