SEO Basics

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

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster tools are free web-based tools that allow website owners to check indexing status, organic search traffic, and backlink data for their website. To set up GSC, simply add and verify your website with Google. For Bing Webmaster tools, you will need to create a Bing account and then add your website. Once you have added your website to either platform, you will be able to view data about your website’s search performance.

Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that provides insights about your website traffic. It can be used to track where your visitors come from, what pages they visit, and how long they stay on your site. Setting up Google Analytics is a simple process that only takes a few minutes. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create a Google account. If you don’t already have one, you can create one for free at google.com/accounts.
2. Navigate to google.com/analytics and click “Sign up for free” under the Standard tab.
3. Enter your account information, including your website name and URL, time zone, and data sharing settings. Then click “Get Tracking ID” at the bottom of the page.
4. Copy and paste the tracking code into the section of every page you want to track. If you’re using a content management system like WordPress or Joomla, there are plugins available that will handle this step for you automatically.

5 That’s it! You should start seeing data in your Google Analytics account within 24-48 hours

Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)

There are many different SEO plugins available for WordPress, but our recommended plugin is Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO is a popular and easy-to-use plugin that helps you to optimize your website for Google search.

To install and configure the Yoast SEO plugin:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for “Yoast SEO” in the plugins directory.
3. Find the Yoast SEO plugin and click “Install Now”.
4. Once the plugin has been installed, click “Activate”.
5. In the left-hand sidebar of your WordPress dashboard, you will now see a new menu item labeled “SEO”. Hover over this menu item and click on “General”.
6. On the General Settings page, you can configure some basic settings for your website’s title and description, as well as choose which social media platforms you want to show links to on your website.
7. Once you have finished configuring the general settings, click on the “Titles & Metas” tab to continue configuring the plugin.
8. On the Titles & Metas page, you can fine-tune how your website’s title and description appear in Google search results. You can also set up meta tags for individual pages and posts on your website.
9. Once you have finished configuring titles and metas, click on the “Social” tab to continue setting up the plugin.
10. On the Social Settings page, you can enter your social media profile URLs so that they will be shown when your website appears in Google search results. You can also enable Facebook OpenGraph metadata so that when someone shares a link to your website on Facebook, a preview of your website will be shown along with the link.
    11 .When you have finished setting up all of the options in the Yoast SEO plugin, click on the “XML Sitemaps” tab to generate an XML sitemap for your website
    Keyword Research
    In order to find the right keywords for your website or blog, you need to do some research. There are a few different methods you can use, such as keyword research tools and competitor analysis. Let’s take a look at a few different ways you can go about doing keyword research.
    Identify your competitors

In order to identify your competitors, you will need to do some keyword research. You can use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to help you with this.

Once you have a list of potential keywords, you will need to figure out who is already ranking for those keywords. You can do this by doing a Google search for each keyword and looking at the results.

Make a list of the websites that are ranking for your target keywords. These are your competitors.

Conduct a keyword gap analysis

Conducting a keyword gap analysis is an important part of any SEO strategy. By identifying the keywords that your competitors are ranking for that you are not, you can prioritize which keywords to target in order to close the gap and improve your own ranking.

There are a few different ways to conduct a keyword gap analysis. One popular method is to use Google Sheets or another spreadsheet application to compare the keyword lists of two or more websites. Another method is to use a tool like SEMrush, Moz, or ahrefs, which will allow you to compare the keyword data of multiple sites side-by-side.

No matter which method you choose, there are a few key steps to conducting a keyword gap analysis:

1. Identify your top competitors. You should start by identifying the websites that rank ahead of you for the keywords that you want to target. These will be your main competitors.
2. Create a list of relevant keywords. Once you have identified your main competitors, create a list of relevant keywords that you want to target. If you’re not sure where to start, try using a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or semrush Keyword Difficulty Tool .
3. Compare competitor keyword lists. Using your chosen method (spreadsheet or tool), compare the competitor keyword lists side-by-side and identify the keywords that they are ranking for that you are not. These will be your priority keywords.
4. Prioritize keywords and create action plan. Once you have identified the priority keywords, it’s time to create an action plan for how to target them. Prioritize the keywords based on factors such as search volume, difficulty level, and potential impact on traffic and conversions. Then, create an SEO strategy for how you will target each keyword, including on-page optimization, link building , and content marketing .
   Find your main ‘money’ keywords
   
   To find your main ‘money’ keywords, start by brainstorming a list of potential keywords related to your business or website. Once you have a list of potential keywords, use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to help you determine how many people are searching for each keyword and what the competition is like.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of keywords, create a list of your top 10-20 target keywords that you want to focus on. Make sure to include both short-tail (one or two word) and long-tail (three or more word) keywords on your list.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of improving the visibility and discoverability of your website in the search engines. It is a subset of SEO that focuses on the behind-the-scenes technical aspects of your website. Technical SEO includes optimizing your website’s architecture, structure, and code. By improving the technical aspects of your website, you can improve your website’s visibility and ranking in the search engines.

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

Open GSC, go to any URL and click on “Inspect URL”. This will show all the information about the URL including AMP, coverage, indexing, mobileFriendliness etc. But the most important piece of information is “Usage Statistics”.

Usage Statistics will give you three types of data:

1. Impressions – How many times your URL appeared in SERP.
2. Clicks – How many times users clicked on your URL.
3. CTR – Click Through Rate (CTR) = (Clicks / Impressions) x 100
   Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

A mobile-friendly website is one that is easy to use on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. Mobile-friendly websites are designed to be easy to read and navigate on smaller screens. They may also have features that are specifically designed for mobile users, such as click-to-call buttons that allow users to call a business directly from their mobile device.

To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test tool. This tool will analyze your website and provide you with a report on how well it meets Google’s mobile friendly criteria.

Check your site’s loading speed

Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is a great way to check your site’s loading speed. Just enter your URL and the tool will run a test on your site and give you a score out of 100, as well as suggestions on how to improve your site’s performance.

On-page and Content

On-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results and drive organic traffic. There are a number of on-page SEO factors, including title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and images.

Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags

If you’re not using unique title tags on every page of your site, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to improve your search engine rankings. In addition, if your title tags are too long or too short, you could be losing out on traffic and potential customers. Here are some tips for making sure your title tags are optimized for search engines and visitors:

• Make sure each page on your site has a unique title tag.
• Keep your title tags between 50-60 characters.
• Include keywords that are relevant to the page’s content.
• Place important keywords at the beginning of the title tag.
• Use capitalization sparingly, as too much can make your titles appear spammy.
  Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions
  
  One way to optimize your website for better search engine visibility is to make sure you have unique and keyword rich meta descriptions. A meta description is the brief text that appears under your page title in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Although it doesn’t directly impact your ranking, it is still an important part of on-page optimization because it can help persuade searchers to click on your listing over your competition.

If you don’t have a unique meta description for each page, or if you don’t have one at all, search engines will pull text from your page content to create one for you. This can be problematic for a number of reasons. First, if your content doesn’t contain the keywords you want to target, you’re missing out on an opportunity to improve your SERP click-through rate (CTR). Second, using the same meta description across multiple pages can result in duplicate content penalties from Google.

The best way to avoid these problems is to create unique and keyword rich meta descriptions for each page on your website. Here are some tips:

• Keep it under 160 characters: This is the maximum length thatwill be displayed in the SERPs, so make sure your most important information is included within this limit.
• Use keyword placements wisely: Place your keywords at the beginning of your description fo
  r better visibility. However, don’t stuff keywords intoyour meta description as this will flagsuch as spam by search engines and could result in penalties.
• Write compelling copy: In addition to including relevant keywords, write persuasive copy that convinces searchers to click on your listing. Use active voice and persuasive language that speaks directly toyour target audience.
  Find and fix multiple H1 tags

If you have more than one H1 tag on your page, it’s important to fix that. Having multiple H1 tags can confuse search engines and make it harder for them to understand the structure and hierarchy of your content. It can also make your content look messy and unorganized.

To fix this problem, simply find all of the H1 tags on your page and change them to another heading tag, such as H2 or H3. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can ask a web developer or designer for help.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO are the actions you take outside of your website that can help you rank higher in the search engines. This can include things like link building, social media, and directory submissions.

Analyze your competitor’s link profile

Off-Page SEO refers to all of the activities that you can do outside of your own website to help improve your search engine rankings. When we talk about off-page SEO, we are usually talking about link building, but there are other activities that can be helpful as well.

One of the most important things that you can do for your off-page SEO is to analyze your competitor’s link profile. This will give you an idea of what kinds of links they have and how they have acquired them. You can then use this information to plan your own link building strategy.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

When conducting link intersect analysis, you want to find the places where your target audience overlaps with your competitors.

There are a few different ways to do this:

• Look at the backlinks of your top competitor. Which websites are linking to both you and them? These are the websites you want to focus on.
• Use a tool like BuzzSumo to find the most popular content in your niche. Which websites are linking to this content? These are the websites you want to focus on.
• Use a tool like Mention or Google Alerts to set up alerts for your competitor’s brand name. Every time someone mentions them, check to see if they also mention you. If not, reach out and try to get mentioned!
  Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

One way to give your site a boost in the search engine rankings is to take advantage of your competitors’ broken backlinks. Broken backlinks are links on other websites that point to pages that no longer exist on your competitor’s website.

There are a few ways to find these broken backlinks. One is to use a tool like Majestic or Ahrefs, which are SEO link analysis tools. Another way is to do a Google search for your competitor’s website, followed by “site:example.com” (without the quotation marks). This will show you all of the pages on your competitor’s website that are indexed by Google. If there are any pages that are no longer indexed, it means they’ve been removed from the site and have become broken backlinks.

Once you’ve found some broken backlinks, you can reach out to the website owners and ask them to update their links to point to your website instead. This is called link reclamation, and it can be a great way to get high-quality links from websites that are already linking to your competitors.