Nat Eliason's SEO Course

Things I learned for Nat Eliason’s SEO Course

Leveling up

Start with an easy keyword
Over time, adjust article for harder and harder keywords
Long tail keywords with low competition
Can change meta title for google to the harder keyword later
Can only change the meta title unless there is something the content is missing that the broader keyword asks for.
At first, pick something under 5,000 searches

You don’t need to spend time building backlinks. You can rank for keywords that aren’t even IN your articles. You don’t need to focus on keyword density. Focus on intent.

Google analytics and keyword planner are all that’s needed. They are completely free.

How to think about SEO

Google is for answering people’s questions Google knows more that SEO experts about how Google works Any ranking trick will be fixed

Your goal: Answer questions better than anyone else on the internet.

Step 1: Topic Research Step 2: Keyword research Step 3: Writing Content that Ranks Step 4: Promoting Content Step 5: Increasing Ranking in the Future

Topic Research

Is this something people are searching for? If Yes -> Existing Topic If No -> New Topic

Existing Topics

High SEO Potential
High SEO Competition

Make sure to look at your rankings in incognito mode or it will show you searches based on your own browsing history.
You can rank on words with high competition.

New Topics

Something people aren’t searching for.
Lower SEO Potential
Low SEO Competition
Make up a term or word to describe what you are talking about.
(Examples: savable income, second degree dinners, stamena, etc.)
Keyword research not neccesary

Keyword Research

Step 1: Come up with addressable keywords Step 2: Assess their keyword volume Step 3: Assess the competition Step 4: Pick your keyword

Step 1: Come up with addressable keywords

Organize information in a spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XitO95OO6q3djdnOZpESaaK9xVcGKGv791mAL3IuRl0/edit?pli=1&gid=0#gid=0

List Possible keywords Subjectively rate how broad the keyword is

Step 2: Assess their keyword volume

Use Google keyword planner to add the search volume to the spreadsheet. View the recommended options and add relevant Keywords to your list.

Step 3: Assess the competition

New sites will be hard to rank for higher competition keywords. Ignore competition rating in Google keyword planner. Search for the keyword in Google Rank the competition in your spreadsheet based on the top sites that show up. Is there an article that directly addresses the question? If you see a lot of social media results that means there is a good chance it’s a low competition keyword.

Step 4: Pick your keyword

Don’t go after the hard keywords at first. Use the leveling up strategy to go for harder keywords. Set meta title tag for title in google You can level up just by changing the meta title, On adjust the content if the keyword calls for it Start with easy, more narrow, less competition keyword. Can level up to harder keywords multiple times after they are ranking

Part 3: Writing the Post

5 Principles of Great SEO

Answer their question
Provide the best answer
Provide a complete answer
Make it actionable
Overdeliver

Principle 1: Answer their Question

Answer the question Make it easy to find those answers with content menu or skimmability (Headings) Have a heading with the keyword

Principle 2: Provide the best answer

What did everyone else do to answer this? Search for the keyword and view the top results. What did they do and not do well?

Principle 3: Provide a complete answer

Figure out everything somebody could be looking for when they ask the question. Good SEO content is usually long because of this. (GOal is not to be long, it’s to fully answer the question)

Principle 4: Make it actionable

Are they going to need to go back to google for more answers? Make the reader ready to go with what they just read. What’s next? How can they do it? Add steps to doing the thing.

Principle 5: Overdeliver

Give them more than they expected when they showed up. Could be a free PDF, tools, or additional info or story in the article.

Structuring your articles for SEO

Easily readable (breaks, images, etc.) Shorter paragraphs, logical structure, fun and readable No keyword stuffing (have it in your headline) Include relevant links in the article. Link to other relevant content on your site. Link to high quality sources (research article, wikipedia, etc.) Takeaways, steps, action items at the end of your article. Make it easy for them to find what to do.

Creating Your Headline

If you don’t have a good headline then nobody will click on it. What people see when they go to google. Come up with 10-30 headlines that sound clickable and excited and also the most informative. Make sure Keyword is in the Headline

Part 4: Promotion

3 Keys to Content Promotion

Promoting to your audience
Promoting to others’ audiences
Adding to your structure

Promoting to your audience

They want to hear from you Social media Email Groups you are part of (Forums, message boards) Automate as much as possible

Can automate with Zapier.

Will share to all social media profiles automatically

Promoting to Other Audiences

Used to get an initial surge to get on Google’s radar. Reddit

Find subreddit where your content will fit and post content there.
Find communities that let you just drop a link.
Can also make a discussion and provide info in the post and add links.
Can talk about a high level overview of the article.

Message boards Emailing people mentioned or who might be interested (Hey I wrote this thing, I thought you would like it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.) Don’t ask them to share it.

Adding to your structure

Add link to past articles that it may be helpful in. Have pages that collect themes on your site. Like a map of Content Link back in future articles (reference past articles in new ones) Add useful things.

Re optimize

Identify higher value keywords that it’s starting to rank for just a little bit. Re-word the headline to fit that keyword Repeat promotion as relevant How to identify higher value keywords

Go to google analytics
Go to Acquisition > Search Console > Queries
- Can view queries that people are landing on your page by
- Go to search console > landing pages and select the specific article and then view queries that it’s ranking for.
- Can see position in search results here.
Give article some time to settle in