SEO for a starter
-
Hi
I operate in a rather competitive market (IT and project management related training), and my focus is the UK market. I've recently started focussing on SEO. I have been creating content, albeit slowly. I have completed writing a book on my target subject, which is due to go out in a couple of weeks (I've received very positive feedback so far). And I have a decent PPC campaign.
To get to decent ranking on Google etc., my plan is
1. Focussing on quality content and publishing on my site (I have about 15-20 articles in the pipeline). Reaching out for guess posts is next, but creating this much content is hard.
2. Get external SEO help for link building and off-page SEO. This is somewhat confusing for me, as I've got offers ranging from blog posts, BMR etc. I have some budget for this, but don't exactly know what to target.
3. Gradual focus on on-page optimisation.
I haven't done anything on social front, on FB, Twritter. I do have a solid LinkedIn profile (personal).
I have one full time resource available to help me out.
What should I focus on? What am I missing?
Cheers.
-
Hi Feneris,
Were these answers enough to get you started, or are you still looking for some more advice? We'd love to have you check in and know how things are going for you. Thanks!
-
Feneris,
Any plan requires first knowing where you are. You state you have a decent ppc campaign, but do not state anything about your website. How is it ranked, type, etc. When I read your plan for ranking on Google, I first see you are focusing on content: is the site new? If so, How many pages? Architecture is flat - 2 to 3 clicks to anywhere? Keywords are good to go and you are ranking for at least some of them?
If not ranking for keywords or no kw analysis yet, I would take a step back and focus on site map as it applies to visitors coming to the site and do keyword analysis prior to the content. Believe me I am sure you know your subject, but my experience is everytime I do keyword analysis I am amazed at the way people search differently than me. An example for us is we have several attorney clients in various areas. In some cities, attorney is used as the most searched on term and in others it is lawyer??? So, I would do that first as it will apply to your content writing.
Next, I would make sure that my on page is spot on because otherwise, it is going to languish until you get the bug and you will be wasting your good content as no one will see it. A typical mistake with newer sites is identical title tags on every page - really bad for SEO. Another is you need quality meta descriptions for the organic traffic you get or they will not click through which is also bad for SEO.
I would also go after my Local SEO (places, bing bus portal, yahoo local and citation sites). If your site is new and your resources are good, I would sign up with Yahoo directory for the $295/yr. If you claim your SE local and 12 to 20 citation sites you will have helped yourself a lot.
Then, when your book goes out, set up speaking engagements and interviews for yourself and get the media links, etc. Whenever you are going to be hawking the book in the media make sure there is a link to your site. I am assuming you are creating a site for the book???
So, that is my 2 pence worth. Hope it is helpful.
Robert
BTW - Do not forget to support open source developers by making contributions when you use their tools. Keep the Internet Open.
-
To my experience it's very important to post solid contents continuously, to let people come and know you during the time even though it may be a good idea to have some content online to start.
Then I have good results with my Facebook page (in the Italian market): it's very easy to manage and very effective in spreading your content around the web. Furthermore, once you've got a good number of friends, your contents run even faster.
-
If you've written a book then you need to work on your image as an authority figure. Go out to tech sites and get yourself interviewed, with a link to your site. This is the kind of link building that Google loves and it pays the greatest rewards in the long run.
Offer some excerpts on your site. Better still, write your content and insert excerpts. Creates a natural teaser that makes people want to buy your book (which is why you're doing SEO). Maybe add a "power" picture of yourself (I'm basing this on what I've seen others do).
You NEED a FB page. Twitter plays a role too, but it requires a lot more fresh content. if you can't keep your Tweets up I'd skip it.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How .com and .me effect SEO?
Hi, We have a project https://www.shipwaves.me/ and https://www.shipwaves.com/ and however if we are doing SEO for .me domain - is this give early results like as .com domain. I'm not sure that .me is in the category of .me domains. Well, if we are following the same strategy as like following for .com domains - is that the results will be the same or not. Also, in terms of any additional strategy to be done to make the SEO little faster for the .me domain. Guys, please share your thought on this.
Algorithm Updates | | LayaPaul0 -
Does Coverage impact on SEO
Does the coverage issues on google search console ( Google Webmaster) has an impact on SEO ( CTR or impressions). How much of a difference or impact will fixing these have on Search results and average
Algorithm Updates | | Rishardg0 -
Hotel SEO, 3-pack & Search Console: How to get the right data and how to improve CTR?
Hey guys, I've been working with some hotels and I feel like there are some specific issues which need special solutions.
Algorithm Updates | | Maggiathor
Maybe some of you also work for hotels and face similar problems. Question 1: Google "forces" 3-packs impressions to OTAs like booking.com via Hotel Ads. You basically have a big blue "book now" button and a small little website button. This ends up basically leading to CTRs below 1% despite a 1-3 Position. Is there any way to improve the organic CTR? Of course we use hotel ads, but they offer bad analytics AND we basically pay for our SEO-Performance. Question 2: Search console doesn't specify wether or not a impression comes from 3-Pack or the rest of the organic results, which basically leads to a average position which says nothing. It's hard to evaluate the performance of meta-titles and texts, because the ctr is also mixed. What would be a better way to get this data or do you think google will change this in some time (new search console doesn't offer this). Question 3: Hotel Rankings are dominated by OTAs, Meta-Searchers and BIg Chains. Has anyone experience in SEO for smaller, family owned Hotels? Any tricks how to get a steady traffic source outside of brand results? Hope there are some travel experts in here 🙂0 -
SEO Benchmarks for Healthcare Vertical
Hey All, I have a healthcare client that is particularly interested in benchmarking their organic traffic and other organic KPIs against the industry as a whole. Does anyone know of any great resources that show SEO benchmarks broken out by vertical? Thank you! Rachael
Algorithm Updates | | FullMedia901 -
ATTN SEO MINDS: Is there a way/tool to categorize keywords from an Omniture/GA report?
So ideally I would like to take the list of keywords I am currently ranking for, and group these based on what the user intent was in making that query. For example if I am a Thai delivery chain and I am currently receiving traffic from the queries "vegan dish" and "tofu thai food", I would want to have a column in a keyword report that says these queries fall into the VEGETARIAN category. I think what I want to know is how can I filter a massive list by a range of keywords? I want to know does this cell contain, "keyword A" or "keyword B" or "keyword Z". If so list the corresponding category. This way I can look at keyword performance by category or user intent/motivation. Is there a tool out there that will help me accomplish this, or is there a good solution in excel I can use?
Algorithm Updates | | Jonathan.Smith0 -
Old school SEO tools / software / websites
Hey Mozzers, I am doing some research and wonder if you can help me out? Before Moz, Hubspot, Majestic, Screaming Frog and all the other awesome SEO tools we use today what were the SEO tools / software / websites that were used for aiding SEO? I guess we can add the recently closed Yahoo! Directory for starters! Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | RikkiD220 -
Page rank of 2 with zero SEO and a 2 month old domain?
Hello, I helped work on a website for a friend. We used wordpress, a theme from elegant themes and wrote the content over 4 days. Zero back links, no seo, etc. Well, a little on page optimization and that's about it. Oh, we did ONE back link from a review site. The domain was brand new; never registered before. About a week after it started getting indexed, it jump from no page rank to a page rank of 1. About a week later, it jumped to a page rank of 2. Again, zero seo (aside from above stated). The site is: trade lines review dot com A page rank of 2 is nothing to write home about, but given the circumstances, how is this even possible? Thanks you!
Algorithm Updates | | Friedman0 -
SEO ranking factors
Hello I am reading SEO ranking factor (very good informations) and I want to ask: what does it mean: of linking C bloks to page I think that: how many(#) links from the same server (C block) links to your homepage or some pages of your web... of linking IP adresses to page how many web links are going to my web and every links are from another server. if I understand it good, it is no different between, if you have links from webpages in one server (one C block) or from webpages on another servers as your web is, because both correlation is 0.25... THX Could anybody expalin me, what does it mean: # of External Links w/ Partial Match Anchor Text http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-5 The number of external links and all these external links contain partial match anchor text from my query: (I am finding in Google "tennis" and see in SERP domain www.usta.com. # of External Links w/ Partial Match Anchor Text: tells me the number how many external links contain partial match anchor text "play tennis, tennis school, tennis info..."? )
Algorithm Updates | | PeterSEO0