How to Do SEO Yourself

Ranking high in Google’s search results can bring you lots of traffic and sales.

You can either take the help of an SEO company or if you have the time then you can make changes on your website yourself.

Step 1: Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of a successful SEO campaign.

You must think about keywords that your customers would type in to search for your products or services?

A keyword can be one word (e.g. “proofreading”) or keyword phrases which are more specific and more likely to be what your clients are looking for eg. best free online proofreading tools.

1. Write down as many as you can think of.
2. Brainstorm with your team.
3. Think of alternative words.
4. Consider geographical phrases if they are important to your customer (e.g. “plumbing service in Delhi”). Additionally, spy competitors’ websites.
5. Try to make a list of 20–30 keyword phrases.

You can use a keyword research tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find more profitable keywords with low competition.

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Choose the two keyword phrases you think would be searched for the most.

But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to get top rankings in SERP.

If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword “insurance”, you have a very long journey ahead.

Make sure you select the keywords which aren’t more competitive and have good search volume. The keywords should be specific and should be a motive behind why your audience is search for those keywords.

Let’s say you are selling a twitter tool that unfollows fake accounts and delete old tweets. In that case, you may want to target keyword Twitter unfollow tools or Twitter management tool.

It’s a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase (e.g. “SEMrush Tutorial and Review”)

Once you’ve selected your two best keyword phrases the next step shows you how to make some improvements to your home page.

Step 2: Write content

Web copy refers to all the words or text on your website. Because content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases should appear strategically on your webpage.

It will help both Google and human that your content is best fits for those keywords. The more prominent they are, the better.

(Keep in mind you should first focus on your readers after those are the people who are going to read your content.)

Here’s how you can increase each keyword’s prominence:

• Place your keywords in headings, try to put at the beginning of the heading;

• Include keywords in top 100 words;

• Bold or italicise keywords where appropriate;

• Instead of using anchor text that says “Click here to read more “, use your keywords that you want to rank for.

An important tip is to also include these keywords in ALT tags.

Once you finish inserting keywords on your home page, consider adding new content, such as detailed descriptions of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your products and services.

If you can’t write SEO optimized content yourself, then you can hire a freelance writer from Upwork.

Step 3: Link building

Link building is one of the most important ranking factors that Google considers when ranking a page in SERP.

Each link from another website to your website (not from your website) counts as a vote of popularity for your business and will improve your rankings.

But it is the quality, not quantity, of the links that is important. The other websites should be relevant to your industry and have good authority.

Five high-quality links are equal to 50 links from low or spammy websites. Do competitor research and spy their backlinks and replicate the same.

You can use a backlink tool like Ahrefs, or SEMrush to spy competitors backlinks.

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Make a list of websites that could link to you, such as non-competing companies, and industry bodies and organisations.

Pitch them how your website can make a helpful read to their audience and request them to link back to your website.

Don’t be upset when people do not respond first time round, so a follow-up phone mail is usually required.

How do I monitor my results?

Now this important…

There are two ways to monitor keywords in SERP.

1. Manually check each keyword (But that is time-consuming)
2. Use keyword position checking tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs

To save time you should always go with the second option. You can check hundreds of keywords position in minutes.

Remember to keep updating your content, and do link building.

If you do it honestly you will see very soon your traffic spikes start climbing and your sales enquiries will start increasing.

Make sure you maintain the leads you get from organic results, so you can measure the success of your marketing efforts.