8 Tips to get started with SEO for your online business

Success online demands a strong online presence, and SEO is your ticket to getting noticed by potential customers. Whether you're just starting out or looking to improve your website's performance, these eight simple SEO tips for beginners will help you build a rock-solid foundation for your website.

1. Understand your target audience

Marketing experts always stress this point in every beginner's SEO guide, and for a good reason. Knowing exactly who might buy your products, engage with your platform, or read your articles shapes every decision you make. After all, you wouldn't try selling insurance to teenagers or pepper your retirement advice with TikTok slang.

The same principle drives SEO success. Your content needs to directly address your target audience's preferences, behavior, and pain points, so make sure you consider them when creating your SEO and content strategies.

Start by creating buyer personas. They are a part of any marketing research, so you might already have them on hand. If not, gather demographic info, check customer feedback, and do surveys to find out what makes your customers tick.

With this info ready, you see what your customers search for and what words they use exactly. Modern search engines are now incredibly good at understanding user intent, but matching your audience's exact language will give you an edge in rankings.

NotifyVisitors makes a great point about search intent — you absolutely need to understand why people search for specific terms. Are they looking for something to buy? Do they want to learn something new? Are the trying to find a specific website? This data will guide you, when you customize your strategy and content.

For example, when you see users looking for information, you can research topics related to the one you started with and add those details into your initial piece to make it more interesting to the readers.

Look out for trends in how visitors use your site through tools like Google Analytics or Semrush. This data shows what content your readers like, giving you a general idea on what to focus on next.

2. Do keyword research

Every SEO guide worth its salt emphasizes keyword research, and for a good reason — it's your best way to understand how customers search for businesses. Without good keyword research, you're essentially stumbling in the dark. So here are some basic SEO tips for finding the right keywords.

Focus on long-tail keywords — those specific phrases that might usually get way fewer searches but convert much better since users are already more confident in what they’re trying to find. Don’t try to compete for broad terms like “AI tools.” Way too many people do this, and the big established companies will almost always outdo any strategy you try to come up with.

Instead, target phrases like “best AI tools to help writers.” These long-tail keywords will bring less traffic volume, but this will be greatly compensated by the increased conversion rates.

Use Google Keyword Planner and other SEO tools to check search volumes and competition levels. Look for keywords with OK search volume and fairly low competition levels. These are your best opportunities to rank.

Don't forget to inspect your competitors' keywords. Their strategy might reveal opportunities they've overlooked and gaps you can fill.

3. Build a strong link structure

You can't climb search rankings without links, both internal and external. Here are some easy recommendations for SEO link building.

You don’t need to have a PhD in SEO to reliably procure backlinks. Just ask yourself: would this connection help my readers find more useful stuff? When linking between your own pages, write link text that gives readers a clear preview — no more “click here” or “read more.” Those vague hints just frustrate people.

When it comes to getting other sites to link to yours (those precious backlinks), don't fall for the temptation of quick fixes. Sure, you could buy links or try other sketchy tactics, but that's like building your house on quicksand. Instead, pour your energy into making content so good that other sites naturally want to reference it.

Building relationships helps, too. Reach out to others in your industry — maybe that blogger who writes about similar topics or that business whose products complement yours. Guest posting opportunities often emerge from genuine connections.

Keep an eye on your link health using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Semrush. They act like link doctors, diagnosing problems like broken connections or spammy backlinks that could make search engines trust you less. Regular checkups help you catch and fix issues before they seriously impact your rankings.

4. Optimize your technical SEO

Let's talk about the technical side of SEO for online businesses. Nobody really loves it, but everyone needs it. You could write the most amazing content in the world, but if Google can't properly read your site, you're basically shooting yourself in the leg.

First up: speed. Nobody sticks around for a slow website anymore. If the page loads for over 3 seconds, it might as well not exist on the Internet. Start up Google's PageSpeed Insights and see what's holding you back. Sometimes, the problem isn't even in your code — it's your hosting provider. Skimping on hosting in online marketing is like buying cheap tires for a Lamborghini.

If you’re a proud owner of a smartphone, you might be reading this article from it. You're not alone — over 63% of all internet traffic comes from mobile. So, pull up your site on your phone. Check it on your tablet. Borrow your friend's ancient iPhone. If it doesn't look good and work smoothly on every screen, you've got work to do.

Website maintenance is another thing to keep in mind. Check for broken links, outdated sitemaps, or missing SSL certificates. Run regular health checks with tools like Screaming Frog — think of it as your website's annual physical.

5. Create high-quality content

It might seem obvious, but many website owners still overlook this simple point. Writing content that actually helps users is what brings quality traffic. Search engines have gotten unsettlingly good at identifying content that provides genuine value. Most importantly, if you write the content yourself, this SEO tip becomes completely free!

When you tackle a topic, go deep. Write comprehensive articles that answer all the questions your readers might have. Break up your content with relevant subheadings, bullet points, and clear formatting to make it easy to scan and understand.

Don't force your keywords. Instead, use them sparingly and insert them only where they seem fitting and natural. Keyword stuffing is a recipe for disaster. Focus instead on creating genuinely helpful, informative content that serves your readers' needs first.

Keep your content fresh and engaging by regularly updating it with new information, stats, and relevant examples. Mix in images, videos, and infographics to enhance understanding and engagement.

If your content is really good, you can repurpose it for other platforms. Got a nice article? Make it into a video to help people who prefer a more visual way of learning. Cut it up and condense it into a short and sweet infographic for social media.

6. Use AI for content creation

AI tools have completely changed how we create content and optimize for search engines. Here are some search optimization tips for content creation with AI.

Tools like Frase, Clearscope, or MarketMuse can analyze top-performing content in your niche, revealing common themes, ideal content length, and effective heading structures to guide your content strategy.

These AI assistants can help you generate SEO-optimized content outlines that ensure you're covering all the important aspects of a topic. Tools like Jasper or GPT-powered assistants can help structure your content to address user intent and cover all relevant subtopics.

AI excels at spotting content gaps in your market by analyzing competitor content and user queries that aren't getting enough attention. Use these insights to create unique, valuable content that fills these gaps.

Remember, though, that while AI is a powerful tool, it shouldn't write your content for you. Review AI-generated output carefully and maintain your human voice. Authenticity and authority are essential for building trust with your audience.

7. Optimize on-page elements

On-page optimization helps search engines understand your content and its relevance to specific queries, so don’t overlook this SEO tip for your online page.

Write meta titles and descriptions that accurately describe your content while encouraging clicks from search results.

Structure your content logically with header tags (H1, H2, H3) to make it easier to read and understand. Your H1 tag should feature your primary keyword, while subsequent headers should guide readers through related subtopics.

Don't forget about image optimization — good alt text improves accessibility and gives search engines more context. Include relevant keywords where they make sense, but keep it natural.

Maintain clean, logical URLs that include relevant keywords when appropriate. Skip long, complicated URLs filled with unnecessary parameters that confuse both users and search engines.

8. Improve SEO analysis and monitoring with AI

Watching your website grow is quite addictive, and AI can help you better analyze the results of your hard work with SEO for online business.

Back in the early days of the Internet, SEOs would manually check rankings. Now, you can just plug your important keywords into something like Semrush or Ahrefs to get daily updates on where you stand. When your rankings suddenly jump (or drop), you'll know about it immediately.

These same tools also let you spy on your competitors (legally). See which of their pages are killing it in search results. Figure out who's linking to them (and might link to you, too). Spot the keywords they're ranking for that you haven't even thought about yet.

The really fancy stuff comes from predictive analysis. These tools pick up on patterns that might signal the next big algorithm change or spot rising search trends before they hit the mainstream.

Make Google Analytics and Search Console your best friends — they're free, and they're golden. Hook them up with your other monitoring tools, and you've got yourself a 24/7 website watchdog. Rankings dropping? Traffic dipping? Technical issues brewing? You'll know about it.

Conclusion

These eight fundamental SEO tips for beginners can make a real difference in your online visibility and traffic. While it takes dedication and the right approach, you now know how to set up your SEO strategy. It might seem overwhelming at first, but these tips give you a solid foundation on which to build.

FAQs

Why is SEO important for my online business?

SEO makes your website more visible to potential customers actively searching for your products or services online. It increases your chances of appearing higher in search results, driving more qualified traffic to your site.

How do I research my target audience for SEO?

Build detailed buyer personas using demographic data, customer feedback, and survey results. Understanding your audience's search behaviors, preferences, and pain points will help you craft an SEO strategy that actually works.

What are some technical SEO best practices I should follow?

Focus on improving site speed, ensuring mobile responsiveness, fixing broken links, maintaining current XML sitemaps, and implementing SSL security. These technical optimizations help search engines better understand and index your website.