This comprehensive guide covers SEO from top to bottom in a simple yet comprehensive way. Moz is one of the leaders when it comes to SEO insights and all things digital, so it is worth familiarizing yourself with their tools, downloads, reports and YouTube tutorials as your knowledge in the area grows.
An Introduction to SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) allows your site listing to be seen by users. The search results are displayed in a sequence according to relevance of match between the keyword phrase typed into the search engine and the web pages, according to the ranking process used by the search engine.
Before you start - handy tools and downloads
Download and/ or print off the “Moz Beginners Guide to SEO”
Install Google Analytics
You are now putting significant time and effort into managing your SEO tactics. So it is vital that you monitor what your progress and results are. This essential tool will allow you to measure key SEO metrics like:
- How much traffic you’re getting from search engines
- Which pages are getting the most organic traffic
- What the bounce rate of organic traffic is
Register BEFORE you start to work on your SEO, so that analytics will start to be monitored immediately.
https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/
If you are using WordPress - Install Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that makes it incredibly easy for you to create SEO-friendly content and to update each pages titles, meta descriptions, and keyword usage. (There are numerous short video tutorials on YouTube to guide you through the specifics of Yoast)
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/
Claim or Create a “Google My Business” Listing
Google My Business is the digital representation of your physical business so it is essential that your business information is 100% correct. Click on the link below to claim your listing if you haven’t already done so…. Or create a listing if one does not already exist.
https://www.google.co.uk/business/
Verify Your Site in Google Search Console.
This free tool allows you to check how the search engines view your site with reports about indexing status, search queries, crawl errors and penalties. To learn more, read this helpful guide.
Improve Website Performance & Speed
Google will not favour your site if it is too slow to load, in fact it will put you at a huge disadvantage. Therefore, it is very important to analyze your site with Google PageSpeed Insights. Aim to score 80+ to rank well.
Top Tip – check the resolution of all video and imagery
Make sure your site is Mobile friendly
Your site should deliver a great user experience across all devices. Extra important now that Google's algorithm favours mobile friendly sites.