SEO…
Everyone has their own opinion about how it needs to be done. Some people know what they are doing and some do not. Those who do not keep up with the Google Gods -- do not.
Matt Cutts has his own video series on YouTube a popular blog about what SEO he thinks works today and what does not.
And then you have influencers like Neil Patel at “Quicksprout.”
Lucas Bikowski at his link company name “SEO Shark.”
And many others.
I personally follow most of these people.
And I have been working in the SEO space for some time now.
So, here are some of the biggest lessons I have learned over the last couple of years in terms of “good white-hat SEO” that all these guys are saying and that also work for me.
1. Write content that is at least 5,000 words.
Yes, you are much better off writing content which is thorough and very much in depth and publish less frequently, rather than writing content which is short and publishing more often.
"Personally, I recommend publishing at least every other day to stay consistent and keep your audience engaged to your brand and content."
Educational guides, how-to articles, listicles, top ways lists, or in depth reviews are all great ways to share your knowledge and expertise with your audience while stepping up your SEO game.
I just set aside Sundays for writing in-depth content like this and publish them usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I do not even get up from my chair till I have finished writing the entire article.
I even use time tracking and efficiency tools such as RescueTime to make sure I do not get distracted and start watching music videos on YouTube ;)
2. Write content around low competition keywords which have tons of search volume and high CPC.
You do not want to just spend all your time and money writing ANY type of content.’
Write on topics and keywords which are long tail and have tons of search traffic and high in cpa.
There is a guy I use on Fiverr, who does keyword research for me.
He is really good at it and for just $5, he does a lot of really good work.
3. Use videos in your blog posts
Yes, Google likes it when you make your post super educational.
So, it is obviously they will favor YouTube videos.
So, if you take the time to create high quality videos which explain the post that you are referring to and embed the video within the post, chances are, Google will rank your page higher in search results.
Creating videos might seem time consuming, but again, you can easily hire services on Fiverr and other freelance sites where people are willing to take text and turn it into animated videos, etc.
These people are not as expensive as you might imagine.
Typically they charge $5 per minute or so.
But, if you do not have the money to hire, then just make a simple video by yourself and sort of discuss the components you covered in your blog post.
4. Try to create list articles and through guides with lots of pictures and demonstrations so that you can get displayed in Google’s knowledge card feature.
Google now has this feature where if you ask any sort of question, it will reply back with a snippet of the top article which does the best job of answering the question.
It will pretty much try to answer your question by referencing that article and giving your answer by taking parts of the article where that question was answered and reading it back to you.
This is a new feature and is hugely beneficial for those who are writing in-depth how-to guides.
Google realizes that there are many smaller sites out there who are writing content which is on point and through and the information is very useful.
Google wants to recognize these types of sites.
So, even if your do not have a very authoritative site, and you do not rank as the first result for some keyword, Google may still put your content into its Knowledge Card feature and display it as the first first result and answer the query of the user.
Think of Google’s algorithms, the same way as the hardware inside of a computer.
It is always updating, always changing, parts are always being removed and upgraded, and every single day, the whole system is improving and becoming more user-friendly.
I used to be a geek (still am, I guess), and build computer parts.
You have to be super diligent with details.
For example, if you have a high speed PCB, you should not place it near the edge of the board because the PCB can easily interfere and cause what is known in the computer world as “electromagnetic interference,” or EMI.
Same thing when it comes to Google’s algorithms.
If you think you have figured out all the little details of it, think again.
Google has all the money in the world to hire the smartest people in the world.
So, it is better to not cheat their system but to rather play by the general good rules of play and leave out the little intricacies up to Google.
Trust me, their engineers have thought about every trick you can think of.
After I moved from Memphis, Tennessee to Los Angeles, California, (which was the pain in the ass because I had to hire a moving company but at least it was not too expensive...and had to stop by a vet because my cat got sick from the car ride), I actually decided to take a trip to the Google headquarters and speak to the engineers myself and learn a bit more about Google’s algorithms and how they work.
I learned some really interesting facts from these smart kids, which you can find in my article.
Just play safe and focus on creating good content without keyword stuffing, etc.
5. Build editorial backlinks via brand mentions and email outreaches by using PR agencies or by pitching yourself to contributors.
One of the best ways to increase your credibility on the web and really skyrocket your site in SERP is to have editorial backlinks from large authoritative websites such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Huffpost, Mashable, CNN, and more.
Now, you are probably wondering how do we get links from such high authority websites without pretty much being a badass, right?
It is definitely possible, so do not worry too much.
However, you gotta have one of the following: Money or Lots of time and will to do the manual work yourself. If you have money, then it is easy.
You can start an email outreach and reach out to contributors to these large publications.
You will then ask them if they can make a brand mention and link out to your website from the next article they are about to publish on these sites.
If they say, Yes, then great! All your work is done.
However, if they say No, then you will have to offer them money to do it.
Usually, most contributors at these large publications will charge around $800-1200 just for one link.
But it is definitely one of the easiest ways to build up a solid link profile to your site and rank on search engines like crazy!
Keep in mind that it is better to have a few high quality links than to have lots of low quality ones.
If finding these writers and contributors and pitching them is too hard and time consuming, you can always hire a PR agency and let them do all the work.