Monday, December 26, 2016

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO: How to Increase Website Traffic In 2017

Ae you looking for a beginner's guide to SEO to increase your website traffic in 2017 and beyond? Well, you are in the right place. Here's where you will find almost EVERY important factor of SEO that helps to boost your search traffic.

Believe it or not, SEO is a HUGE ocean.

On-page SEO, off-page SEO, content, keyword research, backlinks, competitor's research, web analytics, usability, mobile, design – it involves in a gazillion number of factors.

Trying to become an SEO expert is the surefire way to screw up your life. But if you ignore SEO completely, you won't get even 100 visitors a day to your sites let alone the sales. That's the harsh truth.

So what can you do? Sit quiet, blame yourself for your fate and give up? Or learn some SEO basics to increase your website traffic?

This MONSTER (6000+ words) beginner's guide to SEO was written by keeping just one thing in mind: to help the beginners to grow their traffic from Google.

So are you ready to increase your website traffic in 2017? Let's jump into the ultimate beginner's guide to SEO without much ado.

The beginner's guide to SEO in 2017

beginners guide to seo in 2017

The importance of SEO tools

As I said, SEO is a huge ocean and you can't dive into it without having access to the right tools. Yes, there are hundreds of SEO tools available but majority of them don't give you the right results. I've used hundreds of tools over last 6 years and here are few SEO tools that I highly recommend you to begin your SEO journey.

WordPress SEO by Yoast: I so much love this plugin. It's free and easy to use. If you want to boost your on-page SEO (which will be covered later in this massive beginner's guide to SEO), this plugin is a must for you.

SEMrush: I've been using this SEO tool for over 2 years and not only I tripled my overall search traffic but also the website sales. This is a MUST have tool for anyone who is serious about getting better search rankings and sales.

Here are few things you can do with this tool.

  • Competitor's research
  • Keyword research
  • Backlink analysis
  • Check traffic of any site
  • Domain to domain comparison
  • Site audit to fix your site issues
  • PPC
  • Ad research
  • You can literally find everything about any website in the world (including their best performing keywords, ads, backlink sources) using SEMrush. So it's the perfect tool for all your SEO needs. Here's an unbiased SEMrush review that can be helpful for you to know why you need it.

    Exclusive Deal: For a limited time, you can get SEMrush pro account free for 30 days. Use this special link to get it free ($69.95 offer!).

    Keyword Planner: This is a gift for bloggers and SEO enthusiasts. Google's keyword planner has a ton of data to help you find great keywords. It's free and fun to use.

    The only drawback of using this tool is that it has access to millions of people worldwide so even if you find low competitive keywords to rank higher on Google search results, you will still have to fight with a thousand of your competitor's to really get better rankings.

    The importance of keywords

    If you are a beginner, you might not know the importance of keyword research yet but remember that it's one of the most important things that can make or break your SEO success.

    If you are not doing keyword research before creating content, you simply don't attract any traffic from search engines. Without targeting one or two keywords from your content, how Google is supposed to send you traffic?

    That's what it's extremely crucial to find keywords. And not just any keywords, they have to be low competitive long tail keywords. Here's the importance of using long tail keywords.

    Long Tail Keywords

    Here are few essential tips you can use from this beginner's guide to SEO to boost your search traffic and rankings.

  • Focus on long tail keywords. A long tail keyword usually contains 4 or more words in it. For example, "beginner's guide to SEO" is a 4 word long tail keyword. They help you get better search rankings really quickly.
  • Use keyword research tools like SEMrush for finding keywords. It gives you access to a ton of profitable keywords that you can use to boost your overall search engine traffic. You can also find your competitor's best performing keywords using SEMrush so you can quickly find out which are the trending topics that can send more search traffic.
  • Do proper on-page optimization (you will find it in the next section) by properly using your keywords within your content. Proper keyword research usage in the on-page SEO can alone boost your search rankings and traffic.
  • While using long tail keywords within your content, make sure to also use relevant keywords with your articles so you can rank for multiple keywords from one web page. It gives you better search results in the long run.
  • The importance of on-page SEO

    Every blogger works out seriously on driving traffic to their blog. If you are a newbie in blogging, then there is main thing that you should know is all about SEO.

    To rank your blog post in the first results of search engine, you need to take care of SEO while writing great content. Your blog receives high traffic automatically once your posts ranks higher in Google search engine.

    You can increase your website traffic with on-page seo techniques.

    What is on-page SEO?

    It is the way of optimizing your blog posts so that it appears in the first results of Google/bing search engine which helps in driving relevant traffic from search engine.

    Why on-page SEO is important for bloggers?

  • It fetches huge organic traffic to your blog.
  • It brings more opportunities to grow as a blogger.
  • It ranks your blog post high in the first results of Google search engine.
  • It helps in gaining loyal audience.
  • 8 on-page SEO techniques for beginners

    Quick note: If you want to get more out of on-page SEO, you need to do keyword research first. Find a primary keyword for every blog post you write. That way you can use that primary keyword in page titles, meta description, alt tags etc to increase website traffic quickly.

    On Page SEO Factors

    #1. Put your primary keyword in the page title

    Title is what attracts the readers. Whether your article is read or not is completely depends on your blog post title. For Google, title is very important. Experts says that maximum you can include 50-60 characters in title.

    You must use primary keyword in the page title. When a person searched with that keyword, search engine highlights that keyword and displays in search results.

    #2. Put your keywords in the meta description

    After including primary keyword in page title, it is important to include that primary keyword in meta description section too.

    How it helps? The main purpose is to drive massive traffic from Google search engine. However, search engine don't use this meta description factor in its algorithm but it uses CTR(Click-Through-Rate) to determine whether your post link is good to show or not.

    So, you must include primary keyword in meta description.

    Keep this in mind while writing meta description:

  • Use call-to-actions somewhere in the meta description like "Learn more", "Grab the deal" etc. so that it instills enthusiasm in the readers to click the link.
  • Always write unique content in meta description which is of around 135 to 160 characters. Never write more than that.
  • Never stuff keywords which is not relevant. Users feel its spamming and hits the back button immediately.
  • #3. Don't ignore meta tags

    In every blog post, it is mandatory to write meta keywords. Both in meta keyword and meta description sections, use only targeted keyword. Under the meta tags section, use all possible relevant keywords for that particular blog post also include what type of keywords, users may search.

    Search engines gets information about your blog site through meta tags and thus indexes your site. Meta tags also describes what your blog post is about.

    #4. Optimize your URL

    Keep your URL's short and simple. If possible, try to use your primary keyword within it. Use clear and user-friendly URL's for all of your blog posts. These are showed in web browser address.

    Let's say you wrote confusing URL for your blog post and there is another blog which writes similar content but write simple and clear URL, then  search engines consider the simple ones.

    So, optimize your URL for search engine.

    How to do it?

  • If possible, include keyword in URL but don't stuff unnecessarily. It should make sense.
  • Make it short as possible. It is said, 50 to 60 characters is good. If it crosses more than 100, probably you should re-write it again.
  • It would be good if your page title and URL matches but in doing so, don't write unclear URL's.
  • For example your post title is "7 best yoga exercises for women" then you can optimize URL as yourblogname.com/yoga-exercises-women
  • #5. Use h2, h3 tags as the sub headings (by including your keywords)

    Heading tags, the name itself says that it will be used while writing headings. Obviously you should use heading 1 for the blog post title.

    While writing sub headings in the post, use h2 and h3 tags. For the sub heading, use h2 tag and for the sub-subheading, use h3 tag. Why?

    It gives the clear information to the readers what the post is all about and how it will be helpful for them? If they find it helpful they will read the entire article and share it on social media. So, writing interesting sub-headings is very important. It also helps Google to find the main topics very easily and it becomes user-friendly.

    Just by reading sub-headings, users will get clarity. If possible include keywords in subheadings, but don't stuff forcibly as it may lose its meaning.

    #6. Image alt tags are important

    One image speaks louder more than thousands of words. So, in your blog post, use images related to your post.

    Including images helps in getting shared in Pinterest and Twitter massively. Well, to improve the accessibility to your blog site, you must write alt text for the image you upload.

    Alt text describes what the image is about.

    How it is helpful?

  • If Google fails to show up image at least the alt tag will be displayed. This is because, search engine find it very difficult to read. So search engine can understand if you write alt text for image.
  • It also helps for visually impaired as they use screen readers. So, using alt text for image is a good practice. Always, be unique while writing alt text for an image.
  • Use keywords in image alt text if possible as it increases the chances of image showing up in search results.
  • If you use WordPress, it is very easy to fill alt text for an image as it shows alt text dialogue box when you upload an image.

    #7. Use your primary keyword in the introduction of your post

    Your blog post introduction should be very interesting to read. Don't drag too much information here. Use some statistics in the introduction part that is related to your blog post. At least once, use your primary keyword in the introduction part.

    #8. Internal linking is super important

    Internal links are nothing but links that refers one of your previous blog posts in your blog.

    Why to do internal linking?

  • Your older posts gets new life when you link in your new post. Include only relevant links. if you feel so and so previous blog post will be helpful to the reader while reading the current post then only include link.
  • It enhances their search engine rankings by increasing their Page Authority(PA).
  • You can do internal linking only if you have lots of content. So, create great content. Write lots of posts in your blog.

    The importance of off-page SEO

    Started a blog newly? Then use these off page SEO techniques RIGHT now to boost your blog traffic. You wrote great lengthy content and you published it in various platforms. But did you really taking care of your off-page SEO which is essential?

    What is off-page SEO?

    Off page SEO mainly revolves around the backlinks from other sources to your site. Google gives #1 priority to backlinks. So by focusing on attracting as many links as possible from other external sources, you can do a better off-page SEO to improve your search rankings.

    Why off page SEO is important for bloggers?

  • It improves your blog position in SERP(Search Engine Results Page).
  • It helps in increasing your blog site Page Authority(PA) and Domain Authority(DA).
  • It gets you lots of backlinks.
  • It drives organic search traffic to your blog.
  • 10 off-page SEO techniques you can use NOW

    Off Page SEO

    #1. Blogger outreach to attract social shares and links

    To expand your blogging network, the one surest way is blogger outreach. It is all about building relationships with other bloggers of your niche.

    No one can grow alone. To drive search engine traffic to your blog and to increase sales, you must build relationships with other bloggers. So, that you will also build quality backlinks from top authority sites.

    Benefits of blogger outreach:

  • If influential bloggers of your niche shares your blog post, it drives massive traffic to your blog.
  • Your social media influence increases.
  • You can build strong relationships with other bloggers. It is just like colleagues in your office.
  • You will get high quality backlinks from external sources which increases your search engine traffic crazily.
  • How you can do blogger outreach?

  • Find influential bloggers of your niche. Find 20 bloggers and make a list of all of them. Try contacting them one by one. Tweet their stuff and leave comment until you get response from that blogger.
  • Blog commenting is a very good strategy to build relationships. Leave thoughtful comments on their posts.
  • Email to each blogger in the list you made but never beg links or shares. Just mail them saying how much you enjoy reading their posts. You can find their emails in their blog contact page or on social media accounts.
  • Analyze how many visitors you are getting after doing all these. Repeat all these steps and if you see tremendous change, keep on continuing this.
  • Some more useful tips:

  • If you want your stuff to be shared, share other posts first.
  • If you want to have comments on your posts, leave comments on other blog posts.
  • If you want help from other bloggers, give your help first.
  • Tools that helps for blogger outreach:

  • SEMrush: This tool helps to analyze the backlinks and great content of other blog sites: Have an eye on your competitors.
  • Rapportive: To find email address of other bloggers, you can use this.
  • #2. Submit your posts on social media sites

    Well, writing great lengthy content and publishing it on your site won't fetch you anything.

    You need to promote your post extensively. Make use of social media as much as you can to promote your blog. Share it on all platforms. Don't just stop with Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.

    While sharing your posts on social media sites, engage with other bloggers and this is very important.

    One common mistake that most of the new bloggers does is they simply share on social media and forget it thinking that they promoted. It fetches some visitors but if you want that visitors to be consistent, then engage with other bloggers.

    If you don't have time to submit posts on social media sites, still you can make use of automated tools which does the work for you.

    Automation tools:

  • Especially for the bloggers who use WordPress, there is a plugin called Jetpack Publicize. Go to WordPress dashboard, under settings, connect your blog to all social media sites. Whenever you write new post or any update it publishes on all social media sites.
  • Buffer is one awesome sharing tool where you can schedule up to 10 posts per day or per week. It automatically shares to all social media sites once you set it up.
  • #3. Submit your posts on social bookmarking directories

    The one that is often neglected by new bloggers is social bookmarking directories. If you are also doing same, then you must read this.

    We do bookmark some sites in web browser to read them later or if it is so important information.

    What are social bookmarking sites? How it is useful?

    You can share your blog link with many other users or bookmark other links and read them later as long as you are connected to internet.

    When you submit your posts on social bookmarking directories, it generates one new permanent link for your post so that it gives a strong backlink to your blog site as these social bookmarking sites are indexed by Google search engine.

    So, it will be helpful to rank your site high in search results.

    Some more benefits of social bookmarking sites:

  • You blog site visibility increases. It reaches to millions of people all over the world.
  • Your blog gets more back links which helps in increasing Domain Authority(DA)
  • Your blog starts receiving traffic from search engine.
  • Now, where to find social bookmarking sites lists?

    Here, I provide the list of social bookmarking directories where you can submit your posts.

  • Reddit
  • Stumbleupon
  • Social bookmarking easy
  • Newsvine
  • Digg
  • Scoopit
  • Bookmarks
  • Greatest story
  • Active bookmarks
  • Bookmark maps
  • #4. Write answers on Quora (link to your content)

    You can drive lot of traffic to your blog by writing answers on Quora.

    What is Quora? It is Q&A website where you get quality answers for any question. It has more than 4.6 million registered users.

    Just imagine, if you could write very good answers on Quora related to your blog niche, how much traffic you can drive just from Quora itself.

    What you can do on Quora?

  • Set up your bio, areas of interest.
  • Use blog link in your profile bio. Never give any confused information because if any of your answers goes viral, majority of the people reads your bio. So, you should bring those visitors to your blog.
  • Subscribe to only those topics that you want to see in the feed.
  • Select topics based on your blog niche.
  • Write useful answers to the most discussed as well as the most viewed question.
  • Include your blog post link in the answer if that helps.
  • If you don't have any such post in your blog, then at the end of the answer, include your blog link.
  • You can ask question and answer that question by yourself.
  • What you shouldn't do on Quora?

  • In the name of promotion, don't give links in the answer like "Read the rest of the answer on my blog", "check my blog". Doing so, your answer will be downvoted.
  • Never ever spam. There are so many successful entrepreneurs and business people also there. So, be careful while writing.
  • #5. Write guest posts

    Guest posting is an incredible tool to drive huge traffic to your blog. However, most of the bloggers fail to get the traffic because they do it in a wrong way.

    So, what is the right way of doing guest posting?

  • Find influential bloggers as well as blogs which gets more comments on their posts and have high shares related to your niche. How to know? Check the Page Authority(PA) and Domain Authority(DA) of the site. Use Check moz tool to analyze PA and DA of any site
  • Before asking for a guest post, share their content on social media, leave thoughtful comments on their blog posts, then send an email to the blogger with topic idea that you want to write guest post on it.
  • How to find sites that accepts guest blogging?

  • Type [Your niche] + Write for us in Google. For example, you are running health blog then type "health + write for us". Or you can also search as [your niche] + guest blogging.
  • Check guest post tracker that displays all the blogs that accepts guest posts with PA. You can select category based on your niche.
  • Doing guest blogging helps not only in increasing your blog traffic but also boosts your page rankings.

    I have compiled the list of 200 plus blogs that accept guest posts here which you can use.

    To increase interaction and to build relationships, blog commenting is very important.  If you do blog commenting, it will keep your blog getting indexed and updated so that that chances of ranking your post higher increases in search engine results.

    Benefits of leaving thoughtful comments:

  • Blog commenting is also a powerful link building strategy so it helps in driving targeted traffic to your site.
  • It helps in building relationships with other bloggers.
  • You will get potential audience.
  • Avoid these mistakes:

  • While commenting on other blogs, select blogs of your niche and start commenting. For example, you are having a health blog and if you comment on SEO blog, it won't help you to get traffic and potential users.
  • Never comment like "Thank you, great post", "nice post". You need to write comment elaborately and thoughtfully that must give a feeling to blog owner that the person who commented read the post.
  • Even if you don't comment it's okay but never comment wrongly. The blog owner can understand from your comment whether you read the post or not.
  • Never comment on inactive blogs even though it is of your niche.
  • So, make a list of all blogs of your niche which are active and which are high authority blogs. And start leaving thoughtful worthy comments on other blogs.

    #7. Submit your posts on blogging forums

    You need to promote your blog post extensively to make sure that it reaches potential audience.

    As discussed in above point #6, you must establish good connection with other bloggers and build backlinks to drive traffic. SEO loves updated content. Google shows only updated posts in the search results. So, submit your posts on blogging forums.

    Here are few forums where you can submit your blog posts for free.

  • Blokube
  • JustRetweet
  • Indiblogger
  • Blog Engage
  • Bloggerhub
  • #8. Turn your blog posts into eBooks and upload them on various sites

    To market your brand more, convert your blog posts into ebooks. Make an interesting ebook out of your blog posts.

    Why? And How it helps?

  • To increase lead magnets and attract users to join your mailing list.
  • To add credibility to your brand.
  • You need not create manually anything. Just make use of tools and plugins. It will turn your blog posts into ebooks.

    Tools to turn your blog posts into ebooks:

    Using Anthologize

  • If you are blogging using WordPress, then there is a plugin called Anthologize that helps to turn your posts into other formats. Just download the plugin and upload it through dashboard. Once you activate the plugin, you will find separate tab in the menu.
  • This plugin gives you option to filter your blog posts by category. You can start creating chapters or parts, just drop you post into it. Once you are done adding chapters, export it in pdf or ePUB format.
  • Using Zinepal

    If you are using some other platform for blogging, then there is a free tool Zinepal that can turn your blog posts into ebooks.

  • Simply give your URL and it will display all of your blog posts, select which posts you want in your ebook. Once you selected, choose font and see preview of your ebook. If you want any more features, you can customize ebook too.
  • Now, where  you can upload your ebook? Here are the sites:

  • Upload your ebook to Google drive and make it public.
  • Keep the file in your own blog too.
  • Upload on file sharing websites like embedupload, multiupload, Scribd, 4shared, dropbox, free-ebooks etc
  • Make your ebook available in all formats so you can get more downloads.
  • #9. Create YouTube videos around your content and link back to your site

    Did you know that YouTube receives 3 billion daily views.

    If you are ignoring building traffic from YouTube, then you are probably missing lot of traffic.

    How you can get visitors from YouTube to your blog?

    The most misconception among people is only viral videos should be created like funny, entertainment.

    No, it's not. Moreover we don't need unwanted traffic even if its million. What we need are quality and loyal visitors.

  • Create video around your content. Keep tags related to your niche while uploading video to make sure that it is visible to YouTube. You need to follow SEO here too.
  • Keep call-to-action in the video. You need to tell visitors what exactly to do like "download free ebook, practical tips on weight loss" or "Grab the free offer on marketing strategies" based on your niche book, keep an attractive title.
  • #10. Create Infographics around your content

    The main goal for every blogger is to gain readers and to drive huge traffic. You may write amazing great content but if it doesn't reach to readers, it will be mere waste.

    Most of the blogs gets huge traffic from search engine. You need to take care of SEO in every blog post. A picture is worth than thousand words. Visual content always goes viral if you make it an interesting one.

    Some tips while creating infographic.

  • The infographic you create must solve the problems of your readers.
  • Use attractive design. There are so many free infographics available.
  • Make use of statistics. Because, it enhances the trust of readers.
  • Do research about successful infographics in your blog niche. Make some improvements over it. But don't copy. Use Buzzsumo while researching successful infographics in your blog niche.
  • Mention source if you use other's content. Tell an interesting story related to the topic you choose.
  • Tools to create infographics

  • Use canva. There are plenty of free templates available.
  • Piktochart also provides so many free templates.
  • The importance of long form of content

    Everyone says write lengthy and amazing content to get more traffic and to get potential readers. Every blogger is well aware of the fact that short content is dead. There is no scope for the articles with 600 word count.

    For a new blogger writing lengthy content is very challenging. To increase Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA), to drive search engine traffic writing lengthy content is very crucial.

    Just because you wrote lengthy content, won't fetch any results. What else is needed? It should be keyword centric and useful.

    While writing content, you need to make sure that you are following these:

  • Who are my target audience? What exactly I am gonna convey to them through this content?
  • How it will be helpful to them? How this post can solve their problem?
  • That being said, how to create lengthy content? How to structure your blog post for lengthy content?

    Well, I say, more than writing lengthy content, you must write quality content that is useful to your readers. You are not alone. There are lots of people who struggle to write lengthy and useful content. To drive organic search engine traffic, you must create 3000 word length article and they also help you get more social shares. See the image below!

    Long Content Average Share on Social Networks

    When you search for something say, "yoga poses for weight loss", search engine displays plenty of articles. To compete with, your content should be the best.

    Content is king and this should be accepted. If you want to stand in the crowd, only content can help you in this regard.

    While creating lengthy post, there is a chance that your readers may get boredom. So, to make it interesting, follow these while writing:

  • Add visuals in your post so they can make your content even more interesting.
  • Never repeat what your competitors also saying about it. Be unique.
  • Write content that engages your reader. If you give public speech, how you will say…in the same way reflect that in your content too.
  • Use statistics related to your post. This increases trust in your readers.
  • Make use of charts wherever it is necessary.
  • Write catchy headings in your blog post to make your readers read your post further. For example, "How I lost 15kgs in 15 days?"
  • Research, research, research. To write lengthy content, first of all you must have some information to write. So, do extensive research before even start writing content.
  • Format your article properly. Use sub headings and sub subheadings.
  • Give up to date information in your content. See what is trending in your niche topic. To check for top performing content in your niche, use Buzzsumo.
  • Break you content into smaller pieces. For example, say you are writing about "weight loss". Make a list of ideas related to it and try to discuss that in your blog post.

  • Is it possible to lose weight in 1 month?
  • What diet has to be taken?
  • What exercise will help in weight loss?
  • What happens to your body if you lose weight immediately?
  • Likewise you need to make list of ideas to support your topic. Now make killer headlines in your post. Make it more engaging rather than simply writing tips. Speak out practically rather than logically.

    Some tips while writing:

  • Start writing every single day.
  • Avoid distractions while writing. Turn off social media sites till you finish writing.
  • Focus while writing. You can check grammatical mistakes once you start proofreading your article, Just go with the flow.
  • Draft your article. Make an outline and start expanding.
  • Keep deadlines and reward yourself once done.
  • Analyze your competitors.
  • Make sure you write content around keywords of your blog niche.
  • Use videos or images or quotes or presentations in your content.
  • What happens if you write 3000 word article?

  • It connects you with right audience.
  • It attracts backlinks thereby increasing organic search traffic.
  • You will get loyal audience, If you are keeping in-depth information in your content, readers won't go for other websites as they get all the information they want.
  • Everything seems to be difficult in the beginning but once you start it becomes easy. The same with writing 3000 word article.

    Did you know that the famous blogger Neil Patel's most shared articles are of 5000 words. If one can achieve the best results by creating long form of content regularly, you too can.

    Start creating long form of content from now on if you want achieve SEO success.

    The importance of backlinks

    If you are a newbie in blogging, you will be wondering how to get links from authority sites. To grow as a successful blogger, you should get some authority links to your blog.

    Link building is a powerful strategy to increase rankings for your post in search engine. If you want your blog post to be displayed in the first page of search engine results, you must be very serious about building links from authority sites.

    What are authority sites?

    A site that has much influence in digital world and is trusted by several users. These are the sites that are ranked top of the SERP(Search Engine Results Page). These are the sites that provide high quality and useful content.

    What benefits your blog gets if you can get links from authority sites?

  • More organic search traffic to your blog.
  • More number of social sharings for your blog posts.
  • Increases Domain Authority(DA) of your blog site.
  • Well, now the question is how to get links from authority sites?

    #1. Do guest posting

    Make a list of influential bloggers in your niche. Come up with topic idea and start contacting them through mail.

    How you can find sites to write guest posts?

  • Type "your blog niche" + "write for us" in Google. For example, "health blog" + "write for us" displays all the results that accepts guest posts.
  • You can also check as "your blog niche" + "guest post".
  • #2. Fill the gaps in content

    Not every blogger covers each topic completely. Even a great blogger misses some details while writing post. For example, in a post if it mentions, find your competitors and start link building. But they may forget to mention where to find.

    This is incomplete information. When you find such blog posts with gaps in the content, reach out the blog owners and let them know. You offer them that you will fill the gaps in the content. So, that you can get credit to link to your blog.

    Remember that you should find such blog posts only from authority sites and also related to your blog niche.

    #3. Spy on your competitors

    It is not at all fault to spy on your competitors. Observe where they are getting backlinks and follow it.  How to check?

  • You can use SEMrush and type the keyword of your niche, it will display all your competitor URLs.
  • You can also use free tools such as open link profiler and submit each of your competitor URLs to observe their backlinks. Once you analyze their backlink sources, you can easily find various opportunities to attract those links to your sites.
  • #4. Check broken links and contact site owner

    By checking broken or dead links on authority sites, you can get a link. How to check for broken links of your competitor's so you can take benefit from them?

  • Type keywords of your nice in Google and select one URL.
  • Now go to broken link checker, submit the URL and search for broken links. If any of the displayed links goes to 404 error page, yes you found it.
  • Now, mail to the blog owner and you can suggest to replace that dead link with your post link. Make sure that you have post related to that content in your blog.
  • #5. Update Old Posts

    It is recommended to update old posts every now and then in order to keep the site up to date. But it is impossible for the bloggers who has hundreds of posts in their sites.

    If you can help them in updating their old posts, you will get backlink as a reward. So find the outdated content in authority sites of your blog niche and contact them that you will update it for free. There are many people (even me) who likes to get detailed and informative post contributions from others and I won't mind giving a link back as the credit.

    #6. Interview top bloggers

    Interviewing the influential bloggers in your industry is the quickest way to boost your online visibility, social shares, links and traffic.

    To increase your credibility in digital world, to drive traffic to your blog, to build relationships with other bloggers, to attract readers to your blog, do interviews with top influencers in your blog niche.

    While reaching them for interview, don't ask them too many questions. Top bloggers are usually very busy so ask them few questions but important and that helps your readers.

    Final thoughts on the beginner's guide to SEO

    Yes, that was really a massive beginner's SEO guide (almost with 6000 words). The reason I spent so much time to crafting this SEO guide is to help beginners to really understand what it takes to get better rankings in search engines.

    On-page SEO, off page SEO, keyword research, long form of content, links – these are the major cornerstones of any great SEO strategy. If you analyze any top blog that gets massive traffic from search engines, you will notice that all they have those things in common.

    So what are you waiting for? Use this beginner's guide to SEO to quickly grow your search engine traffic and rankings. Did I like this beginner's SEO guide? Do you have any questions? Do let me know in the comments.


    Source: The Beginner's Guide to SEO: How to Increase Website Traffic In 2017

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