Articles from Opportunitybuilding

The SEO Tutorial That Will Blow Your Mind

2014- 07- 09 19:07:56 Jasper Oldersom
I decided t o writ e t his art icle t o creat e a kickst art f or t hose who want t o
improve t heir websit e. You can st art using t his t ut orial t o your benef it
t oday. Believe me, it s wort h it
What You Learn
How t o opt imize your title tags
How t o creat e a killer meta description
How heading tags work and how you need t o use t hem
What an alt text is and how t o use it appropriat ely
How t o creat e an organized URL structure
The import ance of content on your sit e
How t o do Keyword Research t o underst and what your audience want s
t o know
Title tags
This is t he f irst t hing people will see when your websit e is visible in t he search
result s. The page t it le should be a good descript ion of your page. Make a
unique t it le f or each page!
Google will only display about 50-60 charact ers. To be saf e,
always t ry t o be in t he middle.
How t o craf t excellent page t it les:
Make sure you capture the attention of t he reader.
Writ e your t it les in Tit le Case, like i did wit h t his art icle.
Clearly show what is available on your page when you click.
Use keywords - The page t it le is an import ant f act or f or ranking well, so
use it !
Great examples of excellent page t it les:
Meta Description
This t ag is also really import ant . Just like t he page t it le, you need t o make a
unique met a descript ion f or any page. You might not have realized t his, but
t he page t it le & met at ag descript ion has helped you t o decide which link t o
click on f or years! Now it s t ime f or you t o use t hese t echniques t o make sure
t hey click on your result inst ead of your compet it ors.
Google will only display about 145-155 charact ers. To be saf e,
always t ry t o be in t he middle.
How t o craf t excellent met a descript ions:
Remember what t he goal is: You want people t o click your result .
Keywords are also import ant in here. The keywords t hat mat ch t o t he
user appear in bold.
Use a call to action!
Great examples of excellent met a descript ions:
Somet imes it can be so simple:

We all want t he best f or our children:
Heading tags
What you need t o know:
Heading t ags have hierarchy. The <h1> t ag is t he most import ant t ag
and <h6> t he least import ant t ag.
Use t his hierarchy appropriat ely. H1s are headings, H2s are sub-
headings and so f ort h.
Every page needs a <h1> heading, but only one.
The heading t ags need t o cont ain keywords.
Alt Text
Since Google cant read an image, t hey need a lit t le help. This is what alt t ext
does. It s an alt ernat ive t ext . The alt t ext is also shown t o users who cant
see images because t hey have t urned it of f on t heir browser (rare). When
people use screen readers, t hey will act ually hear t he alt t ext inst ead of
seeing t he image.
<img srcprint er.jpg alt=printer>
Try t o keep your alt t ext short . A lot of t he t ime youll f ind t hat youre able t o
describe your images in 1 t o 5 words. When necessary t hey can be longer t han
t hat , but keep t his in mind: make the alt text as short and descriptive as possible.
The alt t ag is an import ant ranking f act or, so make sure you use it and benef it
f rom it !
URL structure
A good URL st ruct ure is not only user f riendly, it also helps search engines t o
det ermine what your page is about . This means t hat an ideal URL st ruct ure
uses keywords. So dont do what eBay does:
The Guardian uses a clear url st ruct ure f or it s websit e :
Wanna see some doughnut s?

The URL is also shown in t he organic search result s (sandwiched bet ween t he
Tit le Tag and t he Met a Descript ion), and a searcher is more likely t o click on a
result wit h keywords in t he URL t han one t hat uses weird charact ers.

Content
It is very import ant t hat t he cont ent on your websit e is unique. Cont ent serves
a f unct ion f or your websit e. It needs t o add value f or your visit ors. Make
unique product descript ions f or every single product you sell.
You are not going t o win t he race marat hon f rom your compet it ors if you have
t hin cont ent on all your pages. Spend a good amount of t ime of your SEO
ef f ort s on your cont ent . Cust omers are your f irst priorit y, so make t he cont ent
f or t hem in t he f irst place.
You should add your keywords in your cont ent , because t his helps t he search
engines est ablish what t he page is about . Just dont overdo it . Make sure you
only use t hem where it is relevant .
How t o creat e cont ent t hat is easily t o digest :
Keep unnecessary words out of your cont ent .
Use whit e space. Or any color space.
Use bullet point s.
Use headings.
Keep it t o t he point .
Format t ing helps emphasizing import ant cont ent . Do not overdo it .
I also t ry not so use paragraphes wit h more t han 3 sent ences t o keep my
art icles readable. I t hink we all can agree t hat it sucks t o bit e t hrough a huge
chunk of cont ent .
Keyword Research
If you want t o writ e cont ent t hat your audience will appreciat e you could t ake
a wild guess, but t heres no need t o.
As a mat t er of f act , keyword research is
necessary t o underst and what your audience want s t o know. But dont
worry..If you use t hese met hods you will be killing it wit h keyword research.
Google Keyword Planner domination
Im giving t he credit s of t his met hod t o Dan Shure. This met hod is great f or
f inding long t ail keywords. The good news is: Its easy!
For t hose who never worked wit h t he Google KW Planner: The KW planner is a
t ool t o f ind keywords t o use in your AdWords campaigns. But of course, you
can also use it t o f ind keywords f or organic search
Unf ort unat ely, t he t radit ional way t o use t he KW planner is not giving you t he
best result s. This is what youre going t o see when you open up t he KW
planner:
Soowhat would you like t o do? It seems obvious t o just t ype a keyword
t here right ?
That s what Google t ells you t o do. It s what most people do. So let s t ry it :
Im just gonna t ype print er in t here.
Wow, what an amazing list of unique keywords t hat nobody else is using
(sarcasm)! I bet you could have t hought of t hese keywords yourself . But it
doesnt have t o be like t his.
Did you know t hat 70% of search t raf f ic comes f rom long tail keywords?
That s huge!
This means t hat you dont have t o f ocus on get t ing ranked on t hat one
import ant keyword. As a mat t er of f act , search engine t raf f ic t hat comes
f rom long t ail keywords are more likely ready to buy from you.
So whats long tail and whats short tail?
The keywords t hat t he KW planner gave me using t his met hod are all short t ail
keywords.
They are broad t erms. Canon print ers has a massive search volume, but
t here is a lot of compet it ion which means it will be very hard t o get your sit e t o
rank well.
On t he ot her hand, Canon MG3550 black is a long t ail keyword t hat will have
just a small amount of searches each mont h, but it is a lot easier t o get rank
on t hat keyword. And t o make it even bet t er, your pot ent ial cust omer already
knows exactly what he/she want s!
Okay, so lets do that long tail thing you tell me about
Below t he place t o ent er a keyword, you see Your landing page. This is
where you are supposed t o ent er your landingpage. But t hat s not what we are
going t o do here.
Inst ead, you are going t o spy on some of t he best result s on keywords in your
market . This could be a Wikipedia page, a compet it or or anot her inf ormat ion
resource t hat ranks really well on a broad keyword in your niche.
For t his example i chose t he keyword Buying printer and t ook a search in
Google:
The f irst result t hat Google showed me was CNET. This is not surprising
because t his is a very aut horit ive sit e. So inst ead of your own page, we are
going t o t ake t his page and put it int o Googles KW planner.

You t hink, ah, f inally t his is where t he magic happens. Nope. But were almost
t here, i promise! These keywords are bet t er, but st ill high compet it ion
keywords like:
good print ers
3 in 1 print er
print ing paper
small print ers
best 3 in 1 print er
best print er t o buy
This is why we are going t o play around wit h t he
Keyword Filt ers. It s pret t y f un t o do, and it s not hard.
Put t ing t he f ilt er above 1000 searches and suggest ed bids lower t han 1.00,-
(you can do t his in $) didnt give me great result s. (High volume but less
t ransact ional keywords)
So i t ried lower t han 1000 average searches and suggest ed bids higher t han
0.50 t o see if i could get some t ransact ional result s wit h lower mont hly
volumes. (Lower volume but at least somewhat t ransact ional)
This is what Google came up wit h:
Finally some good ideas! There are some subject s here t hat are def init ely
wort h writ ing about if i were in t he print er business, like:
The Absolut e Top 5 Best Inkjet Print ers in 2014
The Best Print ers For Print ing Your Phot os
What Are The True Cost s Of Print ing?
Can You Do Qualit y Print ing At Home?
As you see i easily got 4 good cont ent ideas f or one of t he least excit ing
businesses by put t ing just one landing page int o t he KeyWord planner.
You can lit erally put any page int o t he keyword planner t hat perf orms well. And
f or t he more advanced, you can even check t he backlinks t hat t his page have
acquired wit h Open Sit e Explorer and put t hose pages in t he KW planner.
Now it s up t o you t o t ry it . You could inf orm people about t hings t hey really
want t o know and it is a great opport unit y t o make t hem cust omers. But dont
push t hem t o buy f rom you. Rand Fishkin explains it really well in his Slideshare
Why Content Marketing Fails, but t his slide sums it up:
Providing
usef ul inf ormat ion on your sit e and an addit ional blog will help you t o get more
visit ors t o your sit e. It s also a nice opport unit y t o communicat e wit h t hem,
and t o build t rust . But make sure you do it t he right way!
Conclusion
I hope you f ound t his t ut orial usef ul and t hat you will use t his t o your
advant age. Using t his t ut orial is a great way t o kickst art your SEO. Remember
t hat using t his t ut orial t o your advant age will require hard work. But dont let
t his scare you, all good t hings require ef f ort !
Do you have any quest ions or comment s about t his t ut orial? Just leave a
comment below and ill be happy t o answer If you liked it please dont
f orget t o share!
Have a great (and product ive) day!