How to DIY your blog SEO on a shoestring budget |
It doesn't require expensive advertising tools to perform SEO on your blog, and it shouldn't need to be costly neither. Here's how to do it yourself in 7 simple steps.
In the moment that you approach the New Year hits its stride it's likely that you'll be going over budgets and expenses, trying to figure out how you spent so much money last year and how you'll cut back on spending this year. We've all been there and it's a gruelling experience.
When looking for ways to cut corners, it's not uncommon to identify strategies and methods you've been using that cost some serious dough and figure out ways to remove them, or bring them in-house.
For some reason, the majority of marketers think that using an SEO (SEO) expert or tools to support the work they do in that field is an absolute must. This is why I'm here to let you know that you can actually do your own SEO and spend no amount of money.
Are you blown away by the thought of it?
SEO plays an vital component of your overall marketing strategy.
In fact, 61% of marketers' most important goal for marketing inbound is improving their SEO as well as increasing their online presence. It's a bet with increasing voice search in importance, this percentage will only increase year-over-year.
Making sure your SEO is in sync and increasing your natural site's traffic may help you outdo the competition in your field, and will make you more visible to the people who conduct internet searching.
How do you DIY your SEO strategy
1. Make a list of your keywords
The first step of doing your SEO strategy by yourself is to determine the keywords you want to rank for through search engine research . They can be longer or shorter tails , but essentially, they should be keywords you wish your website to be ranked for, as well as phrases people use to search for relevant items in your field on the web.
In the case of an agency that's specialized in designing and marketing You'll need to begin with a list that looks as follows:
Agency for marketing
Design agency
Marketing and design company
High-quality design
Marketing strategy
Your long-term key words could appear something like this:
What are the steps to implement a market strategy
The most effective design strategies to use for marketing via email
How to identify marketing goals
Marketing strategies of various kinds to employ
These are only an example. What you'll want to identify is specific areas of expertise and expand from there.
I'd recommend also talking to the sales department to find out the questions your potential customers are asking about and what they're expressing they need assistance with. This could inform your keywords list in addition.
Make sure to check your ranking in order that you can determine which keywords to build on, as well as look at your competitors' rankings, as well. It will give you an idea of the keyword that is not being used, so you can concentrate on them and gain the advantages.
2. Establish or create pillar pages
Pillar pages are meant to be the one-stop shop for information on a certain topic, which should also be linked to one of your key phrases. They are usually longer, as they do not leave a one unfinished and cover as wide a range of ground as possible.
You either have these pages which need to be updated or build them. When designing or updating these pages, ensure that you look into different aspects of the theme.
For instance let's say you're creating an web page that contains the words "marketing strategies".
There's a need to consider the best way to put a plan to achieve the objectives a strategy can help you attain, the various methods and tactics which a strategy is composed of, how to measure the success of your strategy, and how to use your plan.
In the case of every word or keyword that you wish to rank You'll need a site that is a pillar. So, if you make use of that term in your content, you can link to that specific page. This will increase the content's chance of ranking in search results for the word.
3. Identify duplicate content and broken links
If you've been putting together blog content willy nilly there's a good chance you've got lots of outdated and duplicate content and maybe even unfinished pages. Fix those errors if you want your site to rank well, as they could work against you.
You can create a spreadsheet in which you list the keywords, as well as blog posts that relate to that keyword in some way. If you've got a large amount of blog posts it is possible create subgroups of every key word. Take a look at the below image to get an idea of what I mean.
It will also help you plan your efforts so you can better understand which blog posts are more similar to others.
Also, make sure to create a separate spreadsheet that houses any broken links you encounter during this dive in order to easily remove the links and redirect them.
4. Make updates and redirects
Once you're done creating your spreadsheet, go over the similar blog content attentively. If there are any that seem repeated or repeating similar ideas, you should redirect the less strategic or dated blog articles to more updated, higher-quality pages.
It will also reduce self-competing content (yes you can compete with itself in ranking on search engines) as well as ensure your pages are ranked for the right search terms.
It's also an excellent chance to make changes to the blog's content that doesn't have to be changed but could use more content or refresh.
Since you'll be keeping your pages on the internet, you'll need to make sure they have relevant keywords that are used on them, and that they contain the most up to current information that is available.
5. Link to the pillar pages in the text
Now that your blog is cleared of duplicate content and the clutter is removed, along with broken links, it's time to go through your pages and verify that the appropriate ones are linked to your page's pillars .
Start by reviewing your subgroupings and the links that are listed beneath them.
Let's suppose there are three blog sites that correlate to marketing strategy as well as email marketing . Go through each post and add a link to the pillar of your marketing strategy page using "marketing strategy" as anchor text.
6. Create a linking strategy moving ahead
Make sure you've adhered to this plan in all future blog content you're creating. In the end, you've gone through the effort of updating past content, and the only way to harm that effort is if you do not continue to follow the plan.
I'm sure I've talked about spreadsheets many times and yet they're your friend when it comes to this approach. They are able to assist to complete each stage, not just this. I suggest listing every keyword on the list, then in the subsequent column, the post given to them.
It doesn't hurt to also offer a variety of anchor text or keywords with long tails that can be used for each equally.
By outlining which pillar post belongs to which keyword(s), you'll keep any new team members on the same page and give them a quick guide to check against as you review and edit the content for your blog in the future.
It also ensures you continue to keep SEO top of mind as you write your web content.
7. Continue to track results
Be sure to check to see how your plan is doing every quarter or month. You'll need to determine whether or not your content starts to appear higher in the search results, or is it stagnant, which could help you locate any problems.
It is possible to use tools for free like Moz , or you can conduct a search using your keyword from time the time to check whether your website is showing up.
Of course, if you're wondering how to monitor it and don't want to go in on the SEO software similar to Moz, then I have one closing word for those of you who are interested, and that's something we've said a lot this morning and that is spreadsheets.
SEO isn't required to cost you a fortune
Having an SEO strategy is crucial if you want to be easy to find online by your clients. Hiring an outsourced SEO specialist can cost a lot however it's not necessary.
Moving your SEO effort within your company and following the steps previously mentioned, you can put your blog up and running in order that the best blog posts start to get ranked, and continues to rank in time.
For review, the fundamental actions are:
In assembling a keyword list
creating pillar pages or, if your already have a high-traffic page to make use of, transforming existing posts into Pillar pages
Scoping out duplicate content
Refreshing old, outdated content, and establishing redirects for content that is competing with it
Seeding the links to the content of your cluster from your pillar pages
Establishing a linking strategy
Of course, keeping an eye on your results.
Easy-peasy.