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How to Boost Your Rankings 10 Quick SEO Tips

There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your business sitting on the first page of Google. But, if you’re just starting out, SEO can feel like you’re reading a foreign language. Not to worry–after reading these SEO tips for beginners, you’ll be on your way to climbing the SEO ranks in no time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not exactly the definition of an exciting topic. If you’ve ever looked into it, it’s generally articles that are insanely boring or user guides on how to outcompete your competitor in search results. The thing is if there’s anything business or blogging beginners should know about – SEO is definitely one of them.

While SEO may seem like a daunting task at first, the truth is that with the right tips and tools, you can rank high on Google and bring in more traffic to your blog or business.

With that said, let’s get started. Here are the top 10 SEO tips for beginners that will help you skyrocket your rankings.

1. It’s not just for big companies with big budgets

There are a lot of misconceptions about SEO being an industry reserved only for large corporations who have teams of people working on their online presence and they can spend thousands, even millions of dollars on their SEO campaigns.

This is simply not true. There are many free and budget-friendly SEO strategies you can use to rank high on Google and attract attention. Optimizing your SEO requires a lot of planning and plenty of groundwork, but with the right tools and strategies, you can rank as high (and sometimes higher) as the biggest companies out there.

SEO is not about spending thousands of dollars, it’s more about doing the right things at the right time to generate traffic.

Many of the tools I use are either free or inexpensive.

Here are a few of my must-haves. If some of these seem a little unusual to be on an SEO list, once you read the article, you will understand why they are recommended.

2. There are two types of SEO: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO

On-Page SEO is exactly what it sounds like. It’s all the things that you can control within your website, blog, or web app to get natural search results. This includes things like:

• Keyword research
• Content creation
• Headline creation
• Meta information creation
• Site speed optimization
• Backlinking
• Image optimization
• Broken link checking/removal

Off-Page SEO, on the other hand, is everything that happens on websites other than the one you are trying to promote. This includes but is not limited to:

• Backlinks from other websites
• Press releases
• Directory submissions
• Comments on other blogs
• Customer Reviews
• Guest Blogging
• Social media shares
• Forum comments or posts

Off-Page SEO is harder to control because it requires more time for others or your audience to recognize, engage with and share your content. However, it’s a necessary part of SEO and you should definitely have an idea of how to go about creating a strong presence for yourself online.

3. The more content you create, the better your chance for rankings

Creating content can be both on-page and off-page SEO. This is because when people share your posts either through social media or forums, that creates off-page SEO. Make sure you take the extra time to use the suggestions mentioned in #2 to create great on-page SEO for your new content as well.

When people link back to your content (which is the best way to bring in new traffic), that’s also an external site linking back to you which brings in more traffic and makes your posts rank higher.

This means the more written content you produce, the better your chance of ranking on Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). However, not all content is created equal.

You need to create the right kind of content (that gets shared) to make it work for you. For example, if your website is about dog training then it’s probably not the best idea to write an article about why cats are evil. (Cats really are the best and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.)

The content you create should be around your main keywords and it should address the user intent (i.e. what is the searcher looking to find online). It doesn’t always have to be a full-length blog post, but it should be something that’s easily shareable and speaks directly about your niche.

Creating content is also not just about writing blog posts and articles, it’s about creating a valuable resource that people can use to solve their problems or identify with their pain points.

Content marketing should be an integral part of your business plan because it does more than bring in traffic through search engines; It will help you develop a strong brand presence that can bring in customers for years to come.

I understand finding time and creative burnout is a limiting factor for many people, but working on but you should view creating content as an investment for your site, not a cost.

I started using an AI writing assistant called Jasper to speed up my writing process and to brainstorm creative content ideas when I’m stuck. I’ve told others before that if I was ever forced to pick just one tool for my business, Jasper would be THE one.

4. Keywords are important, but not everything

This concept may be difficult for some people to grasp because most marketing courses and classes teach you that keyword research is THE most important thing for SEO. And yes, it’s true that having the right keywords is important for your content to rank, but using it too much can be considered spammy and actually hurt your rankings.

If you write about “organic dog food” over and over again then Google may flag that as keyword stuffing and then nobody will be able to find your site. So the trick is to use keywords sparingly but not so little that they become useless.

You will need to learn how to write content that uses keywords naturally but don’t abuse them just to rank higher.

Plus, with the introduction of NLP (Natural Language Processing) in Google’s search algorithms, keywords are becoming less important. Google processes queries and search terms in a more conversational way, so focusing on a specific keyword doesn’t matter as much as it once did.

Google is now better able to determine what sort of content is being written about, which means it’s less likely for a site to rank only with certain keywords but rather, with specific phrases and related words that are meant to be used together.

New SEO writing tools are using cutting-edge artificial intelligence to help you write content that uses NLP and provides suggestions (such as length, number of headings/paragraphs, number of photos) to give you the best chance to rank higher in Google results.

I use these two SEO writing tools to optimize my posts:

5. People go to search engines when they want answers

When most people turn to search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), they are not looking for websites to read. Instead, they’re trying to find answers.

Creating content that answers common questions (and is longer in length) is more likely to rank high on SERPs because it tells people exactly what they’re looking for. Additionally, it’s always a good idea to use your keywords at the beginning of your article so that Google knows what it’s about right away.

Google is smart enough now to “watch” whether your site seems to have successfully answered the users’ question, and if they think you have, then your site will likely show higher up on the results page. This is because Google wants to give people what they want (which is mostly answers), not what you (the website) want them to see.

Think about how you use Google yourself: if you search “how to cook a steak,” are you looking for answers about what oven temperature it should be cooked at, how long to cook it for? Perhaps detailed directions with photos or videos?

If the first couple of links you visit don’t have the answer you’re looking for, chances are you immediately leave and go click the next link, right? Once you finally find your answer, you stop checking other links – sending a signal to Google that you’ve found the right website that successfully answered your question. You want to be the last website that the user checked, not the first one that they left.

6. Backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors

I know I just said that creating great content is one of the best ways to rank higher, but backlinks are still incredibly important for your site.

I’m not talking about those spammy blog comments you think give you a link; I’m talking about real backlinks from authority sites and niche-specific blogs.

Get your website and blog posts shared on sites related to your industry and you’ll see a difference in traffic. However, creating backlinks can be time-consuming so you must choose the right strategy for the best results.

For example, creating an infographic that gets shared around social media or getting interviewed on another website gives off the impression that you’re an authority, which will then get you more backlinks.

Don’t underestimate the value of guest posts or asking for backlinks, as these could be the difference between a successful business and one that struggles to make enough money.

NOTE: Do NOT buy backlinks. Google can do its magic and easily see when a site has bought backlinks just to increase its rank. This can get your site penalized and dropped in rank or even your entire site banned from Google.

7. You can’t ignore mobile users and how fast your site loads matters

When Google rolled out the Mobilegeddon update (which basically changed how it ranks sites for mobile searches), a lot of people got really mad because their websites were suddenly sinking in SERPs.

The thing is, most websites aren’t optimized for mobile and Google knows it. They know that you want your site to be shared among friends and family or on social media so they’ve created a way to rank pages higher if they’re properly optimized with things like easy scrolling and bigger buttons for clicking on links.

While most people think of mobile as simply a smaller version of the website, it’s more than that. The speed of your site is critical, as well as the ease of reading and even scrolling. And this goes for desktop users too.

If a website takes forever to load or people have a hard time navigating it, they’re going to leave — which impacts your conversions but it also impacts SEO. Sites that load fast rank higher so even if you have a great web design, are looked at more favorably by Google.

Here are a few ways to check both the mobile usability (according to Google) as well as the speed of your site:

Google Search Console (set up an account if you do not already have one) has a user ‘Experience’ section on their Overview tab as well as a section dedicated to the user experience in the sidebar. Note: If your website is new, there may not be enough data yet to display anything in the Dashboard.

Here are two fantastic free sites to test the speed of your site both for the mobile and desktop version of your site:

Google PageSpeed Insights this is one of the most important tools to check if your website is mobile optimized, how fast it loads, and how much work you need to do. Simply enter your URL and you’ll get a list of tips on how to make your site faster and easier for mobile users to navigate. (Screenshots below.)

GTMetrix is another great site to check how well your site is optimized; you’ll get a list of suggestions on how to make it faster for your users. (Screenshots below.)

Here is my site speed test score report just a month ago: (Yikes, right?)

I make three changes and this was the updated score a day later:

Here are the 3 changes I made:

I moved from a shared hosting plan to a dedicated hosting plan

As my site was growing quickly, my beginner hosting plan was not keeping up with the speed needed to keep up. Luckily, I found a dedicated hosting plan (where your site is the only one on the server) that wasn’t a huge jump in pricing. I was previously paying about $4 a month with HostGator and upgraded to Cloudways for $12 a month. This change took me from a shared hosting environment to a dedicated server – tremendously speeding up my website load speeds.

NOTE ON CLOUDWAYS: Before your account is available, they do an identification check. You’ll be instructed to e-mail them, an autoresponder that will send instructions right away, and they will ask you to provide photo identification and confirm additional ID information.

My approval was handled within 15-20 minutes of sending my documents in. Just want you to have a heads up, as that was a surprise for me. Despite the extra security step, between the low cost for a dedicated server and my experience with their service since – it was worth it.

I now use a best-in-class website speed and image optimization plugin (WordPress)

At the time I had those horrible scores, I was already using a popular paid plugin to handle my cache and optimize my images. I changed plugins to a new popular speed plugin called Nitropack and the difference was night and day.

They have a free version of this plugin, however, it will display an ad at the bottom of your site. I upgraded to their basic plan (there was a significant discount for paying annually) to remove the ad as well as gain additional speed functionality.

I hired someone to handle all the technical aspects for me

Once you set up your trial account with Cloudways and set up your free Nitropack account — if you’re not super technical like me, you’ll need someone who can help you set everything up.

I hired a fabulous freelancer on Fiverr who specializes in site speed (800+ 5-star ratings) to handle all the technical aspects to improve my site speed:

• Migrating my website from Hostgator to Cloudways
• Optimizing Nitropack
• Improving my site scores to 90+ on both desktop and mobile

8. Your site and posts need to create an immersive user experience

In the past, SEO was all about cramming as much information as possible into a single page. This included keyword density and only updated when you felt like it.

SEO is now about looking for ways to keep people on your site longer so that they read more articles or click through to other pages. It’s also increasingly about creating immersive user experiences so instead of just words on a page, are you including videos, images, or other media that interest your readers?

I know this may sound contradictory to the emphasis on getting people answers to their questions quickly. The key here is to optimize your posts to answer the search result first, but still give people enough reason to stay.

If you have a great article with stunning images, consider adding a video from YouTube or Vimeo to go along with it so readers stay longer instead of clicking through to another site.

9. You need to regularly update your site with fresh content

We all know that Google likes to rank higher sites that have been updated recently, but it goes a step further with the concept of regularly updating your website with new and relevant content. This keeps people on your site longer and also sends a signal that it’s not just another abandoned site.

People want to go to a website and find information they can trust without having to wonder if they’re going to find more content a month from now. I know this probably isn’t the first time you’ve heard this, but it’s important!

The key is finding a balance between how often you update your site and what types of information you’re adding. If it’s just a single post every few months then that might be worse than nothing at all. Google isn’t going to rank your site any higher and readers aren’t going to return regularly if you never update the content.

One other factor to consider here is the importance of keeping an eye on how your posts are ranking. If you have a post in the top 100 of Google results, that post is a great place to start – look for opportunities to expand the user experience or create a spinoff post that answers the search result with more detail.

This goes back to my previous point about if you find yourself with a lack of time or creative ideas – consider looking into tools that assist in generating content for you like Jasper.

10. You need to find your voice as an online writer

Having a unique writing style will help you stand out from other sites and blogs so there are a few things you can keep in mind when writing posts.

You should make an effort to sound like a person rather than a robot or company (ironic, considering I’m suggesting using a robot to help write your posts, right?) — this means using contractions and regular, conversational language. Just remember that you’re writing for humans so it can be easy to perfect your tone in your head but not quite work out how to communicate that in the actual words on the page.

The other aspect of finding your voice as a writer is to just be yourself. Don’t try and write like someone else or pretend you’re the expert on every topic even if that’s what you want people to see you as.

A blog post about starting a new business should probably sound very different from one where you teach people how to crochet — those are two very different voices for very different topics.

Remember that people can read between the lines and they’ll be more drawn to your site if you’re authentic and show your personality in writing.

You might be wondering what this has to do with SEO and the truth is, while this isn’t a traditional SEO tip, it’s still important.

Writing for your audience means creating content that they will find useful and enjoyable to read. When you do this, they’ll keep coming back and sharing your stuff with their friends and family via social media.

When someone comes to your website or blog after reading something interesting, they want to learn more about you. They’ll scroll through your social media profiles and check out the other posts on your blogs and sites.

If all goes well, they’ll trust you as an author and come back for more, sending Google signals that your content is valuable and worth ranking for.

When it comes to building a loyal audience or followers, think about the influencers, authors, or creators that you follow — chances are they are unique and have a distinct voice that sets them apart from everyone else. That’s what you should aspire to create as well.

SEO Tips for Beginners Wrap Up

SEO is constantly changing, but if you invest in creating great content and take the time to create a user experience that keeps your readers navigating through your site, you should see an increase in traffic.

These are just my top 10 SEO tips for beginners, but there are tons more information out there if you want to learn more.

Get creative with your writing and don’t be afraid to experiment with different styles, voices, and topics. As long as you’re sharing valuable information, you should be able to see your website grow.

See you at the top!

Do you have an SEO related question for me that I didn’t mention here? Post your comment or questions below!

Would you be interested in reading more on this topic?

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This blog post was written with my AI writing assistant, Jasper.

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