SEO Basics
Polysyndeton is the use of multiple conjunctions in close proximity, usually for the purpose of emphasis. As you can see in the title of this article, the conjunctions and, still, and insists are all used in close proximity to each other. This technique can be used for both poetic and prose purposes, and it can create a very lyrical effect.
Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools
If you want to rank in Google, you need to set up Google Search Console (GSC). GSC is a free platform provided by Google that gives you insights into how your website is performing in the search engine.
In order to set up GSC, you need to verify that you own your website. You can do this by adding a meta tag to your site’s HTML code, uploading an HTML file to your server, or using your domain name provider.
Once you’ve verified ownership of your site, you can start using GSC. You’ll be able to see things like which keywords your site is ranking for, the click-through rate (CTR) of your listings, and the average position of your website in the search results.
You can also use GSC to submit sitemaps and troubleshoot issues with your website. Sitemaps are files that contain a list of all the pages on your website. They help Google index your pages so they can appear in the search results.
If you want to rank in Bing, you need to set up Bing Webmaster Tools (BWTM). BWTM is a free platform provided by Bing that gives you insights into how your website is performing in the search engine.
In order to set up BWTM, you need to verify that you own your website. You can do this by adding a meta tag to your site’s HTML code or uploading an XML file to your server.
Once you’ve verified ownership of your site, you can start using BWTM. You’ll be able to see things like which keywords your site is ranking for, the click-through rate (CTR) of your listings, and the average position of your website in the search results.
You can also use BWTM to submit sitemaps and troubleshoot issues with your website. Sitemaps are files that contain a list of all the pages on your website. They help Bing index your pages so they can appear in the search results
Set up Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service that allows website owners to track visitor data. This data can be used to improve the website and make sure that it is reaching its target audience. In order to use Google Analytics, you will need to create a free account and add your website.
Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)
There are many great SEO plugins available for WordPress. Yoast SEO is a popular choice, and it’s what we’ll be using in this tutorial.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you’ll need to configure it. The first step is to connect your site to Google Search Console. This will allow the plugin to access your site’s data in order to provide you with valuable insights into your SEO efforts.
To do this, click on the “General” tab in the left-hand sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. Then, scroll down to the “Google Search Console” section and click on the “Connect to Google Search Console” button.
You will be redirected to Google Search Console, where you will need to sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one here.
Once you’re signed in, you will be asked to select the site that you want to connect to Yoast SEO. If you have multiple sites in your Google Search Console account, make sure you select the correct one.
Once you’ve selected your site, click on the “Allow” button. You will be redirected back to your WordPress dashboard, where you should now see a “Success!” message indicating that your site has been successfully connected to Google Search Console.
Keyword Research
The best way to improve your blog’s ranking in the search engines is to conduct keyword research. By finding the right keywords to target, you can increase your chances of appearing in the top search results. Keyword research can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s worth it if you want to improve your blog’s visibility.
Identify your competitors
In order to find the right keywords for your website or blog, it is important to identify your competitors. You can do this by searching for similar websites in Google and seeing who appears on the first page of results. Identifying your competitors will give you an idea of the keywords they are targeting and allow you to adjust your keyword list accordingly.
Conduct a keyword gap analysis
When you’re planning a new SEO campaign or trying to figure out why your current one isn’t working, it can be helpful to conduct a keyword gap analysis. This will help you discover which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are not.
To conduct a keyword gap analysis, start by compiling a list of all the relevant keywords you want to rank for. Once you have your list, use a tool like Moz Keyword Explorer or Google Keyword Planner to research the monthly search volume and difficulty for each keyword.
Next, use a tool like SEMrush or Moz Pro to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for. Make sure to exclude any branded keywords (keywords that include your company’s name) from this step.
Once you have this information, it’s time to start filling in the gaps. Look at the list of keywords your competitors are ranking for and compare it to your own. Any keywords that they are ranking for that you are not is an opportunity for you to fill in the gap and improve your SEO.
Find your main ‘money’ keywords
Your main ‘money’ keywords are the ones that are going to make you the most money. To find these, you’ll want to research your niche and look for keywords that:
- Have a high search volume
- Have low competition
- Have a high click-through rate (CTR) on SERPs
You can use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to help you with this.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO seems to be more important than ever before. Google is constantly changing its algorithm, which can be very difficult to keep up with if you don’t have a solid understanding of the basics. Technical SEO will help you make sure your website is visible to the search engines and that your website is compliant with all of Google’s guidelines.
Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC
In Google Search Console (GSC), the “Inspect URL” feature allows you to check if your site is eligible to appear in Google search results, and can also help you debug issues that may be preventing your pages from appearing. To use this feature, simply enter a URL into the GSC interface and click “Inspect.”
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
If you want to ensure your website is ranking in Google, you need to make sure it is mobile-friendly.
Responsive design is the industry term for a mobile-friendly website. This means that your website will automatically resize to fit the screen size of any device, whether it is a phone, tablet, or desktop computer.
There are two ways to make a responsive website: using a responsive theme or plugin, or by coding your own responsive website from scratch.
A responsive theme is the easiest way to make your WordPress site mobile-friendly.Responsive themes are designed to adjust automatically to any screen size, so you don’t have to worry about coding different versions of your site for different devices.
If you want more control over how your site looks on mobile devices, you can code a responsive website from scratch. This requires more work than using a theme, but it gives you the ability to create a completely custom design.
Check your site’s loading speed
One of the most important things you can do to improve your site’s ranking is to make sure it loads quickly. Visitors will click away from a site if it takes too long to load, and Google will ding your ranking if you have a slow site.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools you can use to check your site’s loading speed and make improvements. Google’s own PageSpeed Insights tool is a good place to start, as it will give you both a loading speed score and recommendations on how to improve.
Other tools you can use include GTmetrix and Pingdom. These tools will give you more detailed information on what’s causing your site to load slowly and how to fix it. Once you’ve made improvements, re-run the tests to check your new loading speeds.
On-page and Content
Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags
Your title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements. This is the title of your page that appears in the search engine results, and it should be descriptive and keyword rich. Unfortunately, many websites have duplicate or missing title tags, which can dilute the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
To fix this, you need to find all of the pages on your site with duplicate or missing title tags. This can be a daunting task if you have a large website, but there are a couple of tools that can help. First, try using Google Search Console to find pages with missing or duplicate title tags. Alternatively, you can use a crawling tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and find all pages with missing or duplicate title tags.
Once you have a list of these pages, you need to fix the problem. For pages with missing title tags, simply add a relevant and keyword rich title tag. For pages with duplicate title tags, you need to choose one primary title tag and canonicalize all other versions of the page to that primary version. This means adding a rel=”canonical” link element to all versions of the page except for the primary one.
By fixing these issues, you can help improve your website’s on-page SEO and ensure that yourtitle tags are working hard for you.
Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions
Duplicate or missing meta descriptions can hurt your click-through rates because they give the impression that your site is not well put-together or that the information you’re offering is not as unique as it could be.
In order to fix this, you need to find all the instances of duplicate or missing meta descriptions on your site. Once you’ve found them, you can either change the meta descriptions to something more unique and relevant, or you can simply delete them.
If you have a lot of pages on your site, this process can be time-consuming. However, it’s important to make sure that each page on your site has its own unique and relevant meta description.
Find and fix multiple H1 tags
One of the most common on-page issues we see is multiple H1 tags. This is a problem because the H1 tag is supposed to be unique to each page, and it tells search engines what the page is about. If you have more than one H1 tag on a page, it can be confusing for both search engines and users, and it can hurt your SEO.
To fix this issue, you need to find all the H1 tags on your page and make sure there is only one. You can do this by looking at the code of your page, or by using a tool like Screaming Frog. Once you’ve found all the H1 tags, delete or change all but one so that it’s the only H1 tag on the page.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website for higher search engine rankings through the acquisition of backlinks from other websites. Backlinks are any links that point to your website from another website. The more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank in the search engines. However, not all backlinks are created equal.
Analyze your competitor’s link profile
Off-Page SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google with activities that take place outside of the website. The goal of Off-Page SEO is to tell Google that the site is popular, trustworthy, and relevant.
There are many factors that contribute to Off-Page SEO, but building links is the most important activity. To build links, you need to find opportunities to get your website in front of new people. There are many ways to do this, but the most common method is to guest post on other people’s websites.
When you guest post, you write an article for another website in your industry. The article contains a link back to your website. This link is called a “backlink.” Backlinks are important because they show Google that your site is popular and trustworthy.
To find opportunities to guest post, you need to analyze your competitor’s link profile. A link profile is a list of all the websites that link to a given site. You can use a tool like Ahrefs or Majestic to see your competitor’s link profile. Look for websites in your industry that have a high number of linking domains. These are websites that are likely to be open to guest posting.
Conduct a link intersect analysis
A link intersect analysis is an essential part of your off-page SEO strategy. It allows you to identify which websites are linking to your competitors, but not to you. This is valuable information because it allows you to approach these websites and attempt to get a link from them.
There are a few different ways that you can conduct a link intersect analysis. The first is to use a tool like ahrefs, semrush, or Moz. These tools have built-in features that allow you to input your competitor’s URL and see which websites are linking to them.
Another way to conduct a link intersect analysis is through Google search operators. You can do this by searching for “link:[Competitor URL]” in Google. This will show you all of the websites that are linking to your competitor’s website. From here, you can manually go through and check if these websites also link to your website. If they don’t, then you can reach out and try to get a link from them.
Target your competitors’ broken backlinks
A broken backlink is a link on a website that no longer works. When a website links to another website and that site is no longer online, it’s called a broken link.
There are many reasons why websites go offline, but when it happens, it creates what’s called a “broken backlink.” If you have a lot of broken backlinks pointing to your site, it can hurt your search engine rankings.
One way to take advantage of your competitor’s broken backlinks is to create replacement content for the same topics. This way, you can piggyback off of their existing ranking power and get your own content ranked higher in search engines.
To find out which of your competitor’s backlinks are broken, you can use a tool like Ahrefs. Just enter your competitor’s URL into the tool and click “Backlinks.” Then, click on the “Broken” tab to see a list of their broken backlinks.
Once you have a list of competitor’s broken backlinks, reach out to the site owner and let them know that their link is broken and offer to provide replacement content. Most site owners will be happy to oblige!