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Written by: Benjamin Paine
Managing Director at Digital Nomads HQ
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is a strategy for increasing the quantity and quality of website traffic through non-paid (organic) search engine results. Despite the acronym, SEO is just as much about people as it is about search engines (or perhaps even more).
It’s about understanding what your audience is looking for online, how they prefer to take in info, and the words they’re using, which will allow you to connect with searchers looking for solutions you offer. In short, your audience’s intent is one side of SEO, and delivering that content in a way search engine crawlers can find and understand is the other.
Here are the key concepts you need to know:
Search engines send out bots to discover new and updated pages.
Once a page is crawled, it’s added to the search engine’s index—a massive database of web content.
When users search for specific terms, search engines display results based on various ranking factors, including keywords, user experience, and backlinks.
Before going into SEO tactics, collect the right data to shape your strategy.
Start by: Installing Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Track your site’s traffic, user behaviour, and conversions.
Registering with Google Search Console (GSC): Monitor your site’s performance on Google and see which keywords you rank for.
Note: These tools don’t directly increase traffic but provide the insights needed to guide your SEO efforts.
Example of Forbes.com & News.com.au DR (DA) rating.
Your site needs to be indexed by search engines to show up in search results. Use Google to check your indexed pages by typing site:yourdomain.com into the search bar. If pages aren’t indexed:
Submit a Sitemap
Help Google discover your pages faster by submitting a sitemap through GSC. This file lists all your site’s pages, making it easier for search engines to find and index them. Generate a sitemap using online tools or plugins, then submit it in GSC under the ‘Sitemaps’ section.
Before creating different types of content, you first have to understand the basics of keywords in SEO. In this chapter, we’ll cover everything from what keywords are and how to choose the best ones for your website.
Looking to learn SEO, or self manage your SEO campaign? Grab our guide to help you along the way…
Keyword research is the process of finding and analysing search terms that people enter into search engines (like Google).
More often than not, SEOs do keyword research with the goal of using this data for a specific purpose, which usually includes an SEO strategy, conversion opportunity, or targeting a specific audience.
By doing keyword research, you’ll have a better understanding of possible queries to target, their popularity, how difficult it would be to rank for them, and more.
Suggested Further Reading: What Are Keywords in SEO – A Complete Guide
Now, before discussing how to do keyword research, it’s important to have an understanding of the different types of keywords so you’ll be able to identify gaps within your content and thus improve your topic clusters.
Start by jotting down a few main topics related to your business. These should be broad areas under which your products or services fall. For example, a financial advisory company might consider “budget planning” or “investment management.”
Decide which region you’ll focus on. Targeting a specific area helps you zero in on local search terms. Also, consider the language variations in your chosen region to make your keywords more relevant.
Use GA4 to learn more about your current target audience’s locations and make an informed decision.
What do you hope to achieve with your SEO? Whether it’s more sales, increased website traffic, or lead generation, having clear goals will guide your keyword choices and help measure success.
Be flexible. Sometimes, you may find that people use different terms to search for your services. Be ready to adapt your content to align with these search habits for better results.
Suggested Further Reading: Keyword Research for SEO
Sub-paragraph: Download our free keyword research template and fill out the list with topics (seed keywords) relevant to your business (5 – 10 topics). These are broad topics that can be described as umbrella terms.
Sub-paragraph: Think about your broad topics and add some specific keywords that fall within those “topic buckets.” These are keywords you think are important to bring customers to your website.
Tip: If you’re running out of ideas, look at GA4 or GSC to see which types of keywords already bring customers to your website. Otherwise, use Ryan Robinson’s keyword tool to explore ideas (very easy to use)!
Sub-paragraph: Use Moz’s free competitor research tool to take a look at some of the keywords your competitors are ranking for (but you aren’t). You can gather some ideas by inserting your domain and looking at the “keyword opportunities” section to fill your keyword research sheet further.
Sub-paragraph: Use Ahrefs’ free keyword generator tool to understand better how difficult it would be to rank for your specific keywords (gathered in steps 2 & 3). Simply add your specific keywords, select the country you want to target, and click “find keywords.” As you’re new to SEO, I recommend targeting keywords with a “low” or “medium” KD. Fill in the appropriate data in your sheet.
Tip: Don’t just look at the specific keyword you chose at the start of the process also check out keywords with a small variety that probably have the same search intent. For example, “content marketing company” vs. “content marketing agency.”
Sub-paragraph: Don’t forget to fill in your “working titles” or any other information like the search intent, as this will help you make decisions and cut down on keywords in the following section.
We’ve given you a glimpse of what to expect from our DIY SEO eBook, which includes printable checklists, links to the best tried and tested tools, glossary terms to demystify complex jargon, and only actionable strategies for you, someone truly new to SEO, to implement.
Looking to learn SEO, or self manage your SEO campaign? Grab our guide to help you along the way…
In this chapter, we’ll walk you through the basics of SEO – including
Here, we’ll take you through:
Content creation with SEO in mind doesn’t have to be difficult. In this chapter, we explore:
If you’re a small business owner, this chapter will be especially helpful to you, as we’ll discuss a local SEO strategy plus a checklist covering Google Business Profile optimisation, directories, and digital PR.
As mentioned, we won’t discuss any strategies you won’t be able to implement yourself. So, even though technical SEO might seem frightening, our guide will make you think otherwise. We’ll cover Optimising images, removing broken links, optimising URL structures, fixing 404 errors, and a simplified version of mobile SEO.
Digital PR is an important part of SEO that focuses on building relationships and securing backlinks to your website. Think of it as traditional PR but tailored for the digital world. These backlinks signal to search engines that your site is credible and authoritative, helping boost your rankings. In this chapter, we’ll cover:
SEO isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ task. To ensure your efforts are paying off, it’s important to measure, prioritise, and continually execute your strategy. We’ll walk you through how you can track your progress and refine your approach with a checklist using Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
We’ve made a point of only listing free tools throughout this article; however, we felt it necessary to include them at the end of our eBook as well so that you can quickly find them. We’ll also be listing some paid tools (they’re usually more advanced) so you can transition once you feel like you’ve gotten the hang of things! Our tools are divided between (free & paid):
We’ve been SEO newbies, and we’ve already made all of the textbook SEO newbie mistakes, which means you don’t have to. We’ve prepared an easy infographic to follow and key tips to avoid these mistakes, paired with additional resources on other mistakes we’re seeing other businesses make today.
Looking for an SEO-specific glossary term? We’ve listed all of the essential ones you need to know to move forward, making it easy to do a quick search or find additional resources when you need them. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive list, you can take a look at our SEO glossary terms, which we regularly update to explain the latest SEO terminology.
Search engines use complex algorithms to crawl, index, and rank content based on relevance and quality. Understanding how these algorithms work can help you tailor your content to meet their criteria. Key factors include:
With billions of searches conducted daily, effective SEO ensures that your content is discoverable by your target audience. It drives organic traffic to your site and builds credibility and trust with potential customers. In short, good SEO helps you stand out in a crowded digital marketplace.
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