SEO in a nutshell

Contents

1-Thereare three main aspects of SEO

• On-page SEO and off-page SEO
• White hat SEO vs black hat SEO
• How can I learn SEO?
• How long does it take to learn SEO?
• Do I need SEO tools?

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You don't need to know ALL the factors and the exact algorithms Google uses to rank your website. But you do need to cover the key components of SEO to succeed.

There are three main aspects of SEO:

Technical SEO - Technical SEO helps search engines access, read, understand and index your website in an efficient and correct way.
On page SEO - Great content is the most important part. Low quality content doesn't rank.
Off page SEO - You can have great content and a perfectly optimized website, but ultimately you need to gain authority by getting good backlinks.

Useful information

As soon as you start digging into SEO, you will come across some common terms that try to categorize the different aspects or approaches, namely:
- On-page SEO and off-page SEO
- Black hat SEO & white hat SEO

Even if they're not that important from a practical point of view, it's good to know what they mean.

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On-page SEO and off-page SEO

The terms on-page and off-page SEO categorize the SEO activities you perform on a website.
On-page SEO is everything you can do on the website - from content optimization to technical aspects.
- Keyword research
- Content optimization
- Title tag optimization
- Page performance optimization
- Internal linking

The goal is to provide both perfect content and UX while showing search engines what the page is about.
Off-page SEO is mostly about getting quality backlinks to show search engines that your site has authority and value. Link building can involve techniques such as:
- Guest blogging
- Email contact
- Fixing broken links

Off-page SEO is also closely linked to other areas of online marketing, such as social media marketing and branding, which have an indirect impact on building the trust and authority of your website.
Remember that a successful SEO strategy consists of both on-page and off-page SEO.

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO

In SEO, the terms white hat SEO and black hat SEO are used to describe two groups where one group (white hat) follows the rules set by Google's guidelines and the other (black hat) does not.
Black hat SEO is a set of unethical things such as spamming a page with lots of keywords to increase rankings.
These techniques can get you to the top of the search results in no time, but search engines will most likely penalize and ban the site sooner or later.

White hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to all the common SEO techniques that stick to the guidelines and rules. It is a long-term strategy where good rankings are a result of good optimization, quality content and a user-centric approach.
While SEO experts agree that white hat is the way to go, there are still different opinions that it should be allowed to buy links (backlinks) from high authority sites.

Frequently asked questions

Can I do SEO on my own?
SEO is not easy. But it's not rocket science either.
There are things you can implement right away, and there are concepts that will take a lot more time and effort. So yes, you can do SEO on your own. The only question is whether you're willing to invest some time in learning all the aspects of SEO, or you want to hire a professional and invest your time in something else.

How can I learn SEO?

There are a few things you should do to learn SEO:
- Read trusted resources
- Get hands-on experience
- Don't be afraid of experiments
- Have a lot of patience (SEO is a marathon, not a sprint)
Implementing the things from this guide is a great way to start 🙂

How long does it take to learn SEO?

To answer this question, I'll use a common answer from SEO experts: it depends.
While understanding the basics won't take you more than a couple of weeks, the actual mastery depends largely on the practice you have from months to even years.
Last but not least, I'd like to point out that SEO is constantly evolving. You should always keep learning and stay up to date with the latest updates, experiments and findings.

Do I need SEO tools?

If you are serious about SEO, you should not overlook the useful data and insights from various SEO tools. They give you a huge competitive advantage and you will save a lot of time.
Here are some essential SEO tools every website owner should use:
- Google Search Console
- a traffic analysis tool (e.g. Google Analytics)
- a keyword research tool (e.g. Ahrefs)
- a backlink analysis tool (e.g. LinkMiner)
- a ranking tracker (e.g. SERPWatcher)

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