In the current AI scenario SEO can be really complex. We all face this problem. Burn the midnight oil and launch the app and then launch the website and become clueless on what’s next.
This is the dilemma faced by almost all tech entrepreneurs. I too was in a similar situation until a few years ago when I decided to change this. I have spent 100s of man hours to learn SEO in depth so that you do not have to. This guide will help you kick start your journey of building a successful business.
This article assumes that you have already figured out who your target audience is.
Understanding Google Search Algorithm
Google uses NPL to understand the context of the content like a human so that it can mimic a human while returning results. Hence the number of keywords used in a page is of no value or use in determining your ranking on google search results.
If people come to your website and quickly go back to the search result page, Google will down rank your page for that particular keyword.
SEO Activities
Keyword research
On-page SEO
Technical SEO
Off-page SEO
Setup google search console
The first step is to set up a google search console for your site. It is important to understand how your site is performing in google search.
Once you have the search console enabled it is important to upload the sitemap.xml file. This sitemap.xml file
If you are not sure what a sitemap.xml file if you can watch the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lGJcZIPXMM
In a nutshell sitemap.xml file is a file that has all the links of the website in xml format.
Sample sitemap.xml - https://www.adjutas.work/sitemap.xml
Once the sitemap.xml is ready you need to submit it to the google search console.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZoihCoIaY
Bonus point - It is also a best practice to to add a robots.txt file besides sitemap.xml file. You can add the following content to your robots.txt file.
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Do keyword research
Keyword research is the process of identifying the keywords for which your website will be listed on Google search results. So you need to first identify the keywords for which you want your site to be listed on Google search.
Keywords are the set of words for which your site will be displayed in the google search result. Let’s consider that you run a business that sells natural lip gloss. You want your site to be listed in google search results when someone types lip gloss without harmful chemicals. So for your lip gloss business, lip gloss without harmful chemicals is a keyword.
As a new business situated in a country with weaker currency I did not have the luxury of having access to expensive tools like Ahref or Semrush. No doubt they are the best but they are also way out of reach of businesses from countries like India.
Create a spreadsheet and start populating it with keywords along the journey.
Seeder Keywords
You can start with seeder keywords, meaning simple keywords related to your product or service.
For example, If you are selling a helpdesk software then your seeder keywords will be,
helpdesk software
ticketing system
customer support platform
IT service desk
Start with seeder keywords. Keywords that are related to your product. Like for adjutas it will be asset management, asset management software, web based asset management,
Use free tools like Google Suggest
Google search itself is a big repository of keywords which you can use in your early days, until you are able to afford the subscription of Ahref.
Google Suggest → type your seed keywords into Google and note the auto-complete suggestions.
Related Searches → scroll to the bottom of Google results.
Add these keywords to your spreadsheet.
Now run similar searches for all your seeder keywords and add all the resultant keywords to the spreadsheet.
If your site has been up for a while you can also get the list of keywords for which your site already ranks from the Google search console.
Keyword Sheeter is a free tool that churns out keywords.
Use **AnswerThePublic**
AnswerThePublic is useful because it shows the exact questions people type into search engines.
It offers three free searches. If you create content answering those questions, you:
Match real user intent
Improve chances of ranking
Attract targeted, ready-to-convert visitors
Analyze Search Intent
Analyzing the search intent of a prospect is very important. Each page in the website should be optimised for the keywords with the right user intent.
Types of Intent:
Informational: “what is a helpdesk system”
Navigational: “Zendesk login”
Transactional: “buy helpdesk software”
Commercial Investigation: “best helpdesk software for small business”
💡 Why it matters:
You don’t want to optimize your product page for an informational query — that belongs on a blog.
Check Keyword Competitiveness
Though it is important to check the competitiveness of your keywords, it’s not super mandatory. There are ways you can circumvent this.
If you have the budget to buy tools like ahref or semrush nothing like it. Go ahead and check the competitiveness of the keywords and plan your strategy accordingly. The idea here is not to compete with the giants for all the keywords, that's all.
So you can safely guestimate on which keywords you need to give least preference and which ones to focus. This is enough to start with.
Another idea here is to look for long tail keywords.
For example, instead of using keywords like asset management software which is a short tail keyword, using long tail keywords like best asset management software for hospitals in India is more beneficial for a new site. So basically for a new site it's easier to rank in the first page for long tail keywords instead of short tail keywords.
Write content for the website with keywords
Now that you have a bunch of keywords, you have to write content with those keywords. You should not stuff your keywords into your content. The goal here is to write a good piece of content with your keywords sprinkled in it.
So do not use keywords for the sake of it. Frame your sentences in a way that your keywords are used, but while reading it it should be clear and understandable and not just look like a bunch of words just thrown together.
Write authentic content
The content that you write should be authentic. Meaning you should not be copying it from other sites or blogs. Google pénalisés copied content. So make sure that your content is authentic and your creation.
Do not do keyword stuffing. Use the keywords in title and in the content use the keywords in the first 100 words.
Pick a mix of long tail and short tail keywords
In the content that you write use a mix of long tail and short tail content.
For example, let’s consider that you have chosen the following two keywords for your content.
Keywords
Keyword Type
Asset management software
Short tail keyword
Web based asset management software in india
Long tail keyword
When you are writing content for a particular web page on your website use both these keywords interchangeably.
Now do not use the same keywords throughout the website. Use multiple combinations of long tail and short tail keywords. But remember the goal is to write good quality content that people find easy to understand.
Content Should not be Just Text
While writing content, in your audience's shoes. Will you read through blogs that are a cluster of words stuffed together one after another? No, you won't. So don't expect your audience to do otherwise.
While creating content make sure that you add tabular columns, images, quotes or anything else that increases the visual appeal of the blog article.
Prioritize by Business Value
Ask: If I rank #1 for this keyword, will it actually help me hit my goals?
Make a table:
Keyword
Search Volume
Difficulty
Intent
Business Value
helpdesk software
12000
High
Commercial
5
what is a ticketing system
1500
Low
Informational
3
helpdesk software for schools
500
Medium
Commercial
5
Organize Into Topic Clusters
Topic clusters are articles linked to one another.
Choose a Core Topic (Pillar Page)
This is a big, broad, in-depth article or page that covers everything about a subject at a high level. Example: “Asset Management Software - The Complete Guide”. This page links out to all the smaller detailed articles on related subtopics.
Cluster Content (Supporting Articles)
There are individual, focused blog posts or pages that go deep on specific articles of the core topic.
Example subtopics can be,
Best asset management software for small businesses
Cloud-based vs on-premise asset management software
How to choose an asset management software
Why Google Likes It
When all your related content is interlinked and organized like this, google sees you as an authority in that topic. You have a better chance of ranking for big, competitive keywords because you’re covering the topic comprehensively.
Visitors also stay longer because they find related content easily.
💡 Pro Tip (Mark-style):
Don’t chase the biggest search volume — chase buying intent.
A keyword with 200 searches/month but 50% of them convert is worth more than a 10,000/month vanity keyword.
Add Meta Tags
Adding meta tags to the site is important. Though nowadays it hardly impacts the search results it gives the indexing spiders an indication of what the site is all about. It also comes in handy when our website shows up in the google search results.
Do not choose one static meta description for all your pages. Keep it dynamic. Each and every page on your website should have its own meta description.
Structure the Content
The H1 and H2 tags should be appropriately. What I mean by that is the heading of the page should be H1 and the headings below that H2 and below that H3 and so on. This is the right way to structure the page and content.
Using it interchangeably is bad content design and search engines rank such pages poorly.
The file names of the images should be related to the heading of the page. Every image should have an alt tag and the content in the tag should be related to the content on the page and the chosen keywords.
Few Words on the Content
Do not stuff the content with your keywords for the sake of doing it. The focus should be on writing great content with the keywords naturally sprinkled in the content.
On page SEO is a small part of SEO. Writing great content is the most important part.
Write content for the user search intent. You can find the search results from google search console.
While writing content, ensure you provide the information that the user is looking for in the first few words.
In your content give what people are searching for ASAP.
Reduce unwanted fluff in the content and get straight to the point.
Setting up the Blog
After you have created content for your website, you should start a blog. In the blog you should publish content that is highly related to your user and that targets user search intent.
The content should target all stages of a prospect researching the problem that you solve. So your content should talk about the problem and how you solve it and then it should also talk about the product.
Link Building
Link building falls under off page SEO. Link building is very important for your website to rank high on google search results. The links should come from high value or high traffic websites.
Google search algorithm assumes that if a high value website links to your website then your website must also be a high value website.
Reaching out to high value blog owners and you can request them to link to your article or website. Alternatively you can also guest post on their blogs.
Be the source - Content Strategy
Find important statistics in your industry and write about it in detail.
Find useful metrics or stats in your target industry and write simplified yet detailed article. This way others will quote your articles and that way you can develop bank links.
SEO Checklist
Setup Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts.
Create a sitemap file. It’s an xml file named sitemap.xml that has all the links of your website. Submit this file to google search console.
Include robots.txt file. Do not blog any spiders from accessing your website.
Do keyword research. Have five main primary target keywords.
Understand user search intent. Put a keyword of choice on Google and see what kind of results appear. Then write similar articles on the blog and website.
Use Google auto complete to obtain more keywords similar to our main keywords.
Find out what other keywords your content ranks for and use those keywords in future content.
On page SEO
Use short and descriptive urls.
Add relevant internal and external links
Write meta descriptions with keywords.
Content creation
Write an engaging intro.
Write engaging content. There is no replacement for it. Focus on readability of the article. Make the article visually appealing and write short sentences and paras.
Use Hemingway editor to calculate readability score.
Make sure content solves the problem for the searcher’s query.
Link Building
Find out who is linking to other top articles for our keywords and reach out to them to link to our article also.
Guest article posting. Post articles on other’s blogs.
Articles for broken links. Identify broken links related to your topic of keywords on Wikipedia and other sites and write articles for it and add it to them as references.
Technical SEO
Web pages should load really fast. Slow loading pages are demoted in the search result.
The website should be mobile friendly and should be highly responsive.
The content on the web pages should not have any internal or external broken links.