SEO Basics

SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving the visibility of the site.

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

If you want your website to rank in Google (or Bing), you need to set up and verify some webmaster tools. Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools are free programs that help you track your website’s performance in the SERPs, as well as submit your sitemaps and robots.txt files.

Set up Google Analytics

If you want to track your site’s traffic, Google Analytics is the best way to do it. It’s a free service that gives you tons of data about your visitors, where they come from, what they look at on your site, and how long they stay.

To get started, create a Google Analytics account and add the tracking code to your site. If you use WordPress, there are plugins that will handle this for you. Once the code is in place, Google Analytics will start collecting data about your visitors. Give it a few days to gather some data, then check back and start exploring.

Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)

There are a variety of SEO plugins available for WordPress, but we recommend using Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO is a comprehensive solution that includes on-page analysis, XML sitemap generation, title and meta tag optimization, and more.

To install Yoast SEO:

1. Log in to your WordPress site and go to the Plugins menu.
2. Click the Add New button.
3. In the Search field, type Yoast SEO and press Enter.
4. Click the Install Now button for the Yoast SEO plugin.
5. When installation is complete, click the Activate Plugin button.
6. You will be redirected to the Yoast SEO configuration page. If you’d like, you can create an account with Yoast to receive updates and support, or you can click the Save & Continue button to continue without creating an account.
   Keyword Research
   
   Identify your competitors
   In order to do keyword research, you need to understand who your competition is. You can do this by doing a simple Google search. For example, if you wanted to find out who the competition is for the keyword “dog food”, you would simply type that keyword into Google and scroll through the results. The websites that appear on the first page are your primary competitors. If you want to find out who the secondary and tertiary competitors are, you can scroll through to the second and third pages of results.
   Conduct a keyword gap analysis
   
   When you conduct a keyword gap analysis, you compare your site’s current keyword footprint to that of your competitors. This lets you see where you have an advantage and where you need to improve.

There are a few different ways to do this, but one of the simplest is to use Google Sheets’ “keyword research” template.

To get started, go to the template and make a copy. Then, enter your site’s URL and the URLs of up to three competitors in the appropriate cells.

Next, enter your target keyword in the “seed keywords” sheet. This is the keyword you want to rank for.

Finally, on the “results” sheet, select “keyword gap analysis” from the drop-down menu. This will generate a report showing how your site stacks up against your competitors for the target keyword.

Find your main ‘money’ keywords

Your ‘money’ keywords are the ones that are going to make you the most money. To find them, you’ll need to do some research.

The best way to find your main keywords is to use a keyword research tool. There are a few different ones that you can use, but I like to use Google’s Keyword Planner.

To use the Keyword Planner, simply enter in a few of your potential keywords and it will show you how much traffic they get, as well as some other related keywords that you may want to consider.

Another great way to find your main keywords is to simply ask your customers what they would search for if they were looking for your product or service. This can be done through surveys or by asking them directly.

Once you have your list of potential keywords, it’s time to start testing them out. The best way to do this is to create a few different ads and see which ones perform the best. You can also use Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool to help you with this.

Once you’ve found a few good keywords, it’s time to start optimizing your website for them. This means using them in your titles, metatags, and throughout the content on your site.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website for the search engines. It is a subset of SEO that focuses on the technical aspects of a website. Technical SEO includes optimizing a website’s host, structure, and content for the search engines.

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

The “Inspect URL” feature in Goole Search Console (GSC) can be a valuable tool for troubleshooting potential technical SEO issues with a given site. This feature allows you to submit a URL to GSC and receive feedback on any issues that Google has detected with that particular URL.

To use this feature, simply log into GSC and navigate to the “Inspect URL” tool, located under the “Crawl” heading. From here, you can enter in the URL that you wish to inspect and submit it for analysis. GSC will then provide feedback on any issues that it has detected with the submitted URL, along with recommendations on how to fix those issues.

This tool can be especially helpful for identifying common Technical SEO issues such as 404 errors, redirect chains, and pages with low crawlability. By using the “Inspect URL” tool, you can quickly identify and fix these types of issues, helping to improve your site’s overall Technical SEO health.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. More and more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet, and if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on a lot of traffic. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see if your website is optimized for mobile devices.

Check your site’s loading speed

Site loading speed is important for a number of reasons. First, fast loading pages improve the user experience. Nobody likes waiting for a slow website to load, and users are likely to abandon slow-loading sites. In addition, search engines like Google take page loading speed into account when ranking websites in the search results. So if you want your site to rank well, you need to make sure it loads quickly.

There are a few different ways to test your site’s loading speed. One option is to use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Just enter your URL and click “Analyze.” The tool will provide you with a score for mobile and desktop devices, along with specific recommendations on how to improve your site’s speed.

Another option is to use Pingdom’s Website Speed Test. This tool will show you the specific time it takes for your website to load, as well as provide you with a grade based on how fast your site loads relative to other sites. Pingdom will also give you specific recommendations on how to improve your site’s speed.

Both of these tools are free, so there’s no excuse not to check your site’s loading speed and make improvements if necessary. A few simple changes can make a big difference in how quickly your pages load, so it’s well worth the effort.

On-page and Content

Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags

Title tags are a important ranking factor for your website’s SEO. To ensure that your website is optimised for search enginees, you should fix any duplicate, missing, or truncated title tags. Here are some tips on how to do so:

-Check your website’s source code to see if there are any duplicate title tags. If so, remove them.
-If you have any missing title tags, add them in. Make sure that each page has a unique and relevant title tag.
-Truncated title tags can be caused by a number of factors, including long titles, trailing slashes, and non-standard characters. To fix this, you will need to shorten your title tags or remove the offending characters.

Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions

If you want your website to rank well in search results, you need to make sure that all of your pages have unique and relevant meta descriptions. A meta description is a short piece of text that appears under your page title in search results. It should give potential visitors a clear idea of what your page is about.

If you have duplicate or missing meta descriptions, it can hurt your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). To find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions:

1. Use a search engine such as Google to find your website.
2. Click on each link to visit each page on your website.
3. Look at the source code of each page and find the meta description tag.
4. If there is no meta description tag, add one. If there is ameta description tag, make sure that it is unique and relevant to the content on that page.
   Find and fix multiple H1 tags
   
   When it comes to on-page SEO, one of the most common issues we see is the misuse of HTML heading tags. Heading tags (H1-H6) are used to tell search engines the hierarchal structure of your content, with H1 being the most important. Unfortunately, some people try to stuff too many keywords into their heading tags in an attempt to game the system, which can actually hurt your SEO efforts.

Here are a few tips for using HTML heading tags correctly:

-Use only one H1 tag per page: Your H1 tag should be used to indicate the primary topic of your page. Try to keep your H1 tag concise and tightly focused on that topic.

-Use H2-H6 tagspage: You can use H2-H6 tags to further break down the hierarchy of your content. For instance, you might use an H2 tag for a subheading and an H3 tag for a smaller subheading within that section.

-Don’t stuff keywords into your heading tags: Stuffing keywords into your heading tags in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings is not only bad for SEO, but it will also make your content difficult to read for users. Instead, focus on creating well-written and informative headings that accurately reflect the topic of your page.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website for better search engine rankings. It is the process of making your website more visible and attractive to search engines.

Analyze your competitor’s link profile

To get an idea of what links your competitors have, you can use a number of tools including Majestic, Moz, and SERPstat. Simply type in your competitor’s URL and let the tool do its job. Once you have the report, take a look at theTF (Trust Flow) and CF (Citation Flow) scores for each domain. These metrics will give you an indication of the quality of the links pointing to your competitor’s site. If you see a lot of high-quality links, that’s a good sign that you’ll need to work harder to outrank them.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

A link intersect analysis is a great way to find sites that may be interested in linking to your site. This process involves finding sites that link to your competitors, and then determining whether or not those same sites would be interested in linking to you.

There are a few different ways to conduct a link intersect analysis, but the easiest is to use a tool like ahrefs.com or Majestic.com. Simply enter the URL of one of your competitor’s websites, and then choose “Inbound Links” from the left-hand sidebar.

Once you have a list of sites that link to your competitor, visit each one and determine whether or not they would be a good fit for linking to your site as well. If you think they would be interested in what you have to offer, reach out and ask them for a link!

Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

When it comes to link building, it’s not just about quantity, it’s also about quality. If you want your site to rank higher in search engine results pages, you need to focus on building high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites.

One way to find opportunities for building backlinks is to target your competitors’ broken links. Use a tool like Monitor Backlinks to check for broken links on websites in your industry. When you find one, reach out to the website owner and offer to write a replacement article or post. Be sure to include a link back to your own website in your pitch.