So you want to do SEO yourself? That’s great! Search engine optimization is a solid and stable way to earn traffic, without having to rely on paid ads or other marketing strategies that can be unreliable.
That said, SEO can be daunting for those who are new to the game. But never fear! In this blog post, we will run through some of the basics of SEO so that you can get started on the right foot.
We’ll cover topics like keyword research, link building, and on-page optimization. By the end of this post, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to do SEO yourself. So let’s get started!
What is SEO?
Whether you are running a small business or a large corporation, if you want people to find your website when they search online, you need to do SEO.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your website more “readable” for search engines so that they can better match it with searchers’ queries.
In other words, it’s about improving your website so that it will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The goal of SEO is to get more visitors to your website from organic (non-paid) search results. The higher your site ranks in the SERPs, the more likely people are to click on it and visit your site.
SEO is not about getting more visitors to your site from any source; it’s about getting more visitors from specific sources that are most likely to convert into customers or clients.
There are two types of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to optimizing the content and structure of your website so that search engines can easily index and understand it.
Off-page SEO refers to activities you can do outside of your website to promote your website and improve its ranking, such as link building and social media marketing.
To do SEO yourself, you need to focus on both on-page and off-page optimization.
Here are some basic steps you can take to get started:
Read also: How SEO in 2023 Is Different From The Previous Years
How to do SEO Yourself?
There are a few basic steps you can take to start improving your website’s SEO on your own. First, make sure your website is using the right keywords throughout its content. Identify the key phrases that potential customers are likely to use when searching for your products or services, and make sure those keywords are included in your website’s content.
In addition to using the right keywords, you’ll also need to create quality content that search engines will find valuable. This means writing informative and keyword-rich articles, blog posts, and product descriptions. Be sure to include links back to your website within your content to help improve your site’s search engine ranking.
Finally, promoting your website can help improve its SEO. Share your website’s link on social media, in forums, and in other online communities where potential customers are likely to see it. The more people who visit your site, the better chance you have of ranking highly in search engine results pages.
You may also like: Social Media Marketing For Dental Professionals
What are the Basic Steps?
Assuming you are starting with a new website, these are the basic steps you need to take in order to start ranking in search engines organically (i.e. without paying for ads):
1. Do your research
Keyword research is essential for on-page optimization. Chances are you are naturally including keywords without realizing it simply by providing valuable content on a topic. However, there are a variety of tools and techniques for finding related keywords relevant to your website that you may not have considered. The Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Semrush, Ahrefs, etc all offer great tools that allow you to find keywords related to your website and see how many people are searching for them each month.
2. Adding Keywords You Have Searched
Once you have targeted a couple of hundred primary keywords, it’s time to start implementing them into your site’s content. Where possible, include them in the following places:
-Title tags
-Meta descriptions
-Headings and subheadings
-Anchor text (text you hyperlink to other related pages on your site)
-Image alt text
-Body copy
A word of caution: Don’t engage in keyword stuffing, which is the act of filling your content with so many keywords that it becomes difficult to read. Not only will this irritate your website visitors, but it will also get you penalized by Google. A couple of strategically placed keywords will do the trick.
By the way, the entire tasks mentioned above are collectively called On-page SEO.
3. Add Blogs for Your Website
If you’re running an e-commerce company, say, your blogs should revolve around the products you’re selling. It may include in-depth information about the products your sell, how to choose the right product, how to fix your products if damaged or broken, and bla bla bla.
Here you’ll hyper certain products you’re selling in a natural way, to get a link juice onto your product pages.
4. Get Backlinks
This is the widest part of SEO services. That’s why people hire SEO companies for off-page SEO specifically. The reason is the hectic and time-consuming task of outreaching higher authority websites and getting sponsored links via guest posts.
Others ways include promoting your website through your own social media pages or through others by mentioning your product in the comment section if the relevant discussion is going on there.
Yet another way is joining forums, finding your niche, and answering question that is relevant to your business.
5. Technical SEO
This SEO part is a bit technical, an advanced level which can better be done by a developer or so. But since you’re tight on budget, the easiest thing here is to get your website audited by some website. Once it highlights the issues you can fix them one by one. Examples include 404 errors and inappropriate Meta tags.
Another thing under this umbrella is the speed of the website, which can be improved by using images not more than 500 x 500 pixels, improving the speed of the website, and so on.
You may use websites that check your website speed for free. And the result might look like the followings:
Conclusion
SEO is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous effort. However, by following the basic steps outlined in this article, you can start seeing results relatively quickly. And, as your traffic starts to increase, you can then start experimenting with more advanced techniques to further improve your ranking. So what are you waiting for? Start optimizing your site today!
