How do you DIY your blog? SEO on a shoestring budget |
There aren't any fancy instruments to conduct SEO for your blog and it shouldn't need to be expensive, too. Here's how to make it happen yourself with seven simple steps.
When the New Year hits its stride You're likely to go over budgets and expenses in the process of figuring out the reasons you put aside so much money last year and how you'll reduce your expenses this year. We've all been there, and it's no picnic.
If you're looking to save money It's not unusual to find strategies and equipment you've been using that will cost you a lot of money and then find ways to get rid of them or move these tools into your own.
However, for some reason the majority of marketers think that using an SEO (SEO) specialist or tools that can help facilitate their efforts in that area is an absolute must. Well, I'm here to inform you that it is possible to actually do your own SEO and spend no amount of money.
Is your mind blown?
SEO can be an vital element of your overall marketing plan.
In reality, 61% of marketers' top goal for marketing inbound is enhancing their SEO as well as increasing their presence on the internet. It's a bet with increasing voice search in importance, this number will only grow over time.
Assuring that your SEO is working up to date and increasing natural site's traffic may help you outdo the competition in your field, and make you more accessible to the people who conduct online searching.
How do you DIY your SEO strategy
1. Make a list of your keywords
The initial step in implementing the SEO method by yourself is to determine your key words via keyword research . Keyword research could be short-tail or long tail however, in essence it should include words you want your content to be ranked for, as well as phrases your audience uses to search for items related to the field you work in on the internet.
In the case of an agency that specializes in design and marketing You'll need to begin by making a checklist that reads like this:
Marketing agency
Design agency
Design and Marketing company
Quality design
Marketing strategy
Your long-term keywords may look similar to this:
What is the best way to implement a successful marketing strategy
Best design techniques to use for marketing via email
How to identify marketing goals
The kinds of marketing strategies to employ
These are just instances. What you'll need to identify is specific areas of expertise and build from there.
It is also a good idea to talk with your sales staff to determine what questions prospects might be asking about and what they're expressing they need assistance with. This can inform your keyword list and more.
Make sure to check your rankings to see if you know which keywords to build on, as well as examine your competition's rankings as well. That will give you an idea of the areas that have been neglected, so you can target them and seize the benefit.
2. Establish or create pillar pages
Pillar pages are intended to be the one-stop shop for information on a certain area, that will also be linked to one of your key phrases. These pages are typically longer as they leave no one unfinished and cover as much ground as possible.
There are pages on your site and they have to be changed or create them. When designing or updating these pages, be sure to look into different aspects of the topic.
So, for instance suppose you're creating a pillar page for the keywords "marketing strategy".
There's a need to consider what you need to do to put your strategy together, the goals that a strategy will help you achieve, various mediums and methods which a strategy is composed of, how to measure your strategy's success, and how to use your 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 writing it will be possible to link back to the page. This will increase the content's ability to rank in search results for the word.
3. Note duplicate content as well as broken hyperlinks
If you've been creating blog content at random, chances are you have lots of outdated and duplicate content, perhaps even some broken pages. Fix those errors if you want your site to be ranked well. they'll end up working against you.
Create a spreadsheet that lists the keywords, as well as blog posts that are tied to that keyword in some way. And if you have a number of blog entries, you may have to add subgroups for every keyword. Check out the picture below to get an idea of the concept.
This can help you manage your activities so that you can more easily break down the blog posts that are most alike to other posts.
Also, make sure to create an extra spreadsheet which houses the broken links that you discover during this dive to make it easy to pull off and redirect them.
4. Update and redirect your website
Once you're done creating your spreadsheet, review the identical blog articles carefully. If any are extremely repeated or repeating the same concepts, move those less well-thought out or outdated blog entries to modern, more high-quality sites.
This can reduce the self-competing content (yes you can rival itself on the search results), and ensure you rank on the correct pages for the right search terms.
This can also be a great occasion to refresh the blog's content that doesn't require redirection, however could benefit from more information or a refresh.
Since you'll keep these pages, you'll want to make sure they have appropriate keywords in them, and that they provide the most up-to most current data available.
5. Link to the pillar pages in content
Once your blog is clean and all duplicate content is removed, along with broken links, you need to go through your pages and verify that the appropriate pages are linked back to your page's pillars .
Review your subgroupings, as well as the hyperlinks listed underneath them.
Let's suppose there are three blog sites that correlate to marketing strategy as well as marketing via email . Review each article and include a link on your pillar page for marketing strategy using "marketing strategy" as your anchor the text.
6. Develop a link strategy that moves ahead
Make sure you're sticking with this strategy to all new blog posts that you create. In the end, you've gone through the hassle of updating past content, and the only thing that could cause harm to that content is if do not continue to follow the plan.
I know I've mentioned spreadsheets about a zillion times however, they're the best option when it comes to this approach. They will help you in every stage, not just this. I suggest listing every keyword on the list, then in the subsequent column, you should list the pillar posts assigned to them.
It doesn't hurt to also offer a variety of anchor text or long-tail keywords that could be employed for each one as well.
If you can identify which blog post is linked to what keyword(s) by defining which pillar post belongs to which keyword(s), you'll ensure that you all potential team members in the same place and give them a quick checklist to reference while you're editing and reviewing the content for your blog in the future.
It also ensures you continue to keep SEO at the forefront of your mind when you create your content.
7. Follow up on results
Be sure to check to see how your plan is doing every period of time, or every quarter. It is important to know whether your website starts to appear higher in the search results, or if it's staying stagnant, which could aid in identifying any issues.
It is possible to use tools for free like Moz , or you can do a Google search based on your keywords from time to time to see if your content is popping on the internet.
In all likelihood, if you're wondering how to monitor the data and do not want to join an SEO tool like Moz, then I have one final word to share with those of you who are interested, and that's something that we've spoken about a number of times in the past in the past: spreadsheets.
SEO doesn't have to cost a lot of money
The need to have an SEO plan is essential for you to ensure that your business is found easily online by your consumers. Hiring an outsourced SEO expert can be costly yet it's not required.
By moving your SEO efforts in-house and following the steps previously mentioned, you can put your blog up and running so that your most valuable blog posts begin to appear on search engines, and continues to rank as time passes.
For review, the fundamental actions are as follows:
Making a list of keywords
Creating pillar pages, or if you already possess a popular page you make use of, transforming existing posts to become pillar pages
Scoping out duplicate content
Updating stale, out-dated content and assigning redirects for the content competing against it
Seeding the links to your cluster content from your pages on pillars
Establishing a linking strategy
Also you should be keeping a close eye on your results.
Easy-peasy.