SEO is not just about using search engines to drive traffic to your website. While there are some DIY techniques you can use to improve your search engine rankings, others require an SEO expert to achieve the desired results. For example, linking to relevant pages within your content will keep your visitors on your site longer. Make sure that the links are placed in the appropriate places in your content. And don't be shy to use big name links to your website. Some SEO tactics can be completed by yourself, but SEO is an ever-changing beast, and it's impossible to do everything properly.
Technical SEO checklist
A DIY technical SEO checklist is a must for anyone looking to improve their site's visibility on search engines. Many people fail to take care of these basic tasks, and their efforts often end up in failure. The basic tasks of SEO are the most important, and beginners should focus on those first. While it's tempting to cut corners and skimp on these, they are critical for a successful SEO campaign. It's also important to keep in mind that your website will need to be hosted on a secure server.
Creating a URL is a fundamental part of search engine optimization. Historically, URLs were keyword-stuffed and long, so they were not optimized for user experience. But now, they should be informative and easily understood. When generating a URL, keep in mind that longer URLs can be spammy. Instead, use dashes to separate words instead of underscores. In addition, try to avoid hyphens and '/' when using the latter.
A DIY technical SEO checklist should include on-page SEO. This category includes optimizations for everything from minor user-experience improvements to critical keyword placements. It's also important to write for viewers and not just search engines. Beginners tend to write mainly for search engines. Images are another critical part of the on-page SEO category. Google is much more likely to crawl and index a website with an embedded image than one without. And don't forget to optimize your site's content.
Another SEO checklist to-do is a mobile-first strategy. Search engines have invested heavily in providing an optimal experience on mobile devices, and it pays to make the most of it. To optimize a mobile-friendly website, you can use the Google Search Console's Mobile Usability report to find out if touch elements are too close to the screen, if content is properly sized for the viewport, and whether Flash is used properly. Using the URL Inspection Tool will also help you learn how Google sees a particular page on various mobile devices.
Before you start your technical SEO campaign, you should first prepare your website for success. Make sure you have a solid foundation. A strong foundation is essential for search engines to index your site, and the right foundation will help your content rank high. Keeping your website's structure and code clean will help you gain organic traffic. There's no point in paying thousands of dollars for an SEO campaign that doesn't deliver the results you want.
Internal and external website optimization
While there are many SEO techniques that you can implement for your site, internal and external website optimization is a key component of SEO success. Internal linking helps your website get higher search engine rankings because Google crawls the pages on your site and determines the importance of your content based on the number of links pointing to it. Make sure to build as many internal links as possible and include "Top" and "Popular" widgets throughout your site. For internal linking, ensure that your key pages are linked directly from the main navigation or are only a click away. Click-through optimization is a great technique for increasing traffic from your current positions.
When creating internal and external links, you can use relevant keywords for each link. Use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text for your links. The anchor text on internal links helps the search engine bots understand each page and identify its content. In addition to this, internal links help the bots find other pages within your site. By focusing on internal linking, your website will be easier to navigate and will get added to search engine indexes.
You should also make sure that your website loads quickly. Page load time affects conversion rates and can lead to a negative user experience. If your site is slow to load, users will quickly become frustrated. And as there are thousands of other websites competing for the same niche, this is a crucial factor in attracting more visitors and boosting your ranking on Google. It may even increase your rankings! If you're not aware of internal and external website optimization, it's best to hire an SEO professional to help you.
Creating internal and external links will improve your site's SEO reputation and make your site seem more efficient and altruistic. Internal and external links will also add a character to your site. While internal and external website optimization are very important aspects of SEO, it will require a keen eye and long-term practice to succeed. However, they are more effective than other methods. If you can learn to master both, you'll be on your way to a higher search engine ranking.
Keyword research tool
If you want to increase your website's organic traffic, you need a good keyword research tool. Using a keyword tool will give you the insights you need to create content around a popular keyword. This can give your site a higher ranking, which means more visitors. Keywords have varying degrees of competition, but long-tail keywords can still make up a large percentage of organic traffic. Here are a few free keyword research tools that will help you find keywords and related topics.
A keyword research tool that calculates its Keyword Difficulty score based on the authority of the top 10 SERP pages should be a good choice. Keywords with low authority are harder to rank for, but have a higher chance of generating high-quality backlinks. A good way to find a low-keyword with high search volume is to use Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer tool. It also has filters that let you filter your results by Keyword Difficulty.
Yahoo also offers a keyword research tool that collects data about popular search queries and offers automatic suggestions. Relevancy is calculated based on product conversion rate and buying behavior and is useful for content with transactional intent. Another helpful tool is Wikipedia. This website has a nested structure, and you can find keywords by browsing the table of contents. However, you should always remember that a well-written article will rank for multiple keywords and not just one.
Another popular keyword research tool is Google Keyword Planner. It has become a popular tool, but is no longer free. Keyword research is increasingly complex and most SEOs have moved on to more sophisticated tools. You need a Google Ads account to use Google Keyword Planner. Enter your seed keyword and get suggestions based on how closely it matches the seed keyword. These suggestions are sorted by relevance. They are extremely helpful for creating content and determining keywords for your website or blog.
Green Lotus' advanced SEO keyword tool allows you to use Google's search data to analyze a website's keywords. It measures metrics on a client's site and compares them to their industry competitors. Using a tool like Green Lotus' advanced SEO keyword tool can help you create content that targets the right keywords. In addition to its free tool, it allows you to see the competition and find out what keywords they are using to rank for their products and services.
On-page optimization
While implementing SEO tactics to your website, you may find yourself wondering how to optimize your URL. The key is to keep the URL short, descriptive, and easy to understand. Use the shortest possible prefix and suffix, and make sure they contain your target keyword. This will help the search engine crawl the page faster. Also, use the canonical tag and the noindex attribute to avoid duplicate content. These are the two most important things to consider when building a URL.
Off-page SEO refers to efforts made on other websites. These efforts may include backlinking, listings, social promotion, guest posting, and PR. Technical SEO, on the other hand, focuses on site code and sitemap. Both types of SEO can affect the page speed of your site, so it's important to optimize these elements before you begin. Fortunately, most DIY SEO techniques are easy and inexpensive. Regardless of your skill level, you should learn how to implement both of them.
You may also want to create a meta description for your website. This is an important part of on-page optimization because Google relies on the description and keywords in these tags to determine whether a page is relevant to the searcher's query. Learn how to create a compelling meta description. Ahrefs' video explains how to do this. Using an interesting meta description is a vital part of SEO.
While doing off-page SEO is important, on-page SEO is equally as important. It involves optimizing your website's HTML source code, content, and external signals. The best practices in on-page SEO have evolved over the years, and the latest guidelines should be followed. This will give your site better search presence, increase traffic, and brand awareness. If done properly, on-page SEO can give you a competitive edge.
You should also consider your page speed. Google looks for pages that load faster, so improving page speed can help your site rank higher. By optimizing your page's speed, you will increase its entry into Google's index. Page speed has a number of factors, including images, JavaScript files, and caching and compression. Check out this guide for helpful tips and tricks. If you want to learn more about how to optimize your page speed for SEO, check out the links below.