A beginner-friendly SEO guide for 2025. Learn titles/H1s, snippet paragraphs, internal links, schema, and speed—then validate everything with SEO Horizan’s free tools and browse All Blogs in one click.
Beginner’s SEO Guide — Playbooks, Tools & Basics (2025)
Welcome! This guide introduces the core on-page SEO basics and shows how to validate them with SEO Horizan’s free tools. Explore our Plans when you’re ready to scale, and tap the link below to browse every article we’ve published.
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What SEO is (and how to think about it)
- Crawl: Can bots reach the page?
- Index: Is the content stored and eligible to rank?
- Rank: Do you satisfy searcher intent better/faster?
Your first on-page wins
1) Title & H1 alignment
- Keep the decision phrase in ~55–60 characters; mirror it in the H1.
- Preview before shipping: Google Search Preview.
2) Add a snippet paragraph (40–55 words)
Place a crisp summary right under the H1: who it’s for, the outcome, 2–3 steps/tools.
<p class="snippet">[audience], [outcome], [2–3 steps/tools].</p>Verify presence and wording with Website Text Extractor.
3) Internal links that guide users
- Use descriptive anchors (not “click here”). Add 2–4 contextual links near the intro.
- Ensure links go to a final 200: URL Redirect Checker • HTTP Headers Lookup.
4) Lean, truthful schema markup
BlogPostingfor guides;FAQPageonly when Q&A is visible.- Keep JSON-LD text consistent with on-page copy.
{
"@context":"https://schema.org",
"@type":"BlogPosting",
"headline":"[Title]",
"description":"[Snippet paragraph]",
"mainEntityOfPage":"https://example.com/blog/[slug]"
}
5) Speed & stability
- Target TTFB < 600 ms: TTFB Checker.
- Keep payload < 2 MB: Website Page Size Checker (set explicit image dimensions, compress media).
- Make images informative: Image Alt Tags Checker.
Free tools to validate your basics
- Meta Tags Checker + OpenGraph Checker — parity & previews
- Noindex Checker — catch accidental blocks
- URL Redirect Checker — no chains/loops
Copy-and-paste editor worksheet (CSV)
URL, Title OK (Y/N), H1 OK (Y/N), Snippet (Y/N), 2–4 Contextual Links (Y/N), Links Final-200 (Y/N), Schema Valid (Y/N), TTFB<600ms (Y/N), <2MB (Y/N), Owner, Live Date
Internal links you should add
- Blog hub (related guides)
- Plans (if you reference features or limits)
- Sign-up or Login when relevant
- Ensure important pages are in your Sitemap
FAQs
What’s the fastest SEO win for beginners?
Rewrite the title for intent + outcome, add a 40–55 word snippet under H1, and fix redirecting internal links.
Do all posts need FAQ schema?
No. Only add FAQPage when a matching, visible Q&A block exists.
How many internal links per post?
For 800–1,200 words, aim for 3–8 contextual links plus one clear CTA.
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