SEO for beginners: Every business needs a website. This is because search engines are the method by which consumers find products and services. If they can’t find you online, chances are that they won’t be able to find you at all.

That’s why it’s so important to have an understanding of SEO and how it can help you to increase traffic to your website and blog. We’ve put together a beginner’s guide to SEO to help you achieve your inbound marketing goals. Be sure to check out some SEO mistakes to avoid and how to know your SEO issues. Don’t forget ot check out a useful infographic at the end of the post!

1 – Create Useful Content

The most important thing you can do for your digital marketing is to create useful content that solves people’s problems. If you can manage to do this, people will share your content with their social media networks, and your site will rank higher in Google.

It sounds easy, but creating useful content requires thought and planning. You need to think about the problems that can be solved with your products and services, and you need to present these solutions in an appealing, attractive way.

As you think about the kinds of useful content you can create, don’t limit yourself to text. Do all you can to start expanding your content into the following areas:

• Video – (you can film tutorials or interviews to include with social media and blog posts)
• Images – (take original photos of your products and services and the people who use them, and create infographics and charts to illustrate your points)
• Podcasts – (tell your users about industry news or new developments that can help them in their daily lives)
• Downloads – (offer guides or white papers in exchange for email addresses for your list, or create original tools and plugins)

2 – Build Relevant Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites (or even your own) that send traffic to your own pages. Google pays attention to these links and ranks websites higher if lots of other websites link to them. It’s one way they measure the value of a site.

Therefore, you can increase your ranking by getting other sites to link to yours. But how do you go about doing this?

First off, resist the temptation to buy backlinks. Google is on to this scheme, and not only do these websites get shut down periodically, but they also make you look spammy and spammy isn’t a good look for a professional business.

Instead, offer to guest blog for respectable blogs and websites in your industry or city, and continue to write quality content that other people will link to as source material. Also, include links to pages within your own website. For example, if you write a blog post about an upcoming product release, include links to blog posts on your own blog that contain related information. Also, include a link to your contact page at the end of every blog post. Be sure to look into four link building strategies for boosting your SEO.

3 – Build Social Media Accounts at the Same Time

Google may now be looking to social media for signals that a particular page or website has authority, so post your web content to your social media accounts as you publish it.

Don’t forget to add separate value to your social media profiles, though. If you offer some content on social media that doesn’t appear on your website, you’ll have provided a separate resource for potential customers to tap into.

4 – Use SEO Plugins

There are all kinds of tools out there to help you improve your SEO. For instance, you can install WordPress plugins that can help you craft SEO titles and descriptions and automatically generate sitemaps to submit to Google. These sound like tiny details not worthy of your time, but you’d be surprised at how helpful these plugins can be. When it comes to SEO, details matter.

5 – Get a Free SEO Analysis

The best place to start is by analyzing what you already have. Your current website might just need a few tweaks here and there to start its ascent up the Google rankings. On the other hand, it might need some major organizational shifts. It’s hard to know without a professional analysis.

Fortunately, we at Park Slope Softworks offer a free SEO analysis. Our analysis will help you to know what your site’s weak points are and what changes will help you to beat out your competition.For your own free SEO analysis of your website, get in touch with us Park Slope Softworks. We’re your go-to inbound marketing company in Brooklyn.