What TF is SEO?

Well, it stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. End of Article, thanks for reading!

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I’m just kidding (haha, lame joke, whatever, we move). 

SEO is much more complex than just three simple words. Search Engine Optimization is a way for you to boost your website’s ranking on Google (which is a search engine). So far, so good? Great. 

Before we dive right in, thanks for checking out Focused on Everything, where I write about…well everything. Check out other blog posts of mine here. Ok, enough plugging, back to school. 

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Like I mentioned earlier, SEO is a way for individuals and businesses to boost their website’s ranking on Google and other search engines. Believe it or not, SEO can even help you on social media, as many social media platforms also act as a search engines as well!

Recently, I decided to brush up on my SEO skills a bit and take an online course from SEMRush Academy titled, “Semrush SEO Crash Course with Brian Dean". Along with that course, I also earned a certification from SEMRush Academy titled, ”SEMRush SEO Toolkit Course”.

• View Semrush  Certifications Here

Now before you click away thinking this is some sort of ad read, I AM NOT BEING PAID TO WRITE ABOUT SEMRUSH.

(But I could be, ☎️) 

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Anyways, after I took the course, I thought I’d come running back to share the top 3 lessons from the courses that I found intriguing. 

• Usefulness, Authority, and Relevancy.

  Google uses over 200 factors to determine your site’s ranking. If SEO is what you live, breathe, and eat, by all means, learn all 200+.

  But if you are like me (not solely focused on SEO), there are three main factors you should focus on: Usefulness, Authority, and Relevancy.

  • Usefulness:

    • How many people are coming to your site and leaving with the answers they came looking for? For example, you have a headache, so you go on Google for answers. Chances are the top five websites that come up will suffice in terms of answering your questions because they are useful, get it?

    • FOCUS MOST OF YOUR TIME HERE. Usefulness weighs heavier than the other two factors!

  • Authority:

    • Think Time Magazine vs. your school’s journalism club. Authority is a factor used to recognize the reliability, accuracy, and overall prestige of the website.

    • “Asmir, how is Google going to measure the prestige of my site?” Well, I’ll tell you how (thanks for asking, btw). Google tracks something called backlinks.

      • When a company links to your site on their site, one gains a backlink. In Google’s early years, quantity actually mattered, but now it’s more about quality. If one would like to gain a quality backlink, they need to be linked on a site that already ranks high in relevancy, usefulness, and authority. More than your school’s journalism club, try to get Time Magazine to link back to you (but both help when you’re just starting out).

  • Relevancy:

    • If you are a chef, don’t put “selling marketing services” all over your site. To be relevant and found relevant in terms of a search engine, your site needs to scream “I AM A CHEF, HIRE ME, I COOK.” (maybe not in those exact words, but you get the point).

    • Think about it from a consumer’s aspect: If they search for something, and they see your site, what should they expect to see? Got the picture? Great, go and make your site and content look like that.

• Optimizing Content For Keywords

  If there’s one thing you take away from this blog post, it’s that Keyword research is the most important aspect of SEO.

  Keyword research affects everything, from content to ad spend. That being said, part of SEO is creating content, but optimizing that content is the difference between being seen and not.

  I’ll explain:

  When you search for something on Google, you are typing in keywords. When you click search, content tied to that keyword is what you are served.

  “So, how do I make the right content?” So many great questions from you today!

  First, pick the right keywords. How?

  • If you are just starting out, look for low competition keywords (meaning they are lower ranked in terms of relation to your product/service) with high search volume. Also, watch for CPC (Cost per Click)! The higher the CPC, the better. It means advertisers are paying for more for that word, so build content around it, because there is clearly a reason they are paying!

  Now, build your content!

  • Reference your keyword as much as possible in your content. BUT MAKE SURE ITS NATURAL!

    • For example, if you are a chef, don’t type: “Chef in France! Learn from a real-life chef in France and hang out with a chef in France. Chef in France. Chef. in. France.” See how that’s unnatural? Say it often, but slip it into text subtly so it makes sense.

  • In the first 3 words of your content title, USE THE KEYWORD.

    • If your keyword is “space”, make your title, “Space: the infinite void”.

  • Link Internally!

    • If your content is talking about something that you have made content about in the past, link back to it. Yes: GIVE YOURSELF A BACKLINK. For example, I wrote an article about the importance of sleep and how it can actually increase your overall performance throughout the day. You can check it out here!

      See what I did there?

• The Skyscraper Technique

  Here’s a quick strategy to get your content backlinked on sites with more authority and relevance than yours.

  1) Find a piece of content that is doing extremely well from your industry. Make sure it’s something connected to your product. The more related to you, the more relevant the backlink.

  2) Run the piece through a “Broken Link Checker”. Find all the broken links and try to see if you can replace that link with one of yours.

  3) Send an email to the author saying, “Hey, I saw that your article had some broken links, and I thought I’d bring it to your attention. Also, I’ve written content about this as well, maybe you would like to use this instead.”

  = BACKLINK WITH AUTHORITY, USEFULNESS, AND RELEVANCE FOR YOU.

Also, I am always open to learning more, so if I am mistaken about something, please feel free to contact me to make an update (maybe I’ll even backlink you, who knows). 

Anyways, if you made it this far, thanks for reading! 

Check out my past blog posts below and be sure to share with someone looking for SEO help!