CS8 – Basic SEO

Timestamps

00:23 What is SEO
00:49 SEO Ranking Factors
05:24 On-Page Optimization using Yoast SEO
19:33 Off-Page Optimization

 

Lesson Notes

In this Lesson: we are going to discuss about

  • What is SEO
  • SEO ranking factors
  • On-page optimization using Yoast SEO
  • Off-page optimization

 

What is SEO

According to searchengineland.com, SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, it means, the process of improving your site to increase its visibility for relevant searches. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.

 

SEO ranking factors

Some factors that contribute to the SEO ranking of a website are:

  • Security (SSL)
  • Speed
  • Mobile Responsiveness
  • Keyword optimized content
  • Links

 

The security or the SSL certificate that we have installed on our website shows that our website is verified and safe from hackers because it encrypts the data of our website visitors like for example, the credit card information they use when purchasing from our online shop. This is why it’s important to choose a hosting that provides free SSL. Additionally, we have installed the Really Simple SSL plugin to force our website to run in SSL.

 

Speed is an important factor for SEO because it means that we are giving a good user experience to our website visitors. The average time being spent by a user on a website takes about less than 15 seconds. So it means we need to make our website load fast so that we can be able to catch the attention of our website visitors within that short time span. This is the reason why we have installed the plugins WP Fastest Cache to delete cache from our site and the Smush to compress images. We also need to ensure that large files like videos are hosted elsewhere like Youtube or Vimeo, and we can just embed them into our website instead of uploading it directly in our WordPress media to keep our website from slowing down.

 

Mobile Responsiveness is essential for SEO simply because the majority of people are browsing on their mobile phones or tablets on a regular basis. So we need to make sure that our website is easy to view whatever type of device is being used. So when designing a page, we always need to check the Mobile Responsiveness.

 

Keyword-optimized content is a good way to promote SEO because, in this way, we are able to write content containing the right keywords to describe our business. Defining the right keywords for your business is important to optimize the searchability of your website. You may do keyword research using tools such as smallseotools.com and keywordtool.io

 

Links are also an important factor in SEO because links lead to traffic. And the more search traffic we receive on our website means more website visitors. There are two ways of link building: the on-page and the off-page links.

On-page links are internal, or simply the links that we use within our website. Like for example, we have added a link on our blog post that is linked to another blog post within our website.

Off-page links are external. This is what you call backlinks coming from another website that is being pointed to our website. For example, someone writes a post on their website and has added backlinks that point to our website.

 

On-Page Optimization

WordPress is known to be an SEO-friendly CMS, that’s why building a website using this platform is a good choice for SEO purposes. And there are tools that make it easy to optimize our WordPress site like Yoast SEO.

Let’s start by installing the Yoast SEO plugin.

  • Run the Configuration Wizard
  • Go to Google Search Console
    • Add Property
    • Enter the URL on the URL prefix
    • Get Google Authorization code
    • Copy the code and paste on the authorization code
    • Select profile
    • Configure Title settings
    • Go to Webmaster tools
    • Copy the HTML Tag and paste it into the Google Verification code
    • Go back to search console and click on verify

 

Next, we will be optimizing our blog post. These are On-page optimization techniques we need to consider when writing a blog post.

 

Within the blog post

  • Plan your keywords and include to your Title and Content (Use variations of keyword in the content)
  • Add subheadings starting from H2. Your post title is already in H1 so no need to add subheadings in H1.
  • Add images/ videos within your content – always add an alt text
  • Include internal and external links in your blog. When adding external links make sure to set the link to open in a new tab or window so that the website visitors stay in the website.

 

Under the Post or Page settings

  • Add a featured Image – set an alt text and assign a keyword. Alt-text is used to give an alternate text to your image if for some reason that the image cannot be displayed.
  • Add categories and tags (For posts)

 

Under the Yoast SEO settings

  • Add keyword to Focus keyphrase
  • Add a slug (this is the URL structure of your post)
  • Add a meta description
  • See what else is needed to be fixed according to Yoast SEO’s analysis results until the SEO and Readability score turns green

 

For pages edited with Elementor, this comes with Yoast SEO settings as well. And this is how we can do on-page optimization for our website. The more optimized content we create, the better will be our SEO ranking. 

 

Off-page optimization

According to Neil Patel, “Off-Page SEO” refers to all of the activities that you and others do away from your website to increase the ranking of a page with search engines.

There are several methods being done for off-page optimization like Brand mentions, Commenting, Participating in Forums, Questions and Answers, Guest Blogging, Social sharing, and Business listing. These are just some of the methods being used for Off-page optimization and in this lesson, we will focus on these 3 types of Off-page optimization methods, which is the Guest posting, Social sharing, and Business listing

 

Guest Blogging – You can be a guest author by writing for other websites and contributing something about their products or services. You may look for sites that accept guest posting. You may also reach out to other people who have the same niche as yours, or your friends and peers, then ask them if you can write a blog post or be a guest blogger for them. This can be a challenge especially if you are totally unknown so make sure that you are going to write something that will be valuable to them and not just for the purpose of creating backlinks from their website. Otherwise, they may not trust you to become a guest blogger for them. A good way to backlink your site with Guest Blogging is by adding your website link only in the author description usually found at the bottom of blog posts.

 

Social sharing – This is one easy way to contribute to your SEO because sharing your blog through social media helps to boost traffic to your website. The more that your blog post is being shared in social media, the more it gets traffic to your website. You may share your blog posts through Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Twitter. You may also create video content on Youtube and add a link to your blog post in the description.

 

Business Listing – is one good way to increase your search rank. Google has a Business listing feature called Google My Business. When you have successfully listed your business with Google My Business, your business also appears in Google Maps. And this increases your chances of being found by people looking for your products or services. For example, someone is going to search in Google for a Web Designer based in Manila, you have great chances of being visible if you have listed your website in Google my Business. Especially if you include the keyword of your services in your Business Name listing.

 

To register in Google My Business, just go to google.com/business

  • Sign in with your Google account
  • Add your business
  • Enter your location
  • Fill in your contact information
  • Finish and manage your listing

Once you have registered, you can request verification of your business.

How to verify your business on Google

  • Sign in to Google My Business
  • Click Verify now
  • Verify your business through Postcard by Mail
  • It can take a few days to two weeks for the postcard to arrive.
  • When you receive your postcard, sign in and click Verify location from the menu. Enter the five-digit verification code from your postcard.

Note: It may take a few weeks for your business listing to appear on Google.

Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/google-my-business/

 

Portfolio

1. Install Yoast SEO and run the configuration wizard

2. Create 1 blog about your business or freelancing journey (or you may use the previous blog post you have created from Coaching Session 3). Optimize your blog post following these on-page optimization techniques and by using Yoast SEO.

    • Plan your keyword and include it on the Title and Content
    • Add subheadings starting from H2
    • Add images/videos within the content (add an alt-text)
    • Include internal and external links in the content
    • Add keyword to Focus keyphrase
    • Add a slug
    • Add a meta description
    • Add a featured image and set an alt text (using your keyword)
    • Add categories and tags (for posts)

Note: It’s not necessary to make it green both for the Yoast and Readability score. Just follow these on-page optimization techniques.

3. Share your blog post through Social media like your Facebook page, Linkedin, Twitter, or Pinterest.

 

Send me the link of your optimized blog post and the screenshot or link of your social media post containing your blog.

Email Subject: WD – Portfolio 8

 

PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION GUIDES:

1. Video-On-Demand (VOD) Access
Submit your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
You can submit individually per coaching session or submit all required portfolios as one, in one email (attach your Google Drive).

2. VOD with Class Coaching
Send your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit individually per coaching session.

3. VOD with Mentoring
Send your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit individually per coaching session.

4. Premium Members
Submit your portfolios to courses@surgedigital.agency.
Please submit all required portfolios as one, in one email (attach your Google Drive).

 

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