How to D-I-Y your blog SEO without spending a dime |
It doesn't require expensive instruments to conduct SEO for your blog and it shouldn't need to be costly too. Here's how to perform it yourself, in seven simple steps.
In the moment that the New Year hits its stride, you're most likely going over budgets and expenses, trying to figure out how you spent so much dollars last year, and then how you'll cut back on spending this year. You've been there and it's no picnic.
In the search for ways to save money It's not unusual to find strategies and equipment you've employed that have cost some serious dough and figure out ways to remove them, or bring the tools in-house.
However, for some reason most marketers think using a search engine optimization (SEO) expert or tools that can help facilitate their efforts in that area is a must. But, let me inform you that it is possible to really make your own SEO for your blog and not spend any cash at all.
Is your mind blown?
SEO is an important component of your overall marketing plan.
In reality, 61% of marketers' most important priorities in their marketing through the internet is improving their SEO as well as increasing their online presence. And I'll bet that with voice search continuing to rise in importance, this percent will continue to grow year over year.
Ensuring your SEO is in sync and increasing your website's organic traffic could make you stand out from other competitors and also make you more accessible to the people who conduct web-based searches.
How to DIY your SEO strategy
1. Make a list of your keywords
The first step to implement your SEO plan by yourself is to determine your keywords through the research of keywords . They could be longer or shorter tails however, in essence it should include terms you would like your content to be ranked for, as well as phrases your audience uses to search for related items to your field online.
If, for instance, you're an agency that specializes in designing and marketing, you'll want to start by making a checklist that reads as follows:
Agency for marketing
Design agency
Design and Marketing firm
High-quality design
Marketing strategy
Your long-term key words could appear similar to:
What are the steps to implement a market strategy?
Best design techniques for email marketing
What are the marketing objectives you want to achieve?
Marketing strategies of various kinds to employ
These are just examples. The first thing you need to do is identify your special areas of expertise and expand from there.
I'd also consult with your sales team to see the questions your potential customers are asking about and what they're saying they require help with, as that could inform your keywords list and more.
Don't forget to examine your ranking in order that you can determine which keywords to build on, and don't forget to look at your competitors' ranking, too. It will give you an idea of any areas that have been neglected, to help you target them and seize the benefit.
2. Establish or create pillar pages
Pillar pages are designed to serve as the one-stop shop for information on a certain area, that will also connect to your key phrases. The pages tend to be larger, since they don't leave any stone unturned and go over as much territory as is possible.
These pages are either already in existence which need to be updated, or you need to create them. When making or updating your pages, make sure you explore different areas of the theme.
So, for instance let's say you're creating an web page that contains the words "marketing method".
It is important to talk about what you need to do to put your strategy together, the goals a strategy can help you reach, different mediums and tactics in a strategy as well as how to gauge the success of your strategy, and how to use the strategy.
For each keyword or word that you wish to rank You'll need a pillar page. So, if you make use of that term in your content, you can link to that specific pillar page, which will increase the content's ability to rank for that word.
3. Find duplicate content, broken links
If you've been creating blog content at random, chances are you have lots of outdated and duplicate content and maybe even unfinished pages. It is imperative to fix those problems to ensure that your blog is able to rank well, as they could work against your site.
Create a spreadsheet that lists every keyword and blog posts that relate to the keyword in some way. If you've got a lot of blog content You may need to add subgroups for every search term. Check out the picture below to understand what I am talking about.
This can help you manage your activities so that you can better understand what blog posts are the most like others.
Also, make sure to create an additional spreadsheet to store any broken links you encounter while doing this deep dive to make it easy to pull off and redirect.
4. Create updates and redirects
When you're finished creating your spreadsheet, look over identical blog articles attentively. If any are extremely repetitive or reiterating the same concepts, move older or less effective blog posts to the more modern, more high-quality sites.
It will also reduce self-competing content (yes, your content can be competing with other content in search rankings), and ensure you rank on the correct pages with the appropriate keywords.
It's also an excellent opportunity to update any blog content that doesn't have to be changed but could use more content or refresh.
In the event that you're going to keep these pages, you'll want to ensure they've got relevant keywords that are used on them, and that they provide the most up-to current information that is available.
5. Include links to pages of pillars in content
After your blog has been cleared of duplicate content and the clutter is eliminated along with any broken links, it's time to go through your pages and make sure the right ones are linking back to your the pillar pages .
Review your subgroupings as well as the links listed underneath them.
So, let's say you have three blog posts with a connection to your marketing strategy as well as marketing via email . Review each article and include a link on your marketing strategy pillar page using "marketing strategies" as your anchor the text.
6. Create a linking strategy moving forward
It is important to ensure that you're adhering to this method to all new blog posts that you create. In the end, you've gone through the hassle of updating past content, and one thing that can ruin that is if you do not continue to follow the plan.
I know I've mentioned spreadsheets a lot, but they are the best option when it comes to this approach. They will help you to complete each process, and this is one. I suggest listing every keyword on the list, then in the subsequent column, the post that they are assigned.
It doesn't hurt to also include a range of anchor words or long-tail keywords which could be utilized for each also.
By outlining which pillar article is associated with which keyword(s), you'll keep the potential team participants on the same page and provide an easy checklist to reference when you're reviewing and editing your future blog content.
It also ensures you continue to keep SEO at the forefront of your mind when you write your web content.
7. Keep track of your results
Be sure to check on how well your strategy is doing every quarter or month. You'll want to indicate whether your website is starting to rank higher in search results, or is it static, which can help you locate any problems.
There are free software tools such as Moz , or you can conduct a search using the keywords you choose from time to time to see the frequency with which your posts are popping into the search results.
Of course, if you're wondering how to monitor the data and do not want to go in on the SEO software similar to Moz, then I have one closing word for you, and it's one we've heard a lot of today in the past: spreadsheets.
SEO does not have to cost you a fortune
The need to have an SEO strategy is crucial if you want to be quickly found online by consumers. Employing an external SEO expert can be costly, but it isn't necessary.
By moving your SEO efforts to the inside and following the guidelines above, you can get your blog up and running to ensure that the most valuable blog content starts to rank as well, and then continues to rise as time passes.
The basic steps are as follows:
Assembling a keyword list
creating pillar pages or, if you have a page that is popular to make use of, transforming existing posts to become the pillar page
Scoping out duplicate content
Refreshing old, outdated content and assigning redirects for the content competing against it
Seeding the links to the content of your cluster from the pillar pages
Setting up a link strategy
And, of course, keeping an eye on your results.
Easy-peasy.