SEO Basics

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the visibility of a website in the search engine results pages (SERP). It is a long-term marketing strategy employed in order to improve a websites organic search results.

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

If you want your website to rank in Google, you need to set up Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster tools. These are free programs that help you track your website’s search engine performance and optimize your site for better ranking.

To set up GSC, go to the Google Developers Console and create a project. Once you have a project, click on the “Search Console” link in the left sidebar. Then click on the “Add property” button and follow the instructions.

To set up Bing Webmaster tools, go to the Bing Webmaster Center and sign in with your Microsoft account. Once you’re signed in, click on the “Add Site” button and follow the instructions.

Set up Google Analytics

If you want to make sure your SEO efforts are paying off, you need to track your progress and see how your site is performing. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to do just that.

To set up Google Analytics, you first need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one. Then, go to the Google Analytics site and click “Sign up for free.” You’ll be prompted to create an account and then a property. A property is usually a website, so just enter the URL of your site.

Once you’ve set up your account andproperty, you’ll be given a tracking code that you need to add to your website. This can be done by adding a few lines of code to the section of your website’s HTML code. If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, you can ask your web developer or someone else who is familiar with HTML code to help you out.

Once the tracking code has been added to your website, it can take up to 24 hours for data to start appearing in your Google Analytics account. But once it does, you’ll be able to track things like how many people are visiting your site, what pages they’re looking at, how long they stay on each page, and what kind of device they’re using

Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)

SEO plugins are used to automatically create and manage your website’s metadata, which includes things like your website’s title, description, and keywords. They also help you to automatically generate XML sitemaps, which are used by search engines to index your website.

One of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress is Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO is a plugin that was created by Joost de Valk, who is also the founder of the popular WordPress magazine WPMU DEV. Yoast SEO is available as a free and premium plugin. The premium plugin has additional features like keyword optimization andsocial media integration.

In this article, we will show you how to install and configure the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress.

Heading: Activate and configure the plugin

Expansion:

After installing and activating the plugin, click on the ‘SEO’ link in the left sidebar of your WordPress admin panel. This will take you to the configuration page for the Yoast SEO plugin.

The first thing you need to do is click on the ‘General’ tab and then scroll down to the ‘Your info’ section. Here you will need to add your website’s name and description. This information will be used by search engines when they index your website.

The next thing you need to do is scroll down to the ‘Webmaster Tools’ section and add your Google Analytics tracking code and Bing Webmaster Center verification code. These codes will allow Google and Bing to track your website’s traffic data.

Once you have added these codes, scroll down to the ‘Features’ section and make sure that all of the features are enabled. These features include things like XML sitemaps, social media integration, breadcrumbs, etc.

Once you have enabled all of the features, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Keyword Research

If you’re new to SEO, you might be wondering what all this keyword research is about. Keyword research is important because it helps you understand what people are searching for online. It also helps you understand what words and phrases are most relevant to your business.

Identify your competitors

In order to identify your competitors, you need to first understand what keywords they are targeting. Once you know this, you can begin to research the competition.

There are a few tools that will help you with this:
-Google AdWords Keyword Planner: This tool allows you to enter a keyword and see how much competition there is for that keyword, as well as get ideas for other keywords to target.
-Semrush: This is a paid tool, but it offers a lot of features that can be helpful in researching your competitors. You can see what keywords they are ranking for and how much traffic those keywords are bringing in.
-Ahrefs: Another paid tool, Ahrefs offers similar features to Semrush.

Once you have an idea of who your competition is and what keywords they are targeting, you can begin to research their SEO strategy. This will help you understand what you need to do in order to outrank them.

Conduct a keyword gap analysis

To find out which keywords your competitors are targeting that you are not, you’ll need to conduct a keyword gap analysis. A keyword gap analysis is simply a way of finding the keywords that your competitors are targeting that you are not.

To do this, you’ll need to gather a list of all the keywords your competitors are targeting. You can do this by looking at their website, their PPC campaigns, and any other marketing materials they have. Once you have a list of their keywords, you can compare it to your own list of keywords to see where the gaps are.

The keywords that appear on both lists are the ones you should be targeting. These are the keywords that your competitors are targeting that you are not. By targeting these keywords, you’ll be able to better compete with your competitors and attract more traffic to your website.

Find your main ‘money’ keywords

There are a lot of different ways to go about finding your main keywords, but one of the simplest and most effective is to use a keyword research tool. There are many different keyword research tools available, but our personal favorite is Google Keyword Planner.

Once you’ve found your main keywords, the next step is to start incorporating them into your content. However, you want to be sure not to overdo it. Keyword stuffing (the act of cramming a bunch of keywords into your content in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings) is not only frowned upon by search engines, but it can also result in your content being penalized or even banned from search results altogether.

A good rule of thumb is to aim for a keyword density of around 2-5%. This means that for every 100 words of content, you should have 2-5 instances of your keyword. Any more than that and you’re at risk of keyword stuffing; any less and you’re not likely to see much benefit from the keywords.

Technical SEO

Search engine optimization is the practice of improving the ranking of a website on search engines. The higher the ranking, the more likely people are to find the site. There are a number of techniques that can be used to improve the ranking of a site, but one of the most effective is technical SEO.

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

The “Inspect URL” feature in Google Search Console is a handy tool that allows you to see how Google crawls and renders your website. Simply enter a URL into the “Inspect” field and click “Fetch and Render.” GSC will then show you two versions of the URL in question – one from the perspective of a mobile user and one from the perspective of a desktop user.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

In order to ensure your website is mobile-friendly, you need to take a number of factors into consideration. These include the size of your website’s text, the size and placement of your website’s buttons and links, and the overall design of your website.

It is important to remember that mobile users are often looking for specific information quickly. As such, your website should be designed in a way that makes it easy for mobile users to find what they are looking for.

One way to test how mobile-friendly your website is, is to use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. This tool will analyze your website and tell you if there are any issues that need to be fixed in order for your website to be more mobile-friendly.

Check your site’s loading speed

SEO isn’t all about cramming in keywords and hoping for the best. The performance of your website plays a big role in your ranking, too. Google wants to deliver the best possible experience to its users, so it makes sense that site speed would be a factor in its ranking algorithm.

There are a few different ways to test your site’s loading speed, but one of the simplest is through Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Just enter your URL and click “Analyze.” The tool will give you a report card with an overview of your site’s performance, along with specific recommendations for improvement.

Make sure to also test your mobile site’s loading speed, as Google now includes this in its ranking algorithm as well.

On-page and Content

On-page SEO (optimization) is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.

Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags

If you’re not careful, you can end up with duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags on your website. These problems can occur if you have a lot of pages with similar content or if you use dynamic page titles that are generated automatically.

To avoid these problems, you should:

• Use unique and descriptive titles for each page on your site.
• Avoid using dynamic page titles that are generated automatically.
• Make sure your title tags are no more than 60 characters long.
• Use keyword-rich titles that accurately describe the content on each page.
  Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions

Having duplicate or missing meta descriptions can hurt your website’s SEO.

A meta description is a brief description of a page’s content. It appears in search results and should accurately describe what a user will find on your page.

If you have duplicate or missing meta descriptions, it can be difficult for users to know which result to click on, and Google may not index your pages correctly.

To find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions:

1. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and find pages with missing or duplicate meta descriptions.
2. For each page with a missing or duplicate meta description, add or edit the meta description so it accurately describes the page’s content.
3. Save your changes and re-crawl your site to check that your changes were applied correctly.
   Find and fix multiple H1 tags

If you have more than one H1 tag on your page, it’s important to find and fix them. Having multiple H1 tags can be confusing for search engines and can result in your page being penalized.

Here’s how to find and fix multiple H1 tags:

1. Use a web crawler like Screaming Frog to find all the H1 tags on your site.
2. Review each instance of an H1 tag and make sure it’s relevant to the content on that page.
3. If you have more than one H1 tag on a page, remove all but one.
4. If you have an H1 tag that’s not relevant to the content on the page, rewrite the title and tag so that it is relevant.
   Off-Page SEO
   Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website for better search engine rankings. It includes activities such as link building, social media engagement, and other tactics that can improve a site’s ranking. While the term “Off-page SEO” may sound like something that only SEO professionals need to worry about, the reality is that everyone who owns or operates a website can benefit from off-page SEO.
   Analyze your competitor’s link profile

In order to properly analyze your competitor’s link profile, you’ll need to use a tool like Moz’s Open Site Explorer. This will allow you to see where your competitor’s links are coming from, as well as the anchor text used.

Once you have this information, you can start to look for patterns. What sort of sites are linking to your competitor? What sort of anchor text are they using? You can then use this information to start building your own link profile in a similar way.

Of course, it’s important not to simply copy your competitor’s link profile exactly. You’ll want to diversify your link sources and anchor text slightly, in order to avoid any penalties from Google. But by understanding where their links are coming from, you can get a good idea of what sorts of links are valuable for SEO purposes.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

An important part of any SEO campaign is conducting a link intersect analysis. This allows you to see which websites are linking to your competitors, but not to you. You can then reach out to these websites and try to get a link from them.

There are a few different ways to conduct a link intersect analysis. You can use a tool like Ahrefs, Moz, or Majestic. Or, you can do it manually by using Google search operators.

To do it manually, start by searching for this query:

link:competitor1.com -link:competitor2.com -link:competitor3.com

Replace competitor1.com, competitor2.com, and competitor3.com with the URLs of your competitors. This will give you a list of websites that link to your first competitor, but not to your other two competitors. From there, you can reach out to these websites and try to get a link from them.

Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

One way to get high-quality backlinks is to target your competitor’s broken ones.

A broken backlink is a link to a page that doesn’t exist anymore. It could be that the page has been deleted, or it may have simply been moved to a new URL without a redirect in place.

Either way, these links are wasted opportunities for your competitor, and they’re an easy win for you. All you need to do is find them and then contact the site owner to let them know about the broken link.

There are a few different ways you can go about finding broken backlinks. The easiest way is to use a tool like ahrefs.com or majestic.com.

Both of these tools have free trials that you can use to find broken backlinks for your competitor’s site. Just enter their URL into the tool and then click on the ” Broken Links” report.

You should then see a list of all the broken backlinks for that site. Just export this list and then start contacting the site owners to let them know about the problem.