SEO Basics

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

Google and Bing both offer free webmaster tools that allow you to see information about your website as the search engine sees it. This is valuable data that can help you understand how well your site is performing and identify any issues that need to be addressed.

To set up GSC, simply go to Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account. Once you’ve verified ownership of your site, you’ll be able to access a wealth of data about your website, including your organic search traffic, the keywords you rank for, the URLs that are being indexed, any manual action penalties that have been applied, and much more.

Setting up Bing Webmaster Tools is a similar process. Just go to Bing Webmaster Tools and sign in with your Microsoft account. Once you’ve verified ownership of your site, you’ll have access to data about your website’s performance on Bing, including information about your organic search traffic, the keywords you rank for, the URLs that are being indexed, and any issues that Bing has found on your site.

Set up Google Analytics

If you don’t have Google Analytics set up for your website yet, now is the time! Google Analytics is a free service that provides website owners with insights into how their website is being used. In order to set up Google Analytics, you will need to create a Google account and then sign up for Analytics.

Once you have signed up for Google Analytics, you will be given a code to insert into your website. This code will allow Google to track data about your website, such as the number of visitors and the pages they visit. After you have inserted the code into your website, you can start exploring the wealth of data that Google Analytics provides.

Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)

There are a variety of SEO plugins available for WordPress. In this post, we will install and configure the Yoast SEO plugin, which is one of the most popular plugins available.

1. First, you will need to install the plugin. You can do this by going to the Plugins section of your WordPress site and search for Yoast SEO. Once you have found the plugin, click Install Now and then activate the plugin.
2. After the plugin has been installed and activated, you will see a new section labeled Yoast SEO in your WordPress Dashboard. Click on it to open the Yoast SEO Dashboard.
3. The first thing you will want to do is click on the General tab and then scroll down to the Webmaster Tools section. Here you will want to enter your Google Webmaster Tools verification code so that Yoast can verify your site with Google.
4. Next, you will want to click on the Title & Metas tab and scroll down to the Global Settings section. Here you can choose whether you want Yoast to add links to your RSS feed and whether you want to activate breadcrumbs on your site. Breadcrumbs are a helpful way for visitors (and search engines) to navigate around your site, so we recommend activating this feature.
5. The next thing you will want to do is click on the XML Sitemaps tab and then make sure that XML sitemaps are enabled on your site. XML sitemaps help search engines index all of the pages on your website so that they can be easily found in search results.
6. The last thing you will want to do is click on the Social tab and then connect all of your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with your website. This allows Yoast to automatically share new content from your site on social media platforms when it is published
   Keyword Research
   
   Identify your competitors
   
   In order to do keyword research, you need to identify your competitors. You can do this by searching for your target keywords in Google. The results that come up are your competitors.

For example, if you are a plumber in Los Angeles, you would search for “plumbers in Los Angeles” in Google. The results that come up would be your competitors.

You can also use a tool like Moz’s Keyword Explorer to find competitor keywords.

Conduct a keyword gap analysis

In order to improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to understand how to conduct a keyword gap analysis. This process allows you to compare your website’s keywords to those of your competitors, in order to identify areas where you are lagging behind. Additionally, a keyword gap analysis can help you to determine which keywords you should be targeting in order to improve your ranking.

There are a few different methods that you can use to conduct a keyword gap analysis. One popular method is to use a tool like Moz’s Keyword Explorer. This tool allows you to enter the URL of your website and the URL of up to three competitor websites. It will then generate a report showing you the overlap and difference in keywords between your website and each competitor.

Another method is to simply use a spreadsheet program like Excel or Google Sheets. First, create a list of all of the keywords that you are currently targeting on your website. Next, do the same for each of your competitors. Then, compare the two lists and highlight any keywords that appear on one list but not the other. These are the keyword gaps that you need to focus on in order to improve your ranking.

Both of these methods can be used in order to identify which keywords you should be targeting in order to improve your website’s ranking. By conducting a keyword gap analysis, you can ensure that you are not missing out on any important opportunities to rank for high-traffic keywords.

Find your main ‘money’ keywords

Your ‘money’ keywords are the ones that are going to make you the most money, so it’s important to find them and use them in your campaign.

There are a few ways to find your money keywords:

-Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Wordtracker.
-Look at your competitors’ websites and see what words they are targeting.
-Use Google AdWords to find out what people are searching for before they reach your website.

Once you’ve found your money keywords, you need to use them in your campaign. This means using them in your ads, on your landing pages, and in any other marketing materials that you produce.

Technical SEO

Out of all the pieces of an SEO Strategy, Technical SEO is often the most neglected. This Is because most people do not have the slightest idea how to go about it.Technical SEO is the practice of ensuring that your website is accessible to search engines and improving the crawlability of your website. This can be done by optimizing your site architecture, using the correct coding standards, and optimizing your robots.txt file.

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

Did you know that you can check the indexation and crawler accessibility of any URL directly from Google Search Console (GSC)?

This process is called “Inspect URL” and it’s a quick and easy way to check on the health of your website’s pages. Simply enter in the URL you want to check and GSC will tell you if the page is indexable by Google and if there are any crawl errors.

If you find that a page is not indexable, there are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue. First, check to see if the page is blocked by your robots.txt file. If it is, you’ll need to add an exception for that particular URL.

You can also check the “Fetch as Google” feature in GSC to see if there are any issues with how Google is rendering the page. If all else fails, you can submit the URL directly to Google for reindexing.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

In order to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, you should follow these steps:

1. Make sure your website has a responsive design
2. Use a mobile-friendly theme
3. Use a mobile-friendly plugin
4. Use a responsive image slider
5. Optimize your images for mobile devices
6. Use videos that are compatible with all devices
7. Use social media buttons that are easy to see and use on mobile devices
   Check your site’s loading speed

One of the most important factors in SEO is your site’s loading speed. Users are impatient and if your site takes too long to load, they will click away. Google also uses loading speed as a ranking factor, so it’s important to make sure your site is quick.

There are a few ways to check your site’s loading speed. Google has a PageSpeed Insights tool that will give you a score for both mobile and desktop versions of your site. Another popular option is GTmetrix, which will give you a detailed report of your site’s performance.

Once you know how fast (or slow) your site is, you can start making improvements. Some common ways to improve your site’s loading speed include:

• Optimizing images
• Minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Reducing server response time
• Enabling browser caching
  On-page and Content
  
  Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags
  
  The title tag is one of the most important elements on your website, yet it’s often one of the first things to be neglected. A well-written title tag can help improve your click-through rate from the search results, and it can also give your website a much-needed boost in the search engine rankings.

Unfortunately, many website owners make the mistake of either not writing a title tag at all, or writing one that is either too long or too short. Here are some tips to help you write title tags that are both effective and appealing to both humans and search engine crawlers.

1. Keep it under 60 characters – The ideal length for a title tag is between 50 and 60 characters. Anything longer than that risks being cut off in the search results, which can cause your title to lose its impact.
2. Make it descriptive – A good title should accurately describe what your page is about. This not only helps users understand what they will find on your page, but it also helps search engines index your page correctly.
3. Use keywords wisely – In order to rank well in the search results, you need to include relevant keywords in your title tag. However, don’t stuff your title with keywords just for the sake of it – this will only make your title appear spammy and will actually hurt your chances of ranking well.
4. Make it unique – Each page on your website should have its own unique title tag. Duplicate titles are not only confusing for users, but they can also result in penalties from Google.
5. Avoid keyword stuffing – As mentioned above, Stuffing keywords into your title tag will not only make it look spammy, but it can also get you penalized by Google. So instead of stuffing keywords into your title, focus on making it descriptive and concise.
   Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are the short snippets of text that appear below your page’s title in the search results. They give searchers an idea of what your page is about, and can influence whether or not they click through to your site.

If you don’t have a meta description, or if your meta description isn’t relevant to the content on your page, search engines will automatically generate their own snippet of text based on the content on your page. This can result in duplicate or missing meta descriptions.

To find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions:

• Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your site and identify pages that don’t have a meta description.
• For each of these pages, either add a relevant meta description, or make sure that the content on the page is accurately reflected in the automatically generated snippet.
  Find and fix multiple H1 tags

If you have more than one H1 tag on your page, it’s important to fix that. Having multiple H1 tags can be confusing for search engines, and it can also make your content look disorganized.

To fix this, simply find all of the H1 tags on your page and remove all but one of them. If you’re not sure how to find all of the H1 tags on your page, you can use a tool like the W3C Markup Validation Service.

Off-Page SEO

Analyze your competitor’s link profile

Link building is one of the most important, and challenging, SEO strategies. In order to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to not only have great content, but also get other websites to link to your content. This process of getting other websites to link to your content is called link building.

One way to figure out how to get links from other websites is by looking at your competitor’s link profile. A link profile is a list of all the other websites that link to your competitor’s website. You can use a tool like Moz’s Open Site Explorer or Majestic’s Site Explorer to see your competitor’s link profile. By looking at your competitor’s link profile, you can get ideas for how to get links from other websites.

For example, if you see that your competitor has a lot of links from guest blog posts, you could try reaching out to bloggers in your industry and seeing if they would be interested in writing a guest blog post for your website. Or, if you see that your competitor has a lot of links from directory listings, you could try submitting your website to relevant directories.

Building links is an important part of an SEO strategy, but it’s not the only thing you need to do. In order for your website to rank higher in SERPs, you also need to make sure you have great content and that you’re using other SEO strategies like keyword research and on-page optimization.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

Link intersect is a method of identifying web pages that link to multiple competitors, but not to you.

The idea is that if these pages are linking to your competitors, they might also be willing to link to you if they knew you existed. So, by reaching out and building relationships with the right people, you can get your site mentioned on some of the same pages that are linking to your competitors.

Conducting a link intersect analysis is a great way to find opportunities for building new links and improving your off-page SEO. Here’s how to do it:

1. Choose your competitors. Identify up to 5 of your biggest SEO competitors. If you’re not sure who your SEO competitors are, you can use a tool like SEMRush or Google Search Console to find out who is ranking for the same keywords as you.
2. Find their links. Use a tool like Moz or Ahrefs to find all the links pointing to your competitor’s websites. Export this list into a spreadsheet so you can review it later.
3. Intersect the links. Use a tool like Link Intersect (made by Moz) or Vennage (made by Ahrefs) to find the intersection of your competitor’s links — i.e., the pages that are linking to all of your chosen competitors, but not to you.
4. Prioritize the opportunities. Review the list of opportunity pages and prioritize them based on factors like PageRank, domain authority, and traffic potential. Then reach out to each of these sites and try to get them to link to your website as well!
   Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

A broken backlink is a link to a page that no longer exists. When this happens, you have the opportunity to swoop in and claim that link for your own site.

To find these broken backlinks, you can use a tool like Ahrefs or Majestic. Just enter your competitor’s URL into the tool and it will show you all of the links pointing to their site.

Once you have a list of potential backlinks, reach out to the site owner and let them know that their link is broken. Then, offer them your own website as a replacement.

This tactic not only helps you get high-quality links, but it also helps build relationships with other website owners in your industry.