[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Be your own SEO Expert! If you have had a website for long enough, you would no doubt have received many emails from so-called “SEO Experts” hawking their wares and telling you that they can get your website to number one on Google.
The truth is, only you can do this, through hard work and post/content perseverance and a correctly configured SEO friendly website. Before we start on the myths, lets first talk about how to set your site up correctly and you understand what you need to do for every single page and post you want to be indexed.
Be Your Own SEO Expert
Setup WordPress SEO
The first thing you need to do is to have a good SEO Tool correctly configured on your website. I have chosen Yoast SEO for Wordpress. You only need the free version unless you are generating into the 10’s of thousands of pages views a day. Once you have it installed, you can go through the step by step guide called the Configuration Wizard; this will step you through all the basics and get you up and running within a few minutes. All you need is a logo and all the links to your social media sites handy.
Be your Own SEO Expert – Page Titles / Descriptions / Key Phrase
If you want to get the best SEO benefits, I highly recommend you to manually enter title and descriptions for every post, page, and custom post type on your site. Yes, Yoast SEO can and will automate this for you, but it is always best to do it manually.
Be your Own SEO Expert – Be 100% Relevant
Your Titles, Descriptions, Post Tags and Keyphrases must be 100% relevant. It is of zero use using a Title, Description, etc. that does not match the content in your post or page. You might think it is clever to do this, but it works against you in every possible way. Google’s algorithms know every trick in the book, and it will have a negative impact.
Be your Own SEO Expert – Short Stories
Your Meta Description should be a short story about your post. This part of your SEO is what will appear in Google search. It has to be relevant to the article, so make sure the key phrases used in the meta description are actually in your post content.
Be your Own SEO Expert – Readability
Yoast SEO also gives your post/page a readability score. One of the main features of this tool that you must address is to keep your paragraphs short. Split your post into titles (using H3 or H4 title tags) followed by short sections.
SEO Myths
Number One on Google
I am not even sure I know what this phrase means in the real world. But it is one catchy line every hoax SEO Expert uses. I would avoid anyone who makes this claim. However, if you do speak to them about this, ask them:
- Provide a list of all the keywords and phrases that you will get me to number one on Google with?
- What are written guarantees do you provide for this service and claim?
- What regions areas will I be number one in, global, local?
- Will you be following all the Google Guidelines in setting up and managing my SEO?
More than likely this will be the last conversation you have with them. Most so-called “SEO Experts” prey on the fact that you know would little or nothing about SEO.
We Know How Google Ranks Websites – We have Decoded Google Search
No, you don’t, no you haven’t! A straight up lie, Google makes it very clear how to follow the rules. Many SEO Companies employ tactics that may give you a little boost, but Google knows all of these tricks and continuously updates their algorithms. So, basically if you go outside the guidelines, you will eventually suffer, and big time! Stay well clear of any SEO company that over promises.
Research The SEO Expert
Over the years I have had many people send messages to myself and my clients claiming they are SEO experts. Here are some simple rules to follow to research their so-called “expert status”.
- Do they have a branded email? Any so-called ‘professional’ who wants your business and has an @gmail or @hotmail address, run away from immediately. All experts in any field do not use Gmail or Hotmail addresses. Nearly all of these are spammers. Experts have branded emails, such as xxxxx@yakadanda.com
- Their website. Check out their website, if they do not have a website, run away. If they do not have an https:// protected website, run away. If their website looks tacky and or out of date, run away.
- Their clients. If they do not some of their clients on their websites, run away. If they do, call their clients. If they have testimonials from people that do not list the company name or just says how wonderful they are with no attribution, run away.
I have heard every excuse in the books, “we do not list our clients because of privacy”, “we are SEO experts, not web design experts”. All of these are runaway signs!
Do you want to be an SEO Expert in less than 20 minutes?
How to be Successful with Key Word Phrases
If you want to get to number one in Google under specific search terms, you need to write informative content repeatedly with that phrase in your content, and additionally link internally from that phrase to other articles related to that subject.
You will also need to continually monitor the progress of that search phrase in Google Webmaster Tools to see where you appear in Google Search under that phrase.
Note: We are going to assume that you have setup your SEO and have all Social Media Accounts LInked.
Start with a Planning Spreadsheet
Plan out all of the words and key phrases that you would like to rank highly with. Put it into a spreadsheet. Be realistic. As an example, we are going to use a recent client of mine and put a sample list of keywords and key phrases.
- Functional Medicine Indianapolis
- Integrative Medicine Indianapolis
- Doctor Indianapolis
- Ashley Parsons Indianapolis
- Ashley Parsons Nutrition
- Ashley Parsons Health Coach
- Health Coach Indianapolis
- Health Coaching Indianapolis
- Nutrition Coach Indianapolis
- Nutrition Coaching Indianapolis
- Eric Djenge, MD Indianapolis
- Dr. Eric Djenge, Indianapolis
- Lose Weight Indianapolis
- Weight Loss Indianapolis
- Type 2 Diabetes Indianapolis
- Diabetes Doctor Indianapolis
- IBS Doctor Indianapolis
- Thyroid Disease Indianapolis
- Hashimoto’s Disease Indianapolis
- Pre Diabetes Indianapolis
- Female Hormones Indianapolis
- Male Hormones Indianapolis
- Autoimmune Disorders Indianapolis
- Detoxification Indianapolis
- Food Sensitivities Treatment Indianapolis
- Adrenal Health Treatment Indianapolis
- Leaky Gut Treatment Indianapolis
- Candida Treatment Indianapolis
- IBS Treatment Indianapolis
- Weight Loss Treatment Indianapolis
- Anti-aging Treatment Indianapolis
Download Sample Text File
Create Posts with Keywords/phrases you want to rank with
This will be a two-stage process. You will begin the first stage by creating blog posts with as many of these sample keywords and phrases as possible. It obviously has to be relevant and also readable for your end user, but this is where we will start.
The second stage is creating new blog posts and repeating phrases, then linking those phrases internally to past articles that are relevant to those phrases. You will also need to go back to previous posts and update those phrases with links to your new post articles.
See your Ranking go Higher
After you have been doing this a few times, log back into your Google Webmaster Tools and look for how many times you appear under those phrases in Google’s Index and also where you are positioned.
You might find that under certain phrases you are on page 10,20,30 of Google’s results under those keywords and phrases, but over time you will see an increase in traffic and also where you rank.
If you were to link the keyphrase Functional Medicine Website Design over a long period, you would see yourself ranking higher and higher. This is true for any of your search terms.
So as you can see, this is the long game, but it works, and it works every single time.
Successful Sites
Successful sites write articles at least once a month. I would start with 3 or 4 articles per month and as traffic increases, write a little less. There are always topics to cover, and the best ones are related to your particular industry and your target audiences needs.
Put Aside Some Time
Another important fact with any post and SEO strategy is to put aside some time each week to spend doing this. People who say they will do it when they have time, almost always fail, people who dedicate writing at set times each week, are almost always successful.
If you want to be an SEO Expert then all you need to do is follow some basic rules, continually write targetted content and watch your visitor numbers grow, yes slowly, but they will grow.
More Posts about SEO on Yakadanda
- Using Yoast SEO Effectively
- SEO even your Dog could Understand
- How to Write a Simple Effective Yoast SEO Friendly WordPress Blog Post
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
