Virtually anybody who has spent time on the internet creating content and targeting audiences understands that search engine optimization is vital to success. SEO provides a relatively passive and free method for drawing in visitors and customers, but it also takes a substantial amount of work in most cases to maximize performance.

While other methods such as paid advertising and social media exist, SEO continues to be one of the most popular content marketing methods for the above-mentioned reasons. Despite its popularity, the learning curve for SEO can be steep, turning off those who are new to the game.

In order to help ease you into the process and guide you toward what matters, below is a list of the most important aspects of SEO you should focus on if you’re new to the subject.

Focus on Keywords

The first step of being effective at SEO is understanding exactly which niches you need to target, and for that, you need to understand keywords. Every search conducted is viewed by Google as a series of keywords, and in conjunction with its algorithms, it attempts to deliver the most relevant results to those pinging servers for information.

Keywords can help you uncover which specific SERPs and niches are most easily contested, and will also help guide you in the right direction with regard to topic selection. While merely stuffing content with keywords won’t actually improve SEO, keywords are used to help focus the writer and provide additional context to search engines.

Focus on Desirable Content

Every audience has preferences. Even within an individual niche, various sub-audiences exist that prefer to see information in particular styles, formats and methods. In order to truly be effective at SEO, you must please your audience: their actions ultimately send signals to search engines about the relevance of your content (and therefore determine how prominently it ranks).

Through a bit of research and direct ask, you can uncover exactly what your audience prefers. Additionally, those brands that already have created various forms of content – each enjoying varying levels of success – can analyze performance to further determine which specific SEO content strategies work best for their exact needs.

Focus on Formatting

The structure of your content can have just as big of an impact on search engine optimization as the substance of it. Search engines look for any and all cues they can find to determine the relevance of content, and users likewise have clear preferences and tendencies when deciding which links to click on in search results.

Some examples of good formatting include catchy titles that entice readers to learn more, proper formatting that uses headings and subheadings, and on-page SEO elements that ensure every relevant piece of information can be read by search engines. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll be pinging servers on Google, Bing and elsewhere with the utmost efficiency.

Ultimately, SEO can involve dozens of different considerations – but that is way too overwhelming for those new to the game. To get going in the right direction, users should focus on learning about keywords, formatting and mastering the relevance of content for their audiences. Doing so will deliver substantial short-term results and keep you motivated to learn even more.