Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide
Joel Castillo
Senior Digital Marketing & Programmatic Advertising Strategist | Demand Generation | Paid Media | Data-Driven Growth | Tableau | Python
This Google Search Engine Optimization Guide will help you discover how to rank your website and/or your Client’s websites on the first page of Google.
You probably have asked yourself, “how to do Google search engine optimization“?
I will give you all the tips and techniques for optimizing SEO for Google.
This is ultimately what I have learned in my experience as a Digital Marketing Expert.
If the idea of dominating your competitors on Google is appealing to you, then you’ll be jazzed to read this 6-step proven SEO guide. But let’s start with some basics.
Let’s get started with the basics of how to do Google search engine optimization…
Who is Google?
Google is the tech giant known best for its tireless efforts to keep track of all the information contained in more than one billion websites on the world wide web and its ability to serve up what you’re looking for when you conduct an online query using its search engine.
Google uses its algorithm to give you the top 10 search results based on your web history, search intent and page rank, followed by many more pages of results.
For any person or company who wants to be found online, getting your website to appear on that first page of results of a Google search results is the Holy Grail.
The good news is that YOU can totally do this. But I’m not saying it will be easy!
Just like anything else worth pursuing, it will take time to achieve a top-10 ranking on that highly coveted first page of Google search results, which is where 96% of clicks occur on Google.
I’ve combined my own experiences with many hours of research to present the best information possible in this Google Search Engine Optimization Guide.
With the knowledge, it contains, you can avoid wasting years of trial-and-error to see “what works,” along with all the courses, conferences, and webinars I’ve attended.
See? I’ve already done most of the heavy lifting for you – all you have to do is put the plan into action! Ready to dive in and get results?
Your first step is understanding how Google Search works.
Here is how the Google search engine works:
Want to learn more? Read the entire SEO guide.
A person enters the keyword or phrase into the Google search box.
Google analyzes pages on the web and selects the top results for keyword or phrase being searched, using its search engine algorithms to determine how to rank the results.
The person who searched sees the top 10 websites on the first page of results from Google for the search terms entered.
These search results are filtered dependent on:
- Search query entered
- Search history
- Location
Search Engine Optimization has changed completely due to Google’s algorithm changes. Google changed their algorithm 800 times last year.
An example of how SEO has changed is, 2 people can be in the same office searching the same keyword and get completely different results.
Now, do you see why SEO is so important? Let’s learn about SEO…
What is Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Google Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of increasing traffic to a website by helping it rank higher in organic (meaning non-paid) search results.
Google SEO optimization consists of…
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
I’ve included other factors that I personally think are important for you to create unique content and delivery. Here’s a visual of what SEO is:
Now that you have the basics of Google search engine optimization.
Here are the proven strategies for Google’s Search Engine Optimization that will get you the results you want.
Step 1: Writing your Content for the Search Engines
Search engine issue #1: Content confusion with Google search intent. Most people just don’t understand how search works. The way their content is written does not match the intent of the person who searched. How do you get search engines to understand what your website is about?
Here’s what you do:
Search engine Solution #1:
You have to write your content to match up to the way people are searching for it! Think about your content as an answer to a question for someone who is searching.
Before writing my content here’s what I do:
- I use SEMRush.com to conduct Keyword Research Gap analysis against my competitors.
2. Then, I figure out my focus keyword, that matches what I want to write about.
3. After that, I find variants or similar phrases (synonyms) that will help describe my focus keyword.
Here are the keywords and SEO strategy for my home page.
As you can see from the image above. My focus keyword is “digital marketing expert”.
My goal is to make myself the subject matter expert as a digital marketer. As you can see from this article, I am teaching “how to become a digital marketing expert“.
So, I want to use “how to become a digital marketing expert” so when Google crawls my site it is clear that I am the digital marketing expert that will teach digital marketing techniques to people who want to become digital marketers.
Now, let’s move on to the next Google Search Optimization technique.
Step 2: Fixing website speed
Search engine issue #2: Mobile sites takes 22 seconds to load. According to Google’s latest research, the time it takes to load the average mobile landing page is 22 seconds. Over 53% of website visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load!
So here is your next Google Search Engine solution:
Search engine solution #2: Use image compressing software to compress image file sizes. Use software like Compressor.io or TinyPNG.com to compress your website images.
Here’s an image I compressed and reduced the file size by 71%:
Want to learn more? Read the entire SEO guide.