In this video I’m going to give you a Step-by-step checklist that’s going to Walk you through everything you need to Do to get traffic on Google these are The same techniques that got me at the Top of Google for keywords like SEO Crash course which is what this Jam-packed video is about to deliver my Name is Matt Diggity and I’m the founder Of SEO businesses lead spring the search Initiative Authority Builders the Affiliate lab and The Chiang Mai SEO Conference CMO of a trust Tim solo said If I were to build an essiosite Empire Matt would be one of the very few people I’d go for advice so here we go here’s My latest and greatest SEO advice in the Form of a checklist what I like about Checklists is that they keep you Organized and effective checklist have Simple yet potent steps that get results One thing to note is that the techniques I’m about to share are accessible to Everyone you don’t need to be an Influencer or have a huge team to be Able to carry this stuff out and Everything I’m about to share with you Is a hundred percent free to do anyone Can do this no matter what level you’re At so let’s get started but before we Get started I’d like to invite you to Join my free SEO training masterclass it Goes into everything I’m doing today From A to Z to get sites to the top of
Google just sign up using the link in The pin comment now onto the checklist I Divided this checklist into sublists to Help organize it better the first Sub-list is the setup checklist one of The first things you need to set up on Your website before you do anything else Let’s assume that you already have WordPress installed the first item on Your checklist is to install an SEO Plugin and for that I recommend rank Math rank math is a freemium all-in-one Plugin that covers a wide range of Essential SEO optimization tasks and According to a poll in my Facebook group Rank math is by far the preferred SEO Plugin option it’ll allow you to do Stuff like creating titles descriptions And schema markup it also helps you to Create a site map which is the next item On your checklist a sitemap is a table Of contents for your website without it Google is up to their own devices to Find your content so why not make things Easy for them you can check to make sure You have a site map by going to Yourdomain.com forward slash sitemap.xml Next on the list is create a robots.txt File this file is used to tell Google Where they can and cannot go for example It’s common to block Google from Accessing your WordPress installation Files some make sure to check for this Line in your robots.txt you can find
Your robots.text at yourdomain.com Forward slash robots dot text after that You want to set up Google search console Or GSC for your website GSC is a free Tool which acts as a health dashboard For your site it checks for common but Important SEO issues such as Google Manual action penalties index coverage Issues 404 errors and website speed Issues we’ll get to all this stuff later In the critical technical SEO section at The end of the video in addition Google Search console will also keep track of Which keywords you’re ranking for this Will let you know when you’re making Progress on your site as you go through This checklist after that you want to Start tracking your traffic and the best Tool for that is Google’s own free tool Google analytics install analytics by Going to analytics.google.com and Following the steps to connect it to Your site you’ll then get a deep dive Into all your traffic stats so you can Make sure the actions you’re taking are Getting you to the top of Google by the Way I created a pdf version of this Checklist which you can download for Free by using the link in the Description the next category checklist Is keyword research before you start Producing content you need to figure out What to write about consider this your Map of your Niche now the key to keyword
Research no pun intended is to find low Competition keywords that you can Actually rank for here’s a bunch of free To use strategies that’ll dig these up [Music] The first is to use the free tool Answerthepublic.com type your main topic Into the field here this is going to Bring up a list of common questions that Should be addressed in your content such As what gardening tools do I need and Why gardening is good for mental health Click the export CSV button to download These keywords next you’re going to Leverage Google itself to find keywords Starting with the autocomplete function Google suggests type your main topic Into the Google search bar and see which Keywords Google thinks are highly Related to your topic next you’re going To scroll down on the search page and Check the people also ask section if you Click on any of the results Google will Display a short answer to the question Along with the list of additional Related questions that people also ask Keep clicking to go down to Rabbit Hole Of topics I highly recommend using a Free tool like SEO minion that’s going To automatically download hundreds of These questions to an Excel file in a Single shot next go to the bottom of the Search page to the related searches Section and once again click around in
Another Rabbit Hole of great keyword Ideas awaits the last step in the Keyword research checklist is to browse Online Hangouts to find out what are the Hot Topics in a given Niche my personal Favorite is quora which is a vault of Great topics Google your main topic plus Quora then click the more results from Quora link to expand out the results Scan down this page to pick up your Final set of keywords before it’s time To start producing content now on to the Content creation checklist a good piece Of content always starts out with a Strong introduction paragraph when Readers scan your content and don’t Bounce back to the search result that’s A good indication to Google that your Content is good so you need to hook your Reader right away in the first few Sentences also show your expertise in The topic to let the reader know they’re In the right place and lastly do not Fluff around if someone searches for Something like essential gardening tools Don’t bore them with some spiel about Why gardening is so great just get to The damn tools they do not care about Your feelings I ran an experiment where I adjusted the intro on some subpar Content and was able to increase Engagement by eight percent that’s huge In the world of SEO in the description Below I’ve left a link to a video that
Gives you a full Playbook on how to Write introduction paragraphs so make Sure to watch it after you finish this Video next you want to be able to fully Cover your topic answer the search query Completely one way to do this is to Google the keyword you’re writing about And open up the first result pay Attention to the subheadings by looking At the content that Google obviously Likes because it’s ranked number one Google we can see that gloves pruning Shears and loppers are all essential Gardening tools that need to be covered In your content next make sure to add Rich media to your content your page Should be visual as well as textual so Add images tables videos and graphs to Complement your text with visual eye Candy and supporting AIDS after that Make sure you link out to authoritative Resources on your topic to further Enrich your content especially if you’re Referencing any facts in your content It’s good to cite where your data came From this isn’t just a good idea to do For your readers Google loves it too in This number one article on gardening Statistics they have a references Section here at the bottom citing where They got their research from this Experiment from reboot showed that the Content with external links in blue Outperformed the content without links
In Orange now next make sure your Content is broken up into readable short Paragraph chunks no one wants to read an Article that’s a huge wall of text your Eyes hurt even looking at it instead Make your paragraphs one to three Sentences long it’s friendly for the eye And doesn’t look nearly as intimidating To read next make sure that the content You write is accessible to a wide range Of reading levels the center for plain Language found that the average American’s reading level Falls between 7th to 8th grade you can use this free Fletch Kincaid reading tool to analyze Your content to see where you’re at your Next checklist is all about keyword Optimization it’s not called search Engine optimization for nothing content Needs to be refined to be search engine Friendly make sure your main target Keyword is present in the first 100 Words of content I ranked number one in The organic results for the keyword Learn affiliate marketing and you can Bet your buns that I have the main Keyword in the first 100 words next you Want to optimize your title tag your Title tag is the clickable link that Comes up for your article when it’s Shown at the Google search results the General rule of thumb is to move your Keyword phrase to the front of the title Like what I’ve done here we made this
Adjustment for one of our client pages And we shot it from five to two Immediately wow that’s awesome after That you want to create an optimized URL For your article the rules here are Simple keep the URL short at a maximum Of three words and don’t forget to Include your keywords like here with my Learn affiliate marketing article Dignitymarketing.com learn Dash Affiliate Dash marketing next up Place Keywords in your headings Google likes Your content to follow an outline your Main topic is the H1 here at the top and That main topic is broken down into H2S Which are the subtopics and those Subtopics are broken down into h3s which Are the sub subtopics sprinkle keywords Into these spots it’s a major ranking Factor speaking of sprinkling you also Want to add related words to your Paragraph content if you’re writing Content about gardening Google is Expecting to see related words like Plants soil and seeds in your content so Make sure you got this checked off you Can use the free LSI keyword generator From keysearch.co to get a list of Related words your next checklist Focuses on internal linking that is Creating links between your article on Your own site first you want to Interlink relevant pages together There’s three rules of thumb when it
Comes to internal linking first you only Want to link pages that are relevant to Each other an article on gardening Shares should not be linked to an Article on patio furniture but Definitely link your share article to an Article on Garden shovels as they’re Both tools and very relevant second you Only want to link to Pages you want to Rank don’t send that SEO love to Unimportant pages and lastly link more To pages that you really want to rank a Pillar page that is highly monetized Should receive more internal links than A filler article your next check is to Make sure you don’t have any orphan Pages every page should have at least One internal link going to it if a page Doesn’t have an internal link then it’s On an island of its own it’s orphan and It’s inaccessible by Google which is a No-No you can use the free version of Screaming frog to check for Orphan Pages The next checklist focuses on external Link building getting other websites on The internet to link to you link Building is still one of the predominant Ranking factors on Google this study From backlinko shows that sites with More links statistically rank higher on Google I ranked number one on Google for Best web hosting for SEO a very Lucrative keyword and it’s no surprise That this article has plenty of links
Going to it there’s three fundamental Link building strategies that I feel That every website needs to carry out The first is guest posting where you Offer to write content for another Website and in that content you place a Link back to your own website for Example this guest post I got from Zapier.com which is a super trustworthy Place to get a link from here’s an Example email script that I use that Performs very well hey first name I’ll Cut to the chase you have this article On your site written in 2020 that used To perform well in the search engines it Seems that your content is aged and a Lot of the facts you have referenced Have become outdated I’ve just completed A round of research on this topic and Would like to write it for you I’ve done This before for insert website name here With insert article name here I’m Available on your reply regards Matt the Next backlink technique you want to Focus on is link insertions a link Insertion is when someone updates an Existing piece of content on their site To link to you the reason this works is Because you want links with power power And if you do this right you can get Your link placed in articles that Already have links going to them which Provides more power in Google’s Algorithm here’s an example Lincoln
Search snug up from hubspot.com which Has over a thousand links going to it There’s actually a super clever way to Get these when you’re doing email Outreach for guest posts you’re gonna Get some no’s after all it’s a hassle For websites to edit your content and Post it up on their site but not All Is Lost you’ve already done the hardest Step you got their attention switch Gears and ask if they can insert a link To one of your articles instead it’s a Much easier ask and takes 20 seconds for Them to do give it a shot the third Critical link building strategy is to Utilize a free platform Haro help a Reporter out Harrow is a website that Allows you to access journalists that Are looking for expert quotes to add to Their articles when they use your quote You’ll get a link the great thing is That these journalists are often writing For a huge trustworthy websites here’s An example how our link I got from Forbes.com Harrow link building is all About consistency every day you’ll get Emails with tons of expert quote Opportunities you want to jump on them Right away now we get into the technical SEO checklist technical SEO is all about Making life easy for Google to access Your website and when you make life easy For Google they make life easy for you There’s three primary technical SEO
Issues that you’re very likely to face The first is Page speed Google wants its Users to be happy and that means serving Up web pages that load quickly a Majority of search happens on mobile and That number grows over time so it’s even More important that your website loads Fast so you can make your mobile users Happy use a free tool like pingdom to Check your load time faster is always Better but less than two seconds is a Goal now there’s various best practices You can use to improve page speed such As getting on a fast hosting service my Recommendation is wpx hosting coupon Code Diggity 90 will get you 90 off next Get a Content delivery Network also Known as a CDN the most popular is the Free version of cloudflare and also make Sure to pre-size your images if you’re Using HD images on your site shrink them Down before you upload them so your Users aren’t loading gigantic files Every time they visit your site in Addition to being fast you also want to Be mobile friendly you can use Google’s Free mobile friendly tester to make sure Google is okay with the smartphone Layout of your website but also open up Your site on your phone and have a look Yourself you shouldn’t have images Bleeding off the page weird size fonts Or the need to side scroll whatsoever Next check for crawl issues make sure
That the pages you want Google to access Are accessible by Google if you write a Piece of content and Google can’t find It it’s all for Waste you can use the Google search console page indexing a Report to check up on this next we move On to the advanced checklist and I have Four critical strategies for you here First you want to revisit your content Periodically and give it an update the Problem is that content ages then you to Be at least 60. It cannot be 80. and over time your Content will eventually lose its spot at The top of the search results updating Content is actually not that bad if you Think about it it’s much easier to Update an existing piece of content than To write one all the way from scratch Next some content will just never do Well and in these cases it should be Removed from your website completely the Release notes from Google’s helpful Content update explicitly say removing Unhelpful content could help the Rankings of your other content if a web Page has never had any traffic never had Any backlinks and is generally subpar Compared to your current content Standards consider cutting it out Completely or at the very least giving It a makeover next optimize for Click-through rate one way to get more Traffic to your website is to make sure
That your articles are more attractive To click from the search results you do That by optimizing your titles and Descriptions for clicks this page on my Site has the highest click-through rate Out of all of them notice a click bait At the end of the title and look at the Keywords that get automatically bolded When placed in The Meta description my Next and favorite item on the checklist Is to subscribe for more videos just Like this one never miss out on any more Crucial SEO and marketing videos thanks For watching and I’ll see you around