Are you ready to learn Search Engine Optimization for free? If yes, here is your All in One Step by Step SEO Guide.

This SEO GUIDE for beginners and progressive marketer has complete SEO basics, tools, on-page and off-page optimization techniques, Google algorithm updates, and do and don’ts to follow.

Why is search engine optimization so important? Yes, It is. The organic search result is extremely important for any website. Regular Google Algorithm updates affect the website ranking from time to time. Then, your precise efforts are extremely important. Read this SEO Guide for optimizing the results.

When you start your journey to learn SEO, the knowledge in bits and pieces makes you more confused and are often time-consuming. WHY AND HOW puts a lot of pressure and you begin to read a lot about search engine optimization but the best suggestion is to be a Data-Driven Marketer.

Data analysis and a list of synchronized actions can lead to better SEO results with average efforts rather than investing a lot of time on one technique. It’s a long procedure and your result cannot be determined in a week. But dedicated efforts will give the desired results.

This SEO GUIDE includes

• Organic Search Statistics
• SEO Basics
• Google Algorithm Updates
• SEO Tips & Tricks: On-page & Off Page Techniques
• Dos and Don’ts
• Free SEO Tools

 SEO Statistics

WHY is SEO important? I am starting with SEO statistics. Statistics matter as it indicates how important SEO is for your website. Why start learning SEO blindly. Make a synchronized pattern to understand SEO.

I have solved out queries regarding

• Market share of different search engines
• Searches made on Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet
• Google SERP

Here we go now…

The crux of the data analysis

According to Net Market share

• Average Net shared by Google throughout 2017 is 74.54%. So, Google remains the market leader
• Average Net market share by Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu is 5-11%, which can’t be ignored
• Net market Share by  AOL, duckduckgo and Ask all have less than 1%

Search Engine Dominance on Mobile Devices (2017-18)

• Google dominates on mobile search results, having more than 90% of market share
• Baidu has a 6.93% market share 
• Both Bing and Yahoo have a market share of 1.02%

 According to Internet live Stats,

• Daily search on Google is 3.5 billion (On equating, approximately 1.2 trillion worldwide)

Now you got the answer to “Why” you should optimize your Website for search engines and now my point is

What is Search Engine Optimization?

 It is very necessary to know SEO deeply and how important it is to get a position higher ranking in GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS and other search engines. Search Engine Optimization can be very well explained as it is the process of optimizing the visibility of a website/web page in a search engine’s unpaid results for a certain keyword, but the first 5 of GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS gets 67-70% of all clicks, so you can’t afford to ignore SEO. When anyone performs a search query, Search Engine Optimization contributes to higher web page rank in the SERPs.

Importance of Search Engine Optimization

SEO is important as the ultimate goal is to appear on GOOGLE FIRST PAGE; this drives traffic and converts into the leads

1. SEO STRATEGIES: Better SEO STRATEGIES makes the website user-friendly
2. CREDIBILITY: Users blog sharing likes and comments improve the credibility of the website
3. OUTPERFORMANCE: Better optimized websites bury competitors SEO strategy and improve sales

Now moving ahead of the very important aspect of search engine optimization, Guess what??

It is Google Algorithm updates….

Google Algorithm Update (2018)

Google Algorithm is dynamic in nature and changes very frequently. Keep a track of Google algorithm update like Google Panda Update, Google Penguin Update, Hummingbird Update, Google Pigeon Update, and so on.

The high priority criteria that you should include to optimize your website

Mobile First Indexing

As Google dominates on mobile search results and has more than 90% of market share, It’s the time for mobile-friendly websites, so you need to take care of your website parameters.

 Voice Search

Voice search is a game changer. Nowadays voice search is an easier way to search on Google and YouTube.

Content and Links

Content is King. Well written content and high-quality link building improve your ranking chances.

Video Marketing

YouTube videos, Facebook videos and other kinds of promotional videos will add advantage to website ranking. This improves website ranking and credibility among users.

User Experience Signal

Visitors experience to a website also signals to the ranking factor. Now improve your user experience to get a better google ranking.

Why wait now? It’s time to learn  SEO Tips and Tricks. Go ahead…

SEO On-page and Off-page Optimization Techniques 

# Tags & Titles: In-depth keyword analysis for writing Title and use keywords in H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 TAGS appropriately.

# Great Content: Just good content won’t be enough; you need great content to drive traffic.

# Meta Description: Meta Descriptions should be well defined for each page and should be a brief summary.

# Images: Optimize, compress & rename the images as per keywords and fill ALT Tags for images.

# Mobile Friendliness: Web pages should be touch responsive, mobile friendly & must have Call to Action.

# Validity: All Pages should have embedded with social media buttons & pages should be W3c Valid.

# Coding Hierarchy: Take care of coding hierarchy & mention comment for each page while coding.

# Loading Speed: Check the loading time of the website with Pingdom Website Speed Test & if bad, rectify the issues as soon as possible.

# Broken Links: Rectify broken links on the website and URL link should be as per SEO parameters.

# JavaScript: Minify all JavaScript.

# 301, 302, 404 & Canonical Tags: Take care of 301 Redirect URL for new links to redirect old pages to new pages and there should be 404 error pages for non-existing content search. Besides this, take care of Canonical Tags wherever required.

# Hosting Account: Choose the good hosting account, the server should be responsive.

# Robot.txt & Sitemap.xml: Check Robot.txt & Sitemap.xml existence.

# Text/HTML Ratio: Check out Keyword density, keyword proximity and Text/HTML ratio. Improve them, if required.

# Schema Markup: Implement Schema Markup for search engines to crawl your content in an organized manner and display it correctly.

# No Follow & No Index: Use no follow and no index directives carefully in your website.

# Trust Flow and Citation Flow:  Check the Trust Flow and Citation flow of the website and improve them as per requirement.

# Major Off Page Criteria: Check Domain Authority, Page Authority, Page Rank, Social Sharing, Link Juice and Anchor text.

# Uniformity of Keywords: Good Keyword Analysis brings Great SEO RESULTS. It is not the only consideration, but a major player in SEO as complete web pages are full of content, images, tags, and titles.  With qualitative content, the right use of keywords throughout the pages will slowly and steadily improve the web page rank.

You can use the Google Keyword Planner, Alexa Competitor Keyword Matric and Keywords Difficulty Tools in SEO TOOLS of ALEXA. GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORD PLANNER is free as you sign up for Google AdWords while signing up for 7 days advance trial plan of Alexa site, will give the full insight of competitors’ keywords. This will simplify your job to start, but deactivate your advance plan when your trial period ends. Other tools for keyword research are KwFinder, LongTailPro, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Research Tool.

# Blog, a Must in SEO

Blogging is the best way to drive genuine traffic to your website as Blog is mandatory when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.  You should do in-depth research on topics with respect to your web page content and try to read a lot on competitors site to know what blog exactly works and how to blog in the best manner to drive traffic. Build an authentic image among subscribers and visitors.

# Earn Good Backlink/Inbound Links

You need to work hard to get good backlinks (Inbound Links) and try to get backlinks from high domain authority websites from a relevant field which increases the quality votes for your website.

# Local SEO for Your BRAND

As a beginner, you should register your brand with Google My Business and other local search engines to get better visibility. Add your business name & address on important pages of your website like the home page and contact us page.

# Outbound links & Internal Links

Create only relevant outbound links that relate to your content and create proper internal links throughout the website for user friendliness that provides easy navigation for both users and search engines.

# GDPR compliance

GDPR compliance is playing an important role to safeguard visitors credentials, it will also influence website ranking.

Apart from on-page optimization, to improve your page rank and domain authority, you need to opt for Website link submissions, Article submissions, Social bookmarking, Video submission, Profile submissions, and Wiki submissions.

 SEO TOOLS

Avoid Black Hat Strategies: If you are interested to go a long way and want great results, follow WHITE HAT STRATEGIES instead of BLACK HAT STRATEGIES. As a beginner, you should know a few basic tools to track the SEO results

# Chrome Extensions: Alexa Traffic rank, Woorank & Alexa Rank

# SEO Tools:  Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Semrush, Kissmetrics,  Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, Alexa Competitor Keyword Matric and Keywords Difficulty Tools in SEO TOOLS of ALEXA. GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORD PLANNER, SEO BOOK KEYWORD DENSITY ANALYZER, KwFinder, LongTailPro, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Research Tool & Pingdom Website Speed Test, Grammar Check Tools, and Plagiarism Checker.

Inference

It is not an easy job to work on SEO. It requires patience and you need to give time to get the results. You need to learn SEO step by step. Learn about each On-page and Off-page SEO techniques. Each tool contributes to Valid SEO results. Explore them, use them to analyze your efforts.

I hope this Step by Step SEO Guide is helpful to give a self- start to an active digital marketer like you.

Go and achieve your goals. Write to Tarannum Khan at digitaltarannum@gmail.com.

Do share your views & connect to my Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn accounts.

Tarannum Khan is a passionate and proactive Marketer, Blogger, Author, Educationist, and Speaker who has more than 6 years of experience in the field of digital marketing. She derives simple solutions for complex goals. She has Proficiency in SEO, Designing & Animation software for promotional campaigns and has Edge over Google AdWords, Affiliate Marketing, Content Marketing, SMM, SMO, and Blogging.