7 SEO Tips I Wish I Know Before Starting A Website

7 SEO Tips I Wish I Know Before Starting A Website

SEO constantly evolves and upcoming changes may not be favorable to your website. Because of this, website owners try their best to be up-to-date with their methods and strategies. Changes often create misconceptions for those who have just started recently.

Or you are probably one of those who have given up after the Penguin update killed all black hat strategies. Back then, you can reap the rewards with ease by spamming content to users to rank on search engines, but this damaged Google’s reputation. They also wanted the best for users more than website owners. Even so, some methods before still working until now if done properly.

Here are 7 SEO tips you should know before starting a website:

What is SEO and Why Should You Care?

Users go to search engines to search for information that they need. What they look for can vary endlessly, and the volume of users landing on the first page of SERP is organic traffic.

Regardless of what your website is all about, you need to compete with the first page of search results. Optimizing your website base on its content should be useful and relevant to search queries.

Although, you should keep in mind that you optimize a website apart from improving its visibility to your target audience, but also adhere to the rules and guidelines of Google.

These are the primary reasons why you should care about SEO. Even if new ranking factors emerge, SEO will remain an integral part of digital marketing.

Don’t Spend Money on Sponsored Links

You are likely to encounter tons of publishers requiring payment for your outreach.

This is a common practice since many forms of link building are now more difficult than ever.

When building authority for website owners relies often on transactions. The reality is that paying a link is like forcing your credibility on a specific audience.

Even if you have managed to generate links by spending money, traffic will be filtered.

You can hardly keep most of them and only a few will find yours valuable. The best possible way to earn traffic from elsewhere is by winning an audience’s trust.

Content creators are personifications of their audience because they know what they want. Thus, aiming to understand them is aiming to understand their readers and visitors alike.

Instead of relying on money, you should know how much leg work and intent to build relationships with other websites pays more than you can expect.

4 Common Misconceptions About SEO

As part of digital marketing, SEO can be a very confusing subject. There is no solid foundation of knowledge to create structured learning about it.

The primary reason is that Google does not disclose all the information on what factors are best to rank your website. Not to mention how it constantly changes and your best bet to utilize SEO to its maximum potential is to have the latest information about it.

It would take years and even decades to learn everything and get the best out of SEO. Many businesses resort to the assistance of SEO Experts who are without a doubt the most reliable source of information in the industry.

You can only effectively learn SEO through experiences and subjective understanding of it.

Meanwhile, SEO is effective if combined with the solid behavioral knowledge of users.

But to make these SEO tips less complicated, here are few common misconceptions about SEO.

1 SEO is About Ranking A Website Through Links

Over the past few decades, there have been dramatic changes in the Google algorithm. Up to now, no one knows how exactly it works. Before these sudden changes that heavily influenced the way website owners rank their website, PageRank was prevalent.

This leads to misconceptions that SEO is just about links. The landscape of SEO is completely different back when penguin update was not a thing yet. Failing to understand this simple information about SEO will result in the worst possible outcome. One of the highest penalties you can get is Google banning your website from SERP.

2  Keyword Stuffing Can Rank Your Website

Creating low-quality content stuffed with keywords is not a factor Google considers anymore. It doesn’t mean that adding relevant keywords to your content is completely useless.

In creating content, your primary goal is to give value to the users. Both Google and users dislike content without any substance and purpose other than getting on the first page.

Think of the search engine as the stage and the users as the audience. You wouldn’t want to go to the stage without anything valuable to present other than getting attention.

Once you’re there and fail both the audience and the stage manager will kick you out. The effort of getting back is unimaginably possible compared to the first time you got there.

3  SEO is Obsolete

No doubt you have something good to share with thousands of people or even millions.

You are more than excited to share it with them and hold firmly to your belief that your content is good enough to consider SEO. You think of it as a  secondary option to use when you’re not in a mood to create something passionately.

The hard truth is that you are most likely wrong. Even if you have managed to create exceptionally stellar content, it’s useless if no one can find it. Countless years ahead, optimizing your content will remain fundamental in digital marketing.

4  Guest Blogging Does Not Work Anymore

Increasing a website’s authority through backlinks is harder than before. Guest blogging was announced dead; it’s not something new if you’ve been a while in SEO.

However, this is only a misconception, and you will miss a great opportunity if you took it at face value.

It has become more difficult since high-quality content is greatly emphasized more than ever. Yet, it does not mean it’s not working anymore.

If done properly, while carrying it with you to genuinely share your content, you are not far away from having a successful outreach project.

SEO Tips – Key Takeaway

Now that you’re aware of these SEO tips, you should know where to begin optimizing your website. If you are new, you can ask for quality advice from experts within the industry to jumpstart your domain.

If you are willing to accept the challenge of learning SEO with yourself, starting from its root up to the newest trend is your best bet. Countless failures will determine your success because the lessons you’ll learn are priceless.