SEO for Dummies • Part 1

SEO? Not as easy as it looks.

There’s a way to write, and then there’s a way to write in order to boost your website’s rank on Google and move from page 3 to page 1 in less than two months. Trust us, we did it. 

Writing on any given topic, and skewing your writing habits in order to incorporate specific keywords (that can oftentimes have nothing to do with the topic at hand) has proven to be difficult. And when writing is not your strong suit, it’s extremely discouraging. 

The thing is, though, you can improve. You just have to try. Hours of research as well as trial and error are what seem to work best. Write five articles, if you see no difference in your site’s analytics, change your approach. Also, ask questions! 

One of the harsh realities of SEO is the constantly changing algorithm of Google. It’s hard enough to constantly have to write about multiple things all at once, but you also have to account for whether or not Google will actually recognize it. 

The most taxing part, however, is writing for SEO and not for passion. Sometimes you just have to spew informative content in order to share something useful to the public while incorporating the necessary keywords at that time. However, when you are able to come up with topics that can be personal, passionate, professional and helpful to your site’s exposure… Well, then you’ve peaked. 

What is SEO? 

So, to put it plainly, it’s Search Engine Optimization. 

But to put it complexly, it’s the act of strategically organizing every piece of writing within a page, website, or post in order to rank on search engines and gain more clicks. 

Google seems to be one the most important companies in the world. You can imagine that if a product or service helps absolutely everyone find exactly what they’re looking for and knows everything about everything in just one click, they must be a profound company. But you? You better be there, and you better be on page number one. 

Here’s the thing, how do you get to being number one? Let’s be honest, how many of us actually make it past page 1 on Google? Perhaps the most stubborn ones do. But those are the same ones who look at a menu over and over again, just to order the first thing they saw. 

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So, start with this: identify what keywords pertain to your site, your business, your brands, etc. For example, if you sell marketing services, your most beneficial keywords would be digital marketing, website creation, advertising on social media, etc. Indirect keywords that would bring a plethora of users to your site would include branding services, visual identity, branding agency, communication agency, etc. 

The words don’t necessarily have to be directly related to your product or service, but those who are searching in a nearby ‘area’ and could benefit from your company definitely should be able to find you.

So, once you tell Google what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it, what can you do to appear more human?

Well, first of all, Google bots are way smarter than you can ever imagine.

From one blog post to another, they can easily spot if there was a real human being writing with their heart, or if it was just an SEO freelancer found online.

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We advise you to talk about you! Don’t hesitate to have your own writing touch, your own way of expressing yourself. We don’t mean showing pictures of your kids on the beach…no. We simply encourage sometimes getting a bit more personal. One thing though: definitely avoid talking about politics, we did research, and the results aren't pretty. But inspiring people, sharing your ideas and knowledge with care, will always be rewarding. Naturally, people will spend more time on your website, and Google will appreciate it. (Familiar with the Bounce Rate concept?)

So, if everyone fights to achieve the same thing, how can you be the first to get it, and do it the best?

First, think strategically.

What are you selling? Again, what are YOU selling? 

Most of us think that we’re unique, and that our amazing product will naturally attract a lot of clients because (duh) we’re wonderful, and we’ll be successful, because our mum kept telling us so. Well, try to rank on Google and you’ll see that they’re were a lot of other jewish mothers telling their child the same thing.

But you, as a human being, have something different than your neighbor. You really do. And it isn’t your sales skills, your wonderful taste in architecture, or the way you built your revolutionary startup, etc.  As long as you’re not Dale Canergie, Bjarke Ingels, or Jeff Bezos, you have competitors. 

Google rewards humans. So, be human.

Clean Code & Page Speed

Let’s get even more technical. 

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Technical! Local! On-Page! Off-Page! Oh my!

Technical and Off-page SEO are more ‘behind the scenes’ SEO. They take place in the backend of a website or publication and ensure that the code that makes up your site is also filled with keywords. Google’s little minions (a.k.a. bots) crawl all over your website, in both the back and front, to identify what you’re all about and decide where to place you. If your code is clean, and your website is lighter, you’ll rank highly on Google. And if your code isn’t super clean, well, then enjoy the 6th page of Google!

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Here we’re talking about: 

•  “Hn”: the way you use your H1, H2, H3, properly. H1 stands out for titles, H2 stands for a description or your titles, H3, stands for keywords... but don’t worry, good developers know how to use it, at least we do! 
• The way you build your website, how heavy the Javascript is, how many useless divs you use… don’t worry we know how to do it properly.
• The weight of every element: make sure to reduce the weight of all your images as much as possible, use the proper files such as svg instead of heavy jpegs, gif instead of full frame videos, etc…
• If you want to see exactly what to improve: Google Page Speed is super helpful, but doesn’t seem to be taken into consideration as much as it used to be in terms of ranking.

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Local SEO targets your competitors in your physical area. Optimizing this aspect can lead to being the most successful in your area. If you start there, you can continue going up! Localizing your SEO can help build community around your business, and this creates loyal customers for life. That also works with creating a Google My Business page! Good reviews will improve your ranking! 

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Last but not least, On-page SEO. The ‘stuff’ everyone sees. Every word on every page that is visible to the public. So make sure you make every word count. Yes SEO is really important but your visitor is more important. Make sure to create a website they will enjoy, and come back to get some more!

How to do SEO, and do it well. 

We use tools such as Adwords, Google Trends & Google Search Console to identify which keywords are the most pertinent to our company. Depending on our goal, and potential blog post topic, at the time, we curate our vocabulary to what we need the most. Semrush is a great and more expensive tool if you’re ready to splurge, but, to be honest, when you know your field, your competitors and your target audience, you don’t really need it.

In order to move from page 3 to page 1 in such a short period of time, we had to ideate, write and publish multiple blog posts per week, and they all had to be planned out strategically in order for Google to recognize who we are. 

To pop up as the second option when someone searches for a communication agency we had to write several articles about communication and incorporate every keyword associated with it, while simultaneously writing quality and comprehensible content. Our goal now is to be at the top, of course!  But our main objective is to provide interesting, and above all else, helpful content. 

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You made it all the way here? Amazing! We’re always available to answer any questions you may have, just book a meeting with us!

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SEO for Ecommerce is already available. 

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Stay tuned, Part 2 is coming. 😉

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