SEO Starter Guide 2025: For Students & Beginners | TDA Academy

Organize your site into logical folders based on topics.

For example:

  /seo/on-page.html
  /seo/technical.html

/blog/
  /blog/ai-seo-2025.html

This helps Google understand your site’s structure and crawl it more efficiently. Pages that update frequently (like a promotions folder) get crawled differently than static pages (like your policies).

Dealing With Duplicate Content

Having identical content on multiple URLs creates confusion. You don’t want Google trying to figure out which version to show in search results.

Here’s how to fix it:

• Use 301 redirects to send old URLs to the main version
• Add a canonical tag if you can’t set up redirects
• Avoid URL parameters that create duplicate pages (like ?sort=price)

There’s a common myth that duplicate content gets you penalized. That’s not really true—it’s just inefficient unless you’re doing something spammy.

Writing Content That Actually Ranks

Google looks for content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. But here’s the real secret: write for actual humans first.

Some practical tips:

• Use clear heading structure (H1 for your main title, H2 for major sections, H3 for subsections)
• Keep paragraphs short and scannable
• Include real examples and practical advice
• Update older posts regularly (content gets stale)

Instead of vague statements like “SEO is important,” be specific: “SEO helps search engines understand your content so people can find your tutorials when they need them.”

Think About What People Actually Want

Different users search in different ways depending on their knowledge level:

• Beginners might search: “What is SEO?”
• Advanced users might search: “How to fix crawl budget issues”

Tools like Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, and the “People Also Ask” boxes can help you understand what questions people are actually asking.

The biggest shift in recent years is that Google understands context, not just individual keywords. Their AI models can tell the difference between “apple the fruit” and “Apple the company” based on the surrounding content.