SEO Basics Before Setting up a Website

Have you ordered the creation of a website for your business, assembled it yourself in an online constructor, or decided to use a one-page version of the landing page? In any case, you will need basic knowledge to understand the site engine’s technical features and learn the principles of its promotion, support, modernization, and monetization (ways to generate income directly through the site itself). This article will analyze the concept of SEO Basics or Search Engine Optimization Basics. Google search robots must know about your site, consider it reasonable, show it to Internet users more often, increase the number of visits, and bring new buyers of goods and services.

What Exactly SEO Is Needed for

First of all, SEO services are aimed at a constant increase in search traffic. Search traffic is potential buyers who come to your site for the search query they type in the search bar. SEO is a set of tasks to increase sales through the site, increase the time the client stays on the page, collect feedback and replenish the base of loyal customers. Also, one of the critical advantages of this type of promotion is bringing the site to the top in the SERP.

SEO is a long-term investment. The first signs that your site has begun to move to the top of search results will begin to appear 3-4 months after the start of work. You need to be patient and ready to invest. Therefore, if your project is young, it is essential to plan the stages of promotion, study SEO optimization on your own, and implement the knowledge gained according to the plan.

Website Visitors Are Always the Most Important

Response to a user request or user experience is the criterion by which Google search robots determine how exciting and valuable your site is for the end buyer and a simple visitor who visits your site to read information about a product, service, or company. Just note that the site must:

• load quickly;
• be interesting;
• be useful;
• offer sales easily.

When there is no way to figure it out on your own, attract specialists. With their help, you can explore the existing resource and draw up a plan for its promotion, think over a development strategy for a new site, and evaluate budgets. Large companies do not save on specialists, so they hire an SEO optimizer with the whole team, which can guarantee a relatively quick promotion result. SEO implies the work of a whole team whose specialists complement each other. Complex work will require several people and a team leader.

SEO Basics When You Decide to Start

Any promotion begins with a competitor analysis. By niche (what you do/plan to do), it is necessary to analyze sites that are now in the first positions in the search. If your website is young, focus on companies in the same region. For a more experienced enterprise, it is worth focusing nationwide.

After analyzing competitors, the semantic core is collected. For this, information about your competitors is useful. It is always easier to analyze the data of companies that are already successfully selling a product or service.

How Do Site Visitors Find a Resource?

Semantics in SEO are the queries of web users. They express their interest in something by entering questions into the search bar. For example, “Where can I fix antique clocks.” When all requests for a niche are collected, an analysis of competitors is carried out, the keywords are selected, and tasks for copywriters, designers, and technical specialists are prepared. For the Internet user’s request to lead them to the required site, a lot of routine work is done, but internal optimization also includes technical work, page design, and content filling. Properly configured optimization and a well-designed site filled with interesting information will help you attract users and turn them into regular customers.

Responsibilities of an SEO Specialist

The duties of an SEO specialist include the analysis and refinement of the site according to the requirements of search engines. Content is the most important thing for search engines, so you often have to work with semantics. However, the tasks are not limited to this. Here’s what an optimizer can also do.

Technical and SEO Audit

To start technical optimization of the site or to deal with content, you first need to understand what needs to be done. For this, there is an audit: checking a web resource for errors that hinder promotion. An SEO optimizer analyzes the site manually or with the help of special programs: how fast it loads, whether it has a mobile version, and whether the titles and meta tags are written.

Internal Site Optimization

A big part of the work here is performed not by the SEO specialist but by the technical staff. These are loading acceleration, code and layout optimization, usability improvement, creation of meta tags, and removal of elements that only slow down the page – in general, there are many tasks. Even if the optimizer does not perform them manually, they must understand what is happening with the site, what exactly needs to be fixed, and why. Knowledge will also help to set accurate and feasible tasks for the performers.

Compilation of the Semantic Core

The task of the optimizer is to think over the content for the pages so that the search engine considers them relevant for specific queries. For this, there is the concept of a semantic core, a pool of phrases related to the site’s theme. The optimizer assembles the semantic core by analyzing user requests, keywords in competitors’ texts, etc. Then the collected phrases are divided into groups according to the meaning of the words – into clusters. Each cluster is the basis for the page and the content on it.

Ordering Content and Drafting Technical Requirements

The optimizer leaves the structure of the future content to the will of the author or prescribes it on one’s own – a lot depends on what the customer thinks about this. Depending on the company, a manager or an SEO specialist can handle direct communication with copywriters.

Internal Linking

Created and optimized pages need to be linked to each other using links. This is necessary to create the structure of the site: the user will see a link on one page to another, click and, as a result, spend more time on the site and visit more pages. Internal linking is a task in which thoughtfulness is essential. The linked pages must have something in common, and their content should be interesting to the same users.

External Optimization

It is started after internal optimization or simultaneously with it. Authoritative resources must link to a site to be trusted by a search engine. This can be achieved by buying links or placing affiliate materials. An SEO specialist carefully manages the purchase of link mass so as not to violate the rules of search engines and not fall under sanctions. If the company is thinking of promoting with the help of partner materials, the optimizer can participate in the selection of sites where the brand will publish an article or blog post.

SEO requires a lot of knowledge in web writing, design, technical aspects of search engines, programming, etc. It is often easier to hire a specialist who understands the SEO basics, can do his job, and guarantee the result. All promotion depends on the final task and estimated budgets. You can do it for a long time, efficiently and productively, or you can do it faster but more expensive.