SEO for beginners can seem daunting, but it’s all about good writing and getting to grips with how Google serves up your website to users. Back in the days when the world wide web was brand new and connecting to the internet made a really weird noise, search engines were only just starting to develop. Whether you used Lycos, Alta Vista or politely wanted to Ask Jeeves a question, they were all pretty much the same. They would search the internet for the keywords you entered and show you what they found. This was great until website owners started to stuff their pages with relevant words, often in blocks of tiny text at the foot of the page hidden to the user. This resulted in a mixed bag of results, often not at all what you wanted.

Then, in the early 2000s, Google stepped in. Using its Page Rank algorithm, it started to look not just at the words on the page, but how many other websites linked to it. This implied it was a useful site, giving Google the confidence to recommend it to you.

Google now handles around 8.6 billion searches every day. It dominates the search engine market, handling around 93% of all searches. So whilst other alternatives are still available, most notable is Microsoft’s Bing, Google is still the king. This means if you want to rise up to be in the top results so customers can find you, you need to know how it works. Here’s how SEO works on Google.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO for short is a way to make sure your website is Google friendly so that it knows what you are offering and can confidently show what you have to a user. A website is of no use if nobody can find it, so making sure your site is as visible as possible is crucial.

Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing. Google’s smart algorithm looks at many aspects of your site. Keywords are still vital, but Google also looks at their context, your overall site structure, site speed, how easy your site is to read and a myriad of other checks. SEO is a way to make sure everything is laid out for Google so that it is happy with what it sees – sort of like when someone comes into a shop. If they can find exactly what they want quickly and are served in good time, they will recommend your shop to others. However if they struggle to find an item, and it’s not as described and it took a long time to buy it, they won’t advise people to go there.

Here’s a few tips on helping your website rise to the top of Google searches. Do note that SEO is a long game. It can take a while to consistently rank highly, but there’s no better time to start getting there than now.

Use headings to structure your pages

Google likes to read headings because that’s an easy way it can tell what is on your page. Take a look at the headings on this page. You’ll see we use the term ‘SEO’ a lot, and our headings describe what we are going to talk about in each section. This gives Google a useful overview of what the page is about.

Link to credible pages

As mentioned, Google likes pages which link to other pages. It also likes to see inbound links to your pages, as it shows that you are credible. Don’t be afraid to link to other sites to back up what you are saying. We have written an article about linking to credible sites here.

Do your keyword research

Keyword research is a way to discover what people are searching for in your area of business. This can be used to inspire the writing of a new blog post around the subject, or to better help target existing articles.

Keyword research can be done using Google Keywords, which is free. Alternatives include SEMrush, which requires a subscription but offers more tools to help with your research.

Keyword research tells you how many people search for a given term. For example, a search for ‘car’ reveals that there are 135,000 searches for this each month and an organic search result will bring back 11.7 billion URLs (web addresses). Clearly, it would be very hard to rise to the top of this one. So consider being more specific. If we try instead ‘BMW used cars Edinburgh’ we see that there are 50 searches for this each month and only 88 URLs will be returned. Being specific with your keywords is crucial, and helps you target customers searching for the exact service you are offering.

Finally, make sure you use keywords in your title, first paragraph, last paragraph and throughout as required. Don’t overdo it though – remember Google doesn’t like keyword stuffing! Can you see what our primary keyword for this blog is?

Use alt text on your images

Alt text, or alternative text, describes an image on your website. Using alt text is important because it allows those using screen readers to understand what pictures you are using. As a result, it’s great for accessibility. You can find out more about accessible comms for the blind and partially sighted here.

It’s also used by Google to understand what images you have used on your site. This further helps it to know what your site is about. It also means your images are more likely to turn up on images searches, which can also lead people to your site.

Try to be as descriptive as possible when using alt text. Instead of ‘a picture of a car’, try instead ‘a red BMW with gold wheel trims sits outside Edinburgh Castle on a sunny day”.

Other ways to keep your website SEO healthy

We’ve written other articles on the best ways to keep your website looking and sounding great. For example, you can consider avoiding jargon on your site whenever possible. Make sure you write in plain English and use engaging language so that your message is clear.

Hopefully this SEO for beginners blog has lifted the curtain on some of the mysteries that surround the internet.

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