There Is Never Enough SEO [Newsletter 3]

Three years ago, I got obsessed with SEO optimization. It's almost like a game. Trying to find new tricks and hacks to overrank the competition. 

If you're wondering how to optimize your blog and don't know where to start, here are 5 tips to get you 80% of results for 20% effort.

1. Fix your SEO issues

Before you go and try to rank for anything, do a roadwork first. Your website needs to be in the best shape from a technical perspective to rank. 

But when I say technical, it's not actually that technical. You can use site audit tools like the one from ahrefs that will scan your site for any issues and tell you how to fix them. Usually, it's just quick things to fix, like duplicated site titles and meta descriptions, large images, or missing alt tags.

2. Focus on long-tail keywords

Starting with simple How-tos and focusing on long-tail keywords or keywords with lower traffic and easy difficulty brings greater results than trying to hit high-search keywords. 

Here is an example: if I'm interested in creating content around startups, I might want to eventually rank for the keyword "startup". But it has SEO difficulty (SD) 68 out of 100! That's pretty hard. On the other hand, there are keywords like "startup explained" (SD 19), or "$0 startup business" (SD 28) that are easier to get. Traffic for those keywords is low, BUT the chance you'll rank and get actual website visits increases dramatically.

3. Optimize your content with AI

Content optimization might be overwhelming, especially when you want to push content fast. Use AI tools for optimization like SurferSEO, which saves you time researching competing articles, recommending keywords, fixing titles, and other issues you usually need to hire an expert for.

4. Videos are easier to rank

There are many SERPs you can try to rank for. Going for the featured snippets might be a challenge for new sites, but FAQs and frequently asked questions are pretty simple to do with just a little effort. 

If you can make YouTube videos, you are in for a treat; not only can you embed them in your articles to increase read time (make sure you embed them on the top), but you also have a chance to rank in the video section of search because there is almost always less video content than blogs.

5. Write content that is actually useful

In the end, good content your readers find useful matters the most. Even if you have the most perfectly SEO-optimized site but people don't end up reading it, Google will know. Reading time on the page is important and influences your rank for specific keywords. Go for quality vs quantity, and update your site regularly with engaging and valuable content.

My favorite tools for SEO

• SurferSEO - AI SEO optimization tool for articles

• Jasper - AI content creation tool for article outlines and metadata (and much more)

• ahrefs site audit - free site audit tool to fix your technical SEO issues

• Ubersuggest - keyword research tool (less pricey alternative to Semrush or ahrefs)

• waybackmachine - to find out competitors' site changes

• Answer the public, Also asked - topic exploration

• Google trends - discovering trending keywords

And that's about it! Let me know if you want to go on any of these deeper.

Happy SEO optimizing my workaholic friends. 💜