The 8-Step SEO Strategy for Higher Rankings

[00:00] my entire eight step SEO strategy. In fact, this is the exact strategy that I used for competitive key words,

[00:13] like on-page SEO, video SEO, key word research tools, This video isn't gonna be a bunch of high level fluff. is gonna be super tactical and actionable.

[00:28] Let's face it, SEO can be hard, the same advice over and over again. Optimize your title tags.

[00:40] Oh, publish great content. And hey, this advice isn't completely useless but it's not gonna rocket your site to the top of Google.

[00:54] the exact same advice. completely different, which is exactly what Starting with step number one,

[01:07] An opportunity keyword is like a regular keyword but better. is packed with more stuff than ever before.

[01:19] You've got a bunch of ads above the fold, and news results, which is exactly why now I focus almost 100% on opportunity keywords.

[01:33] Opportunity keywords are keywords In other words, they're terms that don't have that distracts people from the organic results.

[01:47] A while ago, I created a page on my site And as it turns out, SEO checklist Yep, there are a few ads on the page,

[02:01] It's actually in a way a good thing, on that keyword in Google ads. which means the focus is on the organic results.

[02:14] before picking a keyword. consider going for an opportunity keyword With that, let's move on to step number two.

[02:29] Okay, so you've found an opportunity keyword. Well, most people whip open WordPress and start writing. In fact, that's what I used to do back in the day.

[02:44] Today, I know better. to see what's already working. And once I figure out the type of content

[02:57] then I start creating content. for the keyword paleo desserts. As you can see, the results are lists of dessert recipes.

[03:10] you wouldn't wanna write a blog post like Instead, you'd want a post One of my most important keywords

[03:24] And back in the day when I looked at the content I noticed that they didn't list out Instead, they were all huge guides.

[03:38] pretty much everything there is to know for this super competitive term. Create content that's different or better.

[03:54] you have two main options. Option number two is to create something better. that's just way better than what's already out there.

[04:10] to create something completely unique. the opportunity keyword mobile SEO, I noticed that most of the results were list posts

[04:25] Now I could've created a giant list post like 150 ways to mobile optimize your site, In this case it made more sense

[04:38] I spent two weeks writing this ultimate guide and because my content was completely different which led to tons of shares on social media,

[04:53] Like I mentioned earlier, you can also just For example, a while back I wanted to rank And when I looked at the content that was already ranking

[05:08] of about 20 to 30 tools. but I know that that would just blend in. Specifically I published this complete list of SEO tools.

[05:25] It took about six weeks to test all these tools. But at the end of the day, that post did really well. for my main keyword SEO tools.

[05:40] This is an advanced SEO strategy so if you're new to SEO, you might wanna skip this step. You probably already know that in general,

[05:53] pages with the most backlinks rank highest in Google. Here's a simple two-step process. link to content in your industry, AKA the hook.

[06:08] Step number two, include that hook in your content. that more and more marketing blogs were publishing content I noticed something super interesting.

[06:23] When people wrote about voice search, and when they mentioned a stat, So I created a post about voice search

[06:37] So, how did it go? thousands of times, and if you look at those a specific step from my post.

[06:52] Here are three others that are working First up we have unique techniques. New stuff.

[07:07] you've got yourself a hook. a new strategy called Guestographics. that no one had heard before,

[07:20] racked up a ton of links. as an ultimate guide. Because it's really straight forward.

[07:33] your guide itself is the hook. A few years ago, I published Now, in my opinion, this is the most comprehensive guide

[07:48] everything there is to know about that topic, is the hook. the concept of backlinks in their post.

[08:00] right in the middle of their post. for their readers to learn more. from case studies in your content.

[08:13] easiest hooks that you can use. one result in your case study. For example, a few years ago I published

[08:27] And this case study featured a ton of results. and other stats were related to email subscribers. lacked that single hook that would make someone

[08:43] And that's one of the reasons that my post struggled On the bright side, I did learn a valuable lesson you need to feature one specific result.

[08:58] I made sure to really zero in on one specific result. A 785% increase in conversion rate. it gets linked to all the time.

[09:13] Optimize your site's on-page SEO. your content for SEO. I'm gonna focus on two strategies

[09:27] The first strategy is to use short URLs. we found a clear correlation between short URLs

[09:39] So if you're URLs tend to be super long, cut them down going back and changing your existing URLs

[09:51] Instead, just make your new URLs short and sweet. or my main keyword plus a word before or after it.

[10:05] Yep, internal links still work, Specifically you wanna link from high authority pages Those internal links will send authority

[10:19] which can give them a nice rankings boost. For example, last year I published this post on my site it had absolutely zero authority.

[10:32] that lots of people had already linked to That's all there is to it. The skyscraper technique 2.0.

[10:46] A content marketing and SEO approach Now the original skyscraper technique is pretty cool for ranking in Google today.

[11:01] Search intent is what a Google searcher is looking for And the better your content matches their intent Let's look at how this works with a quick example.

[11:14] and in general this post did pretty well But no matter what I did, it wouldn't rank for any keyword including my main keyword increase website traffic.

[11:29] My page didn't match the search intent for that keyword. for increase website traffic were bite sized

[11:41] In other words, they were list posts. People that searched for my keyword they wanted a list of bite sized strategies.

[11:57] Specifically I rewrote my content So I turned this high level process And this single change boosted that page's

[12:12] organic traffic by 70.4%. content design. can make or break your SEO.

[12:26] but it looks like this. and Google searchers that see an ugly page like that, That's why I personally spend a lot of time,

[12:41] I've already mentioned a few In my opinion, these custom guides look really nice But each guide is custom designed and custom coded,

[12:56] So if you don't have thousands of dollars to spend Here are three simple ways First up, we have images, screenshots and pictures.

[13:11] For example, this single post has over 75 images. with blog post banners.

[13:23] that go at the top of your post. Now sometimes I use a 220 by 220 pixel image in my intro Finally, we have charts and visuals.

[13:37] but they help people understand And they don't need to be super fancy or expensive to work. how every version of your site

[13:52] Now it's kinda hard to picture this idea So I hired a graphic designer to make this simple visual. Step number eight, build backlinks.

[14:07] A piece of content that has a hook So what's next? First, use something called the content road show.

[14:23] in front of the right people. People that run blogs in your industry. A few years ago, I wrote a case study

[14:36] and to get the word out, I found people And I sent each of these people a personalized version Notice how I'm not being a pushy jerk face,

[14:50] And I sent this simple email to anyone that replied a ton of social shares from authority bloggers.

[15:02] This strategy is pretty simple. then pitch your content as a replacement for the dead link.

[15:14] to this giant list of SEO tools that I published on my site. and sent the people that ran those blogs And because I helped the person out

[15:29] they were happy to add my link. Encourage comments and community. when he said that comments can help your Google ranking.

[15:45] Personally, I think he meant that comments and community For example, people that feel like are gonna be more likely to share and link to your stuff.

[15:58] between comments and rankings. One thing that's really helped me I see lots of people complaining

[16:11] But when I do look at their blog, (sighing) you gotta reply to comments.

[16:25] Last I checked, we have about 25000 comments And about half of those are me replying to people, Why?

[16:39] about their thoughts and comments. of the Backlinko community. So that's it for my eight step SEO strategy.

[16:51] to my YouTube channel right now. that I only share with subscribers, It's free.

[17:05] Which strategy from today's video are you gonna use first? Or maybe you're ready to start replying to comments. Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

[17:19] Good old fashioned face palm. Am I good? So that's it for my at- (sighs).