2. What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the
practice of getting targeted traffic to a website
from a search engine’s organic rankings. Common
tasks associated with SEO include creating high-
quality content, optimizing content around
specific keywords, and building backlinks.
SEO is all about improving a site’s
rankings in the organic (non-paid) section of
the search results.
3. When you search for something in Google (or
any other search engine), an algorithm works in real-
time to bring you what that search engine considers the
“best” result.
Specifically, Google scans its index of
“hundreds of billions” of pages in order to find a set
of results that will best answer your search.
How does Google determine the “best” result?
How Search Engines Work
4. Normally web pages are ranked based on,
1. Relevancy
If you search for “chocolate chip cookie recipes”,
you don’t want to see web pages about truck tires.
That’s why Google looks first-and-foremost for
pages that are closely-related to your keyword.
However, Google doesn’t simply rank “the most
relevant pages at the top”. That’s because there are
thousands (or even millions) of relevant pages for every
search term.
For example, the keyword “cookie recipes” brings up 349
million results in Google:
5. 2. Authority
It’s Google’s way of determining if the
content is accurate and trustworthy.
How does Google know if a page is authoritative?
They look at the number of other pages that link
to that page:
In general, the more links a page has, the higher it will rank.
6. What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks (also known as “inbound
links”, “incoming links” or “one way links”) are
links from one website to a page on another
website. Google and other major search engines
consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page.
Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to
have high organic search engine rankings.
7.
8. 3. Usefulness
Content can be relevant and authoritative. But if it’s not useful, Google won’t want to position that
content at the top of the search results.
In fact, Google has publicly said that there’s a distinction between “higher quality content” and
“useful” content.
The first result you click on (“Result A”) is
written by the world’s foremost expert on Paleo. And
because the page has so much quality content on it,
lots of people have linked to it.
9. However, the content is completely unorganized. And
it’s full of jargon that most people don’t understand.
Contrast that with another result (“Result B”).
It’s written by someone relatively new to the Paleo
Diet. And their website doesn’t have nearly as many
links pointing to it.
However, their content is organized into distinct
sections. And it’s written in a way that anyone can
understand:
10. Search engines like Google prioritize
websites that provide value to their users, and
positive user experience is one of the key factors
that determine whether a website is valuable or
not.
Additionally, positive user experience can
lead to more inbound links and social shares,
which can further boost a website's ranking in
search engines.
11. How SEO Work
SEO works by optimizing your site for the search engine that you want to rank for, whether it’s
Google, Bing, Amazon or YouTube.
Specifically, your job is to make sure that a search engine sees your site as the overall best result for a
person’s search.
How they determine the “best” result is based on an algorithm that
takes into account authority, relevancy to that query, loading speed, and more.
(For example, Google has over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm.)
12. Organic vs Paid Results
Search engine result pages are separated into two distinct sections: organic and paid results.
Organic Search Results
Organic search results (sometimes referred to as
“natural” results) are natural results that rank based 100% on
merit.
Search engines rank the organic search results based
on hundreds of different ranking factors. But in general, organic
results are deemed by Google to be the most relative,
trustworthy, and authoritative websites or web pages on the
subject.
13. Paid Results
Paid search results are ads that appear on
top of or underneath the organic results.
Paid ads are completely independent of
organic listings. Advertisers in the paid results section
are “ranked” by how much they’re are willing to pay
for a single visitor from a particular set of search
results
14. An SEO strategy is the process of
planning and implementing steps
designed to improve organic search
engine rankings. SEO strategy is the process
that you follow when you want to get more
organic traffic.
What Is an SEO Strategy?
15. Step #1: Create a List of Keywords
Keyword research is usually the first step of any SEO strategy.
And one of the best ways to find keywords that your target customers search for?
“Google Suggest”.
Start typing a keyword into Google’s search field, and it will populate a list of suggestions:
In general, keywords tend to fall into two main
buckets: keywords people use to find what you sell
(Product Keywords).
16.
17. These usually make great keywords for SEO because they come straight from Google.
18. longer keywords (known as “long
tail keywords”) tend to be less
competitive than “short tail” terms.
So even though long tails have
relatively low search volume levels, they’re
much easier to rank for.
19.
20. How to Find Long Tail Keywords
Google “Searches Related to…”
Ever notice that when you scroll to the bottom of Google’s search results there’s a
section called, “Searches related to…”?.
21. Step #2: Analyze Google’s First Page
To do that, just type one of the keywords that you found into Google.
22. Any patterns that you notice?
So if you wanted to cover that topic on your site,
you’d want to note that the first page results are made up
mostly with similar phase.
23. Step #3: Create Something Different or Better
It’s time to create some super high-quality content.
When it comes to SEO content, you’ve got two options:
Option #1: You can create something different.
Option #2: You can create something better.
But sometimes you’re better off with content
that’s completely different, and it helps your content stand out.
24. You could created a bigger list post like: “150 Ways to
Mobile Optimize Your Site”.
But that wouldn’t make any sense.
created something totally different.
25. Step #4: Add a Hook
If you want to improve your search engine rankings in these day, you need to get
backlinks.
Which means they’re still a key Google ranking factor.
why people link to specific pieces of content in your industry. (Also known as “The Hook”.)
Then, include that “Hook” in your content.
26. example:
more bloggers writing about voice search.
they linked to content that featured stats and data
single post has racked up 5.6K backlinks
27. Internal Linking
Internal linking still works.
Specifically, you want to link from high-
authority web pages to pages that need
more authority.
28. Step #5: Focus On Content Design
The design might be the most underrated part of content marketing. You can have the best
content ever written. But if it looks like this…
29. Graphs and Charts
These work so well that I try to include at least
one chart in every post. Because they make data easy to
understand
31. Step #6: Improve and Update Your Content
1.Improving crawling and indexing: Search engines regularly crawl websites looking for new content
to index. By regularly updating your website with new content, you increase the chances that search
engines will find and index your pages.
.
32. 2. Showing relevance: Search engines interpret regularly updated content as a sign that a
website is active and relevant. This can improve the website's authority and relevance, leading
to higher rankings in search results.
Step #6: Improve and Update Your Content
33. Step #6: Improve and Update Your Content
3. Encouraging engagement: Updated content can encourage user engagement, such as sharing,
commenting, and linking to your website. This user activity sends positive signals to search
engines, indicating that your website is a valuable resource for users.
Overall, regularly updating your website's content is an important part of SEO strategy and
can help improve your website's visibility and ranking in search results.
