SEO Basics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 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 website. There are a number of factors that determine the ranking of a website, and SEO basics covers the most important ones.

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster tools

A big part of SEO is making sure that your website is set up correctly for both Google and Bing. The two main ways to do this are by setting up Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Google Search Console is a free service from Google that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance on Google search results. It also allows you to submit your website to Google for indexing, and provides valuable insights into how Google sees your site.

Bing Webmaster Tools is a similar service from Microsoft that does the same thing for websites appearing on Bing. It’s also free, and just as essential for any website that wants to rank well on Bing.

Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you track your website’s traffic and performance. In order to use Google Analytics, you’ll need to create a Google account and add your website to it. Then, you’ll need to install the Google Analytics tracking code on your website. This code will collect data about your website’s visitors and send it to the Google Analytics servers.

Once you’ve installed the tracking code, you can start using Google Analytics to track your website’s traffic. You can use Google Analytics to see how many people are visiting your website, where they’re coming from, what they’re doing on your website, and more. You can also use Google Analytics to track other important metrics, such as conversion rate and bounce rate.

If you want to get started with Google Analytics, follow these instructions:

1) Create a Google account: To create a new Google account, go to google.com and click “Create an account.” You’ll need to enter some basic information about yourself, such as your name, birthdate, and location.

2) Add your website to your new Google account: Once you have a Google account, go to google.com/analytics and click “Sign up for free.” Then, enter the URL of the website that you want to track with Google Analytics.

3) Install the tracking code: After you have added your website to your new Google account, you should see a tracking code that looks something like this: UA-XXXXXXXX-X. Copy this code and paste it into the section of every web page that you want to track with Google Analytics.

Install and configure an SEO plugin (wordpress)

WordPress SEO plugins help you optimize your website for better search engine visibility. In this article, we will show you how to install and configure the best WordPress SEO plugins for your website.

But before we get into that, let’s take a look at why you need an SEO plugin and what features to look for when choosing one.

Why You Need an SEO Plugin for WordPress?
SEO is important for any website that wants to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). A good SEO strategy will help you get more traffic from organic search by improving your site’s visibility in Google and other search engines.

While WordPress is a pretty good platform for SEO out of the box, there are still some things that it can’t do. That’s where WordPress SEO plugins come in handy. They allow you to add extra features and functionality to your site that can help you optimize your content and rank higher in SERPs.

What to Look for When Choosing an SEO Plugin?
When choosing an SEO plugin, there are a few key things to look out for:
-Features: What functionality does the plugin offer? Does it include all the features you need?
-Pricing: Is the plugin free or premium? If it’s premium, is it worth the price?
-Compatibility: Is the plugin compatible with your version of WordPress? Does it work with your theme and other plugins?
-Ease of Use: Is the plugin easy to use? Will you be able to figure out how to use all its features?
-Support: Does the plugin have good support in case you run into any issues?

Keyword Research

Before you can start ranking in the search engines, you need to do your keyword research. This will help you determine what keywords you should be targeting to get the most traffic. There are a few different ways to do keyword research, but the most important thing is to use a variety of tools to get the most accurate results.

Identify your competitors

To find your competitors, start by brainstorming a list of potential keywords related to your business. Once you have a list of keywords, you can use a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to get more information about each keyword, including how difficult it is to rank for and how many people are searching for it.

Once you have a list of keywords, you can use a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to get more information about each keyword, including how difficult it is to rank for and how many people are searching for it.

Conduct a keyword gap analysis

When you’re trying to determine which keywords to target for your next SEO or PPC campaign, a keyword gap analysis can be extremely helpful. This type of analysis lets you compare your current keyword list to that of your competitors, and identify any gaps that exist. This can help you focus your efforts on areas where you may be missing out on potential traffic.

To conduct a keyword gap analysis, simply create a list of the keywords you’re currently targeting, and then do the same for your competitors. Once you have both lists, use a tool like Google Sheets or Excel to compare them side by side. Any keywords that appear on one list but not the other are potential gaps that you could focus on.

Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that not all keywords are created equal. Just because a competitor is ranking for a particular keyword doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily worth targeting. Use your judgement and common sense to determine which keywords are most likely to bring you traffic and conversions.

Find your main ‘money’ keywords

Use keyword research tools like Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner, Ubbersuggest, or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to find high-value keywords that you can rank for. If you’re selling products or services, these should be keywords that result in purchases. If you’re writing articles, they should be keywords that result in clicks to your website.

Brainstorm a list of potential keywords, and then use the research tools to find out which ones are most valuable. Try to find a mix of high-traffic, low-competition keywords to target.

Technical SEO

Charles Rutherford is a well-known SEO expert and he has a lot of experience with technical SEO. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the things he’s said about technical SEO and see if it’s something that can help your website.

Leverage “Inspect URL” feature in GSC

Google Search Console is a powerful tool that can help you improve your website’s performance in Google search. One of the features that makes it so useful is the “Inspect URL” feature, which allows you to see how Google sees your website.

This can be helpful in a number of ways. For example, if you’re trying to figure out why your website isn’t appearing in search results, the “Inspect URL” feature can show you if Google is able to crawl your website and whether there are any issues that could be preventing your website from being indexed.

To use the “Inspect URL” feature, simply enter the URL of the page you want to check in the search bar and click “Inspect.” Then, Google will show you information about how it sees the page, including any errors that it has found.

If you’re not sure how to interpret the information Google shows you, there are a few resources that can help:

• The Google Search Console Help Center has an article on interpreting crawl errors which can give you more information on what different types of errors mean and how to fix them.
• The Moz blog has a helpful post on using the “Inspect URL” feature to troubleshoot common SEO issues.
• The Search Engine Journal has an article with tips on how to use “Inspect URL” to improve your website’s crawlability.
  Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
  In 2015, Google updated its algorithm to give mobile-friendliness higher priority in search results. This means that if your website isn’t designed to be easy to use on a mobile device, you could be missing out on valuable traffic.

To make sure your website is mobile-friendly, start by checking Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. This tool will analyze your website and provide a report on how well it stacks up. If you need to make some changes, there are a number of resources that can help, including Google’s own guide to building mobile-friendly websites.

Check your site’s loading speed

One of the most important aspects of technical SEO is site speed. Site speed is a ranking factor for both mobile and desktop searches, so it’s important to make sure your site loads quickly. You can check your site’s loading speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Just enter your URL and click “Analyze.”

On-page and Content

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves optimizing the website content, structure, and other elements that influence the ranking of the website. Content is the most important factor in on-page SEO, so the quality and quantity of the content must be exceptional if you want your website to rank higher.

Fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags

When creating title tags, be sure to:

• Include 1-70 characters
• Use relevant keywords
• Place important keywords at the beginning
• Use unique titles for each page
• Avoid duplicate content
• Avoid keyword stuffing
  Find and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions
  
  If you want your website to rank higher in search engine results pages, you need to make sure your on-page SEO is up to scratch. That means paying attention to all the little details, including your meta descriptions. Meta descriptions are the short snippets of text that appear under your page title in SERPs. They give users an (albeit brief) insight into what your page is about, and they can also influence click-through rates (aka the number of people who click through to your site from SERPs).

In other words, meta descriptions are important! So it’s no surprise that one of the most common questions we get asked is: how do I fix my duplicate or missing meta descriptions?

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Find out if you have any duplicate or missing meta descriptions. You can do this using a tool like Screaming Frog. Just enter your URL into the software and let it crawl your site. When it’s finished, it will give you a list of all your pages along with their corresponding meta descriptions.
2. Go through the list and check for any duplicates. If you find any, make a note of them so you can fix them later.
3. Now take a look at any pages that are missing meta descriptions entirely. These are the ones you really need to focus on!
4. For each page without a meta description, try to write one that accurately sums up the main topic of the page while also being as ‘clickable’ as possible. Aim for around 155 characters — anything longer will be cut off in SERPs anyway, so there’s no point in writing too much.
5. Once you’ve written your new meta descriptions, go back and check if there are any other areas of your site that could do with some on-page SEO love — titles, headings, images etc. All these factors contribute to how well your pages rank in SERPs!
   Find and fix multiple H1 tags
   If you have more than one H1 tag on a page, it’s a good idea to review your content and make sure that the tags are being used properly. H1 tags should be used to indicate the main heading of a page, so if you have multiple H1 tags, it’s possible that you could be confusing search engines as to what the most important information on the page is. If you do have multiple H1 tags, try to consolidate your content so that there is only one H1 tag per page.
   Off-Page SEO
   
   Analyze your competitor’s link profile

Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website for better visibility and performance in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves activities such as link building, social media engagement, and brand mentions.

One of the most important aspects of off-page SEO is link building. Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. The quality and quantity of links pointing to your website are a major factor in determining your search engine ranking.

There are many ways to build links, but some methods are more effective than others. One effective method is to analyze your competitor’s link profile. By doing this, you can identify opportunities to acquire links from the same websites that link to your competitor.

To analyze your competitor’s link profile, you will need to use a tool such as Ahrefs or Majestic. These tools will provide you with information on the number and quality of links pointing to your competitor’s website. Use this information to identify potential link partners and reach out to them with a pitch for why they should link to your website.

Conduct a link intersect analysis

A link intersect analysis is a very effective way to find sites that link to your competitors, but not to you.

The first step is to identify your top 10 competitors. Once you have a list of competitors, you’ll need to use a tool like Majestic SEO or ahrefs to get a list of all the sites that link to your competitors.

Once you have a list of sites that link to your competitor, it’s time to run an intersect report. This report will show you all the sites that link to your competitor, but not to you.

The final step is to reach out to the site owners and ask them for a link. Be sure to let them know that you are familiar with their site and that you think a link would be beneficial for both parties.

Target your competitors’ broken backlinks

A backlink is a link that points from one website to another. If Site A links to Site B, then Site A is said to have given Site B a backlink.

There are two types of backlinks: dofollow and nofollow.

Dofollow links are the kind of backlinks that everyone wants because they help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Google’s PageRank algorithm uses these links as “votes” to determine which websites are most important and should rank higher in SERPs.

Nofollow links, on the other hand, are not counted as votes by Google. In fact, Google has expressly stated that they ignore these kinds of links when determining PageRank.

So why would you want nofollow links? Because they can still help drive traffic to your website even though they don’t directly improve your search engine rankings.

Think of it this way: if a high-traffic website links to your website with a nofollow link, that’s still more traffic than you would’ve gotten without the link!

The best way to get high-quality dofollow backlinks is to create great content that other websites will want to link to. But what if you’re just starting out and don’t have much content? Or what if your competitors have been around longer and have more backlinks?

One way to quickly get some high-quality backlinks is to find and fix broken links on websites that already link to your competitors. You can do this with a free tool like Check My Links.