SEO Tutorial for Dummies from the Top Rank of Authors
SEO Tutorial for Dummies from the Top Rank of Authors
Fixing SEO Problems
Optimized websites must not be plagued with basic issues that can negatively impact the search engine friendliness of the site. To accomplish this, there are some basic guidelines to follow in order to address the most important of these issues.
Fixing Duplicate Content
Many sites suffer from lackluster rankings because of duplicate content and the mistaken belief that any content is good content. Good content may be king, but duplicate content is poison to the health of a website. Eliminate all and any duplicate content you may have on your site, whether the content was generated intentionally or it is just a function of bad information architecture design.
Short, yet descriptive URLs which are free of session IDs
URLs are a good way of telling visitors what the page is all about (if nothing else). A URL such aswww.example.com/article.php&id=48887464579876412 tells the user nothing about the page. Why not use something like www.example.com/blue-widgets.html? There is no good reason for not using the short and descriptive URL. Aside from making the site more user-friendly, the short descriptive URLs will also be search engine friendly. The keyword in the URL will contribute to improved rankings.
Customizable titles tags
As the most important element of the on-site optimization process, the title tag should be utilized to the fullest extent, and this cannot be done unless each and every page on your site has an independently customizable title tag.
Independently customizable description and keyword meta tags
Even though the meta tags are the (much) weaker of the title tag, it is still advisable to customize the keyword and description meta tags. If for nothing else, the description meta tag can be used to provide the search engines relevant and optimized marketing text for the snippet displayed on the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Complex and non search engine friendly navigation
The search engines must be able to index your pages before they can rank them. So if the architecture of your website is a roadblock to the indexing of your pages, no amount of content optimization will help the ranking potential for your website.
Develop a simple to use and logical site structure, and make sure the navigation is not a hindrance to the search engine spiders (e.g. don't hide your navigation in Flash or JavaScript), but a map for finding each and every page. Note: Even with a perfect navigational structure, you will still benefit from having an actual sitemap.
Keyword Research
Before doing any search engine optimization for your website, it is necessary to set goals towards which you can strive. The most basic of these goals is ranking for a particular set of keywords. Though you may think the most popular keywords in your industry are the ones for which you should rank, it is important to keep in mind that quality (like in many other things), as opposed to quantity, is what is important.
To illustrate, let's say you have a website that sells blue (and only blue) widgets. Your first thought, when it comes to rankings and keyword selection, may (and most likely) will be that your site has to rank for the word 'widgets' in order to be successful. So let us see if that is in fact true.
Let us say that the keywords 'widgets' has a monthly search volume of 5,000. And let's also say that through incredible efforts (since 'widgets' is going to be a pretty difficult keyword to rank for) you (or the company you hire) manage to get your site to rank in the #1 position in all search engines. Let us also assume that every search engine user who searches for the keyword 'widgets' ends up clicking on the #1 listing (which is not the case). Now, the 5,000 searches conducted by search engine users for the term 'widget' can be broken down into two very broad categories: those who are looking to buy a widget (of some color), and those who are simply looking for information on widgets. What is also true, is that those looking to make a purchase are likely going to be interesting in a variety of colors, no only blue widgets. It should be clear by now that a big portion of the 5,000 visitors that will be coming to your site by the virtue of your unlikely high rankings are not going to be interested in what you have to offer since your website offers only blue widgets. This is the most fundamental reason, why keyword research and selection are vital for a successful and sustainable search engine optimization campaign.
Since your website specializes in blue widgets, wouldn't it make more sense to ignore the deceptively large search volume of the term 'widgets' and instead concentrate your efforts behind ranking for the term 'blue widgets' (and variations thereof)? If you are unsure of the answer, it is "Yes, it does make more sense to ignore the deceptively large search volume." Aside from lack of specificity, the term 'widgets' will be very difficult to rank for, since it is a more generic term compared to 'blue widgets'.
The level of competition of a keyword will dictate the amount of effort it will require to attain high rankings for said keyword. So given the fact that a generic term like 'widgets' is extremely difficult to rank for, and is much less likely to help create a conversion for your website compared to a term such as 'blue widgets', wouldn't it make sense to pursue rankings for a keyword which has less competition, and a higher potential to send well-converting traffic? The Answer, again, is "Yes, it does make sense."
There are a variety of tools you can use to research keywords, but one of the keyword research tools which has to the most up-to-date and reliable data is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. You might say, "But, Mr. SEO article writer guy, that is a keyword tool specifically designed for AdWords, which is a pay per click advertising platform." And Mr. SEO article writer guy would say, "What is the difference? The tool still provides the same exact data you would need to evaluate whether or not to pursue rankings for a particular keyword."
Now that we have that settled, make sure you pay attention when it comes to keyword selection, making sure the keywords for which you will expend effort in order to rank are not going to be a waste of your time and money.
Understanding your niche, the competition, and what your site is capable of
If you've recently started an auction site, ebay is not your competition. Keep that example in mind when you are trying to figure out what keywords to pick. If your site (a single page is not a website) is new (less than a year old), you will need to make some compromises about the type of keywords you can start your optimization process with. Going back to the auction site example, you would be well advised to stay away from the keyword 'auction'. This is not to say that you should ignore the prominent keywords for your industry, but you also should not expect to see results for a long while.
Developing a list of 80 to 100 words (the list will be narrowed down)
Start with a large list of keywords and narrow down to pick the ones best suited for your site, product (service) type, service area, and so on. What follows is a list of quick tips for narrowing down the list of keywords.
Start with the most popular keywords in your industry
Use the myriad of research tools available online (e.g. Google Adwords Keyword Tool) to expand your list based on what you think are the most popular keywords.
Narrow down the list to areas you specialize in (if any)
If you sell shoes and specialize in walking shoes, don't use the term "women's shoes" just because it has more searches. This by no way means that you should not include "women's shoes", but perhaps your optimization will be better served if you used "women's walking shoes". The search numbers may be much lower, but you'll get the type of visitor that is much more likely to buy, once on your site.
Don't choose keywords solely based on the search volume
As stated above, don't be swayed by big numbers. A keyword with a search volume of 20,000 per month will have a high level of competition and it may take your site a year or two to get to the first page of the listings (not even #1) , and even then you will only get a fraction of the 20,000 visiting your site. What if you pick a keyword that has only 1000 searches but you are able to rank #1 for it within a few months? Getting all or a big chunk of 1000 within a few short months is much better than getting little to none of the 20,000.
No matter how many products you have, don't start the initial stage of your optimization with more than 30-50 keywords
Selecting a reasonable number of keywords will help you better utilize your resources, and to build long term and sustainable success on short term achievements.
Choose a balance of low, mid and high competition keywords (based on your site's ranking potential*)
Though you should not ignore the high end keywords even if your site is brand new, the proportion of the hyper-competitive keywords should be smaller compared to the mid-range and low-end keywords. Remember, do not get distracted by large search numbers.
Optimizing Your Website
These instructions are meant to be an introduction into the world of SEO. They can also be used to make sure that the SEO company that you have hired is doing a thorough job.
Customized Titles
In 'Eliminating Problems' portion of this tutorial we spoke about the ability to independently customize each and every page title. Take advantage of this capability and customize the titles of your pages to accurately describe the content of your pages.
Customized description and keyword meta tags
Similar to the title tag, but less important (as far as SEO is concerned), the description and keyword meta tags should be customized to reflect the content of the page they represent.
Customized headings and sub headings for your pages
Headings (H1-H6) can and should be thought of as titles and subtitles (or headings and subheadings), and should be used exactly as they were intended. The most important topic of your page would have an H1 heading, followed by a subsection of that topic which should have an H2 heading (and so on). This structure assumes that you have subsections to your topic on a particular page; if you do not then of course you would simply use an H1 as the main heading and leave it at that. Just like the title, and meta tags, the headings should be descriptive.
Well written, user-centric content
When writing content, the most important thing is to make sure it is of high quality, unique, and useful in some way--it can be full of facts, ideas, entertaining prose or something that sets it apart from the other pages on the Internet that cover the same topic. If your content brings nothing new to the table, it won't be allowed at the table at all--the table being 'good rankings'.
Do not spend your time worrying about keyword density, and concentrate the quality. If you are writing about widgets, you cannot help but mention widgets in your text, just be mindful of the variety of keyword you are targeting and when appropriate use keyword variations to avoid overuse of a particular keyword.
Logical and helpful internal link structure (in-line links)
As with most (if not all) things in search engine optimization, logic is king. So when it comes to internal linking, logic should be your main guide. You should be able to justify In-line links in your content by the benefit they provide to the reader. Does a particular keyword mentioned in your content on page 'A' have a dedicated page (page 'B') on your site? Why not link that keyword to page 'B'? In some cases you may want (or need) to develop new content to facilitate this process.
Link Building
Before you embark on a link building campaign, ask yourself whether you have anything worth linking to, otherwise you'll be stuck doing the same thing millions of other website owners do, which is low quality linking campaigns (e.g., free directory submissions, blog and forum comments, etc). Every successful link building campaign starts with a website that has content worth linking to. If you don't have that, your time and money will be better spent on developing such content.
Assuming you have some wonderful, and unique content on your site, there are some basic linking strategies you can utilize to get you started on the right track.
Niche directory submissions
Manually researched niche directories which can usually be found on industry related sites. These types of directories can either be free or offer a paid option. In either case, you'll get a link from a relevant website. These types of links are not of the highest quality, but will do well in establishing a nice foundation for your website's link profile.
Link requests
Sending link requests to manually researched websites which offer complementary content, whose users could benefit from information available on your site.
Paid directory submissions
High quality paid directory submissions which offer a category suitable for your product or service. Examples of such directories include Yahoo! Directory, Business.com, and Best of the Web.
Creating linkable content
If you are an expert in your field, you can utilize your expertise to write helpful articles for other websites which might benefit from your work. In return for providing such websites with original content, you would request backlinks from bylines included from within those articles or blog posts. Keep in mind that you would not want to publish an article at more than one location, as the effect created by the duplicate content will be counterproductive, as search engines only assign value to the content they perceive to be the original version.
Links from organizations
Join industry organizations (such as local chambers of commerce) which include a link to their members' websites. This list represents an introduction of what is possible when it comes to link building.
The 10 basics of blogging SEO
As always guys and gals, if you have any other tips please leave me a comment and add to the fun. I absolutely love reading the huge comment-essays that you all tend to write.
1. You need your own domain and hosting
The first thing that beginners need to know is that you need your own domain and hosting. Free blog set ups do not do any favors for your SEO efforts.
Why is that?
Well many people speculate that if you were really serious about your website you would get your own name and host it yourself. And Google only wants to point to websites that are considered serious and trustworthy.
I recommend all new bloggers get their own domain and hosting setup right from the beginning. You can read more about why in my blog hosting reviewthat I did recently or check out my 9,000-word guide on how to start a blogand dominate your niche. It has lots of details and tips.
2. Solve problems with original content
You have to remember that Google’s whole purpose is to provide their customers with relevant and useful search results. Everything they do is built around the premise.
And, to be realistic, the most important thing you can do for your SEO is create massively useful content that solves people’s problems. If you are solving problems that people are searching for then it is likely that you are going to get shared on social media and ranked in Google.
The phrase “original content” means so much more than just blog posts nowadays. You should start expanding into:
· Photography
Here’s a big guide to finding images for your blog that talks about why you need original images and photos and how to use them to your best advantage..
· Videos
Make tutorials or do video posts with your webcam. This builds links and traffic from Youtube and does well on mobile devices.
· Podcasts
iTunes is growing fast as people get better smart phones and spend more time plugged in. You can check out my podcast right here.
· Tools and plugins
If you can develop an original tool and install it on your website you can be assured of top Google rankings for a long time. Google absolutely lovestools and helpful plugins that people can use in their lives.
The idea is to build a relationship with your readers by helping them out. This will mean more sharing and faster results on the SERPS (search engine rankings positions).
3. Build relevant backlinks in a natural way
If you are just getting started with SEO you might know a little about backlinks. A backlink is when another website links back to your site from their site.
Not all backlinks are created equal though. Some things to know:
· Never buy them
I once heard about a guy who was the head SEO guy for an investment company. He bought some cheap backlinks on a domain name with millions of dollars and got the thing banned from Google. Never buy backlinks. Google is on to them.
· The source matters
The blog that is giving you the backlinks makes a huge difference. If it is an old domain name with excellent rankings itself then the backlink counts for more. One good link from an authority domain name (.edu and .gov ones are amazing) and your rankings change more than hundreds of little ones.
· The anchor text matters
The anchor text is the words that are used as the link. For example, just then I used “anchor text” as the anchor text. You want this to be relevant to your targeted keywords.
As mentioned, the best way to build quality backlinks is to write amazing quality content and then guest post on the best blogs in your niche. Here’s a blogging strategy that has worked well for me.
Remember, backlinks to your OWN content is also really important. See how many links I have to my own articles in this blog post? Those count too!
NOTE: Using plain keywords as anchor text is no longer the recommended method. There needs to be a natural mix of keywords in your links. Read more about it all here.
4. Make sure your theme is SEO optimized
This is the topic of a whole series of posts so I’ll keep it brief.
Think of SEO as having two components: the off-site stuff like social media and backlinks and the on-site stuff like optimizing your theme.
Optimizing your theme is important because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site. It also helps Google find your content. Some of the things you can do include:
· Mobile responsive
If your blog is not mobile responsive you will be losing a lot of visitors as Google prioritizes mobile sites for people searching on smartphones.
· Cleanly coded
Make sure your theme is coded to ensure it’s easily read by those Google spiders that are looking to see whether you have all the elements of a good website included.
· Fast loading
A fast loading site is good for user experience and thus good for Google. Make sure your theme is pulling its weight and loading quickly. You cancheck out its speed here. You can use cache plugins to help speed things up.
· Original
Some people disagree but I still reckon that my original themes do better than themes that thousands of other people are using. A newly developed and original site also comes with dozens of other benefits.
· No broken bits
Make sure you clean up any broken links and make sure your navigation all works smoothly.
The best paid themes for SEO at the moment are those made over atStudiopress. Yep, Brian Clark again.
Having a well designed theme is also important for your brand. Separating yourself from the competition is a very important thing to do.
5. Fix your permalink structure
Permalinks are how people locate your blog and its internal posts and pages. They are made up of a root and an extension.
For example, on this post we have:
ROOT: blogtyrant.com/
EXTENSION: beginnger-blogging-seo/
Now, it is very important to have a good permalink structure. You can change this in WordPress by going SETTINGS > PERMALINKS and tweaking the options. The best option to have in there, in my opinion, is just the post name. So you should select CUSTOM STRUCTURE and then add /%postname%/
However, even better than that is to research what keywords you are trying to rank for and then shorten your URL to match those keywords. Take a look atthis post and have a guess what key words I was trying to rank for.
Be warned! You don’t want to change the old permalinks because then any backlinks you have will be broken. Just new ones.
6. Install a sitemap
One of the easiest things you can do is install a Google Sitemap plugin that gives a full map of all your posts, pages and archives. The most common one that people use is this one and it seems to work quite well.
This automatically generates the sitemap for you at regular intervals and then submits it to Google, Bing, etc. on your behalf. Its literally giving them a map of your site so they can index it better.
7. Comment on other blogs
For a long time my SEO strategy consisted of just commenting on other authority blogs. Not only does it get you more traffic, exposure and new relationships, it also counts as a backlink.
Now, some blogs you can leave target anchor text because they aren’t real worried about user names. But on most blogs you need to use your real name. That’s fine.
Try and use Market Samurai to see where your competitors are getting their backlinks from. You might just find a bunch of them come from comments on well ranked blog posts.
8. Build your social media profiles big time
As I mentioned in my post on SEO secrets you want to now have a big focus on social media for SEO purposes as well as traffic building purposes.
Why?
Well because Google is now looking to social media as a signal of an article’s authority and relevance.
If thousands of people are tweeting about it then chances are you have written something pretty good. And the best way to get tweets is to build a loyal following and write killer content that they just love to promote for you.
Some things you need to start doing:
· Tweeting big players
Get to know the big players in your niche by casually building a rapport with them on Twitter. Down the track you can hit them up for re-tweets.
· Add separate value
Tweet and Facebook information and facts that don’t appear on your blog. Think of it as a separate resource for people to tap in to.
· Share others
The more content you share from other bloggers the more likely they are to share your stuff. Give and then get later.
Neil Patel (one of my blogging heros) has just written a really cool list about how to use Twitter like a boss. That is a good place to start if you want to really amp up your social activities.
NOTE: Google+ is now an interesting factor in SEO rankings. Here is a post I did with some important Google+ tips to get your started.
9. Use SEO plugins
There are lots of WordPress plugins out there that you can install to get some help with your SEO. One of the best ones to start with is the All in One SEO Pack which does so many of the nasty little things for you.
There are a lot of other good SEO plugins out there so I thought I would open this one up to the audience and see what everyone else is using. Please leave a comment and let me know.
10. Read, study and use SEOmoz
As far as I am concerned the absolute best resource for SEO related material in the world is over at MOZ.
Now, the content on their blog might be a little over your head to begin with but you will slowly start to absorb ideas about trends, tactics and best practices over time. Even if you only check in every couple of weeks and read one or two articles you will find that your SEO knowledge just grows and blossoms.
If you are anything like most people, SEO can seem like the unwanted elephant in the room. You know your business needs to deal with it, but you don’t want to be the one responsible for this task. When most people thinkSEO, they assume difficult, complex, and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be any of those things. In fact, you can learn SEO in 10 simple steps. All you need to do is lean in, listen, and apply the information you are given. While no two businesses operate the same, SEO is flexible enough to accommodate any need, desire, or shortcoming. Remove the elephant in the room and take your business to the next level!
Step 1: Setup
During the initial setup stage, you should prepare yourself for success. Just as a house needs a solid foundation before the framing goes up, so does your SEO strategy. The foundation in this case consists of tools like Google Analytics, Google AdWords, and Google Webmaster Tools.
· Google Analytics will play a major role in tracking and analyzing how visitors interact with your site. Because it is free of charge and relatively intuitive, it is a necessity for every SEO campaign. In addition to creating an account and adding it to your website, you will want to read up on the features it offers.
· Google AdWords is particularly useful as it pertains to SEO for its keyword research capabilities. This incredibly valuable tool allows you to find out what users are searching for so you can cater to their needs, wants, and desires.
· Google Webmaster Tools allows you to gain the most out of your SEO efforts by letting you view your site through the eyes of Google. This toolset gives you keen insight into how pages are performing, which links are pointing to it, keywords that are working, and aspects that need to be fixed. You will find it useful to read through Google Webmaster Guidelines.
Step 2: Site Audit
If you have an existing site, you will want to perform a site audit when starting your SEO. With each passing month, Google is becoming more stringent with its penalties, and rules are becoming increasingly cut and dried. The best way to ensure your site is in compliance is to perform a detailed site audit.
One helpful site audit tool is the Moz Site Audit Checklist. As a reliable source, this detailed checklist is great for examining everything from content and accessibility to site architecture and internal linking. Another good option isWooRank. This helpful website audit tool automatically checks and analyzes many items on the Moz checklist. While a site audit may take significant time and energy, it is completely necessary to SEO. Penalties for preexisting violations can be harsh and eventually undo much of the hard work you put into your site.
Step 3: WWW or Without
Surprisingly enough, a very important part of SEO depends on those three “w’s” you see in front of your site’s web address. If you aren’t careful, you could make a costly mistake regarding these letters. People often think this determines whether someone can arrive at your website by typingwww.domain.com or domain.com, which is not quite the case. At its core, this is about how the search engines view your website and how links pointing to your site are treated. You can choose to go with the ‘www’ or without it, but it is important to choose just one. If you choose both, the search engines will view your website as two separate sites, which can badly damage your rankings and link quality.
Step 4: Keyword Research
Some experts go as far as to say keyword research is the most important part of SEO. It’s hard to argue with that statement, as there are plenty of statistics to back it up. If you are serious about SEO, you need to invest heavily in keyword research. For your site to stand out against the more than 100 billion Google search queries per month, you must appropriately optimize. That starts with keyword research. Everything else falls into place after you gain an understanding of what your audience is searching for. Here is a sampling of useful tools you can use to get started:
Step 5: Navigation
Navigation, as it relates to SEO, is important on two ends. First, it is imperative for visitors to be able to navigate smoothly and quickly through your site’s pages. Second, search engines need to find clear connections between individual links and pages.
To accomplish both of these goals simultaneously, you need to build a universal navigation. Do this by identifying why visitors come to your site, what your top exit pages are, and what search terms are used on site. Next, you should divide your products and key pages into categories with useful names. Finally, put those categories in the universal navigation and keep things simple. If you use drop down menus, they need to be in HTML in order for the search engines to read them. If your product pages have more than 20 items on a page, consider adding a filter for visitors to narrow their search.
Step 6: On-Page Content
While there is significant behind the scenes work that goes into SEO, you still need quality content for visitors to read and view. Google’s newest algorithm is putting a major emphasis on useful, high-quality writing instead of heavy keyword usage. Avoid keyword stuffing and instead use calculated, well-placed keywords. It is best to target one keyword phrase per page. As for the structure, each page should have a distinct arrangement and headings.
Step 7: Meta Tags
In order to understand the value of meta tags, you must think about things through the eyes of search engine users. When you search for something, how do you determine which result to click? You most likely analyze the first few results and read a few words from the title and accompanying description. As a site, you only have a limited string of characters to persuade a user to click on your result over millions of others available. That descriptive sentence is known as a meta tag.
Your site will see a noticeable improvement if you are able to properly attack meta tags. Each meta description should be around 160 characters and should include natural keyword phrases. It is also crucial that you include some sort of call to action. This can be difficult to accomplish in only a few words and requires careful planning and thinking. If you’ve done your keyword research and organized site content in an effective manner, it should all fall into place.
Step 8: Coding
Coding can be a difficult part of SEO for those unfamiliar with the topic. While you will probably need to find someone well-educated in coding to perform detailed actions, there is one area you should understand: robots.txt.
In simple terms, robots.txt is a text file that you put on your site to tell search engines which pages they are allowed to visit. While this code is not mandatory, it is very helpful in cases where you have pages you wish for search robots to avoid. Think of it like a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. Thieves can still get in if they like, but most folks will leave you alone. It is important to make sure your robots.txt file is in the main directory of your site and is structured appropriately.
Step 9: Sitemap
You can have a beautiful, properly structured site, but unless people can view it, your hard work doesn’t mean anything. To get the maximum amount of traffic and visibility, your site must be indexed by search engines and directories, like DMOZ. Otherwise, the big guys, like Google, Yahoo! and Bing, are unlikely to find the most relevant page on your site to display (if your site is found at all).
Many techniques and tools promise to get your site indexed by search engines. However, the least time consuming and most reliable way to lead search engines and visitors through your site’s content is by creating a sitemap. With an HTML sitemap, visitors can quickly navigate the contents of your site and head to the most relevant area. Similarly, an XML sitemap is read by search engines to ensure the most relevant page of your site is displayed.
Step 10: Off-Page
In addition to the work you put into your site, you’ll need to spend some effort working off of your page. Focus on link building through content marketing, blog writing, guest blogging, infographics, site directories, and other tools that allow you to leave online footprints leading back to your site. Off-page efforts also include social media marketing. When properly used, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram can be helpful tools in acquiring site traffic. Whatever you do, avoid black hat SEO techniques when it comes to off-page efforts.
Bonus! Build Trust
In addition to these 10 simple rules, you should understand the importance of building trust online by using Google+ Author Verification and WOT. These tools enable your site to build a healthy reputation and trust relationship with search engines and visitors. Registering your domain name for a minimum of 5 years also instills trust and indicates that you plan to be around for the long term.
SEO: You Can Do It!
Whether you have tried SEO in the past and failed or have never given it a shot, don’t be intimidated by the noise. There are thousands of help articles discussing the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of SEO, but you don’t need to learn everything at once. Follow these 10 simple steps and you will be well on your way to optimizing your site in a healthy way.
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