A Complete Guide to SEO: A Step-By-Step Walkthrough to Build Organic Traffic Through SEO-Optimized Content

SEO means search engine optimization.

Basically, it is about helping Google understand:

What your business does.
That you are an authority on a topic.
That your content is worth displaying high on search results.

The goal of Google, and really the goal of most search engines, is to match the best content with a person's question. The way that Google determines this is through its unique algorithms.

Google states that its ranking system is designed to "sort through hundreds of billions of webpages in our Search index to find the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second, and present them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for."

Relevant.

Useful.

This post is meant to help you create content relevant and useful in the eyes of Google's algorithms. We will keep things simple and keep things cheap.

Use the list below to navigate your SEO needs:

Finding your primary keywords
Finding your secondary keywords
Getting content topic ideas
Measuring content quality through backlinks and link building
SEO Checklist and on page optimization

1. Finding Your Primary Keywords

Google states, "The most basic signal that information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search query."

Keywords.

Great marketers know that their great content needs to include the exact words people are typing into search engines.

Does your webpage snippet, or summary, explain what it does with the right keywords that show Google that your content is a good match?

Most of all, how do you find the right words that people are typing into Google search when looking for a product or service similar to your own?

How to Use Google Keyword Planner (Without a Credit Card)

Here’s how to use it for free:

Use Chrome and set up a New Incognito Window.

Go to ads.google.com, then click “Sign in.” Sign in with a Google account and click “new google ads account.”

Now the trick to get around sharing your credit card:

Click “Switch to expert mode.”

“Click “Create an account without a campaign.”

Confirm your business settings.

Then click “explore your account.”

Click “TOOLS”, then choose “Keyword Planner.”

You’ll get two options:

“Find keywords.”

<AND>

“Get search volume and forecasts.”

Use the first option to get keyword ideas.

You can now input topics or words related to your business, brand, product, or service.

Also, think about:

What words or phrases would people use to find what you offer?
What questions are your customers always asking?

Notice that Google will also give you suggestions to broaden your search. This can be helpful to turn you on to terms or categories that you didn't know about.

You’ll now see different categories:

Your keywords on the far left, then average monthly searches, and then competition and cost-per-click range.

Keywords that have a high amount of search volume and a high amount of competition are what we would call your primary keywords.

Finding Your Primary Keywords

Primary keywords are words that your business has to go after no matter what. They are so closely aligned with what you do that it doesn't matter if you don't have a chance to rank for them in one month because you would like to invest time in ranking for them eventually.

You'll notice these two prices, too. These are your PPC or price-per-click prices. Google Adwords allows people to pay to have their content appear on the first page of Google. These numbers give you a high and a low range.

If you use Adwords, every time someone clicks your website's link you get charged the price for that keyword.

If the range is high you can bet that other companies are paying for those specific keywords. Sometimes, even if a keyword has a lower search volume it might have higher buyer intent.

If I typed in "car dealerships in Bloomington," this is a high buying intent phrase, even though Bloomington is a small town and may not have a ton of monthly searches.

Finding Your Secondary Keywords

You need to get some points on the board, even if they do not have the highest search volume. Enter secondary keywords. These are keywords that are less competitive but are still related to your product or service. Ranking these words will eventually increase your site traffic and build your search engine rankings.

Look for keywords with a good amount of searches with low or medium competition.

This makes them easier to rank for.

Apply filters to narrow down the competition category.

Click the ADD FILTER button.

Click “Competition.”

Click matches that say “low” or “medium.”

The more competitive keywords will be removed.

To make even easier click the box that says “Avg. Monthly Searches” and it will not display keywords from the highest to lowest monthly searches, that are also low in competition.

Now select keywords that:

Align with what you offer.
Align with what your audience wants to know.

Notice that as you check off keywords you can add them to a group. I recommend having one group for primary keywords and one group for secondary keywords.

Once you have both your primary and secondary lists, click “DOWNLOAD KEYWORDS” and you’re good to go.

Putting Your Primary Keywords on Your Website's Core Pages

So now you have a list of keywords. It's time to take the primary ones and put them on the core pages of your website. Include them on your:

Home page.
Service page.
Pricing page. (Yes, you should have a pricing page.)
About page.
Contact Page.

Most of the work you do in content marketing will be about making these pages appear higher in search results. By the way, if you try to spam or stuff keywords by placing them all throughout your site in an unnatural way, this will not help you.

This will hurt you.

Don't do that.

Use keywords like a real human person. These keywords should be connected to your product or service anyway. The easiest way to ensure that you used your primary keywords on your webpages is to use the "control F" function on your keyboard.

Type in your primary keywords one at a time and make sure you included them throughout your site.

You will begin to discover how keyword research actually makes you a better writer and business because you are prioritizing the words of the customer when you’re creating content.

When you start to think about your content as being helpful and value-driven above all, you are on the right track.

This is the beginning of helping searchers find your content and having it rank on a search engine results page, or SERP. However, in order to support these web pages, we are going to have to be content creators.

The first step to being a content creator is having some content ideas.

Creating Content by Determining Topic Ideas with Keywords

You can only include so many keywords on your core pages without actually having to create some content or more web pages on your site.

This is where people turn to content marketing. Simply put, content marketing is producing quality, value-driven content on a consistent basis. The big four types of content include:

Blogging.
Video.
Podcasts.

However, each piece of content needs to add a webpage with keyword content, meaning letters that make up words, onto your website.

A blog is straightforward, but if I am creating a video or a podcast I need to have it transcribed through a service like Sonix or Rev, too. Take the transcription of these and put them on a webpage, and embed your podcast or video at the top.

You'll still need to do some basic editing here to make sure that your sentences are free of errors, and you should also add some headings and subheadings.

This will help search engines pick up on the keywords from your content.

Therefore, no matter what type of content you produce, every content marketer is a blogger.

There is one problem though...

How do I come up with topics for my content?

Getting Topic Ideas for Your Content

The easiest way is through AnswerThePublic, and it's free.

Go to AnswerThePublic.com, try to ignore the creepy guy staring back at you, select your country and your language, then put in one or two of your primary keywords.

AnswerThePublic scrubs the internet and comes up with a list of long-tail keywords in the language people actually use when searching for info.

Let’s try a search for the ever-popular “medicine wheel.”

First, it runs questions:

What does a medicine wheel look like?

Then prepositions:

Medicine wheel with feathers.

Then comparisons:

Medicine wheel vs. dream catcher.

And then an alphabetical list of entries.

The circular graphs you get are pretty cool, but they tend to make you dizzy after a while.

You can switch to an easier-to-view layout by clicking on the “DATA” button near the top left corner of the first graph.

You can also download a CSV of your results for later use and review.

This is a great way to find topics, and even subtopics within topics — all while using your primary and secondary keywords in real-life customer language.

Keep in mind you only get a set limit of free searches, as there is a paid version with unlimited searches and result comparisons.

But if you do it right, you should get a ton of topic and title ideas for your next round of content.

Start with Primary Keywords and Branch Out to Secondary Keywords

When you begin and learn how to create quality content, start with your greatest hits, your core library, the things that you already know are essential to talk about in your industry.

It does not matter if you know that there are already 1 million articles on that topic. Here is why:

You have unique experiences and examples that you can use.
This is content that you could probably share with your current clients, your email list, and your social media following to add value. When trying to get new customers it is super important that you don't forget to add value to your current customers. Your core library will ensure you take care of your loyal fans first.
This will prevent you from having to repeat yourself over and over. There are questions that you or your sales team have probably had to repeat 1,000 times. Creating this content will give them a directory of answers that they can seek out for help. This saves you tons of time.
Content marketing takes time, so it's important to do this content first so that it has a head start maturing in the google algorithms.
If you are reading this right now, just know that that there are about 1,790,000 results for this topic at the time of my writing this. Yet, here we are.

After you have created your core library of content around those high competition primary keywords, then branch out and create secondary keyword content. These items will have lower competition and should be easier to rank for.

This is also a chance for your content to be more timely and relevant.

Is there a new technology in your field that you would like to give your perspective on?
Are there current events that affect your industry that you can write about?
Are there any emerging or competing ideas that you would like to explore, research, and create content around?
Do you have a case study of results you have gotten that you want to share?

True, we want the majority of our content to be evergreen, meaning it will be relevant for years to come. But, creating content around trending topics is a great way to help our content get social shares and gain some backlinks.

What are backlinks you ask? Let me explain.

Measuring Content Quality Through Backlinks and Link Building

When looking for quality webpages, Google seeks out "pages [that] demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a given topic." source

Google later gives their basic reasoning stating, "for example, if other prominent websites link to the page (what is known as PageRank), that has proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted." source

Having other websites link to your website is one of the best ways to show your page is quality and knows what it's talking about. This process is known as link building.

For example, If I create a blog about karate, and another website links to my blog post in some of their content on their website, say another blog post, I gain a backlink.

However, all backlinks are not created equal. A backlink from a big-time news station that has tons of website traffic is better than the stranger who just blogs about the karate he does in his backyard.

Both are great. One counts more.

Consider that the first-page search results on Google usually have 3.8x the number of backlinks as spots 2-10. source

Basically, in order for Google to like your content, you need other people to like your content first.

Also, the more people that link to your website, not just your blog posts but any landing page of yours, the higher your domain authority becomes.

Domain authority is made up of a few factors, the biggest one being the number of backlinks a website has from other websites, especially other popular websites.

If this is starting to sound like a popularity contest in high school, you are not far off. In order for the most popular kid in school to like you, you need to ignore them and get everyone else to like you first.

In general, a website with a higher domain authority will have an easier time ranking on Google than a website that has a low domain authority. source

If you are curious about your domain authority or another website's domain authority, here is how to find it for free.

Moz has a free domain SEO analysis tool.

Here you can enter your website URL to see your domain authority.

AND you can enter your competitor’s URL to get their domain authority info as well.

Add the Moz bar Chrome extension to your Chrome browser, and you can have even more fun.

Each time you search in Google, you’ll see each listed page’s domain authority and page authority, or the ability for that specific page to rank. You need to set up a Moz account for the Chrome extension, but you get unlimited use and it’s still free.

How Should We be Link Building in Our SEO Strategy?

So how does the little guy rank with the big guys? You'll notice that it is possible for a website with a lower domain authority to rank on the first page with sites that have big domain authority. All it takes is a bit of hustle.

Make consistent, value-driven, and quality content the aim of your content creation strategy.
Create long-form content that engages readers and keeps them on the page longer.
Do outreach to collaborate with influencers or subject matter experts when creating content. An ally in creation can also be an ally in promotion. Plus, when you have multiple quotes or idea contributors the content will also be higher quality and more value-driven.
Spend just as much time promoting your content as you did creating it. Promote it to your email list and social media (multiple times). Mention your contributors in your social posts and forward them a copy of the email so they know you are promoting content they are featured in, in every way possible.
Promote your content through other mediums. Have a YouTube channel? Mention that you'll link to the blog post in the description box that is full of your sources. Have a podcast? Mention the link to your content in the show notes.
Be grateful. When someone does collaborate with your content go above and beyond to send them a handwritten thank you card or my personal favorite, a personalized video. It doesn't have to be fancy or cinema quality. Just sincere.

Technical SEO and User Experience for Websites in 3 Steps

There is a myth, that many web hosting platforms have created, that certain web hosting platforms are better for website SEO.

In fact, when people think of SEO help this is the first thing that they think of.

"What magic buttons and plug-ins will optimize my website to be found on Google?"

Let's be clear, you can have a WordPress hosted website that produces no high quality-content or new content at all and has terrible SEO.

You can have a Squarespace website that has incredible SEO content and appears first in organic search.

There is no magic site map or plug-in.

Here is a checklist to ensure that your website considers all the ranking factors of SEO to optimize your marketing efforts.

Step 1: Findable

Does the content consider the search intent of your target audience?

Include primary keywords within the content, at least four times in natural language.

Use at least one H1 header per page and at least two H2 titles as subheadings with keywords, too.

Use internal links to other existing content.

Provide alternative tags or titles for images on the website with keywords.

Step 2: Readable

Is it easy for people to understand your content?

Use short paragraphs of no more than 3 lines.

Use pictures and infographics at every scroll depth.

Use bullets and numbered lists to organize information.

Use a lower reading level (8th grade or under).

Use bolded words to draw emphasis and direct attention.

Step 3: Actionable

Does your content promote sharing and action?

Include social sharing buttons.
Provide opportunities to learn more, even via external links.
Allow comments and interactions.
Content appears well on mobile and desktop.

If your web content is crushing each of these points then you are optimizing your content for terrific SEO.

A Note About SEO Tools

There are many tools that will make your life easier when creating content. Among my favorites are:

Clearscope: to create optimized keyword content as you write it.

SEMrush: to look up and find keywords and search engine rankings for specific content.

SpyFu: to compare content to your competition.

SparkToro: to find and reach out to influencers.

Canva, Snagit, PicsArt: For creating graphics to use on your blog or in your videos.

WeVideo and Premiere Pro: to create video for your content.

WriterAccess: for finding great freelance editors and writers to help scale your content creation.

and a million more.

Remember, you CAN produce incredible content without having a ton of tools to run up your overhead. In fact, I think that relying on tools can sometimes prevent you from mastering the fundamentals of a content marketing strategy.

Measure Metrics Using Google Analytics

Content marketing and SEO take time. Even if you are consistent and produce high-quality, value-driven content it is going to take around 6 months for your content to start moving the numbers and climbing in search results.

Yet, you still need to measure.

This stuff works and numbers will not lie to you.

In fact, numbers will help you to stay motivated when you feel like giving up.

I created a whole other post on the metrics that you should be measuring when it comes to content marketing that is worth checking out.

Content marketing should make you money. It should drive more people to your website and increase your sales. If you create SEO-optimized long-from content it will.