Affiliate Tips: The Complete Process of SEO
05-06-2017
To those who are new to lead generation, it might be a relief to find out that there is actually a structured process to generating leads through SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It’s not as complicated or impossible as you’d think. Even with all the current search engine restrictions, regulations, and algorithmic changes, the overarching structure of SEO marketing remains the same.
The term “SEO” itself suggests that the purpose of such optimisations is to please your search engines. The process, therefore, centres mostly on improving your website in a way that will attract new users by getting on the good side of your search engine’s algorithm.
SEO Step #1: Research
Before you even start to organise your content and design, conduct research using free tools that you can find all over the internet. The kind of research that we’re talking about involves the close monitoring of your competitors so you know what works and what doesn’t. You can measure their effectiveness using SEMrush or a similar tool to view their organic search traffic and backlink sources. There should be a strong correlation between their percentage of organic traffic and number of backlinks, since backlinks help boost the ranking score of websites. The next step is to find out where and how your competitors promote their platforms. Is it through PPC ads, influencers, social media, or all three? Although these promotional platforms aren’t always directly related to SEO, they can contribute to your understanding of the market and give you a better idea on where to start promoting. Your final step in research should be to analyse your competitors’ page content and design. Test their page loading speed, keyword density, meta descriptions, keywords, and other on-page optimisations that seem to be working well. Once you gather all of this information, move on to the next step.
SEO Step #2: Organise
Now is the time to organise or structure your plans for on-page and off-page SEO. Create an agenda for your posts so that you can hit on all of the important keywords without feeling like you’ve lost track of your content direction. Plan everything in great detail so that your journey to ranking high can be as smooth and straightforward as possible. Here are several ideas on what you should organise during this step:
Keyword Choice: You can use Google Keyword Planner or any other free keyword planning tool to help you pick your main keywords for the domain. Your keywords should outline the direction in which you want to take your website.
Keyword Density: Keyword density refers to how many keywords you want to include per page or per article. We recommend a healthy balance of 20% keywords and 80% of other types of content. You definitely want to avoid keyword stuffing because Google absolutely abhors aggressive SEO tactics such as that.
Graphics/Visuals: Your graphics and other visuals, such as colours or photos, should all serve a very specific purpose. If anything should stand out the most, it should either be your CTA or point to your CTA.
Placements: The placements of your titles, CTA, photos, navigation, and other website elements all affect your conversion rates and page visits. Determine what would work best for you during the researching stage, and feel free to experiment with different options!
First month of articles: Use this time to also plan your first month of articles so you don’t have to think about it on the spot. Article-writing is already a time-consuming task on its own, so reduce your work time by planning beforehand!
SEO Step #3: Build Links
After you’ve organised and executed your on-page SEO, it’s time to work on the off-page optimisations. Perhaps the most notable form of off-page SEO is backlinking. Getting backlinks is basically earning your digital credentials. If a well-known or high ranking website links to yours, then your search engine will crawl that link and move your page just a bit higher up in the SERPs. Backlinking makes sense as a source of credibility because if your content is good enough, then naturally, other trustworthy websites will refer to it. You can earn backlinks organically or pitch your articles to websites with the same target audience as yours. We’ve written an in-depth article on how to gain more backlinks here. Remember that link-building takes time, but it’s definitely needed in the SEO realm!
SEO Step #4: Analyse and Evaluate
Step four is meant to launch you towards completing the cycle all over again; preferably after every campaign. Without proper analysis and evaluation, you won’t be able to improve your SEO strategies over time. This final step is crucial for those who want to drive more leads over time, so it shouldn’t be neglected. With T DOT UK, you’ll have access to detailed analytics and reports so you’ll know your campaign results inside out.
492
