The final lesson in this SEO for dummies guide is something a bit different. Take the SEO for dummies approach by focusing on a small number of tools. You don’t need to come up with SEO and link building ideas from scratch. Making your website understandable to Google is only part of the story. Backlinks are like “word of mouth” for the web—the more people who talk about you, the more likely you are to be discovered. In this guide, let’s focus on a handful of simple techniques to improve your on-page SEO.

What is the difference between SEO, SEM, and PPC?

Sooner or later they’ll also reciprocate the same thing – not everyone though but at least a few bloggers will do the same thing for you. Once you click on their Backlinks section, it will show you a list of all the sources of their backlinks. As you can see above, Semrush link building tool gives us a brief overview of the backlink profile of your competitors’ domain instantly. According to a survey done by Moz, more than 37% of business owners are spending between $10,000 and $50,000 per month on external link building.

Not only do sub-headings make your content easier for visitors to read, but they can also help improve your SEO. This is also used by your human visitors to better understand what the page is about and if it’s relevant. This means that you can work to improve these factors over time by following best practices for SEO. Once you have a group of loyal fans and followers, your organization can work to create different types of media to attract and engage new leads. Search engines love great content and consumers need quality content to better understand the value your organization can provide.

You From Ranking Higher

An SEO strategy can take anywhere from three months to two years to offer significant ranking improvements, whereas an SEM campaign can increase an organization’s web traffic within hours. SEM ads offer marketers a quick way to get their brands, content and products in front of their target audiences. Positive rankings mean more people will see your website, which means more traffic to your website. That traffic is more likely to convert to action, including completing forms, purchasing products, and signing up for newsletters or email lists. Using tools like Semrush and Google’s Keyword Planner, you can analyze different keywords and determine whether they are a good fit for your brand and buyer personas.

SEO vs SEM

To learn more, read our guide on the difference between SEO and PPC. According to studies, more than 70% of search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the search engine results pages (SERPS). Search engines are working hard to get a better understanding of a user’s search intent, to show that user the results that fit their need best. Related to that, they continue to improve how information is presented in the search results, which can differ quite a bit per search intent.

Google also takes into account other factors like how long someone stays on a website and the bounce rate (leaving the site after viewing only one page). Before you do anything with your website, the first thing you need to do is understand what keywords you want to rank for. In this process, you choose the primary and secondary keywords around which you build meta tags and content. Now, the term might sound complex, but it’s just about optimizing the technical stuff on a website. This includes things like speed, mobile-friendliness, sitemaps, schemas, BHS Links and more – all to make your site a cozy place for search engines to explore. Over time, search engines continually refine and update their algorithms to deliver more accurate and valuable results to users.

• Most of us would like it to be higher, but it still means that about half of the sources used rely on traditional SEO results.
• Proper SEO will improve the organic visibility of your website in search engines so you can attract qualified visitors to your site (for free).
• Search engine spiders can’t „read“ images the way a human would.
• If they’re moving on’ up, it’s clear that these SEO best practices are working.

Make sure that your title tag and meta description doesn’t exceed the recommended maximum characters. To review this, many SEO applications allow you to preview how these elements will appear in search to prevent overrunning text. A good rule of thumb is to aim for 60 characters or less for titles and 160 or less for meta descriptions. Make sure these are clear, keyword optimized, and click-worthy to entice visitors to your site.

You can demonstrate your expertise and credibility by having a large network of professionals from your target industry. These statistics give us a good idea of where SEO is headed in the coming months and years. Search engines don’t operate solely in the realm of text anymore. Today, consumers can use smart speakers and reverse-image searches to discover and purchase new products. If you’re not thinking about the emerging tech in search, you might miss out on opportunities to connect with these cutting-edge customers. The specter looming over most SEO-related conversations in 2025 is AI.