Essential SEO Tips for Beginners

Did you know that fixing broken backlinks can significantly boost your website’s SEO without complex strategies? These simple tweaks can improve user experience, preserve link equity, and drive meaningful traffic to your site.

Fix Broken Backlinks to Preserve Link Equity

Broken backlinks are like detours that lead nowhere—users hit a 404, and search engines ignore your content. Start by using Ahrefs Site Explorer (free with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) or Google Search Console’s Links report to identify dead URLs. For each faulty backlink, either restore the original page, set up a 301 redirect to a relevant live page, or reach out to the linking webmaster with a corrected URL. You can also run a site crawl with tools like Screaming Frog to find internal 404s. This proactive repair preserves the “link juice” you’ve earned, helping your pages maintain or regain search rankings and improving overall SEO health.

License Your Custom Images with Creative Commons

When you license your photos or graphics under Creative Commons (CC BY or CC BY-SA), you grant legal permission for others to reuse your images—often in exchange for proper attribution via a backlink. Pexels, for example, uses CC0 for many photos yet still picks up roughly 7,000 backlinks mentioning “creative commons” in anchor text. Similarly, openfoodfacts.org licenses product images under CC BY-SA 3.0 and has generated over 37,000 referring domains. If you produce original infographics or product shots, apply a CC license in your terms of use. Then, clearly state the required attribution format to encourage bloggers, journalists, and educators to link back to your site when they reuse your visual assets.

Repurpose Blog Posts into Videos for More SERP Real Estate

Google increasingly displays videos in search results, especially YouTube content. By transforming high-performing blog posts into engaging videos, you can capture additional real estate on page one. Use Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool to find keywords where both your blog and YouTube rank, then filter for video-heavy queries. Study top-ranking videos: note ideal length, thumbnails, chapter timestamps, and on-screen text. Optimize your video’s title, description, and tags with your target keyword, and embed the video in the original blog post.

"The more SERP real estate you own, the more clicks and impressions you'll get."
This dual-format strategy often drives substantial traffic—our own videos generate around 200,000 annual views and funnel viewers back to our website for deeper content.

Target Low-Hanging Featured Snippet Opportunities

Featured snippets—those highlighted boxes at the top of results—boost visibility and click-through rates dramatically. To snag one, identify keywords where you already rank in positions two through ten and where a snippet appears. In Ahrefs Site Explorer’s Organic Keywords report, filter by positions 2–10 and SERP features: featured snippet. Analyze the snippet format—paragraph, list, table, or video—and mirror that structure in your content. For example, if competitors use a “How-to” step list, convert your section into concise numbered steps with clear subheadings. Updating your existing post to directly answer the query can quickly catapult you into that prime snippet spot.

Add Internal Links to Boost Important Pages

Internal links are a zero-cost way to distribute authority and guide both users and crawlers to your priority pages. To find linking opportunities, do a Google site search (e.g., site:yourdomain.com "target keyword") or leverage Ahrefs Site Audit’s Link Opportunities report. Identify pages that mention your target topic but don’t yet link to your key resource. When adding links, use clear, relevant anchor text that matches the target page’s main keyword. Avoid generic terms like “click here” and instead choose descriptive phrases. A well-structured internal linking plan not only improves crawl depth but also raises the search visibility of your cornerstone content.

Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for Better Click-Through Rates

Title tags and meta descriptions act as your site’s billboard in search results. Ensure your title tag is 50–60 characters long, includes the primary keyword near the front, and entices clicks with power words (e.g., “Essential,” “Proven,” “Quick”). Keep meta descriptions under 160 characters, accurately summarizing content and incorporating a clear call to action. For example: “Learn six proven SEO tips to fix broken backlinks and boost organic traffic—start improving your rankings today.” You can A/B test different descriptions in Google Search Console to see which yields higher CTR. Consistent monitoring and tweaking of these elements can lift click-through rates and bring more qualified visitors to your pages.

Conclusion

• Audit and fix at least five broken backlinks this week to immediately start preserving link equity.

As you begin applying these strategies, which tip will you try first? Share your progress and questions below!