SEO guide for Beginners

About SEO?

Have you created a website to present your passion or your business, to create an online store or a seasonal rental site? Although the primary purpose of a site is not to attract large numbers of Internet users, it must still be seen (the purpose of a website is to reach an ever-larger audience from all over the world to make sales of the products or services, to transmit helpful information or to obtain new customers).In this SEO guide for beginners, we will discuss all the basics of SEO in detail.

What is SEO?

The SEO is to implement practices to bring up a website in search engines and make it gain positions on the first page.
This somewhat “rough formwork” definition requires some clarification: this is what we will see throughout this SEO guide for beginners.

What is a search engine?

A search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing) is a site on which you search for information by typing in keywords (or “queries”).

Every search engine has its own database containing links to pages of websites, and according to those search engine algorithms that links are organized hierarchically.

These databases are fed by the work of robots that automatically browse the web.

These robots find and index new pages that are not yet in the search engine databases and update pages that are already there but have been modified. These pages can then be found by users by typing some of their desired keywords.

How to make a website appear in the search engines?

Once your site is created, it is online! That is, it can be accessed by typing the address in the address bar. But it is not indexed the same day: you will not find it if you do a search.

Before trying to be first on a keyword or appearing on the first page of a search engine, you simply have to be present in search engines. This is what we call the indexing phase of SEO.

If you find your site by typing its URL address or your brand name, then your site is indexed.

If you created your site today or a few days ago and it does not appear on the search engines yet? Do not panic, this is completely normal.

Rather than waiting for the site to appear on its own in Google (or another search engine), submit it directly. This is the first step that any webmaster must take in creating a new site. You don’t need to submit all your pages, the home page is enough.

Do not neglect your presence on other search engines. Yahoo and Bing are search engines that can also bring you traffic.

• Submit the site to Google: http://www.google.fr/addurl/
• Suggest a site to Yahoo and Bing: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url

Gaining positions in search engines

This is what we call the SEO optimization phase. During the entire existence of your site, you must do what is necessary to gain positions in a search engine. How to offer attractive content to a search engine and what should you avoid doing?

This is what we will see in most of the articles that Optimization is not just a step (like the indexing phase), it is an approach to have throughout the life of your site.

Here are some steps to Gain position in Search engines

Improve its visibility.

During the whole existence of your site, you must try to progress on queries (keywords) in the search engines.

The purpose of a search engine is to bring out the most relevant content for each keyword, or a combination of search keywords.

To provide the content that people are looking for and the engines will make it work for you!

As soon as you add content to your site, you must have in mind the word SEO and SEO optimization. Adopt an SEO friendly approach.

Optimize content, that is, pay attention to the way you write your pages. It is necessary to write for the surfer but also to please the search engines. Search engines are able to give ratings to content and thus highlight quality pages. Offering original and quality content will allow you to stand out more easily on a search engine. If you offer quality and quantity of content, you could become a reference by occupying the best places in the search engines.

A search engine does not read a page like a human being, you have to present the content in a structured way. Take a logical, almost mathematical approach. To do this, use the tags H1 to H6, to structure your texts in small logical paragraphs.

Optimize the structure of your site to facilitate exploration. If your site is easy to crawl for a human, it will be for a search engine. Make your navigation menu clear; if the navigation is clear for the user, it will also be clear for the search engine. Put your content in categories; organize your site clearly from the home page.

Don’t lose your visitors, if you want to personalize the 404 pages, arrange for it to always redirect the Internet user (and the search engines) to the home page of your site or to popular pages. Avoid creating pages that are too heavy to load If a page is too long, the user may get lost.

Optimize Meta tags, Meta tags provide information to search engines on the content of a page. Whenever you add a new page, a new blog post, or any other type of content, remember to add the Meta tags of that page or post. We can add meta tags to pages and posts through different WordPress SEO plugins

Local SEO.

If you have an activity whose scope is said to be local (example: locksmith, web agency, or restaurant), the notion of local referencing will interest you.

To start, put yourself in the place of Internet users and search for a plumber on Google for example. You will certainly have the reflex to enter “plumber” and to associate this search with a geographical position. By typing “plumbers in New York”, you will have all the chances to bring out the most relevant results and find a plumber near you

The aim of Google is to make life easier for Internet users: if the search engine giant can prevent a user from entering information unnecessarily, he will do so. Besides, it does! Google automatically displays the closest results, geolocated according to the IP address of the user who searches. If you are in New York and you type “Restaurant” you will automatically be able to consult the list of restaurants around you!

Here are some tips to make the most of your chances and hope to gain your location on Google Map or in Google’s natural results.

Register on Google My Business

This option allows you to create a file to stand out on Google Map, with a presentation of your activity, your opening hours, telephone number,or contact details. A link to your website can also be added, as well as photos of your premises or your team. As a professional, the advantages of Google My Business are numerous: display your presence at the top of the Google giant on local and targeted queries!

Local in your content

If you are a rabbit breeder in Reims,for example, say so! Google will study the consistency, make the link between the MyBusiness page, and what you have entered on your site. So, optimize your titles and content by citing your area of ​​action (Reims, Champagne Ardennes, Marne

Indicate your address clearly on your site (why not in the footer, common to all the pages of the site)

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a community site that lists consumer reviews. It is dedicated to professionals in tourism, accommodation, nd catering. Create your card on Tripadvisor and increase the visibility of your establishment on the web! On e-monsite, we have developed the Tripadvisor widget to invite internet users to leave a review on your establishment.

Yelp

Yelp is also one of the good addresses to optimize its local referencing: it is a site that allows users to find good addresses (the place to be for merchants). Register then invite your customers to leave a review!

Bing Addresses

Like GoogleMyBusiness, Bing also offers its service to highlight companies in search results. With BingPlace, create your profile for free and help customers discover your business. Stand out in the results when customers search on their computers or mobile devices.

Get good links to your website

Links to your site can be obtained naturally if you offer quality content. But do not hesitate either to register your site in directories, getting do-follow links from other websites, and thus multiply the links towards this one.

Avoid the services that offer you to add hundreds of registrations at once. It is more interesting to do it manually, it is binding but it ensures that it is done well and that the link is created (preferably with different titles and descriptions at each registration).

Try to get links on strategic words. So when you are going to register on directories or do link exchanges, try to get a link made up of keywords.

Think about social media

Give your internet users the possibility to share your content.

Whether or not these links have an impact in terms of SEO on social networks, this will at least have the viral effect of attracting “interested” traffic, assuming that the network of a person who has shared content goes consult and share it in turn. To set up this option on your site, we recommend that you read the tutorial:  activate the sharing buttons on social networks