You don’t need an agency to do your SEO- It's Easy

You think SEO is Hard.
You have been reading several definitions, which confuses you and made you assume that SEO is complex and hard to understand.
Yeah, It’s common to face difficulties in getting started with SEO. Even I have struggled with SEO for 1 year.
But now, what I am saying that — SEO is not hard at all. It’s not only easy to understand but it’s easy to do SEO.
Yes, you have read right. If you are having a website and running a small business, you can do SEO by yourself. You don’t need to hire an agency for SEO if you don’t run a big business.
Just follow me along this post, soon you will realize — SEO is easy, not hard as it seems. And now, I can do my SEO on my own.
Let’s begin…
So what exactly SEO is?
Everyone wants to see their website on the 1st page of Google when their audience/customers are searching for the content they are offering.
But there are many more people offering the same content and are in competition with you.
So what decides Google search result?
How does your site appear on top results beating your competitor sites?
The answer is SEO.
SEO — Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is all about optimizing your content/webpage/website to get high rank on the Google search page.
It is an activity that will help you to achieve good search engine ranking.
S — Search
E — Engine
0 — Optimization
So the first two letter of SEO, S, and E is for Search Engine. And you must be knowing what is Search Engine.
Google is a Search engine.
A search engine is a service that allows Internet users to search for content via the World Wide Web (WWW). A user enters keywords or key phrases into a search engine and receives a list of Web content results in the form of websites, images, videos or other online data.
The O part of SEO — Optimization is the key here.
Optimization means it’s everything from making sure your content is following the search engine guidelines to creating amazing content fulfilling readers need.
Means SEO is all about writing such content that can be easily understood by your Search Engine and loved by your readers.
What we can say for SEO in simple language is -
SEO is an activity of writing amazing content and following some basic guidelines of SEO.
That’s all. SEO is done.
But I will explain it a little further to make SEO more clear and easy.
So let’s divide the Optimization into two parts:
- Optimization for search engine
- Optimization for reader
Optimization for search engine
Optimization for a search engine is making clear each and everything about your content to Google(search engine).
Remember one simple thing, your content should be the answer to the user’s search query.
And if we do that, we optimized our content/ web page for user search query.
Before moving further, let’s learn about the one of the important thing of optimization — Keyword.
You will optimize your content/web page/ website for a keyword. So you must have an idea about Keyword.
So what is a keyword?
A/c to Moz, Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called “search queries.”
The keyword is the search query of a user. And your content is the answer.
So before writing content, you have to decide that your content can be the answer to which search query.
If you have found that question, then you have got your keyword for that content.
And you can easily find your keyword by getting specific about your content — by targeting specific people and not a broad audience.
Let’s take an example: I want to make a veg cake within 30 minutes but I don’t know how to prepare one.
so what I will search on Google to get the desired results :
- How to make a cake?
- How to make cake veg cake?
- How to make non-veg cake within 30 minutes.
Obviously, I will go for option 3rd, to save my time and get a specific answer.
All the above 3 search query can be your keyword, but 3rd is more specific and less competitive.
And as a writer, we have to think like a searcher/reader considering your audience specific query/question. We should always start by targeting less competitive keyword. And we can always do this by targeting the specific audience.
Now you know what is keyword and how to choose keywords for your content. And you have also learned how to find your keywords by targeting specific people and their needs in your mind. just consider the purpose of your writing and for whom you are writing? That’s all.
After finding your keyword and writing your content, your next task is to let Google know about your content, the audience you are targeting and the keyword you are using for it — so that Google can show your content when your targeted audience will search for that.
So let’s follow the basic guidelines to optimize our content for search engine(Google):
-> Title tag: Title tag is like the packaging of the product. The more it is attractive, the more it attracts the customer to try.
And with “Title Tag”, your goal is to get the attention of the people.
It should be short and attractive.
It should be actionable, attractive and key-word contained.
Try to give reasons why people should click on your content. Focus on how, why, and what.
The title tag should always be in the <h1> tag.
-> Meta Description: It is all about giving a brief idea about your page content. It is like a summary of your page. Justify your title tag here.
You have a 1–2 line to beat other search results by getting more creative here.
Try to insert your targeted keyword or synonyms of keyword only in a very relevant manner if needed. Otherwise, you can avoid this.
You just have to be creative to provide an idea about the content that user will be going to get when they clicked on your webpage.
Always remember, the “Title Tag” and “Meta Description” play a very important role to increase your Click through Rate(CTR). So invest your effort in crafting these, it will pay you off.
-> Web- page URL: Try to use your target key or relevant words in your URL which is relevant for your web page content because a user will be going to see it before clicking on your webpage. So it must give an idea of the content.
URL must emphasize the content.
Always keep it short and simple.
-> Heading tag: Try to use some heading tag in your page to emphasize the main content of your page. Arrange your content in a structure that makes the flow of content.
-> 1st paragraph: Now after a title, it’s time to write amazing first 200 words to get the reader’s attention for complete content.
Try to give the complete overview of your whole content here. It is useful for your readers to get the idea of whole content that they are going to read.
-> Sub-headings: Try to break your content in parts.
Add sub-headings of each part.
Wrap your sub-headings in <h2> tag.
It will help readers to scan your complete content in one go and readers always love it and your search engine too.
-> Image optimization: Use creative and informatics graphics, because it has more potential to get share than your content.
Always use the <Alt> tag for your image and that alt text must contain your target keyword.
-> Internal and External links: Always use internal and external links in your content. Internal links are basically linking to your existing content in a relevant manner.
External links are basically linking to another page for relevant information. You can’t be good at everything.
So you have to link to the others pages which is helpful and relevant for readers. If you link to others high authority pages, it will help you too.
Links on your page may be internal — pointing to other pages on your site — or external — leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you’re linking to is about.
The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about.
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link.
Optimization for user/reader
Now you have done with your “optimization for Search engine” part and I am damn sure you have find it quite easy to do. Optimization for the Search engine is just a basic guideline which is easy to learn with some practice.
And now here comes the most important part of SEO — Optimization for readers, because till now you’re just learning how to follow the basic guidelines for the search and now you have to perform real task.
Now you have to perform the real task — Writing amazing and useful content. All of your SEO efforts will be going to work only if you write good content.
You have already heard that “Content is King”. And yes content is still king and will always.
And content becomes king only after it is loved by its readers.
And you have heard by many SEO experts — Earning backlinks is one of the essential components of SEO. Yes, it is.
So how do you get Backlinks?
Obviously by writing amazing content. That’s all.
You don’t have to worry about Backlinks when you are writing useful content for your users. You will get backlinks naturally. And this is what your search engine wants — Natural backlinks, not manual links.
The only thing you have to concern here is what you will do after publishing your amazing content.
You have to promote the shit out of it.
And here comes Social Media Marketing, which is very important.
You are done with the writing amazing content, now your real task begins — to put your content in front of your targeted audience.
In order to rank high, you need lots of visitors and Social media marketing is the best option to get lots of visitors by promoting your content.
You will not rank high until and unless you have people who are reading your content and spending time on your site.
So you have to learn how to make most of the social media and how to promote on social media.
Promoting content on Social media can be very helpful because every person has their own network there. And if your content is helpful for them then they will share it for sure.
And this is what your search engine wants to rank you high — lots of people spending time on your site.
At the end of the day, it is your content that matters. Content is the core of SEO. No tips and tricks will going to work without good content. So go create amazing content.
Just find your target audience.Analyse their behavior. Get specific in choosing your audience.
After determining your audience, finds their needs and concerns. What are the problems they are facing
Learning about your audience behavior, interest and demographics is the key to create relevant content that effective at driving your business results.
After determining all these things, write content that helps your audience to achieve the transformation they seek. Solve the problem they are facing. Provide the information in a manner they want.
The more specific your audience is, the more effective content you will create.
Your content should be the answer to your reader’s question.
So go create amazing Content following that basic guidelines.
Don’t speed up the things.
Every good thing takes time, so will SEO.
Learn to promote your content using social media.
Getting visitors is long terms process. It requires lots of efforts, but it will pay you off for sure. Invest in getting visitors with the help of Social Media because it is what matters most in SEO — lots of people reading and enjoying your content.
Now it’s your turn, What do you think about SEO now?
What would you going to do differently now in your SEO process?
What other ideas can you add to this list that I may have not mentioned?
Also, do suggest me how can I improve writing for the further blog on Medium.
Share your ideas and feedback in the comment section, it will help me to improve my writings.
And last, if you enjoyed this blog post, share it with a friend.
