Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of creating content and positioning it on ones site (and in reference to other sites) in a way which causes the algorithm to see it as more relevant (than other sites) for a specific keyword (or set of keywords)—keywords being, essentially, placeholders to help search engines sort between different topics and sub-topics. 

As of writing this in 2022, Google’s search engine is radically outperforming every other variant of search engine in bringing visitors to sites. For this reason, Google’s algorithm and its standards will be the object of our analysis. While Google intentionally keeps specifics a mystery, changing its algorithm’s habits 500-600 times per year, there are plenty of basic standards that content creators have gained confident insight into through trial and error.

So first, what exactly is Google’s search algorithm? It is a robotic hivemind of metaphorical ants called ‘crawlers’ who are always marching in and out of a massive library with 50 billion copies of books, called an ‘index.’

Except, instead of copies of books, this ‘library’ has copies of websites, & each website has a certain amount of pages.

However, Google’s algorithm really only keeps track of pages it considers relevant. Google stores copies of pages it considers ‘relevant’ in their index. The details of ‘relevancy’ are kept secret as well, but it’s been found to revolve around 3 general conditions:

1. Backlinks; other website’s pages linking-back to yours, as well as their own ‘relevancy’ rating.
2. Search Intent; the popularity & context—especially context—of keywords used on your page.
3. Content Depth; the human quality & depth of the content on your page (determined by an AI; no one knows how this works either, but it’s uncannily talented at picking out lazy writing.)

(The specifics of these are elaborated on below)

When you type a term into Google & search it, Google looks through their “index” & shows you a list of pages it assumes to be most relevant to your term. For example; a certain page who has more backlinks, higher backlink ‘relevancy’, higher contextual accuracy (to Google’s assumed search intent), & ‘deeper’ content will rank much higher than a page who merely has the most keywords & paid traffic—pages higher.

SITE

The cover of your book to be stored in Google’s library; consumers judge books by their covers.

• Optimize your site. Nothing grows from dead roots; if your site isn’t optimized to rank & give your traffic a good clickthrough experience, everything else is wasted.

PAGES

The pages of your book in Google’s library. Google judges books by their pages, so make sure your page fits the subject.

• Primary on page optimizations; include intent keyword in page title when it makes sense, use short & descriptive URL slug, add meta description, add interlinks, image alt-text, & readability.
• Ensure your page satisfies search intent. When you search a term, look at the types of pages that come up. If your term starts with “how-”, you might get links to how-to videos & articles. If your term contains a popular item, you might get links to Amazon & e-commerce search. Attune your page’s topic to what Google assumes searchers intend to find when they search it.
• Learn from your competitors’ top pages, & note topics they use which you could rank equally or higher for.
• You can make several URLs redirect to the same page. This is useful for putting keywords in your URLs for competitive topics.
• Ensure pages don’t load slow. Google uses page speed in search rankings. First, cache your website’s content. I install tools to do this. Next, optimize files & lazy-load media. I also use tools to do this. Finally, audit your site with paid tool to find little, hard to catch issues.

CONTENT

The backbone & bulk of SEO.

• Content Quality Criteria. If you can outperform your competitor in all four of these factors, your content is “better” than theirs:

1) Simplistic clarity: Can you express complex ideas in short, easily digestible terms?

2) Complex depth: Can you go into depth on complex terms without losing simplistic clarity?

3) Fulfilling intent: How directly useful is your content to Google’s assumed search intent?

4) Matching media: How well does your media complement & enhance your written content? 

• When writing your content, don’t worry about finding a catchy keyword to write around so you can use it more than once; the top ranking pages rank for hundreds of keywords, some for around a thousand. Stuffing keywords in repetitively does nothing—at best. Spread out the weight onto a ton of different keywords. Each generates its own traffic, which compiles onto the page’s primary intent keyword.
• Don’t worry about page length. Focus on authority, fitting search intent, human quality, & contextual depth.

• Find content opportunities based on your competitor’s pages that get the most search traffic. 1) Go to AHRefs ‘Site Explorer’ & type domain of competitor. 2) Go to ‘Top Pages’ tab on the menu to the left of the results. 3) Change chosen country to ‘All Countries’ 4) Note the content topics with high search traffic & low referring domains. Also note which of their Subfolders get how much of their traffic by going to the ‘Top Subfolders’ tab.
• Find low competition topics with high traffic potential. 1) Type general keyword related to niche into AHRefs ‘Content Explore’. 2) In dropdown toolbar above results, set maximum number of ‘Referring Domains’ to 0 to help identify low competition topics. 3) In same toolbar, set minimum number of ‘Organic Traffic’ to 1,000. 4) Note results – over 1,000 organic visitors with zero backlink competition. 5) Click details tab on topic you want to write about. 6) Click ‘Organic Keywords’ tab under details. 7) Note keywords ranked for, ranking position, & the amount of traffic each keyword accounts for.
• Find new link opportunities on autopilot. 1) Type keyword you want to rank for into Google Search. 2) Copy URL of top ranking page. 3) Go to ‘Alerts’ tab in AHRefs header bar. 4) Create new ‘backlinks’ alert, pasting top ranking URL & scoping for ‘New Backlinks’. 5) Receive emails whenever gets new backlink. 5.5) Recommend doing this with up to 3-5 top ranking URLs at once. 6) When you see a backlink from a site you have a feature idea for, email them & pitch your URL.
• Content Gap analysis – find keywords that one or more of your competitors are ranking for which you are not ranking for. 1) Enter your domain into AHRefs ‘Site Explorer’. 2) Go to ‘Content Gap Tool’ in side menu. 3) In the content gap boxes, enter a few of your competitors’ domains. 4) Set to show keywords that ‘all of the below targets’ rank for. 5) Check ‘At least one of the targets should rank in top 10’. 6) Note keywords to make content around. 6.1) To get a closer look & analyze the content gap at the page level: 6.2) Click on SERP dropdown next to a keyword to see top ranking pages for that keyword. 6.3) Copy top 3 relevant pages & paste into content gap boxes. 6.4) Delete your URL from box below content gap boxes. 6.5) See all keywords that top ranking pages (for chosen keyword) rank for. 7) Note results to find keywords to build content around.
• Preserve ‘link juice’ from broken pages. If you have links pointing to a page which is no longer active, you’re completely wasting the benefits of the links. 1) Search your domain in AHRefs site explorer. 2) Go to ‘Best by Links’ tab on side menu (‘Best by Links’ shows you pages on site with most backlinks). 3) Go to ‘HTTP code’ filter & choose ‘404 not found’. 4) Fix all pages in results or redirect them to another relevant page, & fix any interlinking pointing to them.

KEYWORDS

How to find keywords & determine search intent.

• Generate keyword ideas. Start by listing many seed keywords (any basic terms central to your niche) as you can think of. Next look for matching phrases; search terms including & referencing your basic keywords—this is easiest with a paid keyword tool, but can be done through Google search as well. If you use a paid keyword tool, you can also do all the keyword determination mentioned below while looking through matching phrases. The first thing you’d want to filter out would be search volume above & below your target. Next, focus on keywords with modifiers which fit your desired keyword intent & business potential—for example, keywords starting with “how” usually mean ‘informational/tutorial’ search intent. The rest can be determined by looking through SERPs & some deep thinking.
• Start with a list of top 20 niche related keywords, & top 5 buyer intent keywords.
• To determine keywords, look for 3 factors:

1. Check if your keyword has search demand. Unless your site is getting 10,000+ visitors per month, you want to stay near keywords with 100-1000 searches per month or you’ll get drowned out. Focus on clickthrough & you’ll actually get more traffic this way. This is also why design is critical.
2. Check the traffic potential of topic. Traffic potential is the traffic you could get if you ranked #1 on Google for your keyword. Don’t worry about finding a catchy keyword so you can use it more than once; the top ranking pages rank for hundreds of keywords, some for around a thousand. Stuffing keywords in repetitively does nothing—at best. Spread out the weight onto a ton of different keywords. Each generates its own traffic, which compiles onto the page’s primary intent keyword. This is why traffic potential is much more relevant for your ranking than search volume.
3. Assess business potential of keyword or topic. Business potential represents the value a keyword has to your business. Value comes down to niche instead of business model. You can rank this on a scale from 1-3. Someone searching “hardscaping near me” is looking to hire someone now; I’d rank for this 1st. Someone searching “how much does hardscaping cost” is planning to buy, but not yet; I’d rank for this 2nd. Someone searching “how to lay patio” is interested in your work, but not yet ready to hire someone. I’d rank this 3rd; maybe we can calm their mind with a page making it look easy. Relationship built. Anything past 3rd can be ignored, unless it has traffic potential!
4. See if you can match search intent. Google your keyword or topic. What kind of results does it bring? Amazon products? Tutorials? Landing pages? News headlines? These will show you if your page is relevant to Google’s assumed intent—or if you can change up your page to be relevant to Google’s assumed intent. If you use keywords which Google assumes to be out of context with your page’s intent, its ranking could suffer. Bottom line; if Google doesn’t think your page will satisfy the intent of the person searching for its topic, it won’t show up.
5. Ranking difficulty; determine whether you can actually rank for your keyword. Search volume, traffic potential, & business potential mean nothing if you can’t rank for your keyword in the not-so-distant future. Understanding the level of difficulty to rank for a given keyword takes a bit of analysis & practice. The first thing to look at is ‘domain rating’. Domain rating represents to overall strength of a website’s backlink profile. Generally, you want to use keywords whose top results have similar or lower domain ratings to yours. However, if your website is equally or more authoritative than top ranking websites for a certain keyword, you could very well rank higher than them regardless of domain rating. This isn’t just esoteric jargon; you can often determine this just by looking at your competitors’ domain names & doing some shallow investigating. If you own a paint company, your article on painting will probably rank higher than a school’s article about their local paint night.

• Research & build list of local keywords with Google Ads Planner.
• Scavenge keywords by analyzing your search-competitor’s top-ranking pages. Easiest with paid keyword tool.
• Put relevant info in image alt-text. Keywords when appropriate.
• Use Hemingway readability. Write in short sentences & paragraphs. Use descriptive, poetic subheadings. Use large font. Embolden relevant terms. Write poetically. Google’s AI notices & rewards this.
• Optimize meta text.
• Optimize Schema (the headings which show up on search result).

INTERLINKING

How to tie it all together under one domain.

• Internal linking helps Google automatically index additional pages on your website helps pass your authority around your site.
• Using Duda site editor, embolden all keyword terms you want to rank for. After emboldening, link each keyword term to a piece of content discussing the subject of the term. This^ can also be a place to link-back to others who you want to link-back to you.

BACKLINKING

How to grow & cultivate Content’s sequel: Backlinks.

• Backlinks & their quality determine your site’s authority. The impact of everything else you do hinges around your site’s authority. Write relevant content & get relevant backlinks from relevant sites. Keep integrity high & it will pay off big in the long run. Ads can’t do this.
• What determines a link’s ‘quality’?

1. Relevance. Relevance of the writing to the content, the content to the topic, the topic to the title, the title to the URL, & the URL to the domain, & all of these things to Google.
2. Authority. Site authority is determined by, you guessed it; links. Site authority is based on a mathematical formula judging the ‘quality’ of a page by looking at the quantity & quality of other pages that link to it. In Google’s own words; “If other prominent websites on the subject link to the page, that’s a good sign that the information is of high quality.”
3. Anchor text. Don’t worry. Just don’t use the same keywords over & over. Ever. Pretty simple. Don’t be lazy & stupid.
4. Make sure your backlinks ‘follow’. ‘No-follow’ links can still count for your ranking, but rarely. Focus on ‘follow’ links.
5. Contextual link placement. If your backlink comes from a website’s directory or some online phonebook, it won’t be worth much at all. Focus on links from sites who respect you enough feature you in relevant parts of relevant content on relevant pages to your link’s topic. The same thing you’d offer to them. If they don’t respect you, Google’s algorithm can often tell, & will often count it against you.

• There are 3 stages in link building for your page:

1. Prospecting. This is the process of finding relevant pages & websites that might link to your page, as well as people linking to similar pages as yours, those who have influence in your industry, & those with a passion for your page’s topic.
2. Vetting. This is the process of visiting websites, checking their content quality, their authority vs. yours, identifying additional page topic ideas, & the best method of outreach.
3. Outreach. This is hard. Contacting prospects who passed vetting. Keep emails very short. Sometimes it’s good to offer to write about a topic for them, in exchange for a backlink.

• Get free PR using H.A.R.O., or Help A Reporter Out; sign up as a source, select categories where you’re qualified to answer questions, & receive emails from journalists looking for sources on specific topics. Find a topic you can make a page around, then respond with a short email to a journalist, showing yourself to be an expert on the topic in your introduction. Follow with your knowledge & a link to your page. Multiple links is much better. These can bring big links from big sites. A lot of work, but very beginner friendly.

• Add a high-value, high-relevance tool, infographic, video, course, study, or even an article to your site, & reference similar sized sites to yours in your articles relevant to them. After referencing, reach out to them asking if they’d like to link to one of your tools, videos, studies, etc. Show them where you’d think it’d provide value, & why. Repeat.
• Link building is very relational, & can often be harder than making a first time sale. Start with your network, & start relationship building.
• Backlinks are the sole factor allowing you to rank for competitive phrases. If another page is out of your authority range for a certain topic, there will be no competing with them for it
• Paying for backlinks comes with a huge penalty if you get caught. Be smart. Google’s algorithm gets smarter twice per day. The average cost of one dependable backlink is $350. Ouch.
• Organic links are mythical until you’re big enough to get people linking to you without asking. You’re going to have to network.
• Find relevant sites to guest-post for in exchange for backlinks. 1) Type Keyword into content explorer. 2) Check ‘One Article Per Domains’ filter. 3) Set Domain Rating to site you want to write for (30-40 for beginner articles on smaller sites, 50-70 for professional work on established sites). 4) Find the filter labeled ‘Highlight Unlinked Domains’ & enter your domain. One backlink from a domain who has never linked to you is stronger than several additional backlinks from a domain who has. 5) Export results, be sure to check ‘Only highlighted unlinked domains’ in export menu, then start pitching. You’ll have a post linking back to you in no time.
• Research the quality of your competitors backlinks & get an understanding of how they got them. 1) Get back to ‘Top Pages’ tab from menu mentioned previously. 2) Click on the ‘Referring Domains’ number for one of the pages. 3) See the source & quality of all domains backlinking to the page. 4) After getting needed information, go to ‘Backlinks’ tab on side menu. 5) Note backlink source, metrics on backlink source, & the context the backlink was used in. 6) Set ‘Link Type’ to the kind of backlink you want to appeal for. 6.5) You can also add specific terms like “resources” into ‘Word or Phrase’ box & then target ‘URLs of referring pages’ & ‘Titles of referring pages’ to find the specific content you’d like to appeal for. 7) Reach out out & offer to content idea in exchange for backlink.
• Find broken link opportunities. It’s good to fix your own broken links, but what if you could steal your competitors’? 1) Repeat about steps, but search competitor domain instead of your own. 2) Reset ‘HTTP code’ filter to ‘404 not found’. 3) Note page titles you can build content around. 4) View the referring domains for each page by going to the number next to the page under the ‘Referring Domains’ column. 5) Reach out to have their referring domains link to you instead.

RANKING

95% of consumers choose from the first 4 four search results.

• Google’s search algorithm is always making  updates & changes to how it functions—500-600 times per year in fact, according to Google. We can’t know how it works, but we know it follows certain factors:

1. Backlinking; always the most critical factor to ranking.
2. Search intent; the most relevant reasons behind certain questions. Oversimplified example: If you search “latte”, you get drink descriptions & recipes. If you search “latte near me”, you get coffee shops near you. Google assumes your intent, & we search/rank around their assumption.
3. Content depth; Google’s ability to have an AI make judgments about the humanity of your content. Oversimplified example: If your content is jam-packed with keywords, incoherent rambling, out of context, insufficiently expanding on the title, or just poorly written in general, these will result in massive ranking penalties from Google. Likewise, blending keywords into on-subject content, elaborating deeply into subject matter, putting all terms into context, fulfilling the searcher’s intent, & just being an all-around enjoyable read will result in a massive relevance increase with Google.

SUMMARY

You’ll get out of your search engine optimization what you put into it—to an extent. Unfortunately, as the algorithm becomes more saturated, reaching the first (and in some cases, second) page of search results in becoming a pay-to-play competition, where only industry incumbents have a chance at getting search traffic. The bright side is that, as this fails to offer a desirable range of options to consumers, the industry will inevitably evolve, either through trends or technological advancements, to shake things up with new paradigms.