SEO for Beginners
SEO is something everyone wants but no one fully understands.
This is partly because Google is sneaky - always changing its algorithm. It can be hard to keep up with the new rules. But there are actually two really simple things you can focus on to make sure your SEO ranking is as high as possible:
Content
Link Building
Content
Content is king. You may have heard that phrase before and it's true for positioning you as an expert, getting hired and for ranking higher with your SEO. Below are four ways to make sure your content is fully optimized.
Blog Posts - Did you know that blog posts should be at least 300 words long? If not all of your posts are this long, no worries. But the more there is to read, the more Google will have to crawl + find your content.
Name Your Images - Give each of your images a keyword-heavy name. Why? Images are an important way of telling search engines what your website is about. Plus, Google Images is not to be forgotten! I clicked through to 100s of sites by looking through Google Images vs. the listed search results. Just make sure to use strategic keywords related to your content, and add dashes in between the words. For example, my image above would be "seo-for-beginners.png" .
Image File Sizes - Large images will reduce site speed; a key metric google uses for indexing sites. Many web platforms (like Squarespace!) automatically resize your images for you, so don't stress. But ideally, try to keep you image resolution at 72 ppi or no more than 2 MB.
Keywords - If there was one takeaway from this section it's this: ADD KEYWORDS EVERYWHERE! Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines "speaks the same language" as its potential visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site. Pages, blogs, titles, tag lines, literally everywhere. Keywords are the words clients will type into google to find you. For example, if I am adding keywords to this post, I would probably add "SEO for beginners". So I would add that to my title, 2-3 times in my actual post content, tag my images with those keywords, etc.
Link Building
Now before we dive into Link Building (aka: the process of getting external pages to link to a page on your website), I want to note that this really does take time. So don't stress if you don't have all or even any of these items set up. They are something you can work towards over time. Ok, PSA over! So let's talk link building.
Get Social - Being on several social platforms does wonders for SEO. Frankly, Google goes gaga for this. Basically, it simply means you are findable. It also lets you add your website's link with ‘high authority’ websites like Twitter and Instagram. Bonus: Add these social networks to your site to encourage that social sharing and cross-platform collaboration.
Invite Sharing - Encourage your audience to share your shit. Add easy Tweetable text with Click to Tweets, add a custom Pin It button to your images, and add sharing buttons below blog posts to encourage audience-inspired promotion.
Partnerships - Call your business bestie and ask if you can collaborate. Maybe writing a guest post for her or asking her to link out to your website as a resource are two examples of ways you can collaborate in a non-slimy way that will help you with link building. Aim for brands/businesses that have similar customer groups and find ways that each part can add value to the other. Two brands are stronger than one and the bonus is that having another person or business linking to you also positions you as an expert!
apply all of the above to increase your SEO
on your Squarespace site specifically!
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