The 5 SEO Fundamentals Every Business Owner Needs to Master

You’ve created your own website and you’re feeling pretty smug about it. That is, until you realise it’s more or less invisible to the general public.

Regardless of the scare stories you may have heard as of late, SEO is more relevant today than it has ever been. Google continues to drive the overwhelming majority of all web traffic worldwide, as our reliance on search engines deepens every year.

On one hand, SEO has the potential to be spectacularly complicated and difficult to implement. On the other, the most important SEO basics are well within the reach of even the most inexperienced online business owners.
So if you’ve chosen to go it alone and have every intention of improving your visibility without outside help, here at the five SEO fundamentals you’ll need to master:

Fundamental #1: Links
Even with all the on-page SEO prowess in the world, you’re doomed to a weak position without strong backlinks. Google may refine its indexation algorithm hundreds of times every year, but the value of quality backlinks has remained unchanged since day one. Building quality links means producing outstanding blog posts and articles, approaching authoritative third-parties and pitching your work accordingly. Alternatively, you could simply approach them and ask for a link to be put in place, or perhaps organise a mutually-beneficial link exchange.

Fundamental #2: Content
Quality content lies at the heart of every successful SEO strategy. Not to mention, every successful digital strategy across the board. To continue produce and publish will determine if and to what extent you are differentiated from the competition. Web users demand useful, relevant and unique content from the brands they do business with. The major search engines factor content quality and value into the SERP indexation algorithms. Cut corners on content quality and you risk fading into the background.

Fundamental #3: Meta Descriptions and Headlines
Always remember that the first thing anyone sees when your website appears in the search listings is your headline and meta description. In turn, this is where most first-impressions are formed. What’s more, the content of your titles and metas will make a big difference to your overall SEO performance. Eye-catching, keyword-rich text is an absolute must, while at the same time communicating what it is you have to offer and your USP. Not an easy ask, given the limited characters you have to work with.

Fundamental #4: User Experience
Once again, it isn’t just the end-user who values a quality user experience. Google and Co. are now able to follow the user’s journey from start to finish, evaluating if and to what extent you provide a quality UX. From page loading times to the quality of your navigation system to on-site errors and so on, nothing escapes the watchful eye of the major search engines. If your UX isn’t up to scratch, you’re in for a rough ride.

Fundamental #5: Mobile-Friendliness
Last up, you need to ensure that every visitor to your website is presented with the same outstanding experience from start to finish. This includes all mobile visitors – regardless of the size and type of device they use. According to Google, more than 50% of all web searches now come from mobile devices. What’s more, they’ve also made it clear that websites unable to deliver an outstanding mobile experience now face the prospect of penalisation. Even with the greatest desktop website the world has ever seen, you’ll plummet in the rankings without an equally impressive mobile website.