How to Use SEO to Maximize Online Course Sales

Use Search Engine Optimization
to Maximize Online Course Sales

FORMULATE A STRUCTURED
SEO PLAN TO EXECUTE
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Web Savvy Marketing Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved | @rebeccagill

Web Savvy Marke,ng Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved
•  Ask questions about you
and your target market
•  Review your existing
data and history
•  Research competitors
for keywords and tactics
Research
•  Build a seed list of
preferred keywords
•  Pull search volumes
•  Score for Relevance
•  Create a sitemap and
plan for keywords
Plan •  Write quality content
•  Optimize content for
SEO and usability
•  Promote and link build
•  Reverse engineer your
success and repeat
Execute
SEO starts and ends with a structured process!

ASK QUESTIONS -
LOTS AND LOTS OF QUESTIONS2

Ask Lots of Questions
ü  Who are you?
ü  What do you do?
ü  What makes you diﬀerent?
ü  Who do you compete with?
ü  Who do you help?
ü  How can you help them?
ü  What problems do your visitors have?
ü  What ques;ons do they want to ask?
ü  Can you answer any of these ques;ons with
courses, products, pages, or blog posts?
The ﬁrst step in your SEO journey is to ask questions about you & your visitor:
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PERFORM RESEARCH -
LOTS AND LOTS OF RESEARCH3

Perform Competitive Research
If you want to beat your competition,you have to truly know who you compete with inside
and out.Spend time researching your competitors and you’ll be rewarded.
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Build a Seed List of Possible Keywords
ü  Your own ideas
ü  Manual varia;ons of ini;al search phrases
ü  Reports, presenta;ons, course outlines, emails
ü  Google Search Console’s Search Analy;cs and Google Analy;cs reports
ü  Google Adwords reports (adver;sers only)
ü  Google auto suggest and related searches
ü  Bing Webmaster Tools
ü  Compe;tors’ visual content and sitemaps (HTML & XML)
ü  Compe;tors’ meta ;tles and descrip;ons
ü  Keywords found in SpyFu or SEMrush (you & your compe;tors)
ü  Sugges;ons from tools like KW Finder
Keywords are everywhere so keep your eyes and your mind open.Once you start thinking
about keywords,you’ll see endless possibilities.
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What’s Your Keyword Focus?
ü  Brainstorm the topic you plan on wri;ng about and write down the key points you’ll
cover in the piece of content.
ü  Write down a 5-10 search phrases you think would pertain to this topic.
ü  Search for each phrase in Google and review who and what shows up on page one of
the search engine results page.
ü  Document any phrases that show a weakness and/or where you create beXer content.
ü  U;lize the Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool or KW Finder to view monthly search
volumes for each phrase.
ü  Narrow your op;ons down to obtainable search terms – aka not 60,000 phrases per
month in search traﬃc.
ü  Think about how easy it would be to cra` a course ;tle or opening sentence with the
exact phrase you’re considering.
Before you write your ﬁrst course,ask yourself what keyword phrase you would like this
content to rank for in search. Not sure? Let’s walk through picking the right one.
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Keyword Selection Warning!
Before you proceed further,as yourself two very important questions.
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Is the keyword precise enough or is it generic?
Have you used this keyword before in other courses, products, pages, posts,
categories, or tags?
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2
Keyword Volume Diﬃculty Comment
guitar lessons 73,990 55 Too broad
learn to play guitar 18,186 45 Bad English
guitar courses 260 38 Good
online guitar course 320 52 Good
learn how to play the guitar by yourself 168 31 Good

Create a Keyword to Content Sitemap
This isn’t an HTML or XML sitemap.It’s a roadmap for you to use in writing content.
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Keyword Loca,on
online guitar courses Main Course Page
guitar course for beginners Course
acous;c guitar course Course
electric guitar course Course
guitar instructor About
learn how to play the guitar by yourself Blog Post
Do not posi;on your course page and product page for the same keyword. You’ll
compete against yourself and Google will degrade you in search due to confusion.
Do not assign keywords to content that is protected by logins/subscrip;ons.
Pro Tips for Optimization

WRITE CONTENT THAT USERS &
SEARCH ENGINES WILL LOVE
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Longer Content Wins With Everyone
Better for Keyword Ranking
A serpIQ 2012 showed:
•  The average content length of each of the top 10 results was more
than 2,000 words.
•  The average number of words for the content in the #1 spot was 2,416.
•  For the #10 spot, the average number of words was 2,032.
Better for Obtaining Social Media Shares & Inbound Links
People tend to share longer content on social media more then shorter
content. People also tend to link into longer content than they would a
shorter ar;cle or post.
Better for Conversions
Website conversions can also be altered by content. The longer the
content, the more likely the conversion.
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1
2
3
Long-form content has a variety of numbers assigned to it on the web.Long-form content
is at least 1,000 or 1,200 words and really approaches towards 2,000 words.

OPTIMIZE CONTENT FOR
SEO BEST PRACTICES
3

Elements of On-Page SEO
ü  Name of course, product, page, or post
ü  URL
ü  Headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
ü  Paragraph text
ü  Keyword varia;ons and related phrases
ü  Internal links
ü  Link anchor text
ü  Images
ü  Readability
ü  Meta ;tles and descrip;ons
We’ll go through these items one by one,but before we dig in,let’s review the list as a
whole.When you break each down,you’ll see optimization is complely managable.
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Name Given to Content
A page (our course) name is simply the name you give when you create it.In WordPress this
is important,because it defaults other important elements like URLs and H1 headers.
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ü  Choose a ;tle that is relevant to what the content discusses
ü  Make sure the ;tle is unique and does not duplicate another page/post ;tle
ü  Keep the ;tle short so it is easy to read and digested
ü  Include the keyword phrase, but do not repeat it
ü  Use keyword phrase towards the start of the page ;tle if possible

URLs
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ü  This should always include your keyword
ü  This should be as short as possible
ü  This should use words and not unrecognizable parameters (funky characters)
ü  Use dashes to separate words
ü  While content silos are great, keep silos short so they don’t create so many layers
that the URL is long and unreadable
The URL is the website address for a piece of content.The URL is displayed as part of a
search result in Google and it appears below the document’s title and snippet.

H1 Headers
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ü  Make sure your website or WordPress theme uses H1 tags
ü  Make sure your website or WordPress theme uses only one H1 header per URL
ü  Include your keyword phrase in your H1 tag
ü  Posi;on the H1 tag before other tags (H2, H3, H4, etc.)
The H1 is the most important tag and it should never be omitted on a page,post,or product.
Search spiders pay attention to the words used in the h1 tag as it should contain a basic
description of the page content,just as the page title does.
While most WordPress themes will automatically create this for you,I see a lot of websites
that forget to use the H1 or include multiple H1 headers per content piece.

H2-H6 Subheaders
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ü  Use H2-H6 headers to break up groups of content
ü  Include the focused keyword phrase where applicable
ü  Include varia;ons of the focused keyword phrase
ü  Keep headers in ;tle case
ü  Avoid long sentences as headers
ü  Avoid duplica;ng your H1 header within H2-H6 subheaders
Search engines and human website visitors will use these to better understand the
structure of the page.While headers can help with SEO,they are not a make or break SEO
factor.

Paragraph Text
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ü  Include your keyword phrase a number of ;mes within the content
ü  Don’t keyword stuff
ü  Use the keyword in the first sentence of the page and if that is not possible in the
first paragraph
ü  Use varia;ons and synonyms
ü  Don’t worry about keyword density
ü  Instead focus on wri;ng great content around a topic and use the focused keyword
in a natural manner
This simply refers to the content itself and this could reside on the home page,interior
pages,blog posts,courses,products,categories,tags,etc.

Keyword Variations
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ü  Brainstorming
ü  Compe;tor websites
ü  Google related searches at the boXom of a search page
ü  Google Keyword Planner tool for Adwords or KW Finder
ü  Google autosuggest phrases when searching for the phrase
A keyword variation is simply an alternate phrase for a focused keyword.They help you rank
on the focused keyword as well as alternate phrases.
Pro Tips for Finding Keyword Variations

Images
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ü  Image ﬁle names should describe the image and use your keyword if possible
ü  Image alt text should describe the image and use your keyword if possible
ü  Use the right image size so performance and speed are protected
ü  Write a keyword rich descrip;on for any image you want to rank in Google
Example of Alt Text Usage
Really bad alt aXribute: <img src=”puppy.jpg” alt=””/>
BeXer alt aXribute: <img src=”puppy.jpg” alt=”puppy”/>
Really good alt aXribute: <img src=”puppy.jpg” alt=”Dalma;an puppy playing fetch”>
Spammy alt aXributes: <img src=”puppy.jpg” alt=”puppy dog baby dog pup puppies”/>
Images are great for SEO,usability,and sharing on social media.While all content won’t
have the option for an image,use an image whenever possible.

Internal Links
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ü  Place links where they help the reader and provide value
ü  Link to your cornerstone content, services, and products
ü  Link with good keyword rich anchor text
ü  Vary your anchor text for a link so it doesn’t appear forced
ü  Don’t overuse links and in doing so, make content unreadable
An internal link connects one page of a website to a different page on the same website.
Internal links provide value to the human reader as well as help search engines locate
content and know what content is of most value.
Here is Google’s verbiage on this report within their help sec;on:
The number of internal links poin3ng to a page is a signal to search engines about the
rela3ve importance of that page. If an important page does not appear in this list, or if a
less important page has a rela3vely large number of internal links, you should consider
reviewing your internal link structure.
“

Link Anchor Text
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ü  Make sure this clearly describes the des;na;on link
ü  If possible, include the focused keyword
ü  Don’t make it spammy – don’t force the keyword if it can’t be used naturally
ü  Avoid click here, page, read more, and ar;cle as anchor text as it does not inform
human readers or search engines of the nature of the link
Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link.This text is placed
within the anchor tag.You set this in WordPress when you deﬁne the link.Anchor text helps
users with disabilities and search engines better understand the link.

Readability
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ü  Use short paragraphs
ü  Use bullets to help digest lists
ü  Use subheaders so visitors can scan content
ü  User regular verbiage and skip the industry jargon
ü  Don’t allow images to interfere with text ﬂow
ü  Say no to bling, bright neon, and unnecessary
movement
Ease of use matter in SEO.If readers stay on the page,this increases your time on site,
which in turn helps SEO.
Happy Visitors + Happy Google = Higher Rank

Meta Titles and Descriptions
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ü  A page’s meta ;tle should be a ;tle (not a sentence)
ü  Make sure it is unique and doesn’t duplicate other meta ;tles
ü  Make it informa;ve, yet easily readable
ü  Include the focused keyword phrase
ü  If possible, keep the keyword phrase as far to the beginning as possible
ü  This is your first opportunity to reach poten;al visitors, so make it en;cing, but not
cheesy
ü  Keep it under 55 characters
A meta title and description are the very first thing a potential visitor sees for your website.
They show up in search engine result pages,so this is your first opportunity to grab
someone’s attention,gain their trust,and entice them to take action.
Pro Tips for Optimization of Meta Titles

Meta Titles and Descriptions
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ü  A page’s meta descrip;on might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph
ü  Make sure it is unique and doesn’t duplicate other meta descrip;ons
ü  Make it informa;ve, yet easily readable
ü  Include the focused keyword phrase in it
ü  If possible, keep the keyword phrase as far to the beginning as possible
ü  This is your ﬁrst opportunity to read poten;al visitors, so make it en;cing, but not
cheesy (yep this was repeated because it is important)
ü  Keep it under 150 characters
Pro Tips for Optimization of Meta Descriptions

Common Mistakes to Avoid
Crappy Content
People write content to fill
white space. Don’t do it! You
need to provide real value to
website visitors.
You have to have something
really good to resonate with
readers.
No amount of SEO will help bad
content, so start with
something solid.
Write good content and you
will be rewarded for it ten fold.
You’ve done your keyword
research and you’ve wriXen
your content.
When you look closely at the
content, you realize you used
varia;ons of your keyword
phrase (good) but totally forget
to use the actual keyword
(bad).
Take the ;me to go back
through your content and
weave in the right focused
keyword.
Be careful about what you read
on the internet and watch
ar;cle dates.
Un;l you are confident with
your SEO knowledge, refrain
from op;mizing your pages and
posts.
Take the ;me to learn best
prac;ces. And don’t try
something unless you have a
solid grasp of the tac;c and the
posi;ve or nega;ve
ramifica;ons that may result.
Forgetting the Keyword Inaccurate SEO Knowledge
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS?

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Digital agency serving small business through enterprise level clients.Services and products include
custom website design and development,SEO consulting,and stock WordPress themes.
Eight hour online course for DIY SEO education.Course includes videos,how-to tutorials,template
downloads,and quizzes.
Three day intensive SEO training workshop taking place in May of 2017.Learn my SEO process from
start to ﬁnish in an interactive and activity driven classroom setting.Tickets are limited.
Private Facebook group where I share the latest news and information on search engine optimization.
Please join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/seolaunchpad/.
@rebeccagill
RebeccaGill.com

How to Use SEO to Maximize Online Course Sales

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