A Beginner's Look at SEO

A beginner's look at WHAT?

Happy Monday to everyone who found their way onto my site today! So glad you came and I hope you make my blog and website a regular part of your week. Don't forget to subscribe and join my email list, so you don't miss a thing. 

Now, to answer the question, "A beginner's look at WHAT?".  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. If you are an expert in SEO, I'm sure you won't learn anything new from me today, but you could probably comment with some helpful information for us who are totally new or very new to this concept.

I first stumbled onto this whole SEO thing, when I started creating my website recently. Now, it seems I am seeing "SEO" just about everywhere I look, as I am working to improve my blog and my website. Finally, over the last couple of weeks I decided I better try to figure out what this whole SEO information overload is all about. Information overload is an understatement. To top that off, most of what I read is WAY over my head. 

I tried to glean at least some information that may help those of us that want to improve our Search Engine Optimization. Basically, very basically, that means you are easier to find on Google searches. Some of you may be wondering what this all has to do with you. Well, it may not have anything to do with you, but if you do one of the following, you may want to start thinking about your SEO.

-Business Owner

-Author

-Writer

-Blogger

-YouTuber

-Representative for: Avon, Norwex, Thirty-one, Mary Kay Cosmetics, etc.

-Etsy

-Ebay

That, I am sure, is only a drop in the bucket. If you are going to do the work and take the time it takes to build your business or build a following, you need to do what will draw in those who will be most interested in what you are offering.  The competition for the time of each "consumer" is real. SEO is the competition between every online presence for drawing in viewers to their sites, pages, blogs, channels and so on.

Like I said, the amount of information out there is overwhelming and mind boggling. So, for myself and you I tried to pick some of the simplest tips to help us get started.

1. Write Unique and Consistent Content- You may or may not know this, but last month I celebrated the one-year anniversary of the start of my blog. 🎉 Through this past year, I have tried to consistently post every Monday or if I couldn't post, let people know I couldn't post that Monday and when I planned to return. I guess I have been doing this consistent SEO tip pretty well, without even knowing it. 😁 As far as unique content goes, I basically write about my Homemaker/Writer life and how I am learning to balance life. Since it is my life and my personal journey I am trying to document, it is unique to me. 💯

2. Link to other sites. Encourage other trustworthy sites to link to you- I do link to other sites, but I have not asked other sites to link to me. I'm not sure how to go about this, but it does seem like one of the more doable SEO tips for someone with limited techno skills. Here is an example for linking to someone else's site: These first two tips were learned from Neil Patel. To see more click here. 

3. Content is King, back linking is Queen and Video may be the spawn of the two- This came from the article, 101 Quick&Actionable SEO Tips that are HUGE by Anna Crowe. This article was written in 2017, but still manages to pop up as one of the first choices given when searching for SEO information for beginners. She did something right, obviously. 

4. Create long, engaging content- I've got the long content down pat. In fact I have been trying to make my content shorter, but evidently people actually visit sites that have more content. The question is...is it engaging enough? I have had over 5,000 views to my blog, which doesn't seem too shabby for my first year, but only a handful of people ever comment or follow. So, what does that mean? 

What brought you to my site? If you are a return visitor, what made you come back? What could I do to improve and make you not only want to come back, but also follow, join my email list, comment, share and so on. I can read what other people say I should do, but the opinions that really matter to me are yours. I have never made a secret of my inexperience, but if you have read me very long, you know that I am trying to learn and grow, as a Writer, Blogger, Wife, Mother, Nana, Christian......, so do you have any helpful tips that will help me with my SEO or make me a more engaging blogger?

5.Page Titles and Meta Description- Page titles is self-explanatory. You want your title to make the reader curious enough to click on your site. Sometimes the title comes easily for me and seems to fit perfectly, but other times, I can't seem to come up with one that really says what I want while being interesting or concise. I guess that too, is a learning process. Meta Description is also a new term to me. From what I can tell, it's the words that come after the .com in the web address. The Blogger site and my Wix website, both do this for me, so I have not had to learn this yet, but when I reach the point that I am buying my own domain, I imagine I will need to learn more about that. The idea though, is that the meta description needs to explain clearly what the article or whatever you are writing, is about. I believe that my blogger site makes my meta description the title of my blog, which seems good to me.

Ok, even those 5 little tips bring with them much more information than I shared, but just take one step at a time and improve. That's all we can do. Learn and improve and you will be heading in the right direction. 

Updates: If you haven't checked out my Website lately, you are missing a few new things. I have a contest going on to give away my book from my first Read Review last month. I also have posted that review. I have emailed out my first Newsletter, so if you want a copy of that, make sure to subscribe and join my email list. 

News: I am sooooo close to finishing the edits for my novel. I am probably within a few weeks of sending out my proposals that were requested of me by two literary agents and one editor. Make sure you join my tribe, so that you will be up-to-date on all the new things I am learning and doing. 

Thanks for stopping by and come again soon! May God bless you and your family. Seek His will for your life and follow Jesus. Desire to bring Him glory and you will be a success. 

In Christ,

Sandy