SEO Basics

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results. SEO can be a complex and ever-changing practice, but it all boils down to two essential factors: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to the factors that you can control on your own website, such as your website’s content and code. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, refers to the factors that are outside of your control, such as links from other websites.

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

Setting up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools is a critical first step in monitoring your website’s SEO health and performance. These free platforms offer valuable insights into how your website is being seen and used by search engines.

Google Search Console (GSC) provides data and tools to help you understand how your site appears in Google Search results, track your site’s traffic, and troubleshoot any issues that may arise. You can also use GSC to submit your sitemap directly to Google, which can help them index your website more quickly.

To set up GSC, simply create a free account at https://search.google.com/search-console/about and follow the instructions provided.

Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) offers similar features to GSC, including the ability to submit your sitemap and track traffic statistics. You can also use BWT to identify any issues that may be preventing Bing from indexing your website properly.

To set up BWT, create a free account at https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/how-to-use-bing-webmaster-tools-faq and follow the instructions provided.

Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you track and analyze your website traffic. In order to use it, you first need to set up a Google Analytics account and add the Analytics tracking code to your website.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up Google Analytics:

1. Create a Google Analytics account by going to google.com/analytics and clicking “Create an Account.”
2. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll be given a tracking code. Copy this code and add it to every page of your website that you want to track. The best place to put the code is in the header of your website so that it gets loaded on every page automatically.
3. Google Analytics will now start tracking traffic to your website! You can see your traffic data by logging into your Google Analytics account and clicking “Reporting” in the top navigation bar.
   Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)
   
   There are many factors that influence your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), and one of the most important is on-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. The main aim of on-page optimization is to tell search engines what your website and webpages are about so that they can rank them accordingly in SERP.

While there are many aspects of on-page optimization like title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, etc., one of the most important and easiest to control is installing and configuring an SEO plugin.

A good SEO plugin will help you automatically optimize your website for better search engine visibility. It will also give you control over things like title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, etc., which are all important factors in on-page optimization.

If you’re using WordPress, then there are many great SEO plugins available for free. Some of our favorites are Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and WordPress SEO by Yoast.

All three plugins are very popular and offer similar features. However, we recommend Yoast SEO because it’s the most user-friendly and offers the most features for free.

If you want more advanced features like social media integration or premium support, then you can upgrade to the premium version of Yoast SEO. However, the free version is more than sufficient for most websites.

To install Yoast SEO, simply log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins » Add New. Then type “Yoast SEO” into the search field and install the plugin:

image: https://websitesetup.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Install-Yoast-SEO-Plugin2.png

Keyword Research

The title of your article is one of the first things that people will see when they find your article in the search engines. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your title includes your target keyword. If you’re targeting the keyword “puppy training,” then you want to make sure that your title includes that keyword.

Identify your competitors

Competitor analysis is an essential part of any keyword research. You need to understand who your competition is and what they are doing in order to make sure you are targeting the right keywords. There are a few different ways to identify your competitors:

-Use a keyword research tool: This will allow you to see who is ranking for the keywords you are targeting.
-Search for your keywords in Google: This will give you an idea of who is ranking organically for your keywords as well as who is running ads.
-Check social media: See who is talking about your keywords on social media. This can give you some insight into who your competition is.

Once you have identified your competition, take a look at their website and see what they are doing. See what keywords they are targeting and how they are ranking for those keywords. This will give you some great insight into how to target your own keywords.

Conduct a keyword gap analysis

A keyword gap analysis is a process of identifying the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, but you are not. This can help you to fill in the “gap” in your keyword coverage and improve your overall SEO strategy.

To conduct a keyword gap analysis:

1. Research your competitors. Determine who your main competitors are and analyze their website and content marketing strategy.
2. Identify their keywords. Use a tool like SEMRush or Google AdWords Keyword Planner to research the keywords that your competitors are targeting.
3. Check your own keywords. Make a list of the keywords that you are currently targeting in your own SEO and content marketing efforts.
4. Compare lists. Compare your list of keywords to your competitor’s list and look for gaps – these are the keywords that they are ranking for that you are not.
5. Prioritize keywords. Once you have identified the gap, prioritize the keywords based on search volume, relevance, and difficulty level so that you can focus on the most opportunities first.
   Find your main ‘money’ keywords
   
   Just like any business, your success in real estate will come down to identifying and targeting the right keywords. The first step is to think like your potential customer. If you were looking to buy a house, what would you type into Google?

Your keywords should be reflective of your target audience, and the research you do will help to ensure that you are connecting with the right people. For example, if you are targeting first-time home buyers, your keywords might be different than if you are targeting investors or people looking for their second home.

Once you have a list of potential keywords, you can use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to get more information on each term. These tools will tell you how many people are searching for each keyword and how much competition there is for that keyword. This information will help you to narrow down your list of keywords and choose the ones that are most likely to bring you success.

Technical SEO

technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving the visibility of the site. The main objective of technical SEO is to ensure that a website is accessible to both users and search engine crawlers, and to improve the site’s overall performance in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

The “Inspect URL” feature inGSC can be used as a quick and easy way to check the live version of your page for anyindexation problems. Simply enter the URL of the page you want to check, and GSC will show you whether the page is indexed and any potential issues that might be preventing it from being indexed. If you see any errors, you can then use the “Fetch as Google” tool to submit a request to Google to re-crawl the page.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

More and more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet. In fact, in 2016, mobile internet usage surpassed desktop usage for the first time ever. This trend is only going to continue as mobile devices become more and more advanced.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. If it’s not, you could be missing out on a lot of traffic and potential customers.

There are a few different things you can do to make sure your website is mobile-friendly:

-Use responsive design: This means that your website will automatically adjust to fit the screen size of the device it’s being viewed on.

-Use large fonts and buttons: This makes it easier for people to tap on links and buttons with their fingers.

-Avoid Flash: Flash is not supported on most mobile devices, so avoid using it if possible.

-Optimize images: Make sure your images are properly sized and compressed so they load quickly on mobile devices.

Check your site’s loading speed

One of the most important things you can do to optimize your site for search engines is to make sure it loads quickly. Search engines are increasingly taking loading speed into account when ranking sites, so it’s important to make sure yours is up to snuff.

There are a number of ways to improve your site’s loading speed, but one of the simplest is to use a tool like Pingdom’s Website Speed Test. Just enter your URL and Pingdom will test your site’s loading speed and give you a comprehensive report.

If you’re not happy with your site’s speed, there are a number of things you can do to improve it. For example, you can:

• Optimize your images for faster loading
• Minimize HTTP requests
• Use a content delivery network (CDN)
  On-page and Content
  
  Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags

If you want your website to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to pay attention to your title tags. Your title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements, so it’s important to get them right.

Duplicate title tags can hurt your SEO, because it tells search engines that your website is not as relevant as it could be. If you have multiple pages with the same title tag, choose one and make sure the others are different.

Missing or truncated title tags can also hurt your SEO. Make sure every page on your website has a unique and descriptive title tag that accurately reflects the content of the page.

Here are some tips for writing effective title tags:

• Keep them under 60 characters long, so they don’t get cut off in SERPs.
• Use relevant keywords, but don’t stuff them in artificially.
• Write for humans first, and search engines second.
  Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are HTML attributes that provide concise summaries of webpages. They are between one sentence and one short paragraph and appear underneath the blue clickable links in a search engine’s results pages (SERPs). A good meta description should entice a searcher to visit your page, and therefore should include relevant keywords for what the searcher is looking for. If your meta descriptions are missing or inaccurate, it can hurt your click-through rates (CTRs) from SERPs, and thereby also hurt your SEO.

Find and fix multiple H1 tags

If you have more than one H1 tag on a page, it’s a good idea to fix that. Not only does it make your HTML code invalid, but it can also cause confusion for search engine crawlers when they’re trying to determine what your page is about.

The simplest way to fix this issue is to find all of the H1 tags on your page and modify them so that they’re all different. For example, you could change one to an H2 tag, or add a class or ID to differentiate them.

Once you’ve made your changes, be sure to save your page and test it in a web browser to make sure everything still looks and works as intended.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is the practice of optimizing a website so as to increase its rank in the search engine results pages (SERP) for certain queries. The main aim of off-page SEO is to build a website’s authority and trustworthiness. There are many different techniques used in off-page SEO, but the most important thing is to create high quality content that will draw links from other websites.

Analyze your competitor’s link profile

One of the most important steps in an off-page SEO campaign is to analyze your competitor’s link profile. By understanding what links they have, you can better determine what links you need to acquire.

There are a few tools that can help you with this, but we recommend using Moz’s Open Site Explorer. With this tool, you can see your competitor’s top pages, their backlink profile, and more.

Once you have a good understanding of your competitor’s link profile, it’s time to start acquiring links. The best way to do this is to start with guest blogging. By guest blogging on high-quality websites in your industry, you can get your name and website in front of a new audience. Not only will this help you get more traffic, but it will also help you build links.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

There are a few things you can do to get an idea of the kinds of links your competitors are getting:

-Check out their backlinks using a tool like Moz’s Open Site Explorer. This will give you an overview of the kind of links they have.

-Do a Google search for “[keyword] + inurl:links” (without quotation marks). This will show you websites that have link pages where you can submit your website.

-Search for “[competitor name] + linkbait” (without quotation marks). This will show you any articles or blog posts that your competitor has written that have been particularly successful in attracting links.

Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

Your competitors are linking to content that is no longer there, why not target thoselinks? This can be an easy way to siphon off some of your competition’s authority.

Here’s how:

1. Use a tool like Majestic, Moz’s Open Site Explorer, or Ahrefs to find your competitor’s broken backlinks.
2. Find the original source of the broken content. This can sometimes be difficult, but it’s worth it.
3. Create something similar or better than what was there before.
4. Reach out to the people linking to the broken content and let them know that you have something similar or better.
5. Profit!