SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a process of optimizing content to be

discovered through a search engine’s organic results.

Benefits of SEO
➔ Unlike paying for ads, search traffic is free.
➔ Organic traffic is typically consistent once you are ranking high.
➔ Opportunity to reach massive audiences.

How Google works

➔ Crawling and Indexation: These allow google to discover webpages

and create search index.

◆ To attain information, Google uses crawlers also known as

spiders which gather publicly available information from all over
the web. The spiders will start crawling from a list of known Urls
called ‘SEEDS’. Then they follow hyperlinks on those pages and
crawl those newly discovered pages. This process goes on
allowing Google to collect necessary information.
◆ They then take this data to Googles servers to be added to the
search index.

➔ Google’s ranking algorithm: It is not clearly known how google’s

algorithm works. Although here are the most important ranking
factors

◆ Backlinks: Backlinks are links from a page on one website to

another. According to Google, if other prominent websites link to
a page then that's proof to a good sign that information is well
trusted. Its easy to assume backlinks as votes.

◆ Search intent: The reason behind a searcher’s query.

◆ Content depth: The content has to be able to answer the users

query as close as possible.
 ★ Backlinks from other websites that point to your site are known as
referring domains. In simple words, backlinks are hyperlinks, and
referring domains are the websites that generate these links.

Module-1
Keyword Research

1.1 Keywords: Keywords are words and phrases that people type into search
engines to find what they are looking for. Keywords sets the entire
foundation for the search engine optimization. The basic goal of SEO is to
rank your pages for keywords that your target audience or customers are
searching for.
◆ Keyword research is the process of finding keywords that people
are inputting into search engines.

1.2 The 3 C’s of Search Intent

➔ Content Type
◆ Blog posts
◆ Videos
◆ Product pages
◆ Ctegory pages
◆ Landing pages

➔ Content format
➔ Content angle: The content angle is your brand's unique perspective or
opinion.

1.3 How to find Keywords

➔ Generate keyword ideas
 ◆ Keyword research tool: There are a lot of keyword research tools
that shows you information on keywords like
● Search Volume
● Keyword difficulty scores
● Other SEO metrics

➔ Validate whether those keywords are worth going after

★ Seed Keyword: Seed keyword is a broad keyword related to your

niche.

➔ Keyword Modifier: It is an add-on to a base keyword.

◆ Example: Gaming Keyboards- Seed Keyword
Best Gaming Keyboards 2022.
Here Best, 2022 are keyword modifiers.

★ Finding keywords that doesn’t include your seeds: The best way to
find these keywords is to look at pages that drive the most traffic to
your competitors sites.
1.4 Understanding ranking difficulty
➔ When it comes to ranking in Google, you need to understand who
your competitors are before to target a keyword.
◆ Competitors are pages and websites that rank up at the top of
Google search results for your target keywords.

1.5 Metrics of top ranking pages and websites

➔ The number of websites that are linking to the page (Reffering
Domains)

➔ Website authority
◆ Domain Rating: Represents the overall strength of a website’s
backlink profile.

➔ Topical authority of top ranking websites: Google wants to rank

pages from authoritative sources. So even pages and websites with
lower DR score can outperform much powerful websites if your
website is more authoritative upon the topic being searched.

★ It is better to consider keywords of your competitors if your Domain

Rating is in a similailar range to theirs.
 ★ To see the domain rating of your own site you can enter your domain
in site explorer on ‘ahrefs’ or any other authority checker.

★ The more yeses you can check off the better your chances at ranking

★ So, understanding how hard it will be to rank in google, will be a key

skill to your success in search as it is the first step to getting
predictable results. As you know what it’ll take to rank ahead of your
competition, then it all comes down to execution.

Module-2
On-Page SEO

2.1 What is On-page SEO

➔ The practice of optimizing webpages to rank higher in search engines.
➔ It revolves heavily around optimizing pages for search intent.
➔ On-page optimizations also involve creating and optimizing html tags
like titles and meta descriptions.
What On-page SEO is not about
➔ Its not about stuffing exact match keywords.
➔ Using your keyword a specific number of times on the page.
➔ It isn’t about meeting a minimum word count.

2.2 How to optimize a page for a Keyword

➔ In order to rank for a lot of keywords and a lot of search traffic you
need:
◆ Page that’s optimized to rank
◆ Backlinks

Things that ensure successful On-Page SEO are:

➔ Ensure your page satisfies searchers intent:
◆ Content type
◆ Content format
◆ Content angle

➔ The actual content

★ Inorder to know what to write in order to satisfy searchers is to learn

from your competitors' pages. They are ranking on top because google
and other search engines deemed them as the best candidates to
satisfy a searchers query.

★ Content gap analysis: A content gap analysis at the page level will
show you common keywords that the top pages are ranking for where
your page isn’t.

2.3 Technical On-Page SEO Optimizations

➔ Include your target keyword in your title when it makes sense. It
should seem natural and necessary.
➔ Use a short and descriptive URL slug. It helps people to understand
what the page is about before clicking on it.
➔ Meta description: It is a html code that is meant to briefly summarize
your page.
 ◆ Meta descriptions aren’t used as a ranking signal, but they can
influence click through rates.
◆ Google can rewrite meta description and it has rewritten 62% of
the time.
➔ Add internal links to and from your pages.
◆ Internal links are links from one page on the same domain to
another.
◆ They can pass link authority to other relevant pages.
◆ They help search engines better understand a page’s content.

➔ Optimize your images.

◆ Name your image files appropriately
◆ Use descriptive alternative text
★ <img src=”http://yourdomain.com/puppy.jpg” alt=”puppy”>
◆ Compress your images
★ Tool: Short Pixel for image compression

➔ Optimize for readability

◆ Write in short sentences and short paragraphs
◆ Use descriptive sub headings
◆ Use readable font
◆ Avoid using big and complicated words
◆ Write as you speak
★ Tool: Hemingway App
Other On-Page SEO Optimizations
➔ Open graph (OG) meta tags
➔ Schema markup

Module-3
Link Building

3.1 Link Building: The process of getting other pages to link to a page on
your website. These hyperlinks are called backlinks.

★ The end result of link building might look simple but the process
which involves emailing complete strangers and asking them to link to
you is itself a strange and hard process.

★ The process of link building is actually very relational and can

sometime take more time than you might like.

➔ In other words link building is a process of building relationships with

other relevant site owners who want and will link to your content
because it enhances theirs website.

★ Backlinks are used by search engines like google to help rank

webpages.

➔ Page Rank: Page rank is a mathematical formula that judges the value
of a page by looking at the quality and quantity of other pages that
link to it.

3.2 Link Building strategies to get Backlinks

➔ Strategy vs Tactic
 ◆ Strategy: Strategies are higher level in the sense that it outlines
the scope of the plans.
◆ Tactic: Tactics are micro and often focused around smaller steps.
◆ Strategies put you in the right direction a nd tactics are more
like how you get there.

➔ 3 Strategies to get Backlinks

◆ Create Backlinks: Manually add links on one domain back to
yours. This can be sone by
● Adding your website to directories
● Commenting under blogposts
● Adding website url to your social media profile.

◆ Buy Backlinks: Paying webmasters and authors for a backlink.

But buying backlinks is against Googles webmaster guidelines
and can negatively impact search ranking.

◆ Earn Backlinks:
● Through email outreach
● By becoming a source for an online publication or a media
outlet.
● Earn backlinks organically.

★ Generally the harder it is to obtain a link, the more valuable it’ll be.

3.3 What makes a backlink good

➔ Relevance
◆ Relevant links hold more value than random links even if they
are from a prominent website.
➔ Authoritativeness
◆ Authority is the link power a webpage has. This relates to how
Google’s page rank works.
◆ Both the quantity and the quality of the links matter. So, the
more quality links a page gets the more page rank it earns. And
 the more page rank it has the more authority it can pass to other
pages through hyperlinks.

★ Domain Rating: Domain Rating represents the overall strength of a

website's backlink profile.
★ URL Rating: URL rating is the overall strength of a page’s backlink
profile.

➔ Anatomy of a hyperlink:
◆ Hyperlinks can connect two different webpages as well as
various sections in the same webpage. A text enriched with
hyperlinks is called a hypertext.
◆ A link consists of three basic parts
● Destination URL
● Anchor text
● rel attribute
★ Example: <a href="https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer rel="nofollow">Site
Explorer</a> and enter your domain name

◆ Here highlighted parts of the link are destination url, rel attribute
and anchor text respectively.
◆ Anchor Text: Anchor text is the clickable word, phrase or image
attached to the link. Google uses anchor text to understand
what a page is about and what terms it should rank for.
◆ Commonly used anchor text are
● Brand name
● The title of the page
● The URL
● Click here

◆ Rel attribute tell crawlers about the relationship between the

linking page and the linked page. The three Rel values are
● No follow
● UGC (User generated content)
● Sponsored

➔ Link Placement:
 ◆ Prominent links are more likely to be clicked and google takes
this into account when determining how much authority a link
can transfer.
◆ For example an editorial link is more likey to be clicked than a
link in the footer.

3.4 Link building tactics

➔ 3 general stages in link building

◆ Prospecting
◆ Vetting
◆ Email outreach

➔ Prospecting: The process of finding relevant pages and

websites that might link to you. These might be people who are
linking to a similar page, those who have influence in your
industry or people who are passionate about the topic.

➔ Vetting: The process of refining your list of prospects. These are

the people you are contacting.
 ➔ Email Outreach: This is when you’ll finalize your pitches and
start emailing your vetted prospects.

➔ Common link building tactics

◆ Get free PR using HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
◆ Guest Blogging: It is when you create content for another
website. This strategy works because there is a clear value
exchange. They get great content for free and they will allow you
to link back to your site.
◆ Getting a list of websites through Google search operators,
ahrefs’ content explorer. Search in google [intitle: “write for us”
gaming keyboards]
◆ The Skyscrapper technique: It is a link building tactic where you:
● Find content that has a lot of links
● Create your own version of the topic but improve on it
● Reach out to those linking to the popular post and ask
them to link to yours.

3.5 How to do blogger outreach for backlinks

➔ Objective of blogger outreach

◆ Convince those with large targeted audiences to link to your
website.
➔ Approaches to blogger outreach
◆ Shotgun approach: Sending emails to broad list of targets
◆ Sniper approach: Choosing individuals or targets carefully.
Sniper approach is recommended as it fells less spammy.
➔ Whom to contact & how to get their email address
◆ In general contact the author of the post if they work for the
website.
◆ Finding email addresses
● Check their contact and about pages (websites with one
author)
 ● Use Hunter.io (for multi-author websites)

★ Writing a pitch for outreach emails

○ Anatomy of an outreach email
■ Subject line
■ Introduction
■ Qualification and Justification
■ The pitch
■ End in a way that the conversation continues.