When you finish this guide, you’ll know the basics of SEO and have a clear plan for boosting your business’s search engine rankings. “Why a page is not ranking for a relevant query in Google Search results” is one of the most common questions you’ll get asked as an SEO. To help you, here’s a checklist with basic SEO diagnostics questions to ask, as well as areas to analyze and types of tools to use, including a Google Sheets resource too. Then, if you decide to specialize on a specific area within SEO, you can then go through all the resources listed within that area and related/connected topics. You have reliable HTML & CSS resources, as well as JavaScript guides in the “complement your SEO” section. SEO is a strategy that focuses on your website’s presence in search results on search engines like Google.
Claim local listings
Digging deeper, the data reveals that the first 5 organic results account for 69.1% of clicks, meaning if you aren’t near the top, you’re practically invisible. Technically, the clicks from organic search are free, but ranking your website to get those clicks requires time, effort, and potential financial investment. You might need to invest in SEO tools, hire experts, or spend significant time learning and implementing SEO strategies yourself. For businesses that want to bring in expert help selectively, hiring freelancers can be a reasonable solution. Freelancers typically specialize in specific areas of SEO, such as content creation, link building, or technical SEO. Costs can vary significantly, typically ranging from $50 to $300 per hour, depending on the freelancer’s experience and the complexity of the project.
Step #1: Create a List of Keywords
- In today’s internet-driven world, having an online presence is a make-or-break necessity for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
- That way, you can focus 100% on content… without having to worry about keywords, H2 tags, alt text and other on-page SEO stuff.
- Search engines value these aspects because they want to present their users with websites that provide a proper user experience.
- To maximize your reach, consider promoting your content in multiple channels or even repurposing it.
- Keep reading below to learn what SEO is and how you can use it to grow your operation.
It takes a few extra seconds to write alt text for each image. There are a lot of cool features and tools in the Search Console. It’s a free tool that tends to give a more accurate feel of how your site loads to actual users. Your first step is to benchmark your site’s current loading speed.
Once you’ve taken a look at everything, ask whether there is a good balance between product awareness, consideration, and final sale decision. Some companies focus too much on awareness but don’t have content that makes the sale. Others want you to spend money in the first five minutes without telling you why. Keyword search volume is an important factor in keyword research, but you won’t always want to pick the highest volume keyword possible. Keyword Volume is an estimation of the number of searches per month for a certain keyword or keyphrase.
After all, the terms in your URL represent a high-level overview of what your page is about. For example, for my guide to email marketing, my URL is /email-marketing-guide. Specifically, I recommend using body font that’s AT LEAST 15px.
Get expert help, starting with a custom SEO strategy for your business. Compared to traditional marketing strategies, SEO requires little cost for big results. Even if you invest in SEO services, you can still expect an impressive return.
“Black hat SEO” refers to techniques and strategies that attempt to spam/fool search engines. While black hat SEO can work, it puts websites at tremendous risk of being penalized and/or de-indexed BHS Links (removed from search results) and has ethical implications. If knowing your audience’s intent is one side of the SEO coin, delivering it in a way search engine crawlers can find and understand is the other. Despite the acronym, SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines themselves. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to connect to the people who are searching online for the solutions you offer.