Complete SEO Course for Beginners: Learn to Rank #1 in Google …

Understanding SEO Fundamentals

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is optimizing content to be found through a search engine’s organic search results. Search engines act like libraries, storing copies of websites and web pages. When a search query is entered, the search engine looks through its index to deliver the most relevant results.

SEO helps show search engines that a page is the result the user is looking for. There are three key reasons marketers are attracted to SEO:

• Search traffic is free, unlike paid ads.
• Organic traffic is consistent once a high ranking is achieved. This differs from social media and email marketing, which often have traffic spikes that fade. Search traffic results from users actively looking for information, and the number of searches for a topic is usually consistent.
• SEO provides the opportunity to reach large audiences. As of October 2019, there were about 4.39 billion internet users globally, with almost 4 billion being Google users.

Because of these factors, SEO has grown into an $80 billion industry.

How Google Discovers and Ranks Web Pages

Google discovers web pages through crawling and indexation. Crawlers, also known as spiders, gather publicly available information from the web. These spiders start from known URLs, called seeds, and follow hyperlinks to discover new pages. The data is taken back to Google’s servers and added to the search index, which is what users search through.

Google’s ranking algorithm analyzes numerous ranking signals to provide relevant results. The algorithm is tweaked 500 to 600 times each year. Some key ranking factors include:

• Backlinks: Links from one website to another. Google considers backlinks from prominent websites a sign of trustworthiness. Backlinks can be seen as votes, with each backlink acting as a website vouching for the content on the page. The more backlinks from credible sources, the higher the trust.
• Search Intent: The reason behind a search query. Google aims to provide the most relevant results for any search. Search intent can be discovered by looking at the top-ranking pages for a query.
• Content Depth: Providing comprehensive context on a subject. Content creators should aim to answer a searcher’s query as thoroughly as possible. While depth doesn’t always mean length, content should solve the user’s query completely.

Keyword Research and Selection

Keywords are words and phrases that people type into search engines. Keyword research sets the foundation for SEO, with the goal of ranking pages for keywords that the target audience is searching for. If pages don’t rank for keywords that get searched, SEO efforts are ineffective.

Choosing keywords involves a checklist to ensure effectiveness:

• Search Demand: The volume of monthly searches for a keyword. This is measured using search volume, which can be found using tools like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.
• Traffic Potential: The total search traffic that could be obtained by ranking at the top of Google for a keyword. Traffic potential is often a more reliable metric than search volume.
• Business Potential: The value a keyword has to a business, which depends on the niche and business model. Assigning scores from one to three can help assess the importance of a topic.
• Searcher Intent: Matching the reason behind a searcher’s query. This is determined by analyzing the top-ranking pages for the keyword.
• Ranking Difficulty: Determining whether it is possible to rank for a keyword.

Choosing keywords involves balancing these factors to determine if the topic drives enough traffic and has enough business value to justify the effort.

Matching Search Intent

Matching search intent is crucial for ranking high in search results. Search intent represents the reason behind a searcher’s query. Identifying search intent is usually easy by searching for the keyword and analyzing the top-ranking results.

A three-pronged formula can be used to analyze search intent:

• Content Type: Categorized into blog posts, videos, product category, and landing pages.
• Content Format: Common blog formats include how-to’s, step-by-step tutorials, list posts, and opinion editorials. Landing pages might include tools or calculators.
• Content Angle: The hook that attracts someone to click and visit a page.

By analyzing these three components, it becomes easier to align content with what searchers are looking for.

Generating Keyword Ideas

Keyword research involves finding keywords people search for. The process is divided into generating keyword ideas and validating whether those keywords are worth pursuing. Generating keyword ideas requires a keyword research tool. These tools show information on keywords like search volume, keyword difficulty scores, and other SEO metrics.

To generate keyword ideas:

• Come up with a list of seed keywords, which are broad keywords related to the niche.
• Use the phrase match report to show keywords that include any of these phrases.
• Filter the list based on the five-point checklist: Search demand, traffic potential, business potential, match search intent, and ranking difficulty.

Keyword modifiers can also be used to find relevant keywords. Modifiers are add-ons to a base keyword that tell a lot about search intent. Examples include best, top, versus, and review.

Assessing Ranking Difficulty

Understanding who you’re up against is important before targeting a keyword. Competitors are pages and websites that rank at the top of Google for the target keywords. Three main things to consider before targeting a keyword:

• Search Intent
• Metrics of the top ranking pages and websites
• Topical authority of the top ranking websites

It is useful to create a checklist of questions to make informed decisions. Metrics to consider include the number of websites linking to the page (referring domains) and website authority (domain rating). Topical authority also plays a role, as Google wants to rank pages from authoritative sources.

By answering yes or no questions about these factors, one can assess the difficulty and make informed decisions.

On-Page SEO Best Practices

On-page SEO is optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engines. It revolves around optimizing pages for search intent and creating and optimizing HTML tags like titles and meta descriptions.

Some common misconceptions about on-page SEO include:

• Stuffing exact match keywords.
• Using a keyword a specific number of times.
• Meeting a minimum word count.

Instead, on-page SEO should focus on satisfying searcher intent. This involves understanding the three C’s of search intent (content type, format, and angle). Content should address what people expect to see, along with optimizing titles, subheadings, internal linking, readability, and the content itself.

Optimizing Pages for Search

Optimizing a page for search involves ensuring it satisfies searcher intent. To satisfy searchers, learn from competitors by analyzing the top-ranking pages. Look for similarities in their content, specifically in the subtopics, and deepen the understanding of content format and angle.

A content gap analysis at the page level can show common keywords that the top pages are ranking for. This can be done using tools like Ahrefs Content Gap tool. By identifying these keywords, one can identify subtopics to add to their content.

Other technical on-page optimizations include:

• Including the target keyword in the title.
• Using a short and descriptive URL slug.
• Adding a meta description.
• Adding internal links to and from the pages.
• Optimizing images.
• Optimizing for readability.

Link Building Strategies

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to a page on a website. It involves building relationships with relevant site owners who want to link to the content because it enhances theirs. Backlinks are used by search engines like Google to help rank web pages.

Three main strategies to get backlinks include:

• Creating backlinks manually by adding links on one domain back to another.
• Buying backlinks by paying webmasters to link back to a page.
• Earning them through email outreach, becoming a source for publications, or organically.

The harder it is to obtain a link, the more valuable it will be.

Attributes of a High-Quality Backlink

Not all links are created equal, and quality backlinks are a prominent ranking signal. The attributes that make a backlink good:

• Relevance: Links from websites about travel or Greece would hold more weight than links from sites about technology or marketing.
• Authoritativeness: Represents the link power a web page has. Getting links from high authority pages will likely have the greatest impact on rankings.
• Destination URL
• Anchor Text: Building lots of links with keyword-rich anchors is an example of a link scheme and may result in a Google penalty as it looks unnatural.
• Rel Attribute: Nofollow links told Google that the linking page would rather not associate themselves with the linked page and for that reason Google didn’t transfer authority through those links.
• Link placement: Prominent links are more likely to be clicked and it’s believed that Google takes this into account when determining how much authority a link transfers.

Link Building Tactics

The general process to link building includes prospecting, vetting, and email outreach. Prospecting involves searching for relevant pages and websites that might link. Vetting is refining the list of prospects. Email outreach is finalizing pitches and emailing the vetted prospects.

Easy link building tactics that are newbie-friendly:

• Getting free PR using HARO (Help A Reporter Out).
• Guest posting or guest blogging.
• Skyscraper Technique.

Effective link building involves building relationships, relevance, and a value exchange.

Effective Blogger Outreach

The primary objective of blogger outreach is to convince those with large, targeted audiences to talk about a product, service, or company. There are two common approaches to blogger outreach: the shotgun approach and the sniper method. The sniper method, which involves choosing targets carefully and sending personalized emails, is recommended.

When doing outreach, it’s important to contact the right person. This is usually the author of the post or the editor of the blog. Tools like Hunter.io can be used to find email addresses.

A simple outreach email can include five main parts:

• Subject Line
• Introduction
• Qualification and Justification
• Pitch
• A One-Liner to Keep the Conversation Rolling

Technical SEO and Website Maintenance

Technical SEO is optimizing a website to help search engines find, understand, and index pages. If search engines can’t properly access, read, understand, or index pages, they won’t rank.

Some important aspects of technical SEO:

• No Index Meta Tag
• Robots.txt
• Sitemaps
• Redirects
• Canonical Tag

CMSs like WordPress handle a lot of these basic technical issues.

Technical SEO Best Practices

Some technical SEO best practices:

• Ensure that the site structure follows a logical hierarchy.
• Ensure that pages don’t load slowly.
• Stay on top of around 50 potential SEO errors.

Running scheduled website audits can help identify potential issues. Tools like Ahrefs Site Audit tool can be used to analyze and fix these issues.