The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to SEO – for Non-Technical People

By Mauricio Antúnez

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide for those taking their first steps in the fascinating world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Understanding the fundamentals is essential to improve search engine visibility and reach your desired audience.

SEO: Business Strategy

SEO is not just for technical experts. It’s a business strategy that drives online visibility and can have a significant impact on your company’s growth and profitability. Understanding some key concepts is essential for making informed decisions.

Keywords: The Key to Visibility

Keywords are the language your online audience uses. Identifying and strategically using these words is fundamental. Think of keywords as signals that guide potential customers directly to your virtual door.

Relevant and Valuable Content

Your site’s content should be relevant and valuable to your audience. Think of it as a conversation you’re having with your customers. Provide information that solves problems, answers questions, and demonstrates why your company is the best choice.

Technical SEO: Behind-the-Scenes Impact

Technical SEO addresses aspects that affect user experience. Ensure your site is fast and easy to navigate. Users value speed, and slow sites can result in lost visitors and business opportunities.

Technical SEO is a deep topic and involves both front-end and back-end.

Strategic Links: Building Credibility

Internal and external links are key to building your site’s online credibility. Internal links connect your content, making navigation easier, and external links from trusted sites act as recommendations, improving your online reputation.

Economic Impact Across Different Sectors

The economic impact of SEO is universal, but its manifestation is unique in each sector. For example, in the e-commerce industry, a solid SEO strategy can increase sales and product visibility. In professional services, SEO can be key to attracting new clients and projects.

Problems to Avoid: Economic Impact of Bad Practices

Avoiding bad practices is crucial. Keyword stuffing can negatively affect user trust and reduce visibility. Acquiring unnatural links can result in penalties that directly affect your company’s positioning in search results. This will inevitably translate into an impact on revenue because a penalty can leave your site out of search results, and if it doesn’t appear in search results, your company simply doesn’t exist on the internet.

There are alternative channels like social media, but so far they’re always niche channels, and the conversions generated from there are still difficult to measure. At least in my experience, I don’t know anyone who uses a social network to search for a solution to a problem or to find a provider that offers a specific service or product.

Reliable Sources for an Effective Strategy

This guide is based on Google’s official documentation, the primary source for understanding SEO best practices. Additionally, Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO offers valuable insights.

By understanding these basic concepts and the economic impact of SEO in your sector, you’ll be equipped to make strategic decisions that will drive your company’s online success.

Unreliable Sources

As a general recommendation, anyone who promises to guarantee positioning your site at number 1 in a short time, with “magic formulas” that “only they know” is suspicious and highly recommended to avoid. SEO is built and is a combination of multiple factors. No one can guarantee first place, but there are practices to help you achieve it over time, based on iterations and improvements to your specific site.

SERP Position is Dynamic

Where you appear in search results is affected by all competitors and updates to search engine algorithms. A new competitor with a better SEO strategy or an algorithm change can make your position rise or fall. As with everything, the only constant here is change and permanent evolution.

SEO strategy is a tailored suit—there are general recommendations, but the strategy for each site will be different because all companies/people have specific technological solutions, teams, industries, and value propositions.