How To Do Search Engine Optimization Step-By-Step

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If you can’t afford to hire an SEO company or expert just yet, you should know that you can do your search engine optimization by yourself to a certain extent. This brief guide is going to show you what to do in order to improve your visibility in search. While the results will depend on your niche and your targeted keywords, you can rest assured your efforts are going to be rewarded sooner or later.

Keyword research is the first thing to do, as it will have a direct influence on your progress. Ideally, you should target keywords that have a good amount of traffic and a fairly moderate to low level of competitiveness. If you pick easy keywords with low traffic volumes, you may be able to rank quickly, but you won’t get enough traffic to make it well worth it. If on the contrary, you target tough keywords, you won’t be able to surpass your competitors. The reason is that you can only acquire inbound links at a certain speed. Do it too fast, and you may get penalized by Google. This is a process that has to replicate the natural patterns of acquiring links, so you can’t speed it up without risking to lose your website. If you can’t afford premium keyword research tools, you can either sign up for their trial versions or use some free ones.

PixelChefs.com – search engine optimization company in Orlando, FL recommends that once you have found your keywords, you need to develop your website around them. Assign each of the keywords a dedicated page, and make sure the copy includes the keyword and some of its synonyms. Search engines are smart enough to make proper use of Latent Semantic Indexing, so you should take this into consideration when writing your content. Don’t forget to add your keywords to the title tags. Also, invest some effort into writing compelling meta descriptions, because these are the snippets search engines display when they list your website on their search results pages. These snippets should entice search engine users into clicking on your result rather than on the other nine on the page.

Beware of over optimization, as search engines are trained to recognize and penalize it. Avoid a too high keyword density, as anything over 2% may get you in trouble. Use synonyms and related terms rather than repeating the same keywords over and over again. The longer your copy, the better. Think of your words as gates for search engines to find and index your website. The more gates you open, the higher your chances to be found for more search strings.

Develop a coherent website architecture, with clear navigation and with a solid internal linking system. This sounds more complicated than it is. All you have to do is to link back to one or two of your older pages each time you write a new one. This is the best way to ensure the optimal authority flow throughout your whole website.

The hardest part is yet to come. You need links from other web properties in order to boost the authority of your website. You can’t purchase these links, as this is against Google’s terms of service. You’ll need to use your creativity and find ways to persuade other webmasters to link to you. Writing guest articles is a strategy that works, so you should try it by all means. However, keep in mind that you need links from websites on topics that are similar or related to yours.

Social media signals are also important. Identify one or two channels your target audience prefers, and try to gather a community of loyal fans and followers on these networks. Position yourself as an authority in your niche, and your followers will be likely to recommend your website to their peers. This can boost your authority and your organic rankings.

Last but not least, closely monitor your targeted keywords and your SEO activities. You need to keep track of your progress, in order to understand what works best for your website. Tracking your positions in the SERPs can also help you stay motivated. SEO is a long-term endeavor, so you’re going to need something to help you keep your motivation intact until you see some noticeable results. Search engine optimization is an ongoing process. Even after you’ve reached your desired positions in the SERPs, you still have to stick with your link building activities, as this is how you can maintain your visibility. Your competitors aren’t sleeping, so you can’t afford to slow down and allow them to overtake you.

This is a brief step-by-step search engine optimization guide. By following it, you should be able to drive a steady flow of targeted search engine traffic to your website. Nonetheless, you have to be aware that the above-described process requires sustained efforts and an awful lot of time. If you can’t do it, you should rather outsource it to an search engine optimization company.