Search Engine
Optimization

A beginner’s guide from Ahrefs

Your SEO journey
starts here!

If you want to learn SEO, you’ve come to the right place.

Over the years, we’ve published tons of free educational materials on our <a1>SEO Blog</a1> and <a2>YouTube channel</a2>, helping millions of people to get more organic traffic to their websites in the process.

But the issue with these resources is that their content is unorganized. There's no clear starting point or pathway to SEO knowledge.

That's why we created this guide. Whether you're just getting started on your SEO journey or already know the basics, this page is your gateway to SEO mastery.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of growing a website's traffic from organic search results. It involves things like keyword research, content creation, link building, and technical audits.

Paid results

Businesses pay Google to be here.

Organic results

Nobody can pay Google to be here. SEO is all about putting your website there.

SEO Glossary

If you've read anything about SEO before, you'll know there's lots of industry jargon. But to keep things simple for now, here are a few key terms and concepts you should know.

Backlinks:

Links from a page on one website to another.

Keywords:

The words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for.

Long-tail keywords:

Keywords with low search volumes.

SERPs:

This stands for Search Engine Results Pages. They're the pages that Google and other search engines show in response to a user’s search query.

SERP features:

Non-traditional search results (not a 'blue link') like videos, tweets boxes, or featured snippets.

Featured snippets:

Answers to search queries pulled from a top-ranking page that show up near the top of the SERP.

Rich snippets:

Search results with additional valuable information displayed alongside them (e.g., star ratings, cooking times, etc.)

Outreach:

Emailing relevant bloggers and journalists to tell them about your content.

Learn more industry jargon in our <a1>SEO Glossary</a1>.

Looking for more resources? Check out our blog and YouTube channel.