Top SEO Tips for New Marketers

I started off doing marketing before I knew it was marketing. I claimed (at the time) to not like marketing and just wanted to work on the “Business” aspects of the startup I was at. I was doing SEO, market, and customer research thinking it had nothing to do with marketing; when in reality it had everything to do with marketing.

SEO is, however, a tricky thing. It's not something that can be explained with one post or even a series of posts. What I'm hoping to do here is give you some simple tips that will help you get started on your journey. Some of these may seem basic, but trust me: they're things that even the most experienced marketers forget about—or don't know enough about—when starting out on their own campaigns.

Instead of performing just one or two Google searches and calling it a day, you'll want to take your time and do some research. And it's not just about finding a few keywords that work for your business; it's about finding a lot more than that—otherwise known as expanding your horizons (and hopefully growing more comfortable with using Google).

Good news! With so many experts out there offering tips on how to do this kind of research, it's easy enough to build up an arsenal of knowledge and skills to help guide you through everything from selecting relevant terms all the way through writing content around them. And guess what? All these experts agree about one thing: learning how to use Google effectively is an essential skill for anyone who wants their content found online! (And just getting through life, tbh.)

Long-tail keywords are more specific, and therefore more relevant to your target audience. They also have a higher conversion rate than short-tail keywords—almost 2.5x higher! (Profitworks)

Long-tail keywords are more likely to convert because they’re less competitive than broad match ones. When you target a niche keyword, the competition is much lower, so it’s easier for your content to stand out in search results.

Sound hard because I used the work “optimize”? It shouldn’t. You don’t need to be an expert in mobile optimization to get started, but you should at least understand what it is and why it’s important. 

Mobile optimization is the process of ensuring your site loads quickly and easily on a variety of different devices—like smartphones, tablets, Samsung fridges, Teslas, and Fitbits (those last few are a maybe…).

The majority of people now search for products or answers using their phone or tablet—around 70-80% of all tracked business traffic comes from mobile devices! (Personal stats from the last 5 years of running online business ads). So optimizing your site for mobile is more than just a nice-to-have; it’s essential if you want to stay competitive in today’s digital world.

Easy to get wrong when you have nefarious intentions for your audience. “Nefarious? No! I’m just trying to get them to buy stuff on Amazon through my affiliate link, they don’t pay extra!” or “Nefarious? No! I’m just trying to earn a living by showing 100+ ads and stuff keywords into a fake story about my salt and pepper grilled chicken recipe!” Please.

I know what you’re thinking. You just want to be ranked on Google, but it’s hard to rank when everyone else is out there competing for the top spot. I get it! That’s why we have so many articles about how to do SEO and tricks that you can use to get ahead of your competition. But here’s the thing: most people don’t care about that stuff anymore. They care about content—and more importantly, they care about helpful content that addresses their pain points. (Don’t know what pain points are? Think of them as a problem or issue that causes annoyance, frustration, or pain.)

If you want to succeed as a marketer today, then your job is twofold: write good copy (that helps people solve problems) and promote it well through social media channels. The more helpful information you provide for free on popular sites like YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, or even Quora, the better chance you have of getting noticed by potential customers who might purchase from you later down the road! It also helps a lot to practice and teach others what you are learning, so trying to "teach" (not argue, right?) that 10 year old pretending to be a marketing executive on Reddit that you’re right is EXCELLENT practice.

If you're new to SEO and have only done a few small sites or a month or two of blog and social posting, don't expect to get a ton of traffic right away. The time it takes for people to find your site can be frustrating, but it's important not to give up! Consistency is key. Rome wasn’t built in a day; or if you want a modern example: Mr.Beast didn’t get famous on his first stream. So there.

Patience is key. Be careful not to conflate the results from one visitor with those of many visitors. Even if 99% of the people who visit your site leave after a couple minutes, that's fine—just keep working at it. Tweak your content, make it catchier, try some A/B testing, and see what happens.

Also, don't be afraid to try new things when it comes down to content creation and optimization techniques—and experiment with different approaches on each site!

The above list of tips will help you increase your rankings in search engines and boost traffic to your website. However, there are plenty of other things that can be done to ensure your site ranks highly in Google. One of the most important pieces of advice for newbies is to not get discouraged! SEO takes time and patience but it’s worth it when you see results. 

If you follow these steps consistently over time (and maybe add some guest blogging), then you should see an improvement in rankings within a few months at most. Trying out new keywords, new styles of content, and new ideas constantly will be how you win the SEO game.