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Welcome to SEO for Beginners - your comprehensive
guide!
Hello Dear Student, and welcome to our Master Guide to SEO for complete beginners – an essential
overview of the MOST important information you need to know about SEO.
In this video, you’ll learn what SEO is, and why it’s important, as well as the different aspects you’ll
need to cover to improve your SEO approach – so you can get more traffic and score highly in
Google search!
All you need to do is be willing to learn and put into practice the knowledge and strategies we share.
You don’t need ANY prior experience with SEO as this guide has been designed to take you through
all the most crucial points you need to know – with no previous experience needed.
With newfound SEO knowledge you’ll learn from this video, you’ll be able to start improving many
aspects of your SEO strategy. You‘ll understand how search engines rank your website, and what
things you need to tweak to give your site the best chance in search. You’ll understand important
ranking factors, like page loading speed, and how to check it, and the crucial importance of getting
backlinks.
You’ll also discover why sending the right user signals is important if you want your pages to rank for
keywords in Google search. You’ll learn how to choose the best keywords for your topic, and how to
create high performing content that does well in search – as well as so much more.
Basically, you’ll learn the all the MOST important things you need to know as a complete novice.
Even if you’re not a total beginner with SEO, we guarantee you’ll find this video helpful, as we always
bring you the LATEST unique strategies, created to help you WIN in today’s digital environment.
We know you can achieve great things with the knowledge we will share with you in this video, and
we know you can see amazing results, if you’re prepared to put in just a little time and effort.
Ready to get started?
Let’s jump right in and begin by looking at what SEO is…
SEO in a nutshell
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of attracting specific types of traffic to a website or
page, from a search engine’s results page. SEO includes content creation and optimization,
obtaining backlinks, optimising for voice search, and keywords. It also includes more technical
aspects such as improving your page speed, image load, and site architecture, so search engines can
more easily crawl your site.
The three most important things you should aim to do if you want to improve
your search engine ranking should be:
1. Make sure your site is easy to access and crawl,
2. Have high quality content that includes relevant keywords,
3. Get as many backlinks from high authority sites as you can.
In this video, you’ll learn how to achieve these three things, and you’ll also learn ALL the essential
information you need to know, to have a good grounding in SEO.
Remember, the aim of SEO is to boost a website’s position in organic search. Organic search differs
from paid search results, as with organic search you CANNOT spend money to rank well. Paid results
typically appear first at the top of Google, but the downside is, people can see they are paid for ads
as the word Ad will appear in front of the link to the website.
Organic results are far more trusted – and one of the best things about scoring highly in organic
search is, it doesn’t have to cost you anything!
Inside the Search Engines
You might be wondering how search engines decide what websites to show to searchers when they
display their lists of results. When someone enters a search term into a search engine like Google,
the search engine will use an algorithm to analyse, find, and then display, what it considers is the
most relevant set of results.
To do this the search engine scans its index of millions and millions of websites to compare them so
it can bring back the best answer. It does this instantly, displaying the top 10 or so in list format to
searchers. If searchers don’t like the first ten results, they can click through to the second page, or
even the third. Most people never do this however, so it’s important to get on the first page of
search engine listings, and preferably into the first 1-3 positions.
So how DO search engines decide what webpages are the most relevant result for searchers?
Every search engine uses a different algorithm, so the answer varies, but for now let’s focus on
Google, since it’s by far the most popular. Google doesn’t make all the factors it uses to decide
search position clear, but there ARE some factors that are widely known to influence Google ranking.
Relevancy
When people search, they are usually seeking information on a specific topic, so Google looks for
pages that appear to host the most relevant content for that search term. If you were looking for
healthy food, for example, you’d be disappointed if a search engine gave you a list of results on
garages!
Google crawls websites to spot pages that seem to be a close match for the keyword a searcher has
used. The thing is, there are 1000’s, if not millions of pages that might be relevant for most of the
keywords people search for, and Google can’t show them all.
If you were to search the term banana smoothie for example, you’d get 56 million results!
To sort out what results to show on the first page, then the second page and so on, Google’s
algorithm looks at two other factors – Authority and Usefulness.
Authority
Google decides whether the content it crawls is trustworthy and relevant to what searchers are
looking for. To assign an authority ranking, Google weighs up how many backlinks from trusted sites
a webpage has managed to obtain. The more trusted backlinks from relevant sites, the higher any
webpage will rank in Google’s authority rankings.
Keep watching, as later in this video, we’ll be teaching you how you can get more high-quality
backlinks.
Usefulness
Even if Google gives your content a high authority and relevancy value, it will still need to look at its
usefulness before it ranks it in search. If Google doesn’t think your content is useful, it won’t score
you highly. Google has even stated that it assesses content for both quality AND usefulness.
So, what would be an example of content that Google might view as useful?
A webpage with content that is well-organised, that uses clear language and makes use of sub-
headers to break up large text chunks, would get a high usefulness score from Google. Even if that
page didn’t have many quality backlinks it would still do well in Google search results.
The reason this sort of page receives a ranking boost is because Google measures how useful a page
is based on how users interact with it. This is known as User Experience Signals. A page that is well-
organised, well-structured, and clear makes it’s more likely that when users click through, they’ll
have a positive experience and stay for longer.
In this video, we’ll be teaching you some of the most important user experience signals Google looks
for and how you can optimise your content and website to score higher in this area.
REMEMBER:
Spend time creating well-structured quality content that people enjoy interacting with, so you boost
your User Experience Signal rating. When Google crawls its index of sites, it measures User
Experience Signals, to try and discover the websites people love. It then prioritises the sites that
offer the best User Experience in its rankings, making User Experience Signals an extremely
important factor to focus on.
What does SEO do for your website?
If you have a website, applying SEO techniques will help your site score highly in search results.
You’ll need to use a strategy designed to help you rank well on the search engine you want to score
highly in, as each one has different requirements. In this video, we’ll be mostly focusing on Google,
though many of the things we mention here may well apply to other search engines like Bing.
Your aim with ANY SEO strategy is to get a search engine to notice your site and judge it as the best
possible result, whenever a person searches for a topic in your niche.
To get on the first page of Google, your webpage needs to score highly on many ranking factors
within Google’s algorithm. There are currently more than 200 Google ranking factors, including
relevancy, loading speed, keywords, authority, usefulness, account authority, and more.
Organic and Paid Search Results
Google has two different categories of search results that it displays – paid and organic. There is a
BIG difference in the way these two types of results are ranked. With organic search results, there
are many more ranking factors that you will need to consider if you want to perform well in search.
When it comes to paid results, advertisers are ranked according to the amount they’ll pay a single
visitor, sent to them through Google’s Pay Per Click Ad’s network. The more they are willing to pay
the higher they will rank. It’s as simple as that.
Organic search doesn’t work in the same way. You can’t pay your way to the top. Instead, you need
to optimise your site, pages, and content so you score highly in Google’s ranking algorithm. The
good news is, when people search for information on a topic, most people trust organic search
results FAR more than they trust paid results.
In this video, we’ll be focusing solely on organic results, and giving you tips and advice you can use to
perform well in organic Google search.
Why do you need SEO?
Search engines will be one of the main sources of traffic to your webpage and Google is the biggest
and most popular search engine, by far. Google searches create over half of ALL the traffic on the
entire internet, so you can see why it makes sense to optimise your site for Google’s algorithm.
When it’s applied correctly, SEO can help your website rank for 100’s of related keywords in your
niche, generating 1000’s of visitors on each of those phrases every month.
People using paid results would pay a premium for this amount of traffic but by applying some smart
SEO principles, you can get it all - for free. Let’s look at some of the things you can do to score highly
with Google, so you can start getting a consistent stream of traffic to your website.
Customer and keyword research
Before you start figuring out your keywords, it’s best to get to know the type of visitors you will be
trying to attract to your website. That way, you can tailor everything you do to hold maximum
appeal to your ideal visitor, including picking your keywords and creating content they will like.
Customer research will help you learn what people REALLY search for. You’ll be able to find out the
precise phrases they use when they search, so you can include these in your site and content, to
help it rank for those keywords.
Customer Research
You might know roughly who your ideal website visitor is, especially if you already sell things online,
or have a blog or business profile on social media. They will be the people already interacting with
you, the ones who like your content, comment, or buy things from you.
Think about what age group they tend to fall into? Are they mostly male, female, or mixed? What
interests do they have? These things help make up what is known as the customer persona, and it’s
important to define your customer persona if you want to do well in SEO and online marketing.
Many people think compiling a customer persona will only help them if they are looking to create
products people will want to buy. But knowing your visitors is also critical to succeeding with SEO.
As well as knowing the age, gender, and interest data on your ideal customer or visitor, you also
need to know WHAT they search for and HOW they search for it.
Without this information, you won’t be using the keywords the people you want to attract are
searching for. You won’t be able to create content that’s structured around these keywords, as you
won’t know what they are. And your content won’t be structured in a way that is most appealing to
the people you want to visit your site and engage with it.
BONUS TIP:
Hub Spot has a handy tool you can use to find out about your ideal visitor, called Make My Persona.
It makes the process of creating a customer profile simple, allowing you to create an in-depth profile
quickly. The best part is – it’s completely free.
Finding the right Keywords
Once you’ve created your ideal visitor profile, you can start conducting some keyword research.
This will involve discovering the precise keywords and key phrases that your ideal customer’s use
when they search.
Keywords can be split into two main types:
1. The type of keywords people use to find products
2. The type of keywords people use to find information
If you have an online store retailing yoga pants, your product keywords might include:
Yoga pants free delivery
Yoga pants for curvy women
Adidas yoga pants
And if you were writing a blog article on yoga positions, your informational keywords might be:
Yoga positions for weight loss
How to perform yoga
Proper yoga posture
Ideally, any page that’s properly optimised for SEO should include several sets of BOTH types of
keywords so however people search, your website always appears as an option. You’ll also be more
likely to appear for other, related keywords.
How to perform better Keyword Research
There are some handy tools you can employ to find better performing keywords and the first one is
Google’s Autocomplete tool.
Most people have already used it, though they might not have realised it at the time. When you
type anything into the Google search box, you’ll notice several search suggestions are displayed
automatically, below what you have typed.
These are the keywords and phrases related to your topic that people have already used to search.
They are incredibly useful as they are the phrases people use to search for things and can give you
great ideas for keywords to include in your content. It’s a good idea to write these suggestions
down or keep a list handy for when you come to create your webpage.
You can use Autocomplete to search for Keyword ideas for any topic you want. It’s a brilliant way to
find highly relevant search terms that you can use in your content.
The second tool you can make use of is called Answer the Public. This is a free tool that’s especially
useful for discovering informational keywords and phrases.
If you were writing a blog piece about Steam Trains, you might type “steam trains” in to Answer the
Public first, to see the questions connected to that topic that people have been asking.
A typical result might be “what steam trains are still running?”
Not only does this give you keyword search ideas, but it is also a great way to get new potential
topics for blog posts or vlogs.
Another way to find keywords is to employ a good keyword research tool to discover how popular
your chosen keyword is, and how hard it will be to get into the top ranks of Google search results
with that search phrase. The more a keyword is used, the harder it is to rank for. However, the
answer is not as simple as picking keywords that aren’t popular, as you still need to include the
words and phrases people search for. You need to strike the right balance between keywords that
aren’t so competitive you can’t rank, and keywords that people look up, so your site can get
discovered.
Tools like Answer the Public can help you home in on more niche, but still searched for key phrases.
Answer the Public is especially useful once you have a list of potential keywords, as it will help you
whittle down your list and find the best search terms that are also the easiest to rank with.
There are a LOT of keyword research tools available that can help you in your quest to discover
suitable keywords. SEMrush, the Moz Keyword Explorer, and Google’s own Keyword Planner, are
some of the most helpful.
Using Google’s Keyword Planner
You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to discover keywords for your SEO content and webpages,
even though it was primarily created for Google Ads campaigns. This is a free to use feature within
Google Ads, so you’ll need a Google Ads account to use it.
Once inside the Google Ads dashboard, open Keyword Planner, and type in a keyword. You’ll get
search volume data on that phrase, along with a selection of related keywords and phrases.
Search Volume Range gives you an idea of how often people have searched for the keyword you
typed in that month. By entering your selected list of keywords into Google Keyword Planner, you’ll
be able to use Search Volume Range to see what keywords are popular – and what ones aren’t often
searched for.
Long-Tail Keywords
The last thing you can do to optimise your keywords is include more long-tail keywords in your
content. There’s not so much competition for these types of keywords, as not so many people use
them, so it can be easier to rank highly in Google for them. They are also more precise, so they can
help a more relevant audience find your content.
A typical example of a long-tail keyword would be “How to burn belly fat fast”.
A shorter keyword that’s NOT a long-tail example, would be “burn belly fat”.
When you refine your SEO approach, you can also include the shorter keywords that are used more
often, but if you’re a beginner, long-tail keywords will help you rank higher, faster.
Keywords for Voice Search SEO
It’s important to include keywords in your content that will help you get found by people conducting
searches using voice. Google states that almost 50% of all adults use voice to search daily, and this
number is growing.
The two biggest differences between keywords for voice and other keywords are….
1. Most people using voice to search tend to use longer, more detailed keywords
2. Voice searchers ask a LOT of questions when they search
A lot of people think they don’t need to optimise for voice search because they assume most of
these types of searches will be carried out by people using smart speakers. They think that no one
will be visiting their website, but this is simply not true.
Research has shown that 20% of all searches made by smartphones are voice searches. More people
are also now using their laptop and desktop computers to conduct this type of search, so it’s crucial
to include voice search friendly keywords in your SEO strategy.
You might be wondering how to choose the best keywords for voice search. Here are four top tips
that will help you prime your content for voice search:
Optimising your content for Voice Searches
Remember to optimise for Google’s Rich Answer Box – Here there is only ONE answer displayed, so
you want to make sure yours is the best one. Research has found that 75% of the top Rich Answer
voice search results rank in the top three for desktop searches. By optimising your SEO approach to
ensure you rank highly in Google Search for your niche on desktop, you’ll be maximising your
chances of getting found in voice search. The tips and techniques in this video will help you boost
your general Google Search score, improving your chances of appearing as the best result in
Google’s Rich Answer Box.
Remember to optimise for Featured Snippets – Priming your content for Google’s Featured
Snippets is one of the MOST effective ways to rank highly in voice search. Snippets are small pieces
of essential information, that Google automatically pulls from your webpage. To have a chance of
getting your content featured as a snippet, you should include clear questions that have relevance to
your topic. Make sure they are questions that people who are looking for information on your topic
would ask. You can use tools like Ask the Public to find out what topical questions people are
already using to search.
Remember to include numbered list posts – Using numbered lists will boost your content’s chances
of appearing in voice, and it will also help you maximise the chance of appearing in featured
snippets. Try creating blog posts such as “Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Memory”, then bullet
point each of the tips you include using numbers.
Use long-tail keywords – Longtail keywords will GREATLY improve your content’s chance of getting
selected as one of the top voice search results. You can use Google’s Search Suggest Tool straight
from the Google Search Box to find suitable questions using Google’s autocomplete feature. Just
type in a question then look at the bottom of the search results page, where you’ll find a Searches
Related to section. You’ll get a handy list of related and relevant questions people have already
searched for, that you can include in your content.
SEO for your YouTube Videos
YouTube has now surpassed Facebook in popularity and the appeal of video content is set to grow,
with recent research finding that the majority of 18–49-year-olds now prefer video content over
text.
Unlike many other social media platforms, YouTube is also frequently used as a search engine.
YouTube videos are also playing an increasingly important role in Google searches. All of this means
that optimising your YouTube content for SEO is a priority if you want to increase the likelihood of
your videos showing up in YouTube AND Google search results and getting watched on the YouTube
platform.
To optimise your YouTube Video SEO, you need to do three main things:
1. Improve the quality of your videos
2. Maximise the relatability of your videos
3. Understand how your target viewer will search for your content
When someone performs a YouTube search, YouTube considers several factors to decide whether to
display your video in the results it returns.
YouTube looks at:
 Your video titles
 Your video description
 How relevant your video title, description, and content are to the search query
 The searcher’s prior behaviour and engagement with your videos
Top Ways to Optimise your YouTube SEO
Do Keyword research – Find out what your audience is searching for and how they search for it. Just
like Google, YouTube automatically suggests search terms when you enter a topic into YouTube
search. If you’re creating a vlog about sportswear for ski trips for example, try typing in sportswear
or “sportswear holidays” to see what terms other searchers have already looked up. You can also
use Google in the same way, if you need more keywords, as YouTube is now also an important part
of Google search.
Optimise your title to include these keywords – Use the best keyword suggestions you’ve found in
your title tag and try to keep it under 60 characters. DON’T overstuff your title with keywords, pick
one or two that directly relate to the content of your video. DON’T pick a snappy title, that might
sound good but doesn’t represent your video’s content. This will backfire on you as it will lower your
audience engagement levels, which are a factor YouTube takes into consideration, when deciding
how to rank you in search.
Use keywords in your video file name – Before you upload your video file, rename it to one of the
keywords you found when doing your research. A lot of people overlook this, but the YouTube
algorithm looks at video file names, to try and find out what your video is about, along with your
title tag and description.
Optimise your video description - Your YouTube description is HIGHLY important, as not only does
YouTube’s algorithm consider it when matching searchers with content, it also tells potential viewers
why they should watch. You get 5,000 characters, so make the most of that space and tell people
why they need to press play. The first 200 words are the most important, as everything after that is
hidden unless people click on the Show More link. Put your most vital information first, use your
most important keyword high up in your description, and include calls to action and URLs, to direct
people to your website or blog.
Use tags that include your keywords – Tags help to give YouTube more information about your
video, and allow it to associate your video with other, related content. YouTube handily suggests
relevant tags to you when you enter some keywords into the Tag section, but you can also include
other keywords that you discovered when doing keyword research. NEVER use tags in your
description though, as this is against YouTube’s guidelines – and could even get your video banned.
Transcribe your video for closed captioning – YouTube can automatically transcribe your video so it
can display captions, and you should make sure you have enabled this option, so you can reach the
widest audience possible. Some people like to watch videos without the volume enabled and other
can’t hear - but check the captioning YouTube displays to make sure it’s accurate. You can also
upload a file with your own caption information, and you may need to take this option, if the
captioning YouTube provides is wildly inaccurate.
Encourage action from your viewers- As audience engagement plays a key part in YouTube’s search
rankings, you should ALWAYS be looking to encourage interaction with your viewers. Ask for likes,
comments, and subscribes in your video, include calls to action and links in your description, and
pose questions to encourage viewer feedback. Don’t forget to embed your YouTube video on your
own website to maximise its potential reach too.
Creating SEO-Friendly Content
Improving the quality of your content is an important part of any solid SEO strategy, as the better
your content, the higher you’ll rank in search. There are several things you can do to make sure your
content is the best it can possibly be, depending on the type of content you are creating.
Product and Service Pages
Conversions are key here, so place the focus on the benefits to your customers. Why do they need
what you are offering? What will your product or service do for them?
To create awesome product or service page content that SELLS or converts, you’ll need to first
ATTRACT the right people and to do this you must tap into your customer’s desires or needs first.
To find out what these are you’ll need to do market research into your ideal customer.
Once you have found out what your ideal customer wants, you need to INTEREST them. You can do
this by teasing that you have the solution to their problems, or the answer to their desires.
After that, you’ll need to let people know how what you have can give them what they want – to
ramp up their DESIRE for your product or service.
Finally, you’ll need to persuade them to take ACTION.
This four-stage formula is also known as AIDA – Attract, Interest, Desire, Action, and it’s used
extensively by copywriters who create high performing sales content.
You should always make your product and service pages informative, so it doesn’t seem like you are
just selling. Ultimately though, you should be trying to get people to convert, so your sales pages
and product pages don’t need to be as informational as your blog posts should be.
Blogs
Regularly creating high quality blog content that people find useful can REALLY help boost your
Google search rankings. A recent study by HubSpot discovered that brands who published quality
content regularly got TRIPLE the amount of traffic than brands who didn’t.
Consistency is key, but it won’t help if you just pump out posts. There’s so much competition now,
your content also needs to be helpful, insightful, and value added. There are some types of blog
content that consistently perform better than others, and when you’re starting out with SEO, you
might want to focus your efforts on these, at least until you build up your following.
The Latest top- performing types of blog content
CompleteLists
Complete Lists continually perform well. Many people find them extremely useful as they refer to
lots of practical information on a topic, all in one article, that’s written in an easy-to digest format.
Your list could contain strategies, items to buy, or the best muscle building smoothies – almost
anything you can think of that can be curated into list form. Make sure you give some detail along
with every point on the list, or people will find your content dull, boring, and unhelpful, and your
engagement levels will suffer.
Content with Stats
It’s getting more and more difficult to get people to share or link your content, due to the sheer
volume of posts that are being published every day. One way to make your content stand out is by
including stats and data in your posts and research has found this increases your chance of gaining a
link. To increase your content’s authoritative value in the eyes of your audience, refer to scientific
studies, paraphrase or quote original research, and include accurate facts, figures, and data.
CompleteGuides
People LOVE helpful content, and it doesn’t get much more helpful than a simplified guide to doing
something that covers every aspect. The focus here is to give people the essential information they
need to know about every important angle of a topic. Your complete guides don’t have to be pages
long, though they should be in-depth, as Google scores long-form content of 1000 words or more,
higher. Your goal should be to help people FULLY understand a topic. To attract the maximum
number of readers, focus on trending topics that you can relate to your niche, or relevant topics to
your business that are growing in popularity, such as plant-based diets, or ways to beat boredom in
lockdown.
Visual Content
Infographics are a great way of obtaining links and engagement as people love to share and repost
them. It’s not just infographics though, including high quality images, video, or helpful screenshots
in your posts will REALLY help to add interest, break up long chunks of text, and keep people
reading.
On-Page SEO Basics
To ensure Google can crawl your webpage accurately to display it in search results, you’ll need to
optimise your On-Page SEO. To do this you need to make sure the content on your pages is relevant
to the search terms you are attempting to rank for. Your content also needs to be detailed and
useful – if you want it perform well.
So how does On-Page SEO work?
Google scans your page to see what words or phrases it contains. If it sees a certain keyword being
repeated, it will assume your page is about that topic. This is why it’s important to use the RIGHT
keywords and phrases in your content.
There are certain things you can do to boost your On-Page SEO.
Once of the first things you can do, if you have a WordPress site, is to install the Yoast plugin, as this
makes it easier to set up your page and optimise your site. It also helps you easily create your title
and description tag. Some other platforms such as Shopify include SEO features that are like Yoast’s,
making optimisation of your On-Page SEO that much simpler.
Let’s look at some of the other ways you can enhance your On-Page SEO:
Use Your Keyword in your Title Tag
This is crucial as your title tells Google and searchers what your page is about. By using your
keyword in your tag, you’re directly informing Google that your page is about that topic. Make sure
you do your keyword research and use the best possible keyword in ALL your titles.
Optimize your Meta Description for clicks
This isn’t as important as your title tag, but it’s still a crucial step. Google might have stated that this
isn’t a major factor when it comes to their algorithm, but it’s vital for another pivotal reason. Your
meta-description is your chance to encourage people to clickthrough or not, and they DO read this
short summary. Make yours as enticing and relevant as possible by using appropriate keywords and
creating short, punchy copy that’s easy to read. Include your main keyword in your description too,
as Google highlights this in bold whenever someone searches for that keyword, which helps your site
attract searcher’s attention.
Use your primary keyword in your body copy too
You’ll also want to make sure your primary keyword is included in the main content on your page.
This is often called body copy, and it’s especially important to ensure you include your main keyword
in the first 150 words. You should also include it throughout your copy, so Google gets a good idea of
what your page is about.
Don’t overstuff as this will do harm to your search engine rankings and can even get your website
ignored by Google. As a general guide, if you’ve written a 1500-word piece of content, use your
main keyword at least 3-4 times in the body, and once in the title and meta-description.
Use related keywords
As well as your primary keyword, you should also be including other, relevant keywords in your
content, as this will maximise your reach by allowing you to rank for lots of different keywords.
You can find related keywords using Google Search Suggest direct from the Google search box, or in
the Google Keyword Planner, simply by entering your main keyword.
For example, if you were writing a post about how to do influencer outreach and wanted to find
related keywords for the topic “influencer outreach”, you’d type that into the Google search box and
see what other terms related to that topic people had been searching for.
Use the most appropriate related keyword suggestions Google throws up in your content, meta
description, and sub-headers, to increase your pages chances of getting found.
Optimize Images
It’s super-important to optimise your image SEO, especially if you have a website with a lot of visual
content. Google has a difficult job analysing images to find out what your site is all about. To help it
do this it reads your images filename, alt text, and title.
Simple 3-step to optimising your image SEO:
1. Make sure your picture has a relevant, descriptive filename that’s related to your page topic.
If you’re displaying a screenshot that shows people how to optimise their image SEO for
example, you might call it something like imageSEOoptimisationguide.png
2. Include image alt text that matches your image, so people have more detail as to what it’s
about. This will also help to retain people on your page who have trouble loading your
image, or who are on slow internet connections. You could say “Screenshot guide to
optimising images” for example or “Visual guide to image optimisation”.
3. Ensure your image’s title is accurate and RELEVANT to your page topic. This isn’t as
important as the other two steps –but it doesn’t mean you should skip it. Something short
and snappy that relates to your image and page should usually do the trick, like “Image SEO
Screenshot.”
User Experience
You might have primed your page for SEO but if you haven’t considered the user experience, you’re
not going to rank well for long.
Although user experience is difficult for search engines to assess, it DEFINITELY has an indirect effect
on your SEO score. Think about it – if your site is hard to navigate, or cluttered and hard to read,
people aren’t going to stick around long enough to engage. They also aren’t going to share it or link
to it, which will critically impact your Google SEO score, as links and shares are an important ranking
factor.
To improve your website user experience, consider your layout, colour scheme, font, and navigation.
Ask the following crucial questions:
 Does my site make easy for people to find what they need?
 Are the most important things highlighted?
 Do they appear high up on the page?
 Is my site well-organised into clearly labelled sections?
 Is my font clear?
 Is my colour scheme appealing and easy to read?
 Is my menu easy to navigate?
 If I have many pages, are they organised efficiently into relevant, clearly labelled categories?
Intro to Technical SEO
The primary aim of technical SEO is to help search engines like Google discover and crawl the pages
on your website, so you can get listed in its index, and appear in search results. There are many
aspects to technical SEO, and they are ALWAYS expanding as the web continually develops. Today, a
good technical SEO strategy will need to include mobile optimisation, site loading speed, image
compression and more, to ensure you are giving your site and content the best chance you can.
If you have a WordPress site, you will have a much easier task, as WordPress automatically optimises
many aspects of technical SEO for you. If you don’t have a WordPress site, there are specific things
you can do to ensure Google can accurately crawl your site, so your it doesn’t get de-indexed.
Verify Your Site with The Google Search Console
Google’s Search Console displays your website’s performance and health stats in Google, and it’s a
handy tool that helps you see just how much interaction your site gets in Google’s search results.
Search Console also allows you to submit your sitemap to Google and shows you many of your pages
are being indexed. This helps you identify any unlisted pages, so you can tweak your SEO approach
so they can be found and listed.
To make use of the Google Search Console, you need to let Google know you’re the owner of your
website. Google refers to websites as Domain Properties and you need to let Google know you own
your piece of website real estate, to be able to get verified.
Once you do, you’ll be able to use all the features of the Google Search Console, which will help you
improve many aspects of your technical SEO strategy.
Use an SEO-Friendly URL Structure
A lot of people forget to think about their page URLs and wind up with long-winded or nonsensical
links that aren’t social media friendly. Optimising your URLs is a vital part of your website SEO
strategy and you should aim to make sure all your URLs are…
 As short as they can be,
 Relevant to the page they relate to,
 Ideally, consistent for all your pages.
Having optimised URLs also helps if you have many categories on your website, as you can use them
to tell Google which pages belong in what category. For example, if you run a restaurant website,
you’ll have category pages for things like coffee, wine, meals, and you can include these topics in
your URLs. That way, Google knows which category each of your pages fall under.
A page about the coffee products you offer promoting your newest beans might look something like
this, for example:
Websitepagename.com/coffee/newbrews
If you’re not using categories, it’s a good idea to have your URL structure as website.com/relevant
page name instead.
If you want to change old URLs, make sure you direct people landing on the old page to your new
links, otherwise you’ll wind up losing valuable traffic. It’s probably better to leave old URLs alone,
and instead make sure you create better ones for the new pages that you create.
BONUS TIP: Remember to try and use keywords in your URL too. DON’T stuff your link with
keywords, include your primary or most relevant keywords ONCE and use the shortest links possible
– as these perform better in Google. If your page is about coffee and your main keyword is “arabica
beans”, your URL might simply be: website.com/arabicabeans
If you were using categories, it might look like: website.com/coffee/arabicabeans
Analyse and enhance your PageSpeed
Your website’s loading speed is extremely important, as if it’s too slow, you’ll not only turn off
visitors, you’ll also be harming your SEO ranking. Google introduced a Speed Update feature to its
algorithm in 2018, and this penalizes webpages that are slow to load on mobile devices.
You can check how fast or slow your website loads using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which
will assign your site a speed rating of between 0 and 100.
The PageSpeed Insights tool will also give you a list of recommendations, so you can optimise your
site’s load time and discover what is slowing your site down. To implement some of these
recommendations, you may need to get a web developer to adjust your website’s html. Other
enhancements are as easy to adjust as installing a simple WordPress plugin.
Switchover to HTTPS Encryption
Although it’s not a super-important ranking factor, if your website is secured with Https encryption,
you will receive a little boost in Google’s search results. According to Moz.com, over 93% of all first
page search results are https encrypted, and Google has now begun to display a warning whenever a
site hasn’t been secured.
If you do move over to https encryption, you will have to redirect all your pages, as they will now
have new URLs. Make sure you do this, so you don’t lose out on traffic, and so people who have
bookmarked your site can still return to browse.
Improve your Site Architecture and include Internal Linking
If you only have 3 or 4 pages on your website, you don’t have to really consider your website
architecture, but if you’re planning a more complex site, or want to expand, then you should take
this aspect into consideration.
Your website structure can seriously add or detract from the overall user experience you offer your
customers, and this will have an impact on your Google Search rankings. If you have a site with
many hundreds of pages, you’ll need to sit down and plan out an organised structure that helps you
place all your pages into relevant categories.
After that, you’ll need to set up internal links to the most important pages on your site. The final
step is to ensure your internal links have anchor text (labels) that is keyword rich. You need to do
this to help your pages score highly in Google search and enable easier internal search on your
website.
Always ensure your link anchor text includes a keyword or phrase, rather than simply making it say,
“click here”. If you run an online sweet store for example, and you want to link to a page about
homemade sweet recipes your anchor text might say “Sweets You Can Make at Home”.
Include Schema Markup
Schema markup is a type of code you add to your website, that allows search engines to understand
your page content better so it can accurately represent it in search results. Google understands
Schema data MUCH better than plain text and uses this information to provide users with enhanced
search results.
When you add Schema Markup to a webpage, you automatically create an enhanced description of
your page (also called a rich snippet), which will appear in search results.
Although it won’t have a huge impact on your rankings, including schema data on your website can
help you boost your organic click-through rate. As well as helping the search engines understand
more about your website, Rich Snippets (or enhanced descriptions) can also display rich results like
review stars your business has gathered.
Snippets with review stars and other rich results will stand out in search, helping your website to
attract even more visitors.
It’s more important to add Schema Markup once you have a well-established site, but when you do,
it IS worth doing. You can use handy tools like the one Merkle offers, to simplify the process which
will help you to include basic markup data, which should be enough to get started.
If you have a WordPress site, you can make use of the Schema Markup Plugins on offer there that
will automate much of the process.
Max your E-A-T score
EAT, or Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness is playing an increasingly important role in the way
Google ranks sites, in a drive to offer the most trusted webpages first, to searches who use the
platform.
If you want to earn a high EAT rating, your site needs to be seen as a trusted voice, within your
sector or industry. Encyclopaedia sites, like Wikipedia have an extremely high EAT score, because the
content is created by multiple experts and then checked for accuracy.
One way to establish a higher EAT ranking is to consistently use writers who are established experts
in their niche. Use regular writers, rather than generic freelancers too, and make sure that all the
content you post is error free, helpful, and factual.
Going into detail and providing unique information that’s also high value and useful, will DEFINITELY
help you improve your EAT score. Talking about something you know already well and are familiar
with is the best way to go, particularly when you’re just starting out.
It also helps if your website can become a source of industry news, viewpoints, data, and
information, but what’s much more important for your EAT score is that your content is consistently
factually accurate.
Sticking to one niche and putting out content that covers all aspects of this niche can be another way
to start establishing yourself as an authority voice. It will be easier to gain a high EAT ranking if you
are covering a topic or sector that’s not as populated - providing your content is of a high standard.
After a while, people will come to rely on you for your expertise, helping to up your authority rating
and establish trust. If your site does cover many topics, it’s important to ensure they all have
consistency, and are in the same style as this will help to differentiate you. ALWAYS check content
for errors and false claims or incorrect data.
EAT is also influenced by links, so if you can improve your PageRank score via authority backlinks,
you’ll be helping to boost your EAT score. Keep watching, as we’ll be going into more detail on how
you can obtain quality backlinks, a little later in this video.
Optimize for Mobile
Any technical SEO strategy must now include optimising for mobile. Google’s algorithm now
prioritises mobile searches, meaning the mobile version of your website will be the primary version
Google views.
Your site might be speedy on a desktop but if it’s slow to load on mobile devices, Google will mark
you down. You can check whether your site has speed or other mobile usability problems in the
Google Search Console, after you sign up to verify your website.
If you can’t use the Google Search Console, you can try their free Mobile Friendly Test tool instead.
If you discover your site has issues on mobile devices, it’s vital you address them quickly, or you’ll
negatively impact your rankings in Google search.
Remember to check that your images are properly compressed to display well on mobile devices.
You’ll also need to ensure that you pick a responsive site theme that works well on desktops AND on
mobile phones or tablets.
REMEMBER: DON’T enable Interstitial Popups for your mobile browsers, as Google will penalise you
in search rankings. They can slow down speed when they are viewed on a mobile phone or tablet
and can also cause other issues for smart devices too, like page navigation problems.
Track Results in Google Analytics
Once you’ve started tweaking aspects of your technical SEO, you’ll need to monitor your
performance, so you can see if your adjustments are having any effect. Luckily, there is an excellent
tool that can help you do just that – and the best part is it’s free – Google Analytics.
Google Analytics helps you monitor all your SEO campaigns, allowing you to track and view the
changes you make to your site – and see the impact they are having on your organic website traffic.
Through the Analytics dashboard, you’ll discover what pages bring you the most visitors from Google
search and other search engines. You can then analyse your high performing pages so you can copy
your strategy there on your pages that aren’t doing so well.
Analytics will give you handy metrics such as your page bounce rate and page views, which act as
benchmarks to let you know how well your content meets the expectations of Google searchers.
Through the Analytics Dashboard, you can even set up conversion tracking, to monitor what
percentage of your search traffic converts to actual sign ups or customers.
To get access to Google Analytics, you’ll first need to sign up for a Google Analytics account. If you
already have a Gmail, or other type of Google account associated with your business, you should use
this to set up your Google Analytics account.
Link Building Basics
Getting high quality backlinks is important if you want to increase your position in Google’s search
ratings, as it’s still a major ranking factor that Google considers. The aim is to get as many other
trustworthy websites as possible to link and mention your website.
Having a high number of quality backlinks is strongly associated with appearing on the FIRST page of
Google search results. If you’re struggling to obtain backlinks, or don’t know where to start, keep
watching, as we’re about to share some excellent strategies that you can use to get some more. All
you need is some persistence, patience, and the ability to put in just a little effort – and you’ll soon
start seeing results.
Focus on getting Links with HIGH Authority
You don’t want just any old links from sites with a low authority ranking, as these won’t help you
much when it comes to Google search. Instead, you want backlinks from websites with a high
authority rating in Google, as these are the ones that will give a boost to your search ranking.
There are two primary ways Google measures a site’s authority:
1. DomainAuthority
2. Page Authority.
Domain Authority refers to the overall authority a website has. Page Authority means that page has
received many backlinks from high authority sites.
Getting backlinks from sites with a low page authority and low Domain authority ranking won’t give
as much Page Rank to your site in Google. But if you can gather many backlinks from high Domain
and high Page Rank authority sites, you’ll receive a BIG boost in PageRank, which will in turn help
boost your overall Google ranking score.
Try and get links from sites that are relevant to yours
Obtaining backlinks from websites that are relevant to your own will help you far more than just
getting links from sites in other, unrelated sectors. Google assigns more value to links you get from
sites in your sector and acquiring these types of link also helps Google view your website as
trustworthy.
Think about it, if you run a fitness website but have a lot of backlinks from pet bloggers, Google will
see this as suspicious. It’s fine to get some backlinks from unrelated websites though, particularly
established high trust websites. Just be careful not to focus on this. Most of your links should come
from related, high authority sites.
You don’t have to chase sites that cover your specific topic, but they should have some relevance to
what you do, or if you run a business, what you are offering. For example, if you have a yoga
business, it would be fine to get links from a health and wellness store, a dance studio, or a wellness
blogger. A shooting range probably wouldn’t be appropriate and wouldn’t do much to help your
Page Rank rating.
So, how do you go about getting these related links in the first place?
Before we get into link building strategies there is one thing you must always keep in mind – NEVER
pay for links – as this is against Google’s guidelines. Google’s Link Schemes List also outlines all the
other things you should never do when trying to get backlinks.
Link building strategies that WORK
Find popular content – then make it better
If you’re just starting out trying to acquire backlinks, and you’re prepared to put in some work,
there’s a solid strategy you can employ that will help you in your goal – every time. The great thing
is, it’s an organic way to acquire both traffic and links, and all you need do is create ONE amazing
piece of content.
By discovering a popular piece of content that’s already performing well for your target keyword –
then making it better– you can get a great head-start. It’s not about copying anything, as you need
to bring something new to the table – the goal here is to analyse how you can do things better, so
you can offer people a totally original and unique improved version.
Following the steps in this strategy to improve on popular content will help you boost the number
of good backlinks you get, and it will also help you increase your website or blog traffic!
4 Steps to creating AMAZING content that WILL get you backlinks
1. Step 1 – Find high performing content - First, grab your target keyword or phrase and start
typing it into Google. Look in the drop down to see what Google suggests other searchers
have been searching for and click on one of the suggestion search phrases.
If you have a website design business, you might type “website design” into Google for example,
and then Google might show you that other people have been searching for the term “DIY
website design”.
See what results are displayed on the first page of search for that term – click through to the first
five or ten – and try to assess why these pieces of content are performing so well.
2. Step 2 – Make it better - Try and identify any flaws in the content you are looking at, such as
a lack of detail, or multimedia, so you can improve on these and offer people something
that’s an upgrade.
Do any of the top performing posts lack crucial information?
If so, make sure you include this in your improved version. Are most of the top results for
your chosen phrase PDF files? As most people prefer to read content in a blog post format,
by creating one, you’ll be more likely to win traffic.
3. Step 3 - Ask for expert input – Before you sit down to create your piece, draw up a list of
relevant people who might be willing to give their input. Preferably they should be experts in
their niche, so they can share their top tips, tricks, or thoughts.
It’s great publicity for them as you’ll be mentioning their business in your post. Once you’ve hit
publish, you can contact them again to let them know the post is live, so they can share your
content with their audience. Some of them might even link to your post, providing you with
more high-quality backlinks.
4. Step 4 Promote your content – Once you’ve created an awesome piece of content, that’s an
improvement on the blogs already out there, you need to promote like crazy. If you skip this
step, you won’t be giving your hard work the best chance possible, as there is just so much
competition out there.
The first thing you should do is get in contact with influencers in your niche, to ask them if they
might be interested in featuring your post. Ideally, you should do this BEFORE you publish, so they
have a chance to plan their content schedule. If they do decide to feature your piece, you’ll get lots
of social shares plus a handy backlink from an ultra-relevant and popular site.
Next, draw up a list of popular blogs in your sector that feature related high-quality content like
yours, and send them a brief email them to ask if they might like to post a link to your piece. This is
another great way of getting backlinks Google will LOVE, as your link will be featured on a site that’s
extremely relevant.
Did you namecheck any brands or other businesses in your post?
If so, reach out and tell them, as they’ll be happy, and may well share your piece with their
audience. For example, if your post was about cookery and you mentioned you use a certain type of
smoothie maker, email that brand, and let them know!
The final step is to remember to get back in touch with any experts you included in your piece. They
will almost certainly share your work with their followers on social media, and some may link to your
content on their blog or website too.
Guest Posting
If you’re looking to increase your backlinks, Guest posting can be a good way to get more, though
you should make sure to approach it in the right way if you don’t want to end up wasting your time.
When approached correctly, Guest Posting helps you build your links FAST when you’re just starting
out and can attract more traffic to your website and business.
3 key things to bear in mind, if you want to Guest Post to get more backlinks:
1. Make sure you’re posting on relevant sites. Having multiple pieces published on tons of
unrelated sites WON’T help you in Google Search. Draw up a list of websites that accept
guest blogs first, then write down a few ideas for posts. After you’ve done that, get in touch
with the main contact for the website, offering one or two of your best ideas for a post.
2. DON’T stuff your posts with keyword-rich anchor text. To get max traffic, while avoiding
Google frowning on your content, when you’re Guest Posting, do the OPPOSITE of what
you’d typically do on your own website. That means posting links with anchor text that
contains your website or business name, instead of your keywords. If you’re linking to a
guide to SEO for example, your anchor text could say “The SEO Supremo” if that’s your
business name rather than “SEO Strategy Guide”, which is what the post is about.
3. Don’t overdo it. Backlinks from guest posts shouldn’t make up more than 5-10% of your
overall backlinks, or your site could get penalised by Google. Guest posting is a great way to
start building backlinks, but it should NEVER form the backbone of your link acquiring
strategy.
Create Content people can’t help linking too with Linkable Assets
A linkable asset is a piece of content that people find so valuable that they link to it – A LOT. It’s not
as simple as creating a high-quality piece of content, a linkable asset needs to be so indispensable,
website owners and bloggers can’t help linking to it.
Creating linkable assets will REALLY help you attract more backlinks.
But what type of content should you be focusing on creating, if you want to turn your posts into
linkable assets?
A Linkable Asset is anything that is either …
 A unique piece of content on a unique topic that’s also informational
 A piece of research no one else has already put out there
 A well-done infographic or video explainer on a popular topic that helps people understand
a subject better
 A piece of content on a popular topic that’s so helpful it’s BETTER than what’s already out
there
Some Linkable Assets you could create that would fit this criteria:
 Unique industry study or piece of research
 Fact checking article on a popular or trending topic
 Handy visual explainer guide or resource
 Free tool that helps people do something easier
 Curated list of high-quality practical tips, or a list of helpful resources
Your Linkable asset doesn’t have to be super in-depth; the important thing is that it is helpful. The
two main things you should focus on when creating a Linkable Asset are…
1. Making your content useful to people,
2. Providing a piece of content that’s offers more than what’s already out there
Bear both these aims in mind when you sit down to create your Linkable Asset.
Align your content with user Search Intent
Search Intent refers to the reason search engine users perform a search in the first place and
typically, there are three primary reasons why someone might use search.
1. To find a product – Transactional search with the view to purchase something. If someone
is searching for local gyms to work out in, they might type in “Gyms near Bradford.” A
person who was looking to buy some new trainers, might enter “running shoes” or “workout
footwear”.
2. To find information – Informational searches are usually carried out to learn something
about a topic or person or find out something like a recipe. A searcher might enter “peanut
butter smoothie recipe” or look up “Bill Gates’s age” for example.
3. To look up a brand – A combination of the above two types of search, since at some point
people who perform branded searches usually consider a purchase. A branded search is an
indirect transactional search, though people aren’t specifically looking to buy from you in
that moment. It’s not purely informational, because the reason they want to find out more
about your brand is usually because they are thinking about purchasing from you. Branded
searches are GREAT for your Google ranking, particularly if you have a local business.
In general, you should be attempting to make sure your content is consistent with your target
visitor’s search intent. This is where keyword research can really help, allowing to better understand
what your customers or visitors search for and what terms they use to search for it. By creating
content that closely matches user search intent, you’ll attract the type of traffic you want and will
perform much better in search.
You’ll also be able to tailor your content better to get people to take the actions you want –whether
that’s to subscribe, engage, or make a purchase.
User Signals
Google assesses User intent to monitor how browsers interact with search engine results, so it can
match webpages to search requests, to provide users with more relevant results. If Google sees that
many searchers pass over your page in results, and prefer to click on other results instead, it will
mark your content as not the most relevant for that type of search.
The more this keeps happening, the worse your page or site will rank for that search term.
Another user signal that can get you downgraded by Google, is when users click through to your
search result but then bounce right back to the other search results Google displayed. This is
sometimes called “pogosticking” and is a factor that can cause you to lose ranking in Google for
particular search terms. Every time this happens, you score another mark against your page for that
specific keyword or phrase, as Google sees it as less of a fit.
So how can you ensure searchers chose you in search results? And how can you keep them on your
site when they do click through, so you give off the right signals to Google?
How to Optimize User Signals so you score HIGHLY in Google search
Match the keyword you are ranking for. First, you should make your page’s content matches the
keyword you are trying to rank for, as closely as possible. This is the single MOST important thing
you can do to boost your user signals, as it means that when people do click through to your page,
they find relevant content and stick around.
Make sure your content introduction is clear. Your intro should give a brief summary of your
content and outline the benefits of staying on your page. Tell people what they are going to get if
they hang around, in terms of benefits to them. In your intro say things like “Read on to discover
how to make your own delicious tasting smoothie recipes – easily and cheaply at home.” DON’T say
more generic, informational things like “Smoothies are really beneficial to your health and help to
revitalise the body.” Leave that type of detail for later.
Make sure you’ve optimised your meta-description too. Your meta-description is the descriptive
paragraph that shows up under your page link in search results. You’ll find it in the edit settings
section when you come to edit your website. Ensure it REALLY sells your page – and tells people
exactly what it’s about and why they need to click through.
Use appealing, high quality visuals. People LOVE images, videos, and infographics – and many will
quickly leave your page, if all they see is a wall of text. Make sure you include plenty of attractive,
relevant images and graphics in your posts, as these add interest, keep people engaged, and help
break up text walls. Use sub-headers too, to break content into neat, structured sections, so people
can skip to the most relevant parts of your piece, if they don’t want to read the whole thing.
Include internal and external links. Your page content should have both internal and external links,
so people can click to learn more about the subjects and things you talk about in your post without
having to return to search.
Include enough internal and external links so people won’t have to bounce back to the search engine
results page to look up information and can just click out from your page. This will greatly help
improve the user signals you are sending back to Google by preventing pogosticking.
Optimise your page’s loading speed. People have limited patience, especially on the internet and if
a page is slow to load, they’ll return straight to the search results page. Check your site’s loading
speed using Google’s Page Speed Insights and if it’s too slow, follow the recommendations to make
it faster. Loading speed is a crucial ranking factor that research has discovered has a direct link
between loading times and bounce rates, so it’s important not to ignore it.
Create content that’s easy to read. Use a font that doesn’t make people’s eyes go funny and that
they don’t have to squint to read and use bold headers and sub-headers to clearly mark out sections.
If your font is too small, people won’t hang around, so use bigger fonts on a higher size setting if you
are in any doubt. Avoid cluttered, overly fussy fonts and novelty fonts too, they might look great,
but they’re really hard to read. Make use of bullet points and use lists as well, as this helps to
further break up your content into easily digestible sections.
Make sure your content is current. If people see you’ve included out of date information, or
information that’s widely known to have been debunked, they’ll click off and bounce straight back to
Google. This means that you’ll need to update old posts, if you want to retain maximum
engagement and send out the right user signals. Even if info isn’t out of date, consider adding new
information to all your old posts, when it’s relevant to do so. Expanding on a topic over time will
help you attract a new audience, who will return again and again to your post, as they’ll know you’ll
keep it updated.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this beginner’s guide to SEO, and that you now feel you have a good
understanding of the basics. Remember – all it takes is a little effort, and patience – if you apply
the knowledge you’ve learned here and PRACTICE, you WILL see results.
We believe deeply in our students and take the greatest care to provide you with the most
relevant and essential information, that helps you grow in your expertise. You can be confident
that with the new knowledge you’ve learned, you have everything you need to make a great head
start into the world of SEO.
If you’re looking to build a career in SEO, it’s a great idea to get some experience first. Why not
start by working on your own website, and then offer to help your family and friends, for free or a
nominal payment? This is an excellent way to flex your SEO muscles as well as acquire the
experience you need.
We LOVE to hear from all our students, so if you’ve enjoyed this video, remember to give us a
great review and your feedback too, to let us know how you get on!
We REALLY appreciate every single review, and your feedback motivates us to create more cutting
edge, unique content, which we’ll continue to share with you, our beloved students. Would you be
our hero right now by leaving us a review, if you found this video helpful?
We’re always here to provide you with the very latest SEO techniques and digital marketing
strategies and to offer you our full support. Remember, always keep in mind – you CAN win at SEO
– with our help and just a little practice and effort.

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SEO for Beginners (Ultimate Guide) - Alif SEO

  • 1. Welcome to SEO for Beginners - your comprehensive guide! Hello Dear Student, and welcome to our Master Guide to SEO for complete beginners – an essential overview of the MOST important information you need to know about SEO. In this video, you’ll learn what SEO is, and why it’s important, as well as the different aspects you’ll need to cover to improve your SEO approach – so you can get more traffic and score highly in Google search! All you need to do is be willing to learn and put into practice the knowledge and strategies we share. You don’t need ANY prior experience with SEO as this guide has been designed to take you through all the most crucial points you need to know – with no previous experience needed. With newfound SEO knowledge you’ll learn from this video, you’ll be able to start improving many aspects of your SEO strategy. You‘ll understand how search engines rank your website, and what things you need to tweak to give your site the best chance in search. You’ll understand important ranking factors, like page loading speed, and how to check it, and the crucial importance of getting backlinks. You’ll also discover why sending the right user signals is important if you want your pages to rank for keywords in Google search. You’ll learn how to choose the best keywords for your topic, and how to create high performing content that does well in search – as well as so much more. Basically, you’ll learn the all the MOST important things you need to know as a complete novice. Even if you’re not a total beginner with SEO, we guarantee you’ll find this video helpful, as we always bring you the LATEST unique strategies, created to help you WIN in today’s digital environment. We know you can achieve great things with the knowledge we will share with you in this video, and we know you can see amazing results, if you’re prepared to put in just a little time and effort. Ready to get started? Let’s jump right in and begin by looking at what SEO is… SEO in a nutshell Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of attracting specific types of traffic to a website or page, from a search engine’s results page. SEO includes content creation and optimization, obtaining backlinks, optimising for voice search, and keywords. It also includes more technical aspects such as improving your page speed, image load, and site architecture, so search engines can more easily crawl your site. The three most important things you should aim to do if you want to improve your search engine ranking should be: 1. Make sure your site is easy to access and crawl, 2. Have high quality content that includes relevant keywords, 3. Get as many backlinks from high authority sites as you can.
  • 2. In this video, you’ll learn how to achieve these three things, and you’ll also learn ALL the essential information you need to know, to have a good grounding in SEO. Remember, the aim of SEO is to boost a website’s position in organic search. Organic search differs from paid search results, as with organic search you CANNOT spend money to rank well. Paid results typically appear first at the top of Google, but the downside is, people can see they are paid for ads as the word Ad will appear in front of the link to the website. Organic results are far more trusted – and one of the best things about scoring highly in organic search is, it doesn’t have to cost you anything! Inside the Search Engines You might be wondering how search engines decide what websites to show to searchers when they display their lists of results. When someone enters a search term into a search engine like Google, the search engine will use an algorithm to analyse, find, and then display, what it considers is the most relevant set of results. To do this the search engine scans its index of millions and millions of websites to compare them so it can bring back the best answer. It does this instantly, displaying the top 10 or so in list format to searchers. If searchers don’t like the first ten results, they can click through to the second page, or even the third. Most people never do this however, so it’s important to get on the first page of search engine listings, and preferably into the first 1-3 positions. So how DO search engines decide what webpages are the most relevant result for searchers? Every search engine uses a different algorithm, so the answer varies, but for now let’s focus on Google, since it’s by far the most popular. Google doesn’t make all the factors it uses to decide search position clear, but there ARE some factors that are widely known to influence Google ranking. Relevancy When people search, they are usually seeking information on a specific topic, so Google looks for pages that appear to host the most relevant content for that search term. If you were looking for healthy food, for example, you’d be disappointed if a search engine gave you a list of results on garages! Google crawls websites to spot pages that seem to be a close match for the keyword a searcher has used. The thing is, there are 1000’s, if not millions of pages that might be relevant for most of the keywords people search for, and Google can’t show them all. If you were to search the term banana smoothie for example, you’d get 56 million results! To sort out what results to show on the first page, then the second page and so on, Google’s algorithm looks at two other factors – Authority and Usefulness. Authority Google decides whether the content it crawls is trustworthy and relevant to what searchers are looking for. To assign an authority ranking, Google weighs up how many backlinks from trusted sites a webpage has managed to obtain. The more trusted backlinks from relevant sites, the higher any webpage will rank in Google’s authority rankings.
  • 3. Keep watching, as later in this video, we’ll be teaching you how you can get more high-quality backlinks. Usefulness Even if Google gives your content a high authority and relevancy value, it will still need to look at its usefulness before it ranks it in search. If Google doesn’t think your content is useful, it won’t score you highly. Google has even stated that it assesses content for both quality AND usefulness. So, what would be an example of content that Google might view as useful? A webpage with content that is well-organised, that uses clear language and makes use of sub- headers to break up large text chunks, would get a high usefulness score from Google. Even if that page didn’t have many quality backlinks it would still do well in Google search results. The reason this sort of page receives a ranking boost is because Google measures how useful a page is based on how users interact with it. This is known as User Experience Signals. A page that is well- organised, well-structured, and clear makes it’s more likely that when users click through, they’ll have a positive experience and stay for longer. In this video, we’ll be teaching you some of the most important user experience signals Google looks for and how you can optimise your content and website to score higher in this area. REMEMBER: Spend time creating well-structured quality content that people enjoy interacting with, so you boost your User Experience Signal rating. When Google crawls its index of sites, it measures User Experience Signals, to try and discover the websites people love. It then prioritises the sites that offer the best User Experience in its rankings, making User Experience Signals an extremely important factor to focus on. What does SEO do for your website? If you have a website, applying SEO techniques will help your site score highly in search results. You’ll need to use a strategy designed to help you rank well on the search engine you want to score highly in, as each one has different requirements. In this video, we’ll be mostly focusing on Google, though many of the things we mention here may well apply to other search engines like Bing. Your aim with ANY SEO strategy is to get a search engine to notice your site and judge it as the best possible result, whenever a person searches for a topic in your niche. To get on the first page of Google, your webpage needs to score highly on many ranking factors within Google’s algorithm. There are currently more than 200 Google ranking factors, including relevancy, loading speed, keywords, authority, usefulness, account authority, and more. Organic and Paid Search Results Google has two different categories of search results that it displays – paid and organic. There is a BIG difference in the way these two types of results are ranked. With organic search results, there are many more ranking factors that you will need to consider if you want to perform well in search. When it comes to paid results, advertisers are ranked according to the amount they’ll pay a single visitor, sent to them through Google’s Pay Per Click Ad’s network. The more they are willing to pay the higher they will rank. It’s as simple as that.
  • 4. Organic search doesn’t work in the same way. You can’t pay your way to the top. Instead, you need to optimise your site, pages, and content so you score highly in Google’s ranking algorithm. The good news is, when people search for information on a topic, most people trust organic search results FAR more than they trust paid results. In this video, we’ll be focusing solely on organic results, and giving you tips and advice you can use to perform well in organic Google search. Why do you need SEO? Search engines will be one of the main sources of traffic to your webpage and Google is the biggest and most popular search engine, by far. Google searches create over half of ALL the traffic on the entire internet, so you can see why it makes sense to optimise your site for Google’s algorithm. When it’s applied correctly, SEO can help your website rank for 100’s of related keywords in your niche, generating 1000’s of visitors on each of those phrases every month. People using paid results would pay a premium for this amount of traffic but by applying some smart SEO principles, you can get it all - for free. Let’s look at some of the things you can do to score highly with Google, so you can start getting a consistent stream of traffic to your website. Customer and keyword research Before you start figuring out your keywords, it’s best to get to know the type of visitors you will be trying to attract to your website. That way, you can tailor everything you do to hold maximum appeal to your ideal visitor, including picking your keywords and creating content they will like. Customer research will help you learn what people REALLY search for. You’ll be able to find out the precise phrases they use when they search, so you can include these in your site and content, to help it rank for those keywords. Customer Research You might know roughly who your ideal website visitor is, especially if you already sell things online, or have a blog or business profile on social media. They will be the people already interacting with you, the ones who like your content, comment, or buy things from you. Think about what age group they tend to fall into? Are they mostly male, female, or mixed? What interests do they have? These things help make up what is known as the customer persona, and it’s important to define your customer persona if you want to do well in SEO and online marketing. Many people think compiling a customer persona will only help them if they are looking to create products people will want to buy. But knowing your visitors is also critical to succeeding with SEO. As well as knowing the age, gender, and interest data on your ideal customer or visitor, you also need to know WHAT they search for and HOW they search for it. Without this information, you won’t be using the keywords the people you want to attract are searching for. You won’t be able to create content that’s structured around these keywords, as you won’t know what they are. And your content won’t be structured in a way that is most appealing to the people you want to visit your site and engage with it. BONUS TIP:
  • 5. Hub Spot has a handy tool you can use to find out about your ideal visitor, called Make My Persona. It makes the process of creating a customer profile simple, allowing you to create an in-depth profile quickly. The best part is – it’s completely free. Finding the right Keywords Once you’ve created your ideal visitor profile, you can start conducting some keyword research. This will involve discovering the precise keywords and key phrases that your ideal customer’s use when they search. Keywords can be split into two main types: 1. The type of keywords people use to find products 2. The type of keywords people use to find information If you have an online store retailing yoga pants, your product keywords might include: Yoga pants free delivery Yoga pants for curvy women Adidas yoga pants And if you were writing a blog article on yoga positions, your informational keywords might be: Yoga positions for weight loss How to perform yoga Proper yoga posture Ideally, any page that’s properly optimised for SEO should include several sets of BOTH types of keywords so however people search, your website always appears as an option. You’ll also be more likely to appear for other, related keywords. How to perform better Keyword Research There are some handy tools you can employ to find better performing keywords and the first one is Google’s Autocomplete tool. Most people have already used it, though they might not have realised it at the time. When you type anything into the Google search box, you’ll notice several search suggestions are displayed automatically, below what you have typed. These are the keywords and phrases related to your topic that people have already used to search. They are incredibly useful as they are the phrases people use to search for things and can give you great ideas for keywords to include in your content. It’s a good idea to write these suggestions down or keep a list handy for when you come to create your webpage. You can use Autocomplete to search for Keyword ideas for any topic you want. It’s a brilliant way to find highly relevant search terms that you can use in your content. The second tool you can make use of is called Answer the Public. This is a free tool that’s especially useful for discovering informational keywords and phrases.
  • 6. If you were writing a blog piece about Steam Trains, you might type “steam trains” in to Answer the Public first, to see the questions connected to that topic that people have been asking. A typical result might be “what steam trains are still running?” Not only does this give you keyword search ideas, but it is also a great way to get new potential topics for blog posts or vlogs. Another way to find keywords is to employ a good keyword research tool to discover how popular your chosen keyword is, and how hard it will be to get into the top ranks of Google search results with that search phrase. The more a keyword is used, the harder it is to rank for. However, the answer is not as simple as picking keywords that aren’t popular, as you still need to include the words and phrases people search for. You need to strike the right balance between keywords that aren’t so competitive you can’t rank, and keywords that people look up, so your site can get discovered. Tools like Answer the Public can help you home in on more niche, but still searched for key phrases. Answer the Public is especially useful once you have a list of potential keywords, as it will help you whittle down your list and find the best search terms that are also the easiest to rank with. There are a LOT of keyword research tools available that can help you in your quest to discover suitable keywords. SEMrush, the Moz Keyword Explorer, and Google’s own Keyword Planner, are some of the most helpful. Using Google’s Keyword Planner You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to discover keywords for your SEO content and webpages, even though it was primarily created for Google Ads campaigns. This is a free to use feature within Google Ads, so you’ll need a Google Ads account to use it. Once inside the Google Ads dashboard, open Keyword Planner, and type in a keyword. You’ll get search volume data on that phrase, along with a selection of related keywords and phrases. Search Volume Range gives you an idea of how often people have searched for the keyword you typed in that month. By entering your selected list of keywords into Google Keyword Planner, you’ll be able to use Search Volume Range to see what keywords are popular – and what ones aren’t often searched for. Long-Tail Keywords The last thing you can do to optimise your keywords is include more long-tail keywords in your content. There’s not so much competition for these types of keywords, as not so many people use them, so it can be easier to rank highly in Google for them. They are also more precise, so they can help a more relevant audience find your content. A typical example of a long-tail keyword would be “How to burn belly fat fast”. A shorter keyword that’s NOT a long-tail example, would be “burn belly fat”. When you refine your SEO approach, you can also include the shorter keywords that are used more often, but if you’re a beginner, long-tail keywords will help you rank higher, faster. Keywords for Voice Search SEO
  • 7. It’s important to include keywords in your content that will help you get found by people conducting searches using voice. Google states that almost 50% of all adults use voice to search daily, and this number is growing. The two biggest differences between keywords for voice and other keywords are…. 1. Most people using voice to search tend to use longer, more detailed keywords 2. Voice searchers ask a LOT of questions when they search A lot of people think they don’t need to optimise for voice search because they assume most of these types of searches will be carried out by people using smart speakers. They think that no one will be visiting their website, but this is simply not true. Research has shown that 20% of all searches made by smartphones are voice searches. More people are also now using their laptop and desktop computers to conduct this type of search, so it’s crucial to include voice search friendly keywords in your SEO strategy. You might be wondering how to choose the best keywords for voice search. Here are four top tips that will help you prime your content for voice search: Optimising your content for Voice Searches Remember to optimise for Google’s Rich Answer Box – Here there is only ONE answer displayed, so you want to make sure yours is the best one. Research has found that 75% of the top Rich Answer voice search results rank in the top three for desktop searches. By optimising your SEO approach to ensure you rank highly in Google Search for your niche on desktop, you’ll be maximising your chances of getting found in voice search. The tips and techniques in this video will help you boost your general Google Search score, improving your chances of appearing as the best result in Google’s Rich Answer Box. Remember to optimise for Featured Snippets – Priming your content for Google’s Featured Snippets is one of the MOST effective ways to rank highly in voice search. Snippets are small pieces of essential information, that Google automatically pulls from your webpage. To have a chance of getting your content featured as a snippet, you should include clear questions that have relevance to your topic. Make sure they are questions that people who are looking for information on your topic would ask. You can use tools like Ask the Public to find out what topical questions people are already using to search. Remember to include numbered list posts – Using numbered lists will boost your content’s chances of appearing in voice, and it will also help you maximise the chance of appearing in featured snippets. Try creating blog posts such as “Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Memory”, then bullet point each of the tips you include using numbers. Use long-tail keywords – Longtail keywords will GREATLY improve your content’s chance of getting selected as one of the top voice search results. You can use Google’s Search Suggest Tool straight from the Google Search Box to find suitable questions using Google’s autocomplete feature. Just type in a question then look at the bottom of the search results page, where you’ll find a Searches Related to section. You’ll get a handy list of related and relevant questions people have already searched for, that you can include in your content. SEO for your YouTube Videos
  • 8. YouTube has now surpassed Facebook in popularity and the appeal of video content is set to grow, with recent research finding that the majority of 18–49-year-olds now prefer video content over text. Unlike many other social media platforms, YouTube is also frequently used as a search engine. YouTube videos are also playing an increasingly important role in Google searches. All of this means that optimising your YouTube content for SEO is a priority if you want to increase the likelihood of your videos showing up in YouTube AND Google search results and getting watched on the YouTube platform. To optimise your YouTube Video SEO, you need to do three main things: 1. Improve the quality of your videos 2. Maximise the relatability of your videos 3. Understand how your target viewer will search for your content When someone performs a YouTube search, YouTube considers several factors to decide whether to display your video in the results it returns. YouTube looks at:  Your video titles  Your video description  How relevant your video title, description, and content are to the search query  The searcher’s prior behaviour and engagement with your videos Top Ways to Optimise your YouTube SEO Do Keyword research – Find out what your audience is searching for and how they search for it. Just like Google, YouTube automatically suggests search terms when you enter a topic into YouTube search. If you’re creating a vlog about sportswear for ski trips for example, try typing in sportswear or “sportswear holidays” to see what terms other searchers have already looked up. You can also use Google in the same way, if you need more keywords, as YouTube is now also an important part of Google search. Optimise your title to include these keywords – Use the best keyword suggestions you’ve found in your title tag and try to keep it under 60 characters. DON’T overstuff your title with keywords, pick one or two that directly relate to the content of your video. DON’T pick a snappy title, that might sound good but doesn’t represent your video’s content. This will backfire on you as it will lower your audience engagement levels, which are a factor YouTube takes into consideration, when deciding how to rank you in search. Use keywords in your video file name – Before you upload your video file, rename it to one of the keywords you found when doing your research. A lot of people overlook this, but the YouTube algorithm looks at video file names, to try and find out what your video is about, along with your title tag and description. Optimise your video description - Your YouTube description is HIGHLY important, as not only does YouTube’s algorithm consider it when matching searchers with content, it also tells potential viewers why they should watch. You get 5,000 characters, so make the most of that space and tell people why they need to press play. The first 200 words are the most important, as everything after that is hidden unless people click on the Show More link. Put your most vital information first, use your
  • 9. most important keyword high up in your description, and include calls to action and URLs, to direct people to your website or blog. Use tags that include your keywords – Tags help to give YouTube more information about your video, and allow it to associate your video with other, related content. YouTube handily suggests relevant tags to you when you enter some keywords into the Tag section, but you can also include other keywords that you discovered when doing keyword research. NEVER use tags in your description though, as this is against YouTube’s guidelines – and could even get your video banned. Transcribe your video for closed captioning – YouTube can automatically transcribe your video so it can display captions, and you should make sure you have enabled this option, so you can reach the widest audience possible. Some people like to watch videos without the volume enabled and other can’t hear - but check the captioning YouTube displays to make sure it’s accurate. You can also upload a file with your own caption information, and you may need to take this option, if the captioning YouTube provides is wildly inaccurate. Encourage action from your viewers- As audience engagement plays a key part in YouTube’s search rankings, you should ALWAYS be looking to encourage interaction with your viewers. Ask for likes, comments, and subscribes in your video, include calls to action and links in your description, and pose questions to encourage viewer feedback. Don’t forget to embed your YouTube video on your own website to maximise its potential reach too. Creating SEO-Friendly Content Improving the quality of your content is an important part of any solid SEO strategy, as the better your content, the higher you’ll rank in search. There are several things you can do to make sure your content is the best it can possibly be, depending on the type of content you are creating. Product and Service Pages Conversions are key here, so place the focus on the benefits to your customers. Why do they need what you are offering? What will your product or service do for them? To create awesome product or service page content that SELLS or converts, you’ll need to first ATTRACT the right people and to do this you must tap into your customer’s desires or needs first. To find out what these are you’ll need to do market research into your ideal customer. Once you have found out what your ideal customer wants, you need to INTEREST them. You can do this by teasing that you have the solution to their problems, or the answer to their desires. After that, you’ll need to let people know how what you have can give them what they want – to ramp up their DESIRE for your product or service. Finally, you’ll need to persuade them to take ACTION. This four-stage formula is also known as AIDA – Attract, Interest, Desire, Action, and it’s used extensively by copywriters who create high performing sales content. You should always make your product and service pages informative, so it doesn’t seem like you are just selling. Ultimately though, you should be trying to get people to convert, so your sales pages and product pages don’t need to be as informational as your blog posts should be.
  • 10. Blogs Regularly creating high quality blog content that people find useful can REALLY help boost your Google search rankings. A recent study by HubSpot discovered that brands who published quality content regularly got TRIPLE the amount of traffic than brands who didn’t. Consistency is key, but it won’t help if you just pump out posts. There’s so much competition now, your content also needs to be helpful, insightful, and value added. There are some types of blog content that consistently perform better than others, and when you’re starting out with SEO, you might want to focus your efforts on these, at least until you build up your following. The Latest top- performing types of blog content CompleteLists Complete Lists continually perform well. Many people find them extremely useful as they refer to lots of practical information on a topic, all in one article, that’s written in an easy-to digest format. Your list could contain strategies, items to buy, or the best muscle building smoothies – almost anything you can think of that can be curated into list form. Make sure you give some detail along with every point on the list, or people will find your content dull, boring, and unhelpful, and your engagement levels will suffer. Content with Stats It’s getting more and more difficult to get people to share or link your content, due to the sheer volume of posts that are being published every day. One way to make your content stand out is by including stats and data in your posts and research has found this increases your chance of gaining a link. To increase your content’s authoritative value in the eyes of your audience, refer to scientific studies, paraphrase or quote original research, and include accurate facts, figures, and data. CompleteGuides People LOVE helpful content, and it doesn’t get much more helpful than a simplified guide to doing something that covers every aspect. The focus here is to give people the essential information they need to know about every important angle of a topic. Your complete guides don’t have to be pages long, though they should be in-depth, as Google scores long-form content of 1000 words or more, higher. Your goal should be to help people FULLY understand a topic. To attract the maximum number of readers, focus on trending topics that you can relate to your niche, or relevant topics to your business that are growing in popularity, such as plant-based diets, or ways to beat boredom in lockdown. Visual Content Infographics are a great way of obtaining links and engagement as people love to share and repost them. It’s not just infographics though, including high quality images, video, or helpful screenshots in your posts will REALLY help to add interest, break up long chunks of text, and keep people reading. On-Page SEO Basics To ensure Google can crawl your webpage accurately to display it in search results, you’ll need to optimise your On-Page SEO. To do this you need to make sure the content on your pages is relevant
  • 11. to the search terms you are attempting to rank for. Your content also needs to be detailed and useful – if you want it perform well. So how does On-Page SEO work? Google scans your page to see what words or phrases it contains. If it sees a certain keyword being repeated, it will assume your page is about that topic. This is why it’s important to use the RIGHT keywords and phrases in your content. There are certain things you can do to boost your On-Page SEO. Once of the first things you can do, if you have a WordPress site, is to install the Yoast plugin, as this makes it easier to set up your page and optimise your site. It also helps you easily create your title and description tag. Some other platforms such as Shopify include SEO features that are like Yoast’s, making optimisation of your On-Page SEO that much simpler. Let’s look at some of the other ways you can enhance your On-Page SEO: Use Your Keyword in your Title Tag This is crucial as your title tells Google and searchers what your page is about. By using your keyword in your tag, you’re directly informing Google that your page is about that topic. Make sure you do your keyword research and use the best possible keyword in ALL your titles. Optimize your Meta Description for clicks This isn’t as important as your title tag, but it’s still a crucial step. Google might have stated that this isn’t a major factor when it comes to their algorithm, but it’s vital for another pivotal reason. Your meta-description is your chance to encourage people to clickthrough or not, and they DO read this short summary. Make yours as enticing and relevant as possible by using appropriate keywords and creating short, punchy copy that’s easy to read. Include your main keyword in your description too, as Google highlights this in bold whenever someone searches for that keyword, which helps your site attract searcher’s attention. Use your primary keyword in your body copy too You’ll also want to make sure your primary keyword is included in the main content on your page. This is often called body copy, and it’s especially important to ensure you include your main keyword in the first 150 words. You should also include it throughout your copy, so Google gets a good idea of what your page is about. Don’t overstuff as this will do harm to your search engine rankings and can even get your website ignored by Google. As a general guide, if you’ve written a 1500-word piece of content, use your main keyword at least 3-4 times in the body, and once in the title and meta-description. Use related keywords As well as your primary keyword, you should also be including other, relevant keywords in your content, as this will maximise your reach by allowing you to rank for lots of different keywords. You can find related keywords using Google Search Suggest direct from the Google search box, or in the Google Keyword Planner, simply by entering your main keyword.
  • 12. For example, if you were writing a post about how to do influencer outreach and wanted to find related keywords for the topic “influencer outreach”, you’d type that into the Google search box and see what other terms related to that topic people had been searching for. Use the most appropriate related keyword suggestions Google throws up in your content, meta description, and sub-headers, to increase your pages chances of getting found. Optimize Images It’s super-important to optimise your image SEO, especially if you have a website with a lot of visual content. Google has a difficult job analysing images to find out what your site is all about. To help it do this it reads your images filename, alt text, and title. Simple 3-step to optimising your image SEO: 1. Make sure your picture has a relevant, descriptive filename that’s related to your page topic. If you’re displaying a screenshot that shows people how to optimise their image SEO for example, you might call it something like imageSEOoptimisationguide.png 2. Include image alt text that matches your image, so people have more detail as to what it’s about. This will also help to retain people on your page who have trouble loading your image, or who are on slow internet connections. You could say “Screenshot guide to optimising images” for example or “Visual guide to image optimisation”. 3. Ensure your image’s title is accurate and RELEVANT to your page topic. This isn’t as important as the other two steps –but it doesn’t mean you should skip it. Something short and snappy that relates to your image and page should usually do the trick, like “Image SEO Screenshot.” User Experience You might have primed your page for SEO but if you haven’t considered the user experience, you’re not going to rank well for long. Although user experience is difficult for search engines to assess, it DEFINITELY has an indirect effect on your SEO score. Think about it – if your site is hard to navigate, or cluttered and hard to read, people aren’t going to stick around long enough to engage. They also aren’t going to share it or link to it, which will critically impact your Google SEO score, as links and shares are an important ranking factor. To improve your website user experience, consider your layout, colour scheme, font, and navigation. Ask the following crucial questions:  Does my site make easy for people to find what they need?  Are the most important things highlighted?  Do they appear high up on the page?  Is my site well-organised into clearly labelled sections?  Is my font clear?  Is my colour scheme appealing and easy to read?  Is my menu easy to navigate?  If I have many pages, are they organised efficiently into relevant, clearly labelled categories?
  • 13. Intro to Technical SEO The primary aim of technical SEO is to help search engines like Google discover and crawl the pages on your website, so you can get listed in its index, and appear in search results. There are many aspects to technical SEO, and they are ALWAYS expanding as the web continually develops. Today, a good technical SEO strategy will need to include mobile optimisation, site loading speed, image compression and more, to ensure you are giving your site and content the best chance you can. If you have a WordPress site, you will have a much easier task, as WordPress automatically optimises many aspects of technical SEO for you. If you don’t have a WordPress site, there are specific things you can do to ensure Google can accurately crawl your site, so your it doesn’t get de-indexed. Verify Your Site with The Google Search Console Google’s Search Console displays your website’s performance and health stats in Google, and it’s a handy tool that helps you see just how much interaction your site gets in Google’s search results. Search Console also allows you to submit your sitemap to Google and shows you many of your pages are being indexed. This helps you identify any unlisted pages, so you can tweak your SEO approach so they can be found and listed. To make use of the Google Search Console, you need to let Google know you’re the owner of your website. Google refers to websites as Domain Properties and you need to let Google know you own your piece of website real estate, to be able to get verified. Once you do, you’ll be able to use all the features of the Google Search Console, which will help you improve many aspects of your technical SEO strategy. Use an SEO-Friendly URL Structure A lot of people forget to think about their page URLs and wind up with long-winded or nonsensical links that aren’t social media friendly. Optimising your URLs is a vital part of your website SEO strategy and you should aim to make sure all your URLs are…  As short as they can be,  Relevant to the page they relate to,  Ideally, consistent for all your pages. Having optimised URLs also helps if you have many categories on your website, as you can use them to tell Google which pages belong in what category. For example, if you run a restaurant website, you’ll have category pages for things like coffee, wine, meals, and you can include these topics in your URLs. That way, Google knows which category each of your pages fall under. A page about the coffee products you offer promoting your newest beans might look something like this, for example: Websitepagename.com/coffee/newbrews If you’re not using categories, it’s a good idea to have your URL structure as website.com/relevant page name instead. If you want to change old URLs, make sure you direct people landing on the old page to your new links, otherwise you’ll wind up losing valuable traffic. It’s probably better to leave old URLs alone, and instead make sure you create better ones for the new pages that you create.
  • 14. BONUS TIP: Remember to try and use keywords in your URL too. DON’T stuff your link with keywords, include your primary or most relevant keywords ONCE and use the shortest links possible – as these perform better in Google. If your page is about coffee and your main keyword is “arabica beans”, your URL might simply be: website.com/arabicabeans If you were using categories, it might look like: website.com/coffee/arabicabeans Analyse and enhance your PageSpeed Your website’s loading speed is extremely important, as if it’s too slow, you’ll not only turn off visitors, you’ll also be harming your SEO ranking. Google introduced a Speed Update feature to its algorithm in 2018, and this penalizes webpages that are slow to load on mobile devices. You can check how fast or slow your website loads using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which will assign your site a speed rating of between 0 and 100. The PageSpeed Insights tool will also give you a list of recommendations, so you can optimise your site’s load time and discover what is slowing your site down. To implement some of these recommendations, you may need to get a web developer to adjust your website’s html. Other enhancements are as easy to adjust as installing a simple WordPress plugin. Switchover to HTTPS Encryption Although it’s not a super-important ranking factor, if your website is secured with Https encryption, you will receive a little boost in Google’s search results. According to Moz.com, over 93% of all first page search results are https encrypted, and Google has now begun to display a warning whenever a site hasn’t been secured. If you do move over to https encryption, you will have to redirect all your pages, as they will now have new URLs. Make sure you do this, so you don’t lose out on traffic, and so people who have bookmarked your site can still return to browse. Improve your Site Architecture and include Internal Linking If you only have 3 or 4 pages on your website, you don’t have to really consider your website architecture, but if you’re planning a more complex site, or want to expand, then you should take this aspect into consideration. Your website structure can seriously add or detract from the overall user experience you offer your customers, and this will have an impact on your Google Search rankings. If you have a site with many hundreds of pages, you’ll need to sit down and plan out an organised structure that helps you place all your pages into relevant categories. After that, you’ll need to set up internal links to the most important pages on your site. The final step is to ensure your internal links have anchor text (labels) that is keyword rich. You need to do this to help your pages score highly in Google search and enable easier internal search on your website. Always ensure your link anchor text includes a keyword or phrase, rather than simply making it say, “click here”. If you run an online sweet store for example, and you want to link to a page about homemade sweet recipes your anchor text might say “Sweets You Can Make at Home”. Include Schema Markup
  • 15. Schema markup is a type of code you add to your website, that allows search engines to understand your page content better so it can accurately represent it in search results. Google understands Schema data MUCH better than plain text and uses this information to provide users with enhanced search results. When you add Schema Markup to a webpage, you automatically create an enhanced description of your page (also called a rich snippet), which will appear in search results. Although it won’t have a huge impact on your rankings, including schema data on your website can help you boost your organic click-through rate. As well as helping the search engines understand more about your website, Rich Snippets (or enhanced descriptions) can also display rich results like review stars your business has gathered. Snippets with review stars and other rich results will stand out in search, helping your website to attract even more visitors. It’s more important to add Schema Markup once you have a well-established site, but when you do, it IS worth doing. You can use handy tools like the one Merkle offers, to simplify the process which will help you to include basic markup data, which should be enough to get started. If you have a WordPress site, you can make use of the Schema Markup Plugins on offer there that will automate much of the process. Max your E-A-T score EAT, or Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness is playing an increasingly important role in the way Google ranks sites, in a drive to offer the most trusted webpages first, to searches who use the platform. If you want to earn a high EAT rating, your site needs to be seen as a trusted voice, within your sector or industry. Encyclopaedia sites, like Wikipedia have an extremely high EAT score, because the content is created by multiple experts and then checked for accuracy. One way to establish a higher EAT ranking is to consistently use writers who are established experts in their niche. Use regular writers, rather than generic freelancers too, and make sure that all the content you post is error free, helpful, and factual. Going into detail and providing unique information that’s also high value and useful, will DEFINITELY help you improve your EAT score. Talking about something you know already well and are familiar with is the best way to go, particularly when you’re just starting out. It also helps if your website can become a source of industry news, viewpoints, data, and information, but what’s much more important for your EAT score is that your content is consistently factually accurate. Sticking to one niche and putting out content that covers all aspects of this niche can be another way to start establishing yourself as an authority voice. It will be easier to gain a high EAT ranking if you are covering a topic or sector that’s not as populated - providing your content is of a high standard. After a while, people will come to rely on you for your expertise, helping to up your authority rating and establish trust. If your site does cover many topics, it’s important to ensure they all have consistency, and are in the same style as this will help to differentiate you. ALWAYS check content for errors and false claims or incorrect data.
  • 16. EAT is also influenced by links, so if you can improve your PageRank score via authority backlinks, you’ll be helping to boost your EAT score. Keep watching, as we’ll be going into more detail on how you can obtain quality backlinks, a little later in this video. Optimize for Mobile Any technical SEO strategy must now include optimising for mobile. Google’s algorithm now prioritises mobile searches, meaning the mobile version of your website will be the primary version Google views. Your site might be speedy on a desktop but if it’s slow to load on mobile devices, Google will mark you down. You can check whether your site has speed or other mobile usability problems in the Google Search Console, after you sign up to verify your website. If you can’t use the Google Search Console, you can try their free Mobile Friendly Test tool instead. If you discover your site has issues on mobile devices, it’s vital you address them quickly, or you’ll negatively impact your rankings in Google search. Remember to check that your images are properly compressed to display well on mobile devices. You’ll also need to ensure that you pick a responsive site theme that works well on desktops AND on mobile phones or tablets. REMEMBER: DON’T enable Interstitial Popups for your mobile browsers, as Google will penalise you in search rankings. They can slow down speed when they are viewed on a mobile phone or tablet and can also cause other issues for smart devices too, like page navigation problems. Track Results in Google Analytics Once you’ve started tweaking aspects of your technical SEO, you’ll need to monitor your performance, so you can see if your adjustments are having any effect. Luckily, there is an excellent tool that can help you do just that – and the best part is it’s free – Google Analytics. Google Analytics helps you monitor all your SEO campaigns, allowing you to track and view the changes you make to your site – and see the impact they are having on your organic website traffic. Through the Analytics dashboard, you’ll discover what pages bring you the most visitors from Google search and other search engines. You can then analyse your high performing pages so you can copy your strategy there on your pages that aren’t doing so well. Analytics will give you handy metrics such as your page bounce rate and page views, which act as benchmarks to let you know how well your content meets the expectations of Google searchers. Through the Analytics Dashboard, you can even set up conversion tracking, to monitor what percentage of your search traffic converts to actual sign ups or customers. To get access to Google Analytics, you’ll first need to sign up for a Google Analytics account. If you already have a Gmail, or other type of Google account associated with your business, you should use this to set up your Google Analytics account. Link Building Basics Getting high quality backlinks is important if you want to increase your position in Google’s search ratings, as it’s still a major ranking factor that Google considers. The aim is to get as many other trustworthy websites as possible to link and mention your website.
  • 17. Having a high number of quality backlinks is strongly associated with appearing on the FIRST page of Google search results. If you’re struggling to obtain backlinks, or don’t know where to start, keep watching, as we’re about to share some excellent strategies that you can use to get some more. All you need is some persistence, patience, and the ability to put in just a little effort – and you’ll soon start seeing results. Focus on getting Links with HIGH Authority You don’t want just any old links from sites with a low authority ranking, as these won’t help you much when it comes to Google search. Instead, you want backlinks from websites with a high authority rating in Google, as these are the ones that will give a boost to your search ranking. There are two primary ways Google measures a site’s authority: 1. DomainAuthority 2. Page Authority. Domain Authority refers to the overall authority a website has. Page Authority means that page has received many backlinks from high authority sites. Getting backlinks from sites with a low page authority and low Domain authority ranking won’t give as much Page Rank to your site in Google. But if you can gather many backlinks from high Domain and high Page Rank authority sites, you’ll receive a BIG boost in PageRank, which will in turn help boost your overall Google ranking score. Try and get links from sites that are relevant to yours Obtaining backlinks from websites that are relevant to your own will help you far more than just getting links from sites in other, unrelated sectors. Google assigns more value to links you get from sites in your sector and acquiring these types of link also helps Google view your website as trustworthy. Think about it, if you run a fitness website but have a lot of backlinks from pet bloggers, Google will see this as suspicious. It’s fine to get some backlinks from unrelated websites though, particularly established high trust websites. Just be careful not to focus on this. Most of your links should come from related, high authority sites. You don’t have to chase sites that cover your specific topic, but they should have some relevance to what you do, or if you run a business, what you are offering. For example, if you have a yoga business, it would be fine to get links from a health and wellness store, a dance studio, or a wellness blogger. A shooting range probably wouldn’t be appropriate and wouldn’t do much to help your Page Rank rating. So, how do you go about getting these related links in the first place? Before we get into link building strategies there is one thing you must always keep in mind – NEVER pay for links – as this is against Google’s guidelines. Google’s Link Schemes List also outlines all the other things you should never do when trying to get backlinks. Link building strategies that WORK Find popular content – then make it better
  • 18. If you’re just starting out trying to acquire backlinks, and you’re prepared to put in some work, there’s a solid strategy you can employ that will help you in your goal – every time. The great thing is, it’s an organic way to acquire both traffic and links, and all you need do is create ONE amazing piece of content. By discovering a popular piece of content that’s already performing well for your target keyword – then making it better– you can get a great head-start. It’s not about copying anything, as you need to bring something new to the table – the goal here is to analyse how you can do things better, so you can offer people a totally original and unique improved version. Following the steps in this strategy to improve on popular content will help you boost the number of good backlinks you get, and it will also help you increase your website or blog traffic! 4 Steps to creating AMAZING content that WILL get you backlinks 1. Step 1 – Find high performing content - First, grab your target keyword or phrase and start typing it into Google. Look in the drop down to see what Google suggests other searchers have been searching for and click on one of the suggestion search phrases. If you have a website design business, you might type “website design” into Google for example, and then Google might show you that other people have been searching for the term “DIY website design”. See what results are displayed on the first page of search for that term – click through to the first five or ten – and try to assess why these pieces of content are performing so well. 2. Step 2 – Make it better - Try and identify any flaws in the content you are looking at, such as a lack of detail, or multimedia, so you can improve on these and offer people something that’s an upgrade. Do any of the top performing posts lack crucial information? If so, make sure you include this in your improved version. Are most of the top results for your chosen phrase PDF files? As most people prefer to read content in a blog post format, by creating one, you’ll be more likely to win traffic. 3. Step 3 - Ask for expert input – Before you sit down to create your piece, draw up a list of relevant people who might be willing to give their input. Preferably they should be experts in their niche, so they can share their top tips, tricks, or thoughts. It’s great publicity for them as you’ll be mentioning their business in your post. Once you’ve hit publish, you can contact them again to let them know the post is live, so they can share your content with their audience. Some of them might even link to your post, providing you with more high-quality backlinks. 4. Step 4 Promote your content – Once you’ve created an awesome piece of content, that’s an improvement on the blogs already out there, you need to promote like crazy. If you skip this step, you won’t be giving your hard work the best chance possible, as there is just so much competition out there. The first thing you should do is get in contact with influencers in your niche, to ask them if they might be interested in featuring your post. Ideally, you should do this BEFORE you publish, so they
  • 19. have a chance to plan their content schedule. If they do decide to feature your piece, you’ll get lots of social shares plus a handy backlink from an ultra-relevant and popular site. Next, draw up a list of popular blogs in your sector that feature related high-quality content like yours, and send them a brief email them to ask if they might like to post a link to your piece. This is another great way of getting backlinks Google will LOVE, as your link will be featured on a site that’s extremely relevant. Did you namecheck any brands or other businesses in your post? If so, reach out and tell them, as they’ll be happy, and may well share your piece with their audience. For example, if your post was about cookery and you mentioned you use a certain type of smoothie maker, email that brand, and let them know! The final step is to remember to get back in touch with any experts you included in your piece. They will almost certainly share your work with their followers on social media, and some may link to your content on their blog or website too. Guest Posting If you’re looking to increase your backlinks, Guest posting can be a good way to get more, though you should make sure to approach it in the right way if you don’t want to end up wasting your time. When approached correctly, Guest Posting helps you build your links FAST when you’re just starting out and can attract more traffic to your website and business. 3 key things to bear in mind, if you want to Guest Post to get more backlinks: 1. Make sure you’re posting on relevant sites. Having multiple pieces published on tons of unrelated sites WON’T help you in Google Search. Draw up a list of websites that accept guest blogs first, then write down a few ideas for posts. After you’ve done that, get in touch with the main contact for the website, offering one or two of your best ideas for a post. 2. DON’T stuff your posts with keyword-rich anchor text. To get max traffic, while avoiding Google frowning on your content, when you’re Guest Posting, do the OPPOSITE of what you’d typically do on your own website. That means posting links with anchor text that contains your website or business name, instead of your keywords. If you’re linking to a guide to SEO for example, your anchor text could say “The SEO Supremo” if that’s your business name rather than “SEO Strategy Guide”, which is what the post is about. 3. Don’t overdo it. Backlinks from guest posts shouldn’t make up more than 5-10% of your overall backlinks, or your site could get penalised by Google. Guest posting is a great way to start building backlinks, but it should NEVER form the backbone of your link acquiring strategy. Create Content people can’t help linking too with Linkable Assets A linkable asset is a piece of content that people find so valuable that they link to it – A LOT. It’s not as simple as creating a high-quality piece of content, a linkable asset needs to be so indispensable, website owners and bloggers can’t help linking to it. Creating linkable assets will REALLY help you attract more backlinks. But what type of content should you be focusing on creating, if you want to turn your posts into linkable assets?
  • 20. A Linkable Asset is anything that is either …  A unique piece of content on a unique topic that’s also informational  A piece of research no one else has already put out there  A well-done infographic or video explainer on a popular topic that helps people understand a subject better  A piece of content on a popular topic that’s so helpful it’s BETTER than what’s already out there Some Linkable Assets you could create that would fit this criteria:  Unique industry study or piece of research  Fact checking article on a popular or trending topic  Handy visual explainer guide or resource  Free tool that helps people do something easier  Curated list of high-quality practical tips, or a list of helpful resources Your Linkable asset doesn’t have to be super in-depth; the important thing is that it is helpful. The two main things you should focus on when creating a Linkable Asset are… 1. Making your content useful to people, 2. Providing a piece of content that’s offers more than what’s already out there Bear both these aims in mind when you sit down to create your Linkable Asset. Align your content with user Search Intent Search Intent refers to the reason search engine users perform a search in the first place and typically, there are three primary reasons why someone might use search. 1. To find a product – Transactional search with the view to purchase something. If someone is searching for local gyms to work out in, they might type in “Gyms near Bradford.” A person who was looking to buy some new trainers, might enter “running shoes” or “workout footwear”. 2. To find information – Informational searches are usually carried out to learn something about a topic or person or find out something like a recipe. A searcher might enter “peanut butter smoothie recipe” or look up “Bill Gates’s age” for example. 3. To look up a brand – A combination of the above two types of search, since at some point people who perform branded searches usually consider a purchase. A branded search is an indirect transactional search, though people aren’t specifically looking to buy from you in that moment. It’s not purely informational, because the reason they want to find out more about your brand is usually because they are thinking about purchasing from you. Branded searches are GREAT for your Google ranking, particularly if you have a local business. In general, you should be attempting to make sure your content is consistent with your target visitor’s search intent. This is where keyword research can really help, allowing to better understand what your customers or visitors search for and what terms they use to search for it. By creating content that closely matches user search intent, you’ll attract the type of traffic you want and will perform much better in search.
  • 21. You’ll also be able to tailor your content better to get people to take the actions you want –whether that’s to subscribe, engage, or make a purchase. User Signals Google assesses User intent to monitor how browsers interact with search engine results, so it can match webpages to search requests, to provide users with more relevant results. If Google sees that many searchers pass over your page in results, and prefer to click on other results instead, it will mark your content as not the most relevant for that type of search. The more this keeps happening, the worse your page or site will rank for that search term. Another user signal that can get you downgraded by Google, is when users click through to your search result but then bounce right back to the other search results Google displayed. This is sometimes called “pogosticking” and is a factor that can cause you to lose ranking in Google for particular search terms. Every time this happens, you score another mark against your page for that specific keyword or phrase, as Google sees it as less of a fit. So how can you ensure searchers chose you in search results? And how can you keep them on your site when they do click through, so you give off the right signals to Google? How to Optimize User Signals so you score HIGHLY in Google search Match the keyword you are ranking for. First, you should make your page’s content matches the keyword you are trying to rank for, as closely as possible. This is the single MOST important thing you can do to boost your user signals, as it means that when people do click through to your page, they find relevant content and stick around. Make sure your content introduction is clear. Your intro should give a brief summary of your content and outline the benefits of staying on your page. Tell people what they are going to get if they hang around, in terms of benefits to them. In your intro say things like “Read on to discover how to make your own delicious tasting smoothie recipes – easily and cheaply at home.” DON’T say more generic, informational things like “Smoothies are really beneficial to your health and help to revitalise the body.” Leave that type of detail for later. Make sure you’ve optimised your meta-description too. Your meta-description is the descriptive paragraph that shows up under your page link in search results. You’ll find it in the edit settings section when you come to edit your website. Ensure it REALLY sells your page – and tells people exactly what it’s about and why they need to click through. Use appealing, high quality visuals. People LOVE images, videos, and infographics – and many will quickly leave your page, if all they see is a wall of text. Make sure you include plenty of attractive, relevant images and graphics in your posts, as these add interest, keep people engaged, and help break up text walls. Use sub-headers too, to break content into neat, structured sections, so people can skip to the most relevant parts of your piece, if they don’t want to read the whole thing. Include internal and external links. Your page content should have both internal and external links, so people can click to learn more about the subjects and things you talk about in your post without having to return to search. Include enough internal and external links so people won’t have to bounce back to the search engine results page to look up information and can just click out from your page. This will greatly help improve the user signals you are sending back to Google by preventing pogosticking.
  • 22. Optimise your page’s loading speed. People have limited patience, especially on the internet and if a page is slow to load, they’ll return straight to the search results page. Check your site’s loading speed using Google’s Page Speed Insights and if it’s too slow, follow the recommendations to make it faster. Loading speed is a crucial ranking factor that research has discovered has a direct link between loading times and bounce rates, so it’s important not to ignore it. Create content that’s easy to read. Use a font that doesn’t make people’s eyes go funny and that they don’t have to squint to read and use bold headers and sub-headers to clearly mark out sections. If your font is too small, people won’t hang around, so use bigger fonts on a higher size setting if you are in any doubt. Avoid cluttered, overly fussy fonts and novelty fonts too, they might look great, but they’re really hard to read. Make use of bullet points and use lists as well, as this helps to further break up your content into easily digestible sections. Make sure your content is current. If people see you’ve included out of date information, or information that’s widely known to have been debunked, they’ll click off and bounce straight back to Google. This means that you’ll need to update old posts, if you want to retain maximum engagement and send out the right user signals. Even if info isn’t out of date, consider adding new information to all your old posts, when it’s relevant to do so. Expanding on a topic over time will help you attract a new audience, who will return again and again to your post, as they’ll know you’ll keep it updated. We hope you’ve enjoyed this beginner’s guide to SEO, and that you now feel you have a good understanding of the basics. Remember – all it takes is a little effort, and patience – if you apply the knowledge you’ve learned here and PRACTICE, you WILL see results. We believe deeply in our students and take the greatest care to provide you with the most relevant and essential information, that helps you grow in your expertise. You can be confident that with the new knowledge you’ve learned, you have everything you need to make a great head start into the world of SEO. If you’re looking to build a career in SEO, it’s a great idea to get some experience first. Why not start by working on your own website, and then offer to help your family and friends, for free or a nominal payment? This is an excellent way to flex your SEO muscles as well as acquire the experience you need. We LOVE to hear from all our students, so if you’ve enjoyed this video, remember to give us a great review and your feedback too, to let us know how you get on! We REALLY appreciate every single review, and your feedback motivates us to create more cutting edge, unique content, which we’ll continue to share with you, our beloved students. Would you be our hero right now by leaving us a review, if you found this video helpful? We’re always here to provide you with the very latest SEO techniques and digital marketing strategies and to offer you our full support. Remember, always keep in mind – you CAN win at SEO – with our help and just a little practice and effort.