SEO for Beginners - What is it and Why is it Important?

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's organic results. One important aspect of SEO is optimizing web pages to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be achieved through a variety of techniques, including keyword research, content optimization, and link building.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of identifying the terms and phrases that people use to find information on the internet. These keywords and phrases are then used to optimize web pages so that they rank well for those terms in search engine results. This can be achieved by including the keywords in the title tags, meta descriptions, and body content of a web page. It's also important to use the keywords in a natural and relevant way to avoid keyword stuffing.

Generally, it’s recommended to use one keyword or search phrase per article. Using more than one can cause confusion as to the primary focus of the article.

Content Optimization

Content optimization refers to the process of making sure that a web page's content is relevant, informative, and useful to visitors. This can be achieved by providing detailed and well-written content that is relevant to the keywords being targeted. Additionally, it's important to use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make the content easy to read and navigate. Also, including images, videos, and infographics in the content can make the pages more engaging and can help to increase the time visitors spend on the site.

Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. These links can help to increase the visibility of your website in search engine results, as well as drive more traffic to your site. There are several ways to acquire links, including guest blogging, social media marketing, and directory submissions. However, it's important to focus on acquiring high-quality links from relevant and authoritative websites, as these will have the most impact on your search engine rankings.

Layout & Structure

Another important aspect of SEO is making sure that your website is mobile-friendly. This means that it should be optimized for viewing on smaller screens, such as those of smartphones and tablets. A mobile-friendly website will be easy to navigate and read on a mobile device, and will also be more likely to rank well in mobile search results. This is often referred to as responsive design, in that the page layout responds to changes in device size to ensure the content is still presented properly.

Additionally, including structured data, such as outlined at schema.org, in your website can help search engines understand the content of your site better and can result in rich snippets in the SERP.

Analyze and Adjust

Finally, it's important to regularly monitor and analyze your website's performance in search engine results. This can be done using tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These tools can provide valuable insights into how your website is performing, as well as identify areas for improvement.

How does CTN Help with SEO?

We’ve built our platform from the ground up with SEO in mind, which means that the content you publish is automatically optimized. Your insights and other content are structured and formatted in a way that search engines find easy to read, the result being faster indexing and a higher chance of being found across the internet.

You can include links in your articles, which you can use to link back to your website or to your social media pages, but avoid using more than two or three links per article.