What basics should I know for understanding SEO in full?

Here I am going to discuss all basics to understanding SEO. I believe that without being completely aware of the following ten fundamentals, the concept of the Search Engine Optimization will seem like a foreign language to the most of us. Before anything else, you will need to study its core grammar rules, and only then proceed with adding more and more vocabulary for trying yourself in the real conversation. My mission here is to show you the right track to master the very basics of understanding SEO in full. That way, you will be able to start moving towards implementing your real-life search optimization strategy to finally see your website climbing on the top of Google’s search results.

On-site Search Engine Optimization

Imagine you have been learning a foreign language without any clear approach. Yes, you could study a lot of issues, but without a solid foundation, you might as well just memorize the main dictionary until your head is full. And, of course, there is no point learning like that. The same truth is about understanding SEO, its on-site basics to be more precise. So, before anything else, you will need to build a robust website, starting from its foundation, which should be constructed with the following primary on-site components: responsive server coding, optimized URL and section structure, page sitemaps for better crawling and live user accessibility, proper architecture for internal linking, and high-quality content with unique writings delivering real value to the live users.

Don’t worry, no matter how disappointing these terms may seem at first glance. Should it happen that you feel frustrated with understanding SEO from its on-site basics, I strongly recommend requesting the expert audit from a qualified web developer. Don’t skip this step or keep it shelved. Otherwise, you will never uncover your true ranking potential on Google. The initial audit will take the expert no longer than 3-5 hours. That way, make sure to start understanding SEO with a rock-solid foundation you will be able to rely on from the very beginning.

Page content

All you need here is to proceed with your account on Google Analytics to check your website traffic performance page by page. Once you detected some of the weakest traffic gains, those web pages will commonly need a quick-fix. Very often there is a duplicated, sometimes not entirely matching yet still unnecessary page content that hurts the website’s ranking. Get rid of any similar looking or occasionally cloned content once and for all. In fact, Google often recognizes such content issues as purely manipulative activities, i.e., instantly putting your ranking progress on hold.

Title tags

Your homepage title tag is the core component of the whole website. Understanding SEO basics here means taking a well-formed decision on what relevant keywords to include in the title tag. Putting it in plain English, set your primary focus on that product or service you reasonably expect to be the best-seller, i.e., with the highest revenue-generating potential for the moment. On the other hand, however, if you are involved in local business, make sure to embed your title tag with a city name your company is mainly operating in. Just one cold fact for you - over a half of local businesses try to rank throughout the country, instead of betting on their domestic market niche close at hand.

Backlinks

Just take it for granted - quality (not quantity!) backlinks are among the primary driving elements of the search algorithm used by Google to make the final ranking decision. The main issue here is understanding the SEO definition of the backlinks and their importance for your domain authority. So, the backlink by definition is a hyperlink somewhere on the Web pointing the way to your web page. Next, your domain authority is a core website metric measured with a maximum of 100 points. Domain authority is used by Google to compare the websites and finally decide where to rank them in the search results. All you need here is focusing on building quality backlinks only. Once again - forget about their quantity, as any careless or, God forbid, paid backlinks offered in bulk may completely ruin your domain authority by Google’s ranking penalties. That way, to get an in-depth understanding SEO, namely the subject of creating quality backlinking and tracking your progress, I recommend browsing for any use-proven tools available in open access to help you complete the task.

Understanding SEO locally

Here is the final point of our current discussion. I believe that understanding SEO on the local level and taking the lead on your regional market niche is the first task you should complete in full on the way to a broader success of national or even global scale. I mean here that personally my ultimate goal is evolving my web store into a drop-shipping online business addressing to every potential customer across the globe).

In any case, the first stage paving the way to such a stunning success is dominating your local market. Most of us have possibly wondered - how those guys managed to overcome all local competitors to be now displayed on the top of the local search for their relevant keywords? The thing is that the lion’s share of such perfectly convincing results is all rooting from the same - most commonly, they come from the personal web page known as Google My Business. So, if your website is still missing this extremely great opportunity, here is some stuff for you to be done right now, without delay. Visit your own Google My Business page and have a double-check on the following:

• check your NAP (name, address, phone) business information for consistency;
• act proactively and think about your primary strategy on having timely reviews;
• revise all your business photos and make sure they are all actual and up-to-date;
• turn on the customer messaging option to let your target audience leave you a feedback;
• work on your listings to get your primary category aligned with the products or services you are dealing with.

Doing so, check out for more useful insights on Google My Business page to leave your local opponents far behind. In fact, this feature is somehow still neglected by too many online business owners. So, why shouldn’t you have this significant advantage? Just keep an eye on your listings on time, and enjoy your local ranking progress, always reconfirmed with constantly improving metrics.