SEO is never a one-and-done idea, more it’s a type of philosophy that you must adapt to be successful in your endeavors. Everything you do, every sentence you write, every graphic you create and every content marketing plan you follow should ALL start with SEO.
- What exactly is SEO?
- What does SEO optimization mean for you?
- Why is SEO so important?
- Being SEO Flexible.
- How To Create Your Own SEO Strategy.
- How To See If You’re Strategy Is Working.
- Your Own SEO Planner.
1. What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is the science of making your content rank high in the search engines of today.
The official definition is this:
According to this piece of MOZ SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
What goes into SEO?
To understand the true meaning of SEO, let’s break that definition down and look at the parts:
Quality of traffic. You can attract all the visitors in the world, but if they’re coming to your site because Google tells them you’re a resource for Apple computers when really you’re a farmer selling apples, that is not quality traffic. Instead, you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products that you offer.
Quantity of traffic. Once you have the right people clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), more traffic is better.
Organic results. Ads make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic traffic is any traffic that you don’t have to pay for.
2. What Does SEO Optimization Mean For You?
It’s a strategy or plan that you create that will continue to build on SEO as you go along, by using:
- Title
- keywords
- headlines
- image titles
- image descriptions
- categories
- tags
- Cornerstone Content
- social media posts
to consistently rank higher in search engines. This strategy works best when created at the very beginning, but can be improved along any step in the process.
3. Why Is SEO So Important?
SEO is important because it keeps the search results fair. It reduces the ability to manipulate these results as much as possible so that the sites appearing for each search are there because they deserve to be there. Hard work and a website that appeals to visitors correlate with high search engine rankings, so if your site meets these criteria, you’ll have a better chance of showing up in the results.
Users trust search engines and achieving a top spot in search engine rankings signals to searchers that your site is a credible source. The higher you rank in results pages, the more clicks and traffic your site will generate. SEO also improves user experience, making it more likely for customers to become repeat buyers. According to this piece on WEBFX.
4. Being SEO Flexible
What does being SEO flexible mean? It means that you take several key factors into consideration when making your SEO plan. Such as:
- Current Events
- Special Dates
- Longtail keywords
- Pivoting when things aren’t working.
No one ever sits down and creates the “perfect SEO plan” because honestly, it doesn’t exist. Being SEO optimized is an ongoing strategy and taking in these other key factors will only improve your rankings.
Taking into account the keywords you have chosen for your brand messaging you should also find ways to create with these four ideas in mind.
EXAMPLE:
Ellen is a food blogger and she uses these 4 keywords as her foundation.
- Baking
- Desserts
- Organic
- Gluten-free
Now using the previous considerations she might use these sentences or keywords.
- How To Keep Your Holiday Desserts Gluten-Free
- How to Bake The Ultimate Organic Holiday Meal.
- Baking Thanksgiving Desserts For The Dietary Challenged.
- Your Christmas Baking Taking To The Next Level With These Organic Recipes.
- Ten Things That You Could Be Doing To Completely Ruin Your Easter Baked Goods.
5. How To Create Your Own SEO Strategy.
Now comes the easy part, because I’ve actually done the hard work for you. I created the FREE SEO PLANNER STRATEGY PLANNER and it’s a step by step guide to build a strong SEO foundation and to scale that plan as you grow.
On-Page SEO Tips
- Make sure that your URLs are clean:
- Think ahead
- Be consistent
- Use keywords
- Avoid any special characters. As they show up as “%20” which is unattractive.
- Length should be 50-60 characters
- Make sure your title is attractive:
- Start with keywords.
- Mind the length.
- Make it sell.
- Meta Descriptions:
- 150-160 characters.
- Don’t overstuff with keywords.
- Schema Markup: Structured data can do wonders for your SEO strategy.
- Use a Schema Markup Plugin
- You can also use Google’s, Markup Helper.
- How to check- use Rich Result Test.
- Optimized headings (h1-h6)
- H1 headings- Technically each of your pages has 2 titles.
- The title tag is displayed in search snippets.
- H1 tag benefit: Unlike title tag no character limitation. Use more keywords.
- H2 headings- Split page into high-level section mini titles within your content.
- H3-H6 headings- Used to mark further subsections within the content. Don’t overload keywords.
- H1 headings- Technically each of your pages has 2 titles.
A.Keyword Saturation:
- Use keywords earlier in the copy. You should be using keywords within the first 100 words.
- Go beyond “exact matches” add more related keywords.
B.Content Length:
- Content length changes from year to year and is currently around 2,000-word posts do best.
- Want to make your content more compelling? Check out this piece from MostlyBlogging.com
C. Visual Aids:
- Fill in your “alt” tags.
- Compress your files.
- Use descriptive filenames.
D. Above The Fold Content:
The top part of the page visual when it’s first loaded.
- Remove distractions.
- Optimize For Core Web Values
- How fast it loads
- How stable it is while loading.
- How soon it becomes interactive
E. Mobile Friendliness:
You should check your site on all mobile search engines and make changes based on your results.
F. Internal Links:
- Should flow from one link to another.
- Pass authority from popular pages to less popular ones.
- Move users down a funnel.
- You need to always consider this: Whenever you create a piece of content you should always consider where the reader should go next.
G. Outgoing Links:
- Link to larger, more established sites.
- Each piece of content should have relevant links.
H. The Comment Section:
Make sure that your comments are set up as “no follow”. If you use popular comment plugins they take care of this for you.
6. How To See If You’re Strategy Is Working:
If you see that your backlinks are on the rise, your SEO efforts are working properly. If you see that the number of organic keywords on your website are also increasing, it’s safe to assume that you are targeting the correct keywords for your industry and using them successfully in your content. WebFX
7. Your Own SEO Planner:
I’ve created your very own SEO Planner to help you keep your brand message on point. Sign up for my weekly newsletter (Sunday morning’s) to get a copy for your very own, plus you’ll get full access to the Resource Library, deep discounts, and amazing tips to help you succeed in your online business or blog.
You might also like these other resources:
“What You Don’t Know About SEO Could Hurt You”
“Simple SEO Practices You Can Establish To Be Search Engine Attractive
”How To Improve SEO & Increase Pageviews In 2020”
- Top Design Tips to Boost Your Sales in 2020 - October 25, 2020
- 2 Step Verification: Why You Need It & How To Get It - October 18, 2020
- The Ultimate Resource Guide & Planner To Improve Or Create Your SEO Strategy Plan - October 11, 2020
Understanding SEO was not as easy as following many of the tips that you rightly give, but actually over time it is possible to see the results!
I’ve been trying tolearn SEO for some time now. Some of it I’ve been successful with, and some of it…well, I have so much still to learn! It is an overwhelmingly large subject. Thank you for breaking in down into much more understandable parts.
I am trying to learn about SEO this month (SEOctober, lol) so I’m thrilled you’ve provided a planner I can use!
Thank you for this article! I am working on improving my SEO and I’ll use this as a reference guide.
This is helpful! I really need to get better with SEO. I still don’t know what I’m doing most of the time.
You have shown that SEO is more than just a few well placed topics and subjects. This is so helpful and maybe I can increase my traffic with optimal SEO.
SEO can be really hard! I sometimes have trouble with the title being to long. We are working on it! Helpful article!
I really struggle with SEO it is something I have never got my head around, and something I need to work on more, I am going to have to pin this and work through the ideas.
This is great information! I’ve been working hard on SEO lately, and I see that it’s paying off!
I struggle with this and your post made things much more clear. Thank you!
This post is really informative. I have to work on my seo.
SEO is really essential to all types of businesses and I am so glad to know so much informatio nregading this.
Great tips 👍 it’s very detailed and informative. I would keep these in mind for future references.. Thanks!
Seo is a part of our al day life now. Especially if you have a site or a blog. That’s why a good strategy it’s so important!
These are great tips! I’ve finally started taking SEO seriously this year, and have seen my organic traffic double. It really does help!
Thank you for the useful tips, as always. I’ve been using an SEO tool, but still trying to learn how to use it to its full capacity.
These are great and helpful tips, I am going to learn SEO starting today. Thank you!
I feel like I am constantly thinking about SEO 🙂 Love all of these tips and checklist to go through.
Such a great SEO planner. I will keep this for future reference.
I need to improve my SEO, but I get so bogged down every time I try. I am looking forward to the planner!
Thank you for this informative article I am on my training for SEO and I wish I will be successful someday
As a digital marketer myself, couldn’t agree more with the right SEO strategy of any site. On-page SEO optimizing is necessary when it comes to ranking the content higher in Google.
Great information. I have been working slowly on our SEO and there is so many things to cover, so this post is great to grab the basics
SEO is most daunting one for me. I am learning still. Not mastered yet. Thanks for sharing this tips.