Where do I start with SEO?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by SEO and don’t know where to start, you’re not alone. SEO is one of the broadest fields within digital marketing and incorporates so many metrics and skillsets that it’s a challenge to know where to start, even for seasoned professionals. Because SEO encompasses so many different tactics, it’s difficult to determine what actually is and isn’t SEO. It’s a complex, ever-changing field, but the good news is that you don’t need to master it overnight. By focusing on key fundamentals and taking incremental steps, you can start seeing improvements in your website’s visibility and traffic.

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• Is SEO dead? A response to Larry Kim
• How long does SEO take to work?
• Why is SEO so expensive?

What SEO is (and isn’t)

Before diving into specific tactics, it’s important to understand what SEO is and what it isn’t.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s the process of improving your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results, particularly on Google. The goal is to increase visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately generate more leads or sales.

SEO involves several key components:

• On-page SEO: Optimising your website’s content and structure.
• Off-page SEO: Building backlinks and improving your online reputation.
• Technical SEO: Ensuring your website runs smoothly and is easy for search engines to crawl.

What SEO Isn’t

• SEO is not a quick fix. It takes time to see results.
• SEO isn’t just about keywords. It’s about creating a great user experience and providing valuable content.
• SEO isn’t one-size-fits-all. What works for one business may not work for another.

Define your SEO goals

Before you start optimising your website, or embarking on any type of SEO, you need to know what you want to achieve. Your goals will shape your SEO strategy.

Some common SEO goals include:

• Increasing website traffic
• Generating more leads or sales
• Improving brand visibility
• Targeting a local audience

For example, if you run a local business, your SEO strategy will focus on local SEO tactics, such as optimising your Google Business Profile and targeting local keywords. If you run an e-commerce store, you’ll focus more on product page optimisation and building trust signals like reviews.

Know your audience

One of the biggest mistakes people make when starting with SEO is focusing solely on keywords and search engines, rather than thinking about the people behind the searches. Before you optimise anything, it’s essential to understand who your audience is, what they care about, and how they search for information.

When you know your audience well, you’ll be able to:

• Create content that resonates with their needs and questions
• Use language that matches how they search
• Address their pain points with solutions they’re actively seeking

Identify your audience’s needs

Start by asking yourself:

• Who are my ideal customers?
• What problems do they need solving?
• What questions are they asking online?
• How do they describe their challenges in their own words?

For example, if you are a personal fitness trainer, then your audience are people that want to get fit. They’re likely searching for practical advice on fitness such as weight loss or muscle building. Their queries may include terms like “how to lose belly fat” or “how to build muscle”. Knowing this will help you create content that answers those specific questions.

Practical tips for knowing your audience

There is an entire process for understanding audiences and we cover it in the Audience Targeting module of our digital marketing course. If you’re looking for a quick guide, then you can:

1. Talk to your customers – If you already have customers, ask them about their challenges and what they were searching for when they found you.
2. Use tools to find audience insights – Tools like Answer the Public and Google’s People Also Ask, and SEMrush can help you discover the types of questions your audience is asking online.
3. Review your competitors – Look at what your competitors are publishing and what types of content are driving engagement.

When you truly understand your audience, your SEO strategy becomes more focused, more relevant, and more effective.

Conduct keyword research

When you feel you know exactly who you are targeting, you can move on to conducting keyword research. Keyword research is essential to any successful SEO strategy. It involves identifying the search terms your potential customers are using to find products or services like yours.

How to do basic keyword research

1. Think like your customers: What would they type into Google to find your business?
2. Use keyword research tools: Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you find relevant keywords with search volume data.
3. Start with a ‘seed’ keyword like ‘fitness’. Typing this in to a keyword research tool will then display all the keywords that contain this seed keyword. You can then select the keywords you feel your audience may be using.
4. Focus on long-tail keywords: These are more specific phrases (e.g., “affordable SEO services in London” rather than “SEO”) that are less competitive and more likely to convert.

Where to use keywords

Once you have a list of keywords, you need to strategically place them throughout your website:

• Page titles
• Headings (H1, H2, H3)
• Meta descriptions
• URL structures
• Content (blogs, product descriptions)

Optimise your website’s content

Content is king when it comes to SEO. Search engines want to provide users with the most relevant and valuable content possible.

Create high-quality content

Your content should:

• Answer your audience’s questions.
• Provide value (inform, educate, solve problems).
• Be well-structured and easy to read.

For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “small business accounting tips”, your blog post should cover practical advice, FAQs, and actionable steps that provide real value.

Update existing content

If you already have a website, go through your existing pages and refresh outdated content. Make sure your content is relevant, accurate, and includes target keywords.

Embrace Technical SEO

Even the best content won’t rank well if your website is slow, difficult to navigate, or not mobile-friendly. That’s where technical SEO comes in.

Key Technical SEO areas to check

• Page speed: Your website should load in under 3 seconds.
• Mobile-friendliness: Your site must be responsive on all devices.
• Crawlability: Ensure search engines can easily crawl and index your site.
• Secure your site: Use HTTPS to provide a secure browsing experience.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console can help you identify technical issues and fix them. Third party tools like SEMrush and Screaming Frog can crawl your website and itentify issues such as broken links and crawl errors.

Build backlinks

When you are confident your website is in good shape and you have a solid content strategy, you can start thinking about backlinks. Backlinks are links from other websites to your site. They signal to Google that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.

How to build backlinks

• Create shareable content: High-quality content is more likely to earn backlinks naturally.
• Reach out to industry websites: Ask for links to your content if it provides value to their audience.
• Get listed in directories: Ensure your business is listed in relevant local directories and industry-specific sites.

Track your progress

SEO is an ongoing process. You need to regularly monitor your website’s performance to see what’s working and what needs improvement.

Key metrics to track

• Organic traffic: How many visitors are coming to your site from search engines?
• Keyword rankings: Are your target keywords climbing the rankings?
• Bounce rate: Are users leaving your site quickly?
• Conversion rates: Are you getting more leads or sales from your SEO efforts?

Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track data on visitors, conversions and user engagement, and tools like SEMrush Position Tracking to monitor your ranking positions.

Skillsets required

Although anyone can add keywords to a page, professional SEO requires multiple skillsets. Large campaigns can include a team of experts all specialising in specific aspects of the campaign. These skillsets can include:

SEO is a highly rewarding industry to be in if you have a versatile mindset and enjoy a challenge. Most people that start out in SEO learn the basics such as keyword research and on-page SEO, then move on to specialise in a field such as content creation or data analysis.

So, where do you start with SEO?

1. Understand what it is (and isn’t)
2. Define your goals
3. Know your audience
4. Conduct keyword research
5. Optimise your website’s content.
6. Embrace Technical SEO
7. Build backlinks
8. Track your progress
9. Rinse and repeat

Good luck!