Every day there are more than 55 million searches on Google in Sweden. For companies, it is therefore important to be seen at the top of search results to get visitors to click in to their website. The art behind ranking highly and offering the visitor what he or she is looking for is called SEO.
Maybe you've worked a bit with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) before or maybe you're brand new to the subject. No matter what position you are in, there are basics in SEO you need to keep track of in order to succeed.
Here we list 6 simple beginner's steps towards a better understanding of SEO.
1. The website must be available to search engines
Sometimes we come across landing pages that aren't available for Google to discover and rank. This could be because the page has a NoIndex tag in its code that tells Google not to read through the page. It may also be because no other pages link to the given page and it is therefore difficult to find when Google's so-called spiders follow links.
How can you find out if Google is able to find and can rank a landing page? There are two easy ways to find out.
Solution 1: Go to Google and search: Site:"your-url". If the landing page shows up in search results, it means Google has your page in its index. 
Solution 2: If you've set up the Google Search Console for your site, you can search the URL in the search bar at the top. The tool will then show you whether the page is in the Google index or not.
2. Find the right keywords
To successfully drive organic traffic to your web page, you need to rank on the right keywords. Learn what your customers and visitors are looking for by doing a keyword analysis. Feel free to analyze both short and longer search terms. Longer search terms, called longtails,usually have a smaller search volume, but they are usually easier to rank on.
3. One message per page
When creating content, try to stick to one message per landing page. This makes it easier for search engines and visitors alike to understand what your page is all about. It's also best practice to strive to have unique content on any page you create. If you have too much duplicated content, it can negatively affect SEO.
4. Write a meta title and meta description for each page
By writing a meta title and meta description, you can control how your page appears in Google search results. The meta title is the actual title that appears in the search results and the meta description is the short paragraph below.
Tip! Try to stick to the recommended number of characters, so that your meta title and meta description doesn't get too long. If they're too long, Google will shorten your text.
Meta title: Max is about 60 characters
Meta description: Max is about 150 characters
5. Give the URL a clear name
Let each URL have a clear name that describes what the page contains. Try to include the keyword in the URL and avoid capital letters as well as characters like Å, Ä, and Ö. An easy-to-read URL is especially important now that Google displays the URL directly over the meta title in search results.
6. The importance of links
Links are a complicated topic, especially if you're new to SEO. While you may not have fully grasped it today, it's still important to know that links are a big part of search engine optimization. Both internal links and external links are important to give your pages more authority and ultimately rank better in the search results.
See also: "How to do an SEO test on your website".
Learn more about SEO on our training course
Want to learn more about the basics of SEO? Then you should book a place on our SEO training! Here you can immerse yourself in the basics of SEO and test your new knowledge during various exercises. We also offer practical tips and tools that will help you in your future SEO work.
