
Why is SEO important? How to SEO my website? What’s “white hat” SEO and why does it matter.
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s important because it’s how search engines (like Google) recognize and rank websites.
More specifically, it’s how they rank website content (post, pages and videos). The better you rank, the more free traffic you get.
The challenge is ranking for the right keywords that bring the right people to your website.
Luckily for you, we’ve got a simple SEO Checklist you can use for every post you write.
In this article, I’ll show you how I optimize my website for search engine results and how you can copy the exact same formula.
See success in any niche or online business, eCommerce included. Let’s begin.
How to SEO My Website:
A common mistake that people make when they start working online is to write articles without any focus on keywords.
They hope the traffic will come in based on their writing skills. It’s simple a lack of education on the importance of keywords.
Most start writing about their passions, travels, or thoughts; without any keyword research or direction. Sure, if you write enough articles they’re bound to be recognized by Google, but it’ll take more time.
It’s kind of pointless, or at least without direction.
So keywords are critical to understand when it comes to SEO.
In other words, the very first article that you write should be keyword targeted and optimized for search engine results.
Keywords and SEO are Easy!
All you have to do is include the target keyword a few times in your article.
Remember, the priority should be on writing an informative article, including the keywords is secondary.
It might sound complicated, but it’s not that difficult.
There’s another mistake that’s pretty common; writing articles that are so full of keywords they’re difficult to read and don’t make much sense, not informative at all.
Do these articles rank?
Well… no!
Why?
Because Google’s algorithm is quite advanced and keywords are just one factor it considers, there are many other factors that come into play and need consideration.
Website Authority Rank and SEO:
The website’s authority rank plays a big role in search engine results.
Ever wonder why websites like WikiPedia always seem to be on the front page for every search you make on Google?
It’s because those websites are massive! And you can create a massive website too… but it takes time.
Social Media and SEO:
Another factor that plays an important role are social shares, or social pings.
Google’s algorithm can check how many times a website was shared on social media. Including the pages that are shared more will rank higher in search engine results.
That’s why a lot of celebrity news articles and controversial articles rank high in search engine results; they’re hot and people are talking about it, that puts it on Google’s radar.
3 Major Factors to SEO in Google:
Basically, the following are the main factors Google (and other search engines) consider when ranking a website;
- Targeted Keywords
- Website Page Authority
- And Social Media Shares
If you do good on those three areas, your website will bring in hot traffic.
Think of it this way, every time you write a new article your website’s authority increases by one point.
The more articles, the more authority, and the more authority, the easier it’ll be to rank for keyword in Google.
For quicker (and better) results, it’s important to target keywords from the very beginning!
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Remember, traffic is not everything; the numbers don’t mean anything unless they convert sales, and finding traffic that converts is your number one goal.
How to SEO Your Website Right Now:
How to SEO My website? Here are a few things that you can do right now to improve your website’s rank in search engine results.
Remember, when you’re starting from scratch your website will have a very small authority rank.
That will increase naturally with time, so let’s not worry about that at the moment? What you can do now is focus on keyword phrases, long tail keywords to be precise.
Writing Articles is Key to SEO:
Writing articles is still the best way to build your website!
Think of each article as a new page to the website, an individual website that can rank for individual keywords and keyword phrases.
What I want you to do now is look for some long-tail keywords. Those are keyword phrases that are 4 or more keywords in total.
I’m sure there’s an article idea in the back of your head waiting to be put on screen, but before we start writing the article, we need to find some keywords.
The keywords need to not only make sense but also have traffic potential.
I use this keyword tool, it’s really easy!
Keyword Metrics to Rank Fast!
Here are a few guidelines to find hot keywords with my favorite keyword research tool:
- Green Circle Next to Phrase.
- Less than 100 Competing Websites.
- More than 100 Searches a month.
- Higher than 90 SEO Score.
- Grammatically Correct Keyword Phrase.
I also wrote an article about a free and easy way to find hot keywords for your website that you might benefit from reading.
So with this keyword research tool, Jaaxy, finding keywords is a walk in the park.
Once you find a long tail keyword that matches the above criteria, simply write an article and include the keyword as many times as possible, but it also must naturally fit within the content.
Remember, don’t stuff your keywords! And write to help your niche audience!
Use Yoast SEO Plugin:
With a WordPress website, consider using a free plugin called Yoast SEO, as it makes search engine optimization incredibly easy!
You don’t need to use the plugin, but it’s highly recommended.
If you choose not to use the plugin, make sure that the keyword is in the following places.
This is your SEO Checklist!
Your Personal SEO Checklist:
Make sure your Keyword Phrase is in the following spots…
- Title of the article.
- Hyper-link/URL of the post.
- At the beginning of the article within the first 156 characters.
- A few times in the body of the article if it fits naturally.
- As a header (preferably the first header).
- The last 156 characters or so at the end of the article.
- Within ever Alt Tag of every image within the post.
After that, just write the article, and make sure it’s written thoroughly and well-researched.
Only include the keyword naturally wherever it fits and improves the flow of the article.
Then, hit publish, and repeat the process until your website’s authority begins to grow and the keywords start to rank.
Also, get social plugins added if they don’t come free with your them. Then socially share your content when you publish it and make sure social sharing is easy to do on your site.
Notice on this site, there are floating at your side as you read, always waiting to be shared.
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Conclusion on Optimizing Your Site:
Still wondering, “How to seo my website?”.
Here’s what we learned in this article:
1. It’s better to target keywords from the very first moment you start writing articles.
2. Long tail keywords are ideal because there’s less competition. Finding them is easy with my favorite keyword tool – Jaaxy.
3. Focus on writing a quality article that is informative…and then include the keywords.
4. Website authority and social media shares are also important to optimize your website for search engine results.
Website authority will grow naturally as you continue to write articles.
Read this article on how to promote your website on social media if you need more help on that subject.
Create the habit of including keywords in the right places within an article.
That’s it for now, have a great day!
Hi Todd,
50% present of what you wrote I already know, and 50% is new to me, so thank you for this article.
I’m currently using the plugin Yoast SEO to help we order my pages to fit search engine search parameters for meta description and titles, etc..
Do you recommend on this plugin? if not do you recommend any other plugins that help SEO our websites?
Thanks.
Hi Efi,
Many recommend the All In One Seo plugin. I’m like you, I use Yoast and I like it for the parameters it sets for my post title/url/meta description, alt tags as well.
I also like to look at a few other parameters, but Yoast works for me. Keep it simple and focus on content that help you site users, know the basic of SEO and how to get traffic that converts and then repeat, repeat, repeat.
Cheers,
Todd
Very interesting article on search engine ranking and keywords, this is probably very new information to many beginners in the internet world. The keyword tool sounds to be an amazing tool to get high ranks on search engines like google, this sounds almost illegal to be a able to do.
Very nice of you to share such important information with everyone through your article today, you have opened many eyes with this information and the Jaaxy keyword tool.
Happy to help, this is the basics for niche websites that want to become a success. It’s really cool once you’ve put in initial time and work. If you can do this, you can make your website a profitable income source.
Todd
Hi Todd, Very informative post on SEO, but it sounds like you are saying it is important to put the keyword in a post 6 or more times which differs from what I have heard. That seems like a bit overkill to me. But really great information and I did like the part about long tail keywords. I haven’t been doing this too long, but I have received better results using long tail keywords.
Hi Chastity,
I don’t think I mentioned a number to use keywords. I think you should check out my free eBook that I created that is super specific about keyword placement.
I’d highly recommend it to anyone new to content writing and ranking content naturally in search engines like Google.
After you read it, you will have all the SEO knowledge you’ll need to know to get started.
Best,
Todd
I loved this post because it showed me that I need to get back to the basics when it comes to SEO. I believe for a time there I was going on a wild goose chase of newer and seemingly more advance SEO techniques but honestly, this reminded me that greatness comes from mastering the basics. Thank you for showing me that and reminding me that if I don’t have the fundamentals covered, I won’t be able to make any progress towards achieving my goals.
Excellent post!
Awesome Alec, thanks for your feedback. I hear you, I think ever content creator or website owner struggles how to optimize some aspect to create better search engine rankings.
I’ve done it too and it’s fun to explore and great to keep an open mind, but it’s always about helping someone connect to something that begins with a keyword phrase Google search. Hitting the essence of that phrase and helping people is critical, but not that hard when you keep it simple.
Thanks again Alex, happy to hear that we helped you and your SEO skills 🙂
Todd
SEO for our websites is awesome with the keyword tool Jaaxy, I also love that you mention Social Media.
Google algorithm does play such an important role in SEO and having a keyword tool to increase our organic traffic results allows for much higher rankings in Google.
Keyword rich content or quality content is king and along with Social Media we can optimize our SEO and Google Rankings.
Thank you for sharing your expertise in this area Todd,
Tony
You bet Tony, and thanks for your feedback working with Jaaxy. Learning how to SEO your website isn’t that hard.
It takes a few weeks of classes and you’ll get it down. Once you understand the role of keywords, social media, and providing quality information to a specific niche audience, the traffic will come.
Cheers,
Todd
This is one area of internet marketing that is always like a minefield mainly because of the ever changing Google criteria (and not that I understand them well!). You really broke them down into plain English and manageable chunks. I like how you used practical examples to bring home the message.
Thank you for a great post 🙂
Thanks Chuka, the reality is that quality content that helps people or solves a question or problem is what will always rank in major search engines. That’s Google’s job, to help people find what they’re looking for. Thanks for your feedback and follow this advice and you’ll learn how to SEO your website just like the best.
Cheers,
Todd
I have used the alphabet soup technique to sometimes find keywords but have been unsuccesful. Did you have a higher success rate with Jaaxy, WA keyword tool, or the alphabet soup technique where you play around with words on google. Thanks in advance! Very thoughtful post of you. The post was very detailed. Also, another question would be How long do you think it would take to rank on the top of Google? and how hard of a feat would that be ?
Hi Ayman,
I personally go with Jaaxy first, then I might play around with the Alphabet Soup technique and I never use the free tool. My time is too valuable for that. Jaaxy’s great because it brainstorms for you. Ths willen you find the competition and SEO score right away.
Once you get 15-20 posts going and focus on low competition keywords, you can rank in hours, sometimes minutes. Other times it takes getting social shares and comments on your posts before they rank. And not always will you rank.
What you’ll find is that with consistent posting and use of these techniques, you’ll get a lot of content to rank and rank highly. It’s much easier to even outrank authoritative websites if you use these techniques.
Thanks,
Todd