How to do SEO?

I have had this question put to me in many different ways, mostly:-

• How do I improve my website’s visibility online?

• How do I improve search engine rankings for my website?

• What do you do and how do you do it?

• Can I do SEO myself?

• Interesting, Can you teach me SEO?

• Wow! I want my website to rank in search engines too.

• Can you show me how to do it?

I tell everyone that SEO is not rocket science, with knowledge and loads of patience you can do SEO yourself. Nevertheless, there are two ways of going about it –

1. The first is to hire SEO consultants to do the SEO work for you. There are various websites that will provide you with a list of SEO consultants. SEO consultants charge depending upon the kind of SEO service you want them to provide. Beware of SEO services that guarantee ranking in the top ten results of the search engine ranking pages. It is essential that you follow white hat seo or ethical seo always.

2. The second way is to do it yourself. This blog, SEO best practices, was started with the goal of helping out webmasters with SEO. Although, not the easiest of things to do, SEO is a mix of art and science and requires a ton of patience.

How to Do SEO Yourself: Start with the Basics

You don’t need to tackle everything at once. If you’re learning how to do SEO yourself, start with these practical steps.

1. Define your website’s purpose. What do you want visitors to learn, discover or do when they reach your website?
2. Understand your audience. Who are you trying to reach, and what questions or problems bring them to search engines?
3. Research relevant keywords. Look for the words and phrases your audience uses. Consider what people are trying to accomplish when they search, rather than focusing only on search volume.
4. Create useful, relevant content. Give each important page a clear purpose. Answer readers’ questions accurately, and avoid repeating keywords simply to improve rankings.
5. Write descriptive page titles and meta descriptions. Help search engines and potential visitors understand what each page offers. A meta description can influence how your page is presented in search results, although Google may generate a different snippet.
6. Organize your website and connect related pages. Use clear navigation and relevant internal links to help visitors find useful information.
7. Check your website’s technical foundations. Make sure important pages are accessible, mobile-friendly and reasonably fast, and that search engines can discover them.
8. Set up Google Search Console. Use it to monitor search performance, indexing and potential technical issues.
9. Use Google Analytics if appropriate. It can help you understand how visitors interact with your website. Search Console and Analytics answer different questions, so consider both without treating their metrics as ranking factors.
10. Review and improve gradually. SEO takes time. Measure what changes, investigate the reasons and make improvements based on evidence rather than promises of instant rankings.

Want to learn SEO step by step? Explore our free SEO Academy for structured lessons, or use the First-Time SEO Starter Kit to put the fundamentals into practice.