Information in this blog was obtained from Semrush, HubSpot, and Google Developers. All links in this post open in new tabs.
Finding a marketing job after graduation if you don’t know what to look for in a job description. Maybe you primarily want to create content, or maybe that thought scares you a little bit. I’m here to tell you that there are many other aspects to marketing that can hide from the light but are just as important.
For most of my life, I loved looking at numbers and data (not solving equations like in calculus) but being able to see how to improve. In high school, I took over editing my school district’s website and loved every minute of tedious work that went into changing photos, editing the text, updating the resources, and more. I never dreamed that my interest in improving websites could make a career, but here I am, learning how to improve search engine optimization (SEO) for clients at my internship.
I started my continuous learning outside of classes at Fort Hays State University about nine months ago and it was suggested that I start with SEO because that was something that was missing from our department at work. I started with courses on Semrush Academy and have continued to get certified for different tools to use on the Semrush SEO dashboard. The more that I learn, the more opportunities I can offer to our clients.
SEO is difficult. It’s not a simple one-size-fits-all solution. Maybe you hear about things needing to be optimized, ranked higher, low-performing keywords, or more traffic to drive conversions. If you don’t understand SEO yet or are looking into it because you think it might fit in with your marketing interests before you look for a job there are a few basics that really help understand the baseline of what you need to know first: typical problems on websites that can be improved, understanding your keywords, the helpfulness of running site audits, how to write meta descriptions, the proper format of URLs, and where to start your research and learning.
Learning how to improve your SEO can be a long journey, but taking it one step at a time can lower the chance of being overwhelmed and still help long-term.
Typical Problems on Websites
I have run many site audits using Semrush. Crawling your website is a great start in being able to understand what is going well and what needs improvement. The most common problems that I see are missing H1 headings on pages, which is where search engines go to find relevancy, as well as missing meta descriptions which are basic summaries about each web page. These are easy fixes that could easily be implemented during the web-building process.
Understanding Keywords
To understand why conversions and engagement is high or low, the first step I take is to look at keywords in my posts and campaigns. Every brand has to use its keywords intentionally to pull up in algorithms and search results. According to HubSpot, keyword research helps you find which keywords are best to target and provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google.
Semrush has this blog post on their 5-step guide to choosing keywords. Their steps include:
Find Relevant Keyword Ideas
Finding Your Competitors' Keywords
Finding Keywords Using a Seed Word (any keyword entered into a keyword research tool to find other relevant keywords)
Finding Keywords You Already Rank For
Evaluate Keyword Metrics
Evaluate Search Volume
Evaluate Keyword Difficulty
Identify Search Intent
Analyze the SERP (Search Engine Result Pages)
Select Primary Keywords
These are also referred to as "target keywords" which is typically how people will find your accounts or website
Here are some examples of keyword research for a blog post about SEO:
“How to optimize blog posts for SEO”: This keyword addresses a specific topic related to SEO and provides actionable advice.
“Best practices for on-page SEO”: A long-tail keyword that appeals to readers seeking detailed guidance on optimizing individual web pages.
“Keyword research tools for bloggers”: Focusing on tools for keyword discovery and analysis.
“Creating SEO-friendly content”: A topic that resonates with content creators aiming to improve their search rankings.
“Local SEO strategies for small businesses”: Targeting local businesses looking to enhance their online presence.
“Measuring SEO success with analytics”: A long-tail keyword for those interested in tracking their SEO performance.
“Long-tail vs. short-tail keywords”: A comparison-focused keyword that educates readers about the differences.
Running Site Audits
According to HubSpot, a website audit is an examination of page performance before large-scale search engine optimization (SEO) are a website redesigned. Your website can determine whether or not it’s optimized to achieve your traffic goals and give you a sense of how you can improve it to reach these goals. A few different types of website audits are:
1. Competitive Website Audit
2. SEO Link Audit
3. Lead Conversion Optimization Audit
4. Social Media Audit
5. SEO Website Audit
6. Data Privacy Audit
Some benefits of performing a website audit are optimizing conversion rates or finding another strategy to improve conversion rates, figuring out how to optimize your website performance, and identifying any website issues early on like broken links, hidden content, or long page loads. You can also use a website audit to compare your website to your competitors and find ways to improve your SEO. A couple of different resources that I have found helpful are Hubspot's Free On-Page SEO Template and Semrush’s site audit tool.
Writing Meta Descriptions
Before you start writing your meta descriptions, you need to understand what a meta description is. According to HubSpot, the major description is the snippet of information below the blue link to the search result. Its purpose is to describe the contents of the page to the searcher. Any words that match the search term are bolded in the description. The inner goal is to convince and persuade the searcher to collect through your website.
Typically, meta descriptions are between 150 and 160 characters to fit most of the information in the search result. An important part of creating a website is to make sure that you have a meta description on every page that includes the keywords that you want to rank for. This helps pull your website or brand up in more searches.
According to a blog post written on Yoast, the purpose of a meta description is to get someone searching with a search term on Google to click on your link. In other words, meta descriptions are there to generate click-throughs from search engines. According to their research search engines say that there is no direct SEO benefit from the meta description as they don’t use it in their ranking algorithm. There is an indirect benefit though, Google uses click-through rate (CTR) to determine whether you’re a good result. People click on your result, and Google considers you to be a good result and will move you up in the ranking. Why optimizing your meta description is important as well as optimizing your titles.
Proper Format of URLs
Formatting your URLs properly is important when showing up on search engines and also sharing links on social media posts For customers or potential customers to find important and relevant pieces of information on your website. Yoast has a few ground rules for SEO-friendly URLs that I find useful in explaining why URLs should be formatted the way they are. First is to make sure that your URLs are focused and that they shouldn’t contain function words like a of the etc. In 99% of cases, the words add nothing of value to your URL. Another thing to take out of your URLs is any verbs as they are not needed to explain what your page is about. Next is to keep the URL focused but readable so that when clicking on a link it sounds reliable and professional.
The next thing after that is to ensure you only use hyphens to separate the words in your URL slug. Don’t use underscores to separate words in your URL. Lastly, there isn’t an ideal length for your URL, but Yoast recommends keeping URLs as short as possible. Shorter URLs can be more focused and easier to recall.
Where to Start
1. Semrush is a paid service and offers some resources for free.
2. HubSpot is another great resource to not only learn SEO, but also other content marketing skills.
3. Google has great resources to learn about their platform.
4. Moz’s SEO Hierarchy of Needs is another resource to print out and have on hand for any quick questions.
ii. Inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy, the foundational aspects of SEO include:
Crawl Accessibility: Ensure search engines can access your site.
Compelling Content: Address user queries effectively.
Keyword Optimization: Use relevant keywords.
User Experience: Prioritize site speed and usability.
Share-Worthy Content: Earn links and citations.
Title, URL & Description: Optimize for click-through rates.
Snippet/Schema Markup: Stand out in search results.
This post is a lot of how my brain looks at work most of the time. It can look overloaded and incredibly difficult, but taking these different pieces and improving them one at a time, it can improve your SEO, conversion rates, and overall visibility of your accounts. I went from knowing nothing about SEO to still learning something new every week at work. SEO is ever-changing with the algorithm, much like the basic principles of marketing can change and adapt. Improving SEO is the art of creatively finding new ways to represent your brand outside of the niche or current track you are in, but it is also a science of thinking about “how to improve SEO” and reading the data to execute a plan to actually improve it.
Improving SEO is a continuous process and I wish you new marketers the best of luck! For more content on content marketing, check out Morgan’s post here, or for more SEO content check out Nina’s post here.
Resources
Carmicheal, K. (2022, April 28). How To Write Meta Descriptions. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-write-a-meta-description
Cunningham, C. (2021, November 15). Best practices for SEO-friendly URLs. Yoast. https://yoast.com/seo-friendly-urls/
HubSpot Blog | Marketing, Sales, Agency, and Customer Success content. (2024, January 9). https://blog.hubspot.com/
Lyons, K. (2022, August 12). Improve SEO: 11 Steps to Improve Your Rankings. Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/improve-seo/
Moz. (2024, January 1). Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Moz. https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
Pavlik, V. (2023, March 24). How to choose keywords for SEO (A 5-Step Guide). Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-choose-keywords-for-seo/
SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers. (n.d.). Google for Developers. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
The SEO, SEM, PPC and content marketing blog - Semrush. (n.d.). https://www.semrush.com/blog/
Toonen, E. (2023, September 19). How to create the right meta description. Yoast. https://yoast.com/meta-descriptions/
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