Newbie's Guide to Search: SEO 101

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Staccs

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DISCLAIMER: I am not a guru, millionaire, or internet baller.

At this point in my "internet career", most people I have on my Skype contact list are making more money than I am; some have much more knowledge than I do as well. For me, this is great for learning. I wanted to add these few short lines prefacing my post to make it clear I am not claiming to know everything. In order for someone to learn, they must first admit there is more knowledge than they possess.

Please note that this thread will be loosely based on SEO. If you have a decent budget and want to learn PPC, Nickycakes' Newbie Guide is usually the recommended reading.

I'm creating this post with the goal of supplying you with all the information you MUST know in order to get started with SEO. After reading this post and following it's simple instructions, you will be primed with enough knowledge to jump in and begin getting your hands dirty with SEO.

Starting Affiliate Marketing & Surviving WickedFire

I first discovered affiliate marketing by clicking a link to WickedFire while I was looking for high calorie protein shakes on Bodybuilding.com. Immediately, after I realized all these acronyms meant I could make money online, I was hooked. I spent hours looking around each of the forums here on WF that non-registered visitors are allowed to access gathering intel. This "intel" is important to surviving this (gay) webmaster forum we know as WickedFire. Here is what I learned while lurking WickedFire for 1 day:

  • The difference between SEO and PPC
  • The difference between Wickedfire.com and Wiickedfire.com
  • Experienced members were telling newbies to "jump in" with minimal reading.
  • I learned Wordpress is the standard platform for creating websites
  • I learned the difference between whitehat and blackhat
  • I learned what the Google Keyword Tool was
  • Through Nickycake's guide, I had a better understanding on what affiliate marketing is.
  • I learned WickedFire is (claims to be) the no-bullshit forum in the internet marketing industry.
The lesson here is to educate yourself on the community. I didn't want to be apart of the seemingly hopeless n00bs being flamed for their terrible introductions (Pro tip: don't create an introduction thread) so I tried to develop non-terrible questions. Read the rules, read the stickies and then post a thread. If you are reading this right now and choose not to follow these steps, you probably aren't ready for this internet marketing game.

How to Learn SEO On Your Own

Here's the deal: Learning SEO from scratch without help is a tough task. The amount of misinformation about SEO is endless, and the theoretical discussion has questionable accuracy at best.

This is because there is no comprehensive "SEO Guide" which details the steps to ranking #1. What you can do is follow the best practices; the methods webmasters have experience using, and can generally correlate with some sort of positive ranking increase. If you look through my thread history you can see what kind of questions I was asking as a complete beginner. I am going to post a complete FAQ guide covering the core SEO questions I had, and the questions I see noobs here post quite often.

Again, reading this thread WILL give you all the information you NEED to begin your journey as a SEO. There is so much information in this thread that the forum software WickedFire uses begged me to split it up into 2 posts. Bookmark this thread and read it again tomorrow, and then the next day. Then again next week. If you create a website and get started, you can even read it again 2 weeks from now.

Just take your time and try to fully absorb the answers.
 
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SEO FAQs

Q: I have no money - how do I get started?
A: Get a job, read this, or don't get started. If you're interested in creating an online business, you likely have some entrepreneurial characteristics. Put them to work and raise $100 to invest in yourself.

Q: How much do I need to get started?
A: Enough to pay for web hosting, and a domain. No exact numbers as this varies. I recommend Hostgator for hosting and Namecheap for domains. Ballpark: $10/month + $12.

Q: What do I NEED to get started?
A: You need web hosting, a domain, analytics for tracking, rank tracking, and a niche to target. Free analytics include: Google Analytics, Woopra, Open Web Analytics, and Stat Counter. The most popular paid option is Clicky. Free rank tracking sucks. The Chrome extension "SEO SERP Workbench" sometimes works, but I recommend paying for either SERPfox or Microsite Masters. Serpfox delivers the most value with 50 keywords/$10/month, but I suggest going with MSM if it fits your budget.

Q: How do I pick a niche?
A: If you're writing your own content, pick something you enjoy then find a product or service required to best experience that activity/hobby/interest. Write content that answers all the potential questions your visitors may need answered before they buy. Bonus points if you're an expert on that topic.

Q: How do I pick a keyword?
A:
  • Use the GKWT to find a keyword within the niche you just chose
  • Make sure you're using the exact filter when you do.
  • A safe number in my opinion is 1,000 global searches - 30,000 searches
  • Remember that these are MONTHLY searches, not daily, not yearly
  • The competition bar is only relevant to PPC marketers, and AdSense publishers. If you plan on using AdSense, pay more attention to the CPC column.

Q: How do I measure competition?
A: Because there is no definitive step-by-step guide to rank #1, there's no definitive step-by-step guide to measuring competition. Reading SEOmoz's Beginner's Guide to SEO will help, as will the Yoast Guide to Wordpress SEO. These guides will give you a good foundation on best practices.

You can also check out SerpIQ which was created by a member of these forums. If you have a low budget, sign up for a free account, analyze a keyword, then export a report. Study that report and note what metrics are being measured.

Finally, get the SEO Quake add-on for your browser. Just Google "SEO Quake" and you will find out where to download it and what it does. The best way to determine competition in your specific niche is to see what the top 3 results are doing and then match and exceed (credit: Bluehat SEO).

Q: There's no Exact Match Domain (EMD) available for my keyword. Am I fucked?
A: No. If you can provide more value to your visitors than the top 3 spots in the SERPs (search engine result page), go for it. What do IMDB, Facebook, Myspace, and Wikipedia have in common? None of them have EMDs, and I think they do alright.

Q: I have my niche picked out, I bought my domain, installed Wordpress on my web host - now what?
A: Now you build a site that answers all the questions someone searching your keyword is looking for. I like to write an initial 5-10 page buying guide on my keyword followed by writing a months worth (12 - 20) posts and scheduling them with Wordpress to be posted 2/3 per week. Now it's time to build links.

Q: How do I make backlinks? Where can I get them?
A: A backlink is a link to your website. That's it. Therefore, you create backlinks by linking to your website, from other websites. I highly suggest you watch guerilla's How to Build Backlinks by Hand Webinar. Seriously, go watch it.

Q: What are the best backlinks?
A: Links from authority websites are stronger than links from 1 page sites created yesterday. Authority is interpreted by the metrics we discussed earlier in the competition question.

Q: How many backlinks do I need?
A: There is no magic number. In Google's eyes, an authority website is always gaining new links. We want to be an authority in Google's eyes, so we should always be building links. Don't worry about the rate of link building if you are doing it by hand.

Q: It's been a month of building links and adding content, but I'm still on Page 3. What's wrong?
A: SEO is known as a marathon. The 6 hours of link building you did yesterday could take 2 weeks to get noticed, then Google may even only notice 1/4 of it. Do not expect any kind of fast results. Looking through my post history, it's clear burning out is possible (1, 2, 3 - pro tip: don't make these threads.). As long as you're building links and adding content, you are doing good - keep going.

Q: My website gets a ton of traffic, but I still haven't made a conversion. Why?
A: This could be due to a variety of reasons.

1. Is your content targeted enough? You should know the demographic of your niche. A pre-teen isn't going to understand your University level articles, and the 48 year old landscaper won't make it past paragraph 1 of your complex computer hardware chart. Tailor your content to your visitor, and preach the benefits of your product or service, not the features.

2. Are you answering your visitor's questions? Examine the keywords your visitors are searching with your analytics and brainstorm why they are searching that term. If you were searching that keyword, what would you want to see?

3. Do your keywords suck? Something I learned early is traffic doesn't equal conversions. My first site ever targeted "where are they now" celebrities. Unfortunately, when "where is the karate kid now" is searched, no one wants to buy a product, join a mailing list, or click an ad.

Bonus: Google each of these - copywriting, split testing, conversion rate optimization, landing page optimization, a/b testing results.

Q: Should I outsource my link building and/or content?
A: If you have enough of a budget to cover mistakes and deal with sentences that were NOT written by a native English speaker, sure, but it's not essential until you reach a point where you're losing money by writing your own content and building your own links. See: Comparative Advantage.
 
SEO Resources

Don't spend more than a week reading. I understand that initial crave for information - these links will help.

Google Webmaster Guidelines (Read once)
SEOmoz Beginner's Guide to SEO (Read once to understand ranking factors)
Bluehat SEO (Advanced SEO - I didn't understand this in the beginning, you probably won't either. Regardless, it's creative stuff. Note it is a little old.)
The Top 101 Overemphasized Factors in SEO (Great post for everyone)
Enlightened Members (Some good stuff here from WF)
tencentpiece's Guide to Creating an Authority Site (Awesome post)
guerilla Addressing Link Structuring (K.I.S.S.)


How You can Start SEO The Right Way

  1. Build links, add content. If you do this everyday, you will rank higher. At the end of the day, all you really NEED to do is build links and add content. BLAC.
  2. Track everything. Use a rank tracker to track your ranks, and analytics software to tracks your visitors. This data is invaluable. Learn what keywords your visitors are coming from, then which keyword is generating the most clicks, then rank higher for that keyword.
  3. Network. Connecting with people I've met here on WF easily makes up for the hours on hours wasted lurking STS. Build your reputation and make friends that can help you. Surround yourself with smart people and provide value to anyone you can.

If all you get out of this thread is "build links, add content" (BLAC) you will be in great shape to climb ranks. If you manage to grasp BLAC + Networking, you will be ready for business.

The End!

That's it. Thanks to everyone who's passed along their knowledge and experience to me. They helped make this post possible.

Do you have any questions I didn't cover? Post them below and I will get to you. All comments are welcome. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (link in sig). It will make you a better marketer, SEO, and overall great person :thumbsup:
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a wealth of information. thanks Staccs for the post, i've bookmarked it !. i've been playing around with this seo gig for the last 2 years and the game keeps changing and so do the players. i suppose you just got to adapt and keep running.
 
Thanks guys. It probably took me my entire first year trying to figure out the answers to some of these questions and that was pretty frustrating. I hope it can accelerate success for some of you.
 
Just discovered affiliate marketing a few days ago, definitely one of the better posts I've seen. Thanks Staccs
 
Thanks for sharing.

Hey Staccs, I just wanted to say THANKS for taking the time to give something of value back to the site.


Everyone started somewhere and very few ever started without any help.


I think you've given the n00bs coming to this section a very good foundation to getting their online ventures started and you just saved them a considerable amount of time.


May you continue to prosper Staccs!!
 
Thank Staccs! This post is what was needed for me to really get started! I've juggled with the idea of SEO/Affiliate marketing for a while but never knew exactly where/how to start. This is definetely an eye opener!
 
Super high quality posts, should be stickied and required reading before being able to post in Traffic & Content section. + rep
 
Ucantbevan said:
Just discovered affiliate marketing a few days ago, definitely one of the better posts I've seen. Thanks Staccs
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Good luck!
verdeithaca said:
good stuff
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Thank you.

Midas Touch said:
Hey Staccs, I just wanted to say THANKS for taking the time to give something of value back to the site.


Everyone started somewhere and very few ever started without any help.


I think you've given the n00bs coming to this section a very good foundation to getting their online ventures started and you just saved them a considerable amount of time.


May you continue to prosper Staccs!!
Click to expand...
Very much appreciated.

guerilla said:
bump for excellence
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You're excellent.

RupertMaarten said:
Thank Staccs! This post is what was needed for me to really get started! I've juggled with the idea of SEO/Affiliate marketing for a while but never knew exactly where/how to start. This is definetely an eye opener!
Click to expand...
While writing this I had the intention of creating a final product that delivers the absolute minimum information needed to start on the right track as a SEO. I added a little of padding on top of that, but I don't think I was too far off from that goal.

Grindstone said:
Super high quality posts, should be stickied and required reading before being able to post in Traffic & Content section. + rep
Click to expand...
Thank you very much :)
 
This is wonderful. I am so glad that I stumbled upon this thread. It really is a wealth of knowledge, and I have learned a thing or two just from reading a few minutes. Great job!
 
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