Step 1: Start with Keyword Research

Where keyword research is one of the most important parts of the SEO process, it is almost impossible to start an SEO campaign, unless you know what people are searching on the internet and what information they are looking for. As you do keyword research, you have to start with the root keyword or seed keyword. In today's time, there are many free and paid tools available for keyword research.

Here are a few things you need to keep in mind when you do keyword research.

• Start with the long tail and low competition
• use Google autocomplete to get more idea
•  Use Google related search
•  You can use tools like keywordtool.io
•  There are paid tools like SEMRush which can help you do keyword research.

Step 2: Competition Analysis and Website Audit

When you finished your keyword research, the next step is to conduct a competitive analysis and website audit. The website audit is very important to make a list of on-page and off-page activities.

A lot of SEO professionals skip this process and move directly to the next step. Yes, website audit and assessment is difficult to process if you don’t know fundamentals of SEO, ranking factors and how exactly Google determines the ranking of web pages.

There are many paid tools available for a website audit. I use seoprofiler for website audit. You may also try seoptimer.com for assessment.

Step 3: On Page Optimization or site optimization

Google is becoming more intelligent and just adding keyword rich content will not help you rank on the first position after recent algorithm updates.

On Page optimization tips and factors

• Write original and useful content
• Don’t just add keywords to your content. Instead, provide valuable information
• Your site structure, URL structure will matter a lot.
• Your site should load fast
• The site should be mobile friendly
• Your site should be updated on a regular basis

Step 4: Link Building and off-page optimization

The links are important for ranking and trust. However, you can’t just create links from any websites. Except, you must earn links from authority websites and they should be relevant. Whether you start building links from poor quality websites having very thin content, you will not be able to gain ranks.

Step 5: Monitor ranking and keep updating content

Search engine optimization process is not a one-time activity. You need to keep updating your content, keep creating new content on a regular basis. Whether you don’t monitor ranking and update your content you may not be able to maintain your ranking. These are many tools available which will help you to monitor the ranking of your website. These are some tools like seoprofiler, SEMRush, webceo can be used for monitoring ranking.

6. Use a Mobile-Friendly Design.

All of the SEO algorithm updates announced in Google's recent years are about mobile.

More and more people turn on their phones so that most of their browsing, users and search engines can provide a seamless mobile experience with similar websites. When you are building a new website, it is imperative that you make it mobile-friendly.

7. Target Primary Keywords for Each Page.

First, of all our initial keyword research can help us gain an overall picture of the language to use when building our website, however, it’s also good practice to choose a target keyword (or a couple) for each individual web page on our site. Therefore, to avoid competition from yourself, choose unique for each page.

8. Optimize Page URLs.

First of all, we should customize the URL of every page on our website. For your best ability, you want every URL to be easy to remember, what is on the page and where possible, communicate, use your target keyword for the page.

9. Optimize Title Tags.

Into the website, the title tag is the most important part of the website Google looks at to learn what the page is about, which makes it another good spot to use your target keyword. We should always try to keep the title tag short for your website because Google will display 50-60 characters on the search engine results page and even less of the title will appear in the tab at the top of your browser.

10. Optimize Images.

Any image/photo you use on the web page provides some additional opportunity to optimize your page for your main keyword. Customize the name of each image to include the keywords you target (e.g., Primarykeyword.jpg) and update the entire text on the page with your keywords. Suppose you have a WordPress site, you can easily update alt text in the media editor when you load the image: How to add alt text to WordPress.

11. Optimize Headings.

While writing for the web, the heading is a good tool to better organize your copy so that it is easy to read and easy to scan for your travels. As an added bonus, your title is another indication on Google about what your page is about.

Strategically place your targeted keywords in titles on your web page - but only where it makes it intuitive to do so. If you find the reader awkward, you do not want to force the words, but if you can use the keyword in a way that makes sense, then do so.

12. Optimize text on the page.

You have to be cautious here because the search engines notice the keyword stuffing and your website can be penalized for it. But unless you only use your targeted keywords (and relevant synonyms) in context, where they understand, then adding them to the text on the page is a good practice. In most cases, unless you have targeted keywords that are relevant to the page (which is important!), Then this part should come naturally.

13. Write Unique Meta Descriptions.

While meta descriptions do not directly affect the ranking, they play a role in your click-through rates from search results. When a person sees your web page in search results, they will see your meta description below the page title:

Example of search results with meta descriptions

Any word in your description that matches the words they search will be in Bold, which will help attract your attention to your results. Since they are trying to decide which results to choose, you can use this lesson for this reason why your page is worth the click.

Always write a relevant meta description for every page on your website. Naturally, try to include your keyword (page) naturally to end with a few bolded text on the search results page (as in the example above with "cloud hosting"), And use the space to provide a brief description. What is valuable about the page?

14. Link to Other Pages on Your Website.

The internal linking gives you a way to signal to Google what your page is about through the anchor text you use. Whether you’re not familiar with the term, the anchor text refers to the words that are hyperlinked. Google sees the words used each time there’s a link to a web page and takes that as information about what’s on the page.

The Internal links also give you a way to show the search engines how your different pages are connected and drive traffic from one page on the website to another. Since you ideally want your visitors to stick around and spend some time on your website (which is also good for SEO), providing helpful internal links is a good way to make that happen.

15. Submit Your Sitemap to Google.

Before your web pages appear on the search engine results page, Google needs to crawl your website.

Typically, Google's crawler will make your way over your website over time, even if you do not do anything, but you can speed things up by submitting your sitemap through Google Search Console. You can communicate directly with Google that your website is present and tell all the specific pages on it.

Conclusion:

SEO is complex and requires continuous practice. You need to keep your knowledge updated to maintain the ranking of your website or your client’s website.

Thanks for reading this article.