At a glance

Quick summary

  • Here are five simple tips to help you jumpstart your SEO strategy.
  • These steps are written in order!
  • They take a bit of time up front, but they’ll save you time in the long-run.

What is SEO?

  • According to Moz, SEO is “a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.” (Moz)
  • If you want free traffic to come to your site from search engines, particularly Google, it’s worth considering your SEO strategy.

Follow these steps in order

  • Whenever I write a new post, I follow these steps
  • I suggest that you follow them in order
  • I’ve optimized this process over years of working with WordPress to minimize the amount of re-work you have to do (e.g., coming up with the keyword first so you don’t have to try to smush a keyword into an existing post)

1. Decide on the topic

  • First, pick a topic you want to write about
  • It should be something that both you and your audience care about
  • Plan to write 500-600 words on the topic

2. Do keyword research

  • Do keyword research before writing anything!
  • I recommend installing Keywords Everywhere (link below) to help you uncover great keywords. This tool isn’t free, but the price is incredibly reasonable! (You’ll likely spend around $10 per year.)
  • Here’s a video tutorial that covers using Keywords Everywhere:
  • My recommendation is to select keywords that get monthly results, but have low competition

PREMIUM TOOL // Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a browser add-on for Chrome & Firefox that shows search volume, CPC & competition on multiple websites.

Click here to go to Keywords Everywhere

3. Write headlines

  • Write headlines before writing any content!
  • Here’s a post I wrote which will help you write great headlines.
  • Follow the tips I outline in this post (link below), and be sure to do it prior to writing any of the content!

4. Install an SEO plugin and follow its recommendations

  • SEO plugins guide you as you write content
  • They provide recommendations and benchmarks for improving your SEO as you write
Screenshot of Rank Math SEOs recommendations on a Courage Grow post
Screenshot of Rank Math SEOs recommendations on a Courage & Grow post
  • My favorite SEO plugin is Rank Math SEO (link below). It’s free!
  • I recommend that you install Rank Math and then use it to guide you as you’re writing new content. It’ll save you a ton of hassle and time in the long-run!

5. Be mindful of your website’s performance

  • Google wants your pages to load in less than three seconds! Your visitors do too.
  • If it doesn’t, your search rankings could (and likely will) be impacted
  • Run your Home page and your post pages through GTmetrix to see how they perform, and then make changes based on the tool’s recommendations

FREE TOOL // GTmetrix
GTmetrix was developed by Carbon60 as a tool for customers to easily test the performance of their webpages.

Click here to go to GTmetrix

Others? Questions?

Any thoughts or questions? Anything with which you disagree? Anything I missed?

Leave a comment below and let me know!