DIY SEO
DIY SEO is simply short for do it yourself, search engine optimization.
Before I get into that, I want to show you something.
It’s about Return on Investment Right?
SEO has one of the highest, if not THE highest ROI of any marketing type. You probably do not use the yellow pages anymore, what DO you use? Oh, that’s right, search engines.
http://www.braveheartdigitalmarketing.com/blog/seo-still-provides-best-roi-inbound-marketing-channel/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/05/21/what-roi-can-i-expect-from-seo/#46ff40662d67
You can see here, that SEO has the best ROI of any marketing type. BUT it also is risky, you have to do the work to get the best results.
Based on that, I am going to give you some basic tips if you already have a website and use WordPress and completed a new website checklist.
DIY SEO tip #1
You must set up your foundation.
If you are using WordPress then a plugin like Yoast SEO will help you generate search engine friendly content.
Yoast will help you get all of your title tags in order, let you know how often to use keywords, and tell you how long your content should be. There is a free and paid version, even now I use the free version.
Your DIY SEO project will contain images, text and other search engine friendly terms, or it should. You should not forget to add the “ALT” attribute to your images. This is an easy way to throw your keyword into your project.
DIY SEO tip #2
Keyword research is everything. Google has a number of FREE tools to use but they only let you research YOUR data. I prefer to look at my data as well as the data of my competition. Then, I simply reverse engineer what they have already done to rank.
This tool, Semrush, is worth its weight in gold. If you plan to start a project you MUST use a tool like this.
For example, with Semrush, I can plug in a keyword and get the data so I know what to write about. I can also plug in my site and see where I rank. My favorite feature though is the fact that I can plug in any site on the web and see how THEY rank.
I can then go in and target keywords based on traffic or how easy it is for me to rank for those keywords.
Example:
As an example, in the field below, type in a keyword OR type in a website. If you do not have any ideas, type in “livestrong.com” in the search box below.
Right off the bat you see that this tool estimates they get almost 20 million visits PER MONTH based on Google Search. The “traffic cost” indicates the value of the keywords they rank for. In this case, $18+ million per month is what this tool estimates their keyword value is.
That is not all though. It breaks everything out in detail.
Livestrong has a top 100 ranking for 5 million+ keywords. You can sort, filter and find keywords in your niche at your leisure.
If you look, “shower water temperature” gets 210 searches a month. It is not an overly difficult keyword to rank for either. So, if you want to drive traffic to your site and your product or service has anything to do with shower water, temperature or shower water temperature, you have an opportunity.
Then you still have 5 million more keywords to target, from this ONE website.
DIY SEO tip #3
Write! Its not enough to have a site. It is also not enough to do all the research. You have to put it all into practice.
So again, find a topic. Discover the keywords. Be sure that that you have the YOAST plugin in your WordPress site.
Once that is done, then write to your audience. Follow the YOAST suggestions and that will give you search engine friendly content that has A CHANCE to rank.
Ranking your website on Google, Yahoo or Bing is not overly complicated for most. It’s a matter of creating and executing a strategy.
This article, probably has you asking more questions than before you read it. It should. There are a ton of free sources online that can answer your questions if you know how to look.
Once you have done the research, you will be well on your way. Its not complicated, but it take effort. However, the effort is worth it!
Here are a couple of more SEO articles if you want to learn a bit more:
On Page SEO in One Infographic
Organic SEO is Still About Relevance and Popularity
