7 Steps in a Great SEO Action Plan

1.  Focus Keyword Research

People search for solutions. Be sure your page offers the solution your visitors are looking for. Some examples of keywords looking for solutions:

1. Keyword search: kayak day trip
Result: visitor booked a day long outing for their family with a local kayak rental business – $190

2. Keyword search: best pizza near me
Result: visitor took family out for pizza – $58

1.1

How to Do Focus Keyword Research

1. Google Your Focus Keyword.

2. How many results in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Page) for that keyword?

3. Are you on Page #1? Are you anywhere in the first 5 pages?

4. Who is in Position #1, #2 and #3?

1.

2.

3.

5. Keyword Planner:
Google AdWords for Keyword Planner

Volume:
Relevance:
Competition:
Cost:

2.  Competitor Research

Your best keywords are the keywords you where you can rank #1 on Google.

The website currently in Position #1 for that keyword is your competitor.

You need to be sure your website can compete with that #1 website. If not, you need to modify your keyword until you find the right combination of relevance, cost, search volume and competition.

You need to research the websites in Position #1, #2 and #3 for your keyword and choose the keyword where you can compete with the top 3 results.

2.1

How to do Competitor Research: Top 5 Metrics in 5 Minutes

Metric 1. Moz Site and Page Authority – https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

You:

Your Competitor:

1. Domain Authority 

1. Domain Authority 

2. Page Authority

2. Page Authority

3. MOZ Rank

3. MOZ Rank

Metric 2. Backlinks    http://www.openlinkprofiler.org/ 

You:

Your Competitor:

4. Unique Active Backlinks

4. Unique Active Backlinks

5. Link Influencer Score

5. Link Influencer Score

Metric 3. Indexed Pages   Google Search: Site:SiteName.com

You:

Your Competitor:

Results

Results

Metric 4. Social Media  Review your competitor’s site for social media

You:

Your Competitor:

Results

Results

Metric 5. Citations  Google Search: “Competitor’s Name” “Keyword” -site:sitename.com

You:

Your Competitor:

Results

Results

3. Onsite Optimization: Talk to the Search Engines in their Own Language
 
https://johnbolyard.com/what-is-seo-and-why-do-you-need-it/ 

Onsite optimization is creating website pages, titles, tags, content, navigation and overall structure to be optimized for your target keywords.

3.1

Keywords in Metatags / Onpage SEO Elements / Keywords in Content

Onpage SEO Element

1. Page Title – 70 characters – this is the most important meta tag.

What you see in the source code:

<title>Focus Keyword Toward the Front of the Title, Up to 70 Characters</title>

2. Meta Description – 160 characters

What you see in the source code:

<meta name=”description” content=”160 characters or less that describe this page. Add a CTA (call to action) to get the most value from your description”>

3. Meta Keywords – No more than 10 keyword phrases

What you see in the source code:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”About 10 keywords that are relevant to this page”>

4. Header Tag: H1 – only one header tag.
In WordPress the title tag and the H1 tag are the same tag.

What you see in the source code:

<h1>Focus Keyword</h1>

5. Sub-head Tags: H2 – multiple h2 tags.
You can have quite a few, but don’t add so many it becomes spam.

6. Sub-head Tags: H3
Longer articles may need more h3 tags – more for visual appearance.

7. Bold: Use bold where needed. Don’t spam

8. Outbound Links:  Outgoing links are good but do reduce the link value of your page.

9. Internal Links: Google expects you to cross link to other related content in your website.

10. Italic:  Good, and useful visually.

11. Combinations:
You can combine bold, italic, link etc

12. Body copy:
Keywords can appear in the body copy where it’s natural. For our purposes we made all the keywords bold so they would be visible.

13. Image Title Tags:

What you see in the source code:

title=”Keyword (where appropriate) plus the title of your image”

14. Keyword URL:

15. First Paragraph:
Add your keyword to the first 100 words in the first paragraph.

16. Geo-Tagging:

Use geo-tagging to let your users and search engines see your actual business location.

17 First Paragraph:
Add your keyword to the first 100 words in the first paragraph.

18. LSI Keywords:

LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Index) are keywords, similar to synonyms and related keywords, that Google uses to determine the relevancy of a page. Add LSI keywords into your posts and pages.

19. Add Modifiers To Your Title

Using modifiers like “2016”, “best”, “guide”, and “review” can help you rank for long tail versions of your focus keyword.

20. Categories (WordPress):
Categories are very useful for adding different ways of finding your content.

Example: “food” or “health”

21. Tags (WordPress):  Tags tell people specifically what is on the page or post.

Example: “diabetic recipes” “vegan gluten free”

22. Word Count: Longer articles have more SEO value. You should have content between 650 to 2,200 words

23. Keyword Density: About 5% keyword ratio. For example, in a 500 word post, about 25 total words should be keywords and/or synonyms. 

24. Image Alt Tags: add a description of the image in the “alt tag”

What you see in the source code:

alt=”Keyword (where appropriate) plus a description of your image”

25. Image Title Tags:

What you see in the source code:

title=”Keyword (where appropriate) plus the title of your image”

26. Keyword URL:

27. First Paragraph:
Add your keyword to the first 100 words in the first paragraph.

28. Geo-Tagging:

Use geo-tagging to let your users and search engines see your actual business location.

29. First Paragraph:
Add your keyword to the first 100 words in the first paragraph.

30. LSI Keywords:

LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Index) are keywords, similar to synonyms and related keywords, that Google uses to determine the relevancy of a page. Add LSI keywords into your posts and pages.

31. Post Longer Content:
Longer content tends to rank significantly higher on the first page of Google. Keep in mind that your content must be compelling to keep your reader on your page.

32. LSI Keywords:

LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Index) are keywords, similar to synonyms and related keywords, that Google uses to determine the relevancy of a page. Add LSI keywords into your posts and pages.

3.2

Keywords in Navigation

  Your navigation and menus are a keyword outline of your website.

Keywords In Navigation

Top Navigation / Focus Keywords

Drop Down Navigation / Secondary Keywords

4. Offsite Optimization

  Offsite optimization creates links back to your website from other websites, social media and directories.

4.1

Offsite Optimization. More important to Google than onsite optimization.

Backlinks – see Page #2 and Section 5 Below

Citations

Find the Best Citations Opportunities (by city) with Moz.com

Social

1.Facebook – 1,100,000,000 visitors/month

2. YouTube – 1,000,000,000 visitors/month

3. Twitter – 310,000,000 visitors/month

4. LinkedIn – 255,000,000 visitors/month

5. Pinterest – 250,000,000 visitors/month

6. Google+ – 120,000,000 visitors/month

Local
Moz.com Local Business Listing Service
BrightLocal.com Business Listing Service
“Google My Business” Listing
“How to Get Started with Local Search”

5. Links: Links are the most important part of SEO.

Backlinks are the most important element of offsite optimization. Backlinks are difficult but well worth the effort. Good backlinks will double the value of your content.

5.1

Links. Links. Links.

Do a Backlink Audit.
Find your backlinks and your competitors backlinks.

http://www.openlinkprofiler.org/

Where to add your backlink.

Outreach

Commenting

Guest Blogging

6. Content. Content. Content.

Content is the most important onsite element of SEO. Google looks for unique, new and comprehensive content in your niche. One great piece of content is worth more than 10 pieces poor content.

6.1

Create and amplify content.

Create consistent content on your focus keywords (product or service)

Where are you creating other content?
How can you convert that into content for your website?

Optimize your content.
Onpage optimization.

Amplify your content.
Have a plan to add your new content to your social media, comments on forums, blog posts etc.

6.2

Create an editorial calendar.

Create an editorial calendar.

Excel spreadsheet, WordPress editorial calendar plugin or online app.

Hard to find topics?
1. Search Google Trends
2. Set upGoogle Alerts on your topic
3. Subscribe to top competitors newsletters
4. Read forums on your topic
5. Reddit – readSubreddits on your topic
6. SearchQuora.com

7. Tracking: Adjust, refine and perfect your SEO.

Tracking your results will tell you where you are successful and where you need to more work.

By looking at what has working (and not worked) you can save time and money going forward.

7.1

Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Add Google Analytics

Connect Google Analytics to Google Search Console

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1308621?hl=en

7.2

Tracking with Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Audience Overview – Who are your visitors

Acquisitions – Where did your visitors come from

Behavior – What did they do when they got there