This guide is a quick run-through of how to get your SEO content up-and-running as quick as possible. We’ll start with the technicals, run through the content optimization process and learn to use analytics to monitor performance.
This useful guide aims to give you the most bang for your reading time. We’re not going in-depth into the theory. We’re focusing on the actions you can take today to start growing your SEO performance.
Step #1. Set up your website
You can’t really do SEO without a website. At least, you won’t have access to the reporting section.
Of course, I’ve seen many Medium blogs ranking over the last few years. From my analysis, this appears to be due to the fact that you post your content directly on the medium.com root domain. This means that you’re leveraging Medium’s authority with each and every post you write.
Any service that creates your site on a subdomain will not have as much authority. Examples here include Substack, Beehiiv, wordpress.com, etc.
So yes, Medium has been incredibly successful in search results, but using this shortcut means you have less data available. Not being able to integrate Google Search Console – or even Google Analytics – means that you have less insights into your optimization. Of course, you can use tools like SEMRush and ahrefs to better understand your content rankings.
The method I usually recommend for creating content involves setting up domain hosting, installing WordPress.org and using Elementor to build custom pages. In fact, that’s exactly what I’ve done on this site.
Of course, there are other methods, like SquareSpace, Wix, WebFlow, etc. But I like Hostgator and WordPress.org, because it’s cost-effective and very straightforward when you want to create a simple site.
Step #2. Review your technicals
Here are 3 technical things you want to check once your site is live:
Tech 1. Does my site have a Robots.txt and XML Sitemap?
You should be able to find these by adding /robots.txt and /sitemap.xml to the end of your domain URL. These SEO elements help Google crawl and find your site’s pages.
Probably not the biggest issue when you have only a handful of pages. But once your site gets to a certain size, these files will help Google quickly scan your sites contents. It is also a ranking factor to have these set up correctly.
Make sure your Robots.txt allows Google to crawl your most important pages. And be sure to include all your valuable SEO pages in the sitemap.
Tech 2. Does my website have page speed issues?
Beyond SEO, site speed directly impacts the user experience and will impact your conversions. Of course, it’s also one of Google’s key technical ranking factors so important for both SEO traffic and cross-channel conversions.
Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool is one of the best tools to review what’s slowing down your site. Remember to make sure you focus on the mobile tab in this audit, because Google has completely migrated its ranking algorithm over to the mobile-first index. So mobile performance will now impact your desktop rankings!
One of the simplest recommendations is to compress your images with a tool like TinyJPG – with no loss of image quality. Many of the other recommendations can be completed with a WordPress plugin or a developer’s support. Of course it’s usually quicker and cheaper when you find a plug-and-play solution.
Tech 3. Canonical Tags & Duplicate Content
Finally, we come to one of the most important concepts in SEO: duplicate content and keyword cannibalization. In simple terms, Google wants you to be as clear as possible about which page you want to rank for relevant keywords. That’s why it can be difficult to rank several pages on a topic if you don’t have a clear SEO strategy in place. Here’s what may happen as an example:
Let’s say your product is a crypto wallet. You want to rank for terms related to this like “Crypto wallet”, “What is a crypto wallet” and “How to set up a crypto wallet”. (Don’t worry about keywords just yet, we’ll cover these extensively in the next section.)
Now let’s say you’ve focused all your website content around ranking for these terms. One page aims to teach people what a crypto wallet is. Another page is a guide on how to set up the crypto wallet. A third, separate blog post talks about both of these topics and several others answer the same questions with the slightly different answers.
In this situation, Google is going to take one look at your site and say “I have no clue which page they want to rank for this term.” As a result, you end up generating less traffic for this term.
Instead, what you want to do from a content perspective is consolidate all the most important information into a 1000+ word guide that covers all these questions and gives the most high-quality answers to share value with your target audience.
But what can you do if you want to keep these pages separate, because they serve an important purpose? That’s where the technical side comes in and we can implement what’s called a canonical tag. And these are easy to implement in most CMS platforms with plugins like Yoast SEO.
Canonical tags are an SEO best practice that highlight which page you want to rank for the content on the current page. Ideally, you want each page to canonicalize to itself. But occasionally you’ll have several pages with similar, maybe even duplicate, content and you need to choose the page you want to rank.
This is where canonicals shine.
Step #3. Create Optimized Content
Creating optimized content comes down to a few key principles:
- Find relevant keywords that people are either a) currently searching for, or b) will be searching for in the near future.
- Follow best practices to optimize your content for relevant keywords.
- Make high-quality content, demonstrating your expertise
So we start with keywords. Here are a few of my favorite places to find keywords:
Google Keyword Planner
This is a free tool available in Google Ads, under the planning section. Simply start with a relevant seed keyword like ‘Crypto Exchange’ and Keyword Planner will give you search volume data for keywords like:
- Crypto Exchange
- Centralized / Decentralized Exchange
- How to buy crypto on an exchange
- What is a crypto exchange
These are Google’s top insights into what people care about.
Google SERP
Google has a way of telling you in its search engine results pages what people care about…
- Top-ranking sites – The pages ranking for your top keywords will give you information around what type of content Google is looking for
- People Also Ask – questions people regularly ask about your keyword
- Related Searches – similar keywords that Google thinks you might search next
- Alphabet Soup Keywords – Google guessing what you will search next based on autocomplete
Spend some time reviewing Google’s search results pages and I’m sure you’ll learn some new SEO best practices that will help you grow in your niche.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public is a tool I used to use a lot more before Neil Patel bought it. It’s a great tool for finding relevant questions on your topic. Of course relevant questions make great content.
Trends
You also want to get ahead of trends before they blow up. Google Trends and social media are a great place to understand what’s trending and what people are talking about. Following thought leaders of your industry is a great way to learn about new trends that are ripe for content opportunities.
Step #4. Use Analytics to Monitor performance
Google Analytics is good to see how people interact with your site – whether they bounce of your site, how long they stay on each page, etc.
But the SEO’s favorite Google analytics tool is Google Search Console. Instead of an overview of your website performance, GSC shows how your site is performing on Google. You get great insights into the keywords you’re ranking, how many clicks and impressions you generate for each keyword, which pages are ranking for each keyword, etc.
You can even use GSC to request Google to crawl a new or recently optimized page.
I return to GSC at least once a week for each of my clients, just to understand how our SEO performance is changing and whether there are new opportunities.
How to set up GSC
- Sign up to Search Console with an existing Google account
- Once signed in, click “Add a Property” and type in your website URL
- Select “Verify ownership with DNS” and copy the TXT record
- Paste the TXT record into the DNS records on your domain registrar’s website. Here are the guides for SquareSpace, Wix, GoDaddy and HostGator in case you use any of these services.
- Once you’ve updated your DNS records, your GSC should update immediately. If not, there is likely an issue with your set-up. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
With the power of Google Search Console on your side, I’m sure you’ll be amazed to see how much SEO potential your site has.
Bonus #5: Build some backlinks
Of course if that wasn’t enough of a challenge for you, try building some backlinks. This is NOT my forte, that’s why I included it here as a bonus.
Start by reaching out to your partners and asking them to link to your site. Show them how you’ve already linked from your site to theirs.
I also like to reach out to websites in my industry that offer guest posting opportunities. For every 5-10 content pieces you write for your own site, consider making one for someone else’s blog. That’ll instantly get you a backlink from a site you may not have gotten otherwise.
Tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs can help you find additional opportunities for backlinks, especially by analyzing your competitors’ strategies.
The Deal
I’m passionate about SEO and I love helping the community however I can. Whether that’s answering questions in your posts or messages on X or working alongside you to implement these best practices, my goal is to help you in the SEO world.
I’ve spent the last 8+ years helping major e-commerce brands like Nike, Chanel, and Tommy Hilfiger. Now, I want to leverage my expertise to help your business succeed.
Feel free to request a consultation below and I’ll be happy to jump on a free call if I think it’s a good fit. If you’re extra eager for an SEO consultation, you can even schedule a call right now.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
This article is perfect for someone like myself who is just getting into the SEO scene now. Thanks so much for putting this together Jesper. What a goldmine!
Hi Trav, thanks so much for your comment! I’m looking forward to creating more content just like this one. Stay tuned and would love to get your feedback on future posts. Thanks again!