Step 1: Keyword Research
Keyword research is a process of identifying the most important keywords for our website. Keyword research requires keyword research tools which can help us find most relevant keywords for our website.
Step 2: Competition Analysis
Identify who are your competition by doing competition analysis. You can do competition analysis using various SEO software and competition analysis tools. In this article you will learn about competition analysis in detail
Step 3: SEO Audit
Audit current website and ranking of current website for selected keywords, this will give you basic idea about what can be improved on your website. SEO Audit is very important part of SEO Process.
Step 4: On-Page SEO Optimization
Identifying On-page optimization requirements and site structure
Step 5 : Off-Page Optimization
Build links, promote your website in social media
Step 6: Measure results : Traffic and Rankings
OLD SEO Process Vs. New SEO Process
Above SEO process is standard SEO process that many people follow for ranking existing or new website. SEO process has changed over the years, and the process you followed in past may not work now. Some of the old tactics you are using today to rank your website may not help you achieve results you are expecting.
You will have to follow latest SEO techniques to get top ranking in Google. In this SEO guide I will cover latest SEO process which you can use to improve your ranking in Google.
Step 1: Start with Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important part of SEO process, unless you don’t know what people are searching on internet and what information they are looking for, it’s almost impossible to start SEO campaign.
When you do a keyword research, you need to start with a root keyword or a seed keywords. Today, there are many free and paid tools available for keyword research.
Here are few things you need to keep in mind when you do a keyword research.
- Start with long tail and low competition
- use Google auto complete 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
Once you finish your keyword research, next step is to conduct competition analysis and website audit. Website audit is very important to make a list of on-page and off-page activities.
Many SEO professional skip this process and move directly to next step. Yes, website audit and assessment is difficult process if you don’t know fundamentals of SEO, ranking factors and how exactly google determines ranking of web pages.
There are many paid tools available for 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 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
- Site should be mobile friendly
- Your site should be updated on regular basis
Step 4: Link Building and off-page optimization
Links are important for ranking and trust. But you can’t just create links from any websites. Instead you must earn links from authority websites and they should be relevant. If 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
SEO is not one-time activity. You need to keep updating your content, keep creating new content on regular basis. If you don’t monitor ranking and update your content you may not be able to maintain your ranking.
There are many tools available which will help you to monitor ranking of your website. Tools like seoprofiler, SEMRush, webceo can be used for monitoring ranking.
Conclusion:
SEO is complex and requires continuous practice. You need to keep your knowledge updated to maintain ranking of your website or your client’s website
