This guide will walk you through every aspect of the local SEO process – local competition analysis, technical SEO, keyword targeting, links, and content.
Having misconceptions about something is not new to humankind. We have always had delusions about every major and minor thing.
Similar is the case with Search Engine Optimization or SEO, and one of the major misconceptions is that you have to optimize your content for Google alone, as there are many other search engines in use too.
You have got some upcoming and growing search engines like DuckDuckGo, and well established like Yahoo! Search, Bing, Yandex, etc. So optimizing your web page or your site for Google alone will be limiting you.
If you want to rank higher only in Google, then that is the way to go, but if you wish to have the best of all worlds, you need to follow the age-old tried and tested, proven method of holistic optimization practices.
This article will help you learn the basics of Search Engine Optimization, starting from the building blocks of Keyword Research to Analyzing the local competition. This article will talk about it all.
List of things that we will talk about :
Keyword Research
Content
Backlinks
Technical SEO
Analyzing your local competition
Let's get started !
1. Keyword Research
Keyword research is the beginning of having an optimized webpage. To have the optimal reach for your page, you should start with focused versions of keywords that your clients are searching for; the influence of keyword research lies in understanding and knowing your target audience. And how they might or already are approaching you for your services, products, or even your content.
Keywords play an essential role in ensuring that your on-page optimization is proper. Optimally you shall be looking at keywords that strike a nice balance between search volume and low competition. If the particular keyword has at least 70 searches per month and lower competition, it can be taken into account, and the article, web page, or blog post you are writing can be tailored for the same. Targeting such keywords will be the best, as the efforts you have to put behind them will not be that much, and yet the outcome will be good enough.
“Do you have a topic in mind for your post? Whether you prefer a trendy topic or just want to write down your mind, there is always some creatives content.”
One thing you need to take care of while doing keyword research is to understand the market size in addition to your targeted audience.
For example, if you are planning to start a cafe in New York, you will have to take into account the number of web pages and sites already in existence that talk about cafes in New York. To rank higher amongst thousands of them would be a difficult task, but not an impossible one if you have got what it takes to beat the competition in SEO efforts and link acquisition.
What you need to do: highly targeted niche words, good search volumes, and lower competition.
It might look lucrative to use short-tailed keywords after seeing the internet traffic searching for the same, but the issue with short-tailed keywords is that they have got a high competition going on for them. High competition for a keyword means a nightmare for optimizing it.
While having low competition seems like the way to go, having good enough search volumes is also a necessity. If you don't pay much heed to the search volumes, you may or may not get lucky with getting in more internet traffic towards your website.
"To have solid research reins every SEO odyssey."
Having highly targeted niche keywords aimed towards people searching for particular needs is the way to go, and to find such gems, you need to dig deeper while researching the industry.
Let us take an example if you know that people often search for cafes in and around the New York Stock Exchange; you can optimize for the keyword, "Cafes near NYSE."
One thing that you need to note is that when people do such niche searches there is often some motive behind it. Thus, to analyze and think about the potential intent of these people, you can create a list of keywords and optimize the site for the same. This gives you greater chances at converting the audience into clients for a particular web page.
The reason that you need to do such deep keyword research is to look into what words will perform the best to get in more clients while keeping the current clients with yourself.
The reason behind performing keyword research this deep is that you can then figure out what keywords are going to perform best for your client as a result.
2. Content
The thing that trails keyword research is creating good content around the keywords. Good content is the key to reaching more people, as good content tends to be shared more among friends, colleagues, and family. If you try and concentrate on making your user content, you'll have more of them.
So, what counts in as good content?
“Do you have a topic in mind for your post? Whether you prefer a trendy topic or just want to write down your mind, there is always some creatives content.”
Three primary things to keep in mind:
Write in a conversational tone
Keep your user in mind
Do NOT stuff in Keywords
Well, keeping it short, simple, and to the point is something that you should do for starters. In addition to that making your content, unique adds a different taste altogether. This not only attracts more people but keeps a hold on those currently viewing it. People like to read, see, watch, and hear something new and different.
That was something that you should do, but what about the don'ts?
For starters, do not copy-paste your content and maybe just change the order of a few words. That will not only be plagiarising (which is a bad thing) but also copied content has got a low chance of ranking high. Copy-pasting the same content multiple times means a dilution of knowledge. Giving almost negligible use to the consumer.
So what should you do instead?
Do deep research, re-write in a quality manner, then add on a few extra things from your side which add to the value.
Another important thing that you should avoid is to stuff the keywords in an article or blog post. Indeed, having more keywords means a wider audience base, but what use will that be if you are just thrusting in more keywords without actually providing good content.
Your approach to writing the content should be similar to that while doing keyword research. Work in a particular niche you are comfortable in and cater to their specific needs. A highly targeted and specific content means better tailored for SEO.
You need to put in quality efforts so that it caters to these things in addition to achieving the end SEO goal.
One more thing that people often overlook is writing unique content for each web page and each site. Some even go to the extent of just copying the already written content multiple times. This will lead you to nowhere; if anything you will end up hurting all the efforts you have taken all along to optimize the article.
To get out of this mess, you have to lay down a basic plan about the web pages and the content they hold. If the flow of content is interesting and each page adds to the value, you have a delighted user. It would be even better if you could link to the related topics on a different web page of yours.
On the topic of links, let us talk about
3. Backlinks
Just how content is essential for a website, the links(or rather, backlinks) are important too. Referencing different pages of your website from the home page or relatable pages is influential.
This not only makes the user experience better by telling them and guiding where is the next most logical page to gain information from but also helps the Search Engine notice the authenticity of these pages.
These citations to different pages act as a virtual map to the user, helping them take turns when needed. This means that you can generate more traffic to other pages of your website from just one page as people will follow suit and jump from one page to another reading the content.
“Do you have a design in mind for your post? Whether you prefer a trendy postcard look or you’re going for a more editorial style banner - there’s a stunning layout for everyone.”
Technical SEO
In this part, we will be focusing only on the on-page technical Search Engine Optimization.
Things you need to primarily focus on :
HTML and CSS coding
URL practices
Title tags & meta descriptions
Schema.org coding
At first glance, you might be wondering how even coding will affect your SEO. Even though it might seem insignificant at first, it has got a lot of significance from the software and the algorithm perspective. A well-written and high-quality code will mean that the algorithm has to do a lesser amount of guesswork while rendering it. Reduced render times mean that pages will load faster, and fast loading pages are given a lot of importance by the Search Engine Results Page generating algorithm.
Another important thing that the algorithm focuses on is the URL of the web page itself. When you use the niche, targeted and specific keywords or phrases in the URL, it makes the site more crawlable. Meaning the website has got a higher chance to be ranked on the Search Engine Results Page, as the algorithm will easily be able to locate it.
The more focused title tags and meta description you have, the better will be the chances that you will be ranking higher. Focused here basically means the inclusion of your keyword(s) in the title tags and the meta description. The inclusion becomes critical because the crawlers first go through your title tags and meta descriptions before it comes to your content, and that is a plus point.
Schema.org coding is meaningful for websites that have got schema data type information in them. The schema.org helps the site to show up in the snippets and the carousels of Google’s search results.
4. Get Inspired
Self-inspiration is the ability to take yourself from bored to passionate, from stagnant to active, from discouraged to excited and so on is the ability to take yourself from bored to passionate, from stagnant to active, from discouraged to excited and so on.
Get inspired my self and business around you. Self motivation is an art that we have naturally and everyone posses one.
"We just need to identify and work on this. Ask you family and friends about your ideas. Be creative in all possible ways."
5. Don’t forget SEO best practices
All social media platforms have their own search engines. They can be indexed by google, Bing or any other search engines, making SEO an important component of any campaign or contest.
Before launching your campaign, compile a list of targeted keywords, as well as any relevant hashtags, that you’d like to rank for socially. Hashtags must be confined to own brand and should not contains any irrelevant topic.
" Identifying relevant keywords and hashtags is an important part of social media post. You need to research on different social media platform for trending hashtags and keywords."