SEO site optimization: detailed instructions for beginners

Raising the site in the ranking, making it more popular in order to attract an audience is the main task for the creators of online pages. High-quality SEO optimization will help to achieve this. Unfortunately, for the majority, it continues to be associated only with the number of key queries in the text: this is one of the components – important, but not the main one.

It is enough to conduct a little research and, using our recommendations, make basic changes to the site content or, if the text array is huge, entrust it to a specialist. But first, you should familiarize yourself with the modern features of SEO optimization tools.

Section 1. Basic knowledge about SEO

On-page SEO is the improvement of websites, taking into account the requirements of search engines, filters, and editors, in order to improve the page rank, its visibility by users. To do this, work should be carried out both with the visible content (text and graphics) and with the HTML code of the site.

Why so much attention is paid to SEO optimization?

Every year, the Google search engine is being improved: this is necessary for the convenience of users and improving the quality of results for queries. Therefore, the system analyzes the content of the site, its relevance to the request, basing the results on the presence of keywords. 

An example of how a Google search is done

But today, Google is paying more and more attention to the quality of content. In addition to key queries, the number of words that are often used with a particular topic is analyzed. For example, a text about caring for a houseplant should contain its characteristic diseases, an article about hepatitis should contain its ontogeny, strains, etc. The more useful data the text is, while without a lot of spam, the faster it will grow in the search engine rankings.

All this forms its relevance: if this stage of work is not performed qualitatively, the site will not get to the first pages of the rating.

All this forms its relevance: if this stage of work is not performed qualitatively, the site will not get to the first pages of the rating.

Section 2. Rules for creating SEO content

Before filling the text with keywords, thinking about how to distribute them, you should think about creating a holistic content that will be ranked by the system. You can achieve the result only by deciding on the main keyword. It should reflect the need (search query) of the client, and also be as simple as possible in ranking – if possible, not have a huge number of similar competing pages.

Alternatively, when the request is far from unique, it is worth learning the basic rules for creating really good content:

1. Relevance.
2. Thoroughness.
3. Uniqueness (no plagiarism).
4. Availability.

It seems very simple, but ignoring at least one of the points will inevitably lead to a drop in the rating.

1. Do not lose relevance!

The content must match the request. And it’s not just about the fact that the key phrases match the user’s request. The entire text should form one semantic whole, as well as focus on the needs of the audience. You need to think in advance about who is interested in the product, what this person expects to find on the Internet and how to implement it on his page.

You can look at top sites and analyze them for characteristics such as content type, format, and pitch.

What do you need to know about content type?

There are five groups into which all content on the World Wide Web can be conditionally divided:

 information articles,

1. video,
2. category
3. product in the online store,
4. blog texts.

For example, if you use the query “maxi dress black”, all the top pages will offer to purchase the product, and the most famous stores will be in the first place.

US RESULTS RANKING FOR “BLACK MAXI DRESS”

And there’s nothing you can do about it: it is the purchase that is the main goal of the request, and even the best informational text will not rank in this case. But with other keywords, the situation can be radically different.

If you enter the word “plants” in the search engine, there will be an even division between the number of commercial offers and blog articles.

SEARCH AHREFS FOR THE KEYWORD “PLANTS”.

But it is product offers that will be ranked more, which indicates the interests of consumers, which must be taken into account. We can conclude that this keyword is more suitable for filling online stores with content, and for a high-quality and well-ranked article, you should think about another key.

1.1. Online page “feed” format

The content format is most relevant for blogs as well as information pages. If the user needs instructions, news, hints, etc., the test must be properly structured. For example, for the query “force restart iPad”, all ranking results are how-to guides, with the exception of the website of the product company.

‘FORCE RESTART IPAD’ KEY RANKING IN AHREFS ANALYSIS

You can analyze the “marketing ideas” query by examining the results. And again, the first places in the ranking are pages that have a practical focus.

AHREFS KEYWORD RESEARCH RANKING FOR “MARKETING IDEAS”

You can analyze the “marketing ideas” query by examining the results. And again, the first places in the ranking are pages that have a practical focus.

AHREFS KEYWORD RESEARCH RANKING FOR “MARKETING IDEAS”

To improve the ranking of texts with similar queries that provide a guide to action, it is worth taking an example from top sites. All of them offer the user consistently structured information. You don’t just have to build a list, which makes it impossible to compete with competitors who offer how-to guides.

But a lot depends on the specifics of the request. For example, the query “how to get a lot of subscribers on YouTube”, despite the presence of the adverb “how”, in the top results shows both step-by-step instructions and standard unstructured text information, stories.

US ranking for “how to get more subscribers on YouTube” in Ahrefs Keyword Analysis

Therefore, before choosing a format, you should think about what will be of interest to the user, as well as view and analyze the format of similar pages that have taken the best indicators in the ranking. After all, attracting new subscribers is a task that does not provide for a single sequence, and everyone achieved results in different ways, so users pay attention not just to structured text. However, the list format in this case can be chosen very well if the article is titled “9 Ways to Get More YouTube Subscribers”.

Such a site ranked 13th in the search engine for the query “how to get more subscribers on YouTube”, and this is not a bad result.

1.2. Text for the target audience

This is the basis for quality sales, content ranking. You need to think about the cases in which a particular request is addressed so that the text meets the needs as much as possible. For example, the keywords “how to make a latte” suggest that the user is trying to make it at home, without a coffee machine.

US Ranking for “how to make a latte” in Ahrefs Keyword Research

It is worth paying attention to the additional words “at home”, “without a coffee machine”, etc.: this will become an additional argument for the user to give preference to this site.

But when they search for “best macbook,” users choose the newest articles. Content authors use dates so that they can get acquainted with “fresh” texts, because gadgets are constantly improving, and new models appear in the line.

US Query Rank “best macbook” in Ahrefs Keyword Analysis

But in many cases there is no clear understanding of what will be of interest to the client. There are different options: for example, the query “fried rice recipe” can include results with the characteristics “best”, “most delicious”, “curry”, “with vegetables”, “homemade”, “like in a restaurant”, “perfect” etc.

US ranking for “fried rice recipe” in Ahrefs Keyword Research

In this case, there is no ideal angle for creating content. It is worth choosing the option that best matches the text presented, and taking care of the quality content of the page. It is important not to lose your individuality: if you have your own ideas that are original, you should implement them. Feel free to experiment with the presentation of content, its format, and target orientation, which will help the site form its “own” audience.

2. Carefulness when creating content

Text that matches the main keyword, the target audience, is a great start for promoting content. But this is not a guarantee that the site will be on the first page in the Google search engine. To do this, it is worth taking care that the online page contains comprehensive information: everything that the user wants to see. And that means more work.

For example, the author of the site writes about bitcoin. And all the top results in the search engine are explanations for beginners, basic facts. Therefore, it is worth delving deeper into the topic, and choosing not how common the main key is, so that the article ranks better.

At the heart of thoroughness when creating content is its relevance. For example, if the query is “best golf club sets” and this is the main keyword of your text, then it is illogical to analyze sales offers or posts about individual items. It is worth looking for similar pages, analyzing them, and even using the right ideas. There are several nuances on how best to do this.

Find common subheadings

A common practice is to break up the text into sections for ease of reading. Subheadings allow you to quickly skim through pages and see what the page is about. If the ranking pages have similar subheadings, this is a sign that users are looking for this information.

But this is not all that can be used as an example for your own text. After analyzing several pages, you can see that they contain a definition.

Definition from the first online page “SEO”

Definition from the second online page “SEO”

Definition from the third online page “SEO”

Given that all top pages contain definitions, it can be summarized that this is exactly what users who enter a query need. According to Google statistics, these pages are more visited, and the search engine places them higher in the overall ranking.

Looking through these sites, you can find subheadings about related products, useful recommendations, services that will be relevant to your page.

Ahrefs’ SEO Dashboard has a free report showing that the Best Golf Clubs pages routinely mention similar sets.

Subheadings for an article about the best golf clubs organized with Ahrefs SEO Tools

Subtitle 2 for an article about the best golf clubs, organized by Ahrefs SEO Tools

Such an analysis can be carried out completely free of charge. But there is an important detail: if there are bad reviews about some product, or you yourself were not satisfied with its use, you should not recommend it just because it is listed in rating articles. In this case, it would not be the best solution to take an example from other sites that are on the first page of the rating.

Keywords in subtopics

According to research, the site with the highest ranking will take one of the leading positions for similar queries. And many of them will become one of the ways to find this article. For example, if you analyze the page for “best golf clubs” through Ahrefs, which ranks first in the rankings, you can conclude that it ranks for similar queries, including: “good set of golf clubs”, “best set of golf clubs”, “the best golf kits”.

Screenshot of Site Explorer results from Ahrefs.

If you look through the subtopics among the rated pages, you can find what will be relevant in the content you create as well.

An interesting option is to look for intersections between popular pages. Ahrefs Content Gap allows you to do this: just enter the addresses of the best pages with the highest rating into the cells, and the program will offer a list of queries that are the same for the pages.

This is what Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool window looks like.

These will be the keywords that form the subtopics of the text.

Why is it worth looking at the results manually?

Finding similar titles and keywords is very important in order to set goals for what to write, as well as to improve the ranking of the page that will be created. But it is the independent viewing of each top site that will help you better understand how deeply it is worth revealing the topic, which will be interesting to the user.

For example, when creating a site about the best club sets, you should pay attention to the fact that in popular articles, the proposed sets do not exceed $300. Although really the best sets are much more expensive. But the authors of the texts understand that it is high-quality clubs in the middle price category that are of interest to users, so they adapt the information for the majority of visitors.

Each page also has a list of the pros and cons of each set.

Product Advantages and Disadvantages Page Example

Structuring information on the “pluses” and “minuses” of club sets

This is an example of what you need to use a good solution because it attracts the attention of users. A table with advantages and disadvantages allows you to save time on reading lengthy descriptions and determine the main thing – which set will really be the best choice for the client.

Emphasis on SERP functionality

In addition to analyzing competitor pages, a lot can be learned from SERP functionality using the PAA field. These are separate items from the “People Also Interested” or “People Also Ask” category. If we continue the theme of the article about the best golf clubs, you can find out what related information is relevant for users.

PAA field for the theme “best golf clubs”.

The penultimate question provides very valuable information: we understand that users are concerned about the price, but at the same time they want to get quality products. This fact once again confirms the previously obtained results: the target audience of the article will not be collectors of elite products and not masters of sports, but beginners who are looking for good and inexpensive sticks.

One of the accompanying snippets is a request for “how to swing a golf club.” If you enter it into a search engine, the result will be a video from YouTube.

Video – PAA search result on YouTube

It can be concluded that search engines also offer demo materials to users. And since this query is a companion to our main keyword, we need to add videos and images to the article according to the text information, which contributes to ranking. In this case, pay attention to the information “how to swing a golf club” in the text and attach the video.

3. No plagiarism!

The fact that the content must be unique is obvious. This will ensure high-quality rewriting or copywriting because search engine filters analyze the uniqueness of the article, and fragments that completely match will “lower” the article lower in the rating. But besides this, you need to bring something of your own to the article, to be original.

For example, using SERP to analyze the rating of articles. People are looking for tips to improve rankings and increase traffic on the topic SEO Tips.

US Query Rank “Seo Tips” in Ahrefs Keyword Research

No need to think that each page contains unique tips. But there are some that cannot be found in other sources. One of the original recommendations is to embed videos in popular posts to get consistent traffic. The advantage of this method is that the information provided in this way is difficult to “rewrite” – in order to share the video, you will have to leave a link that leads to this page. It is more difficult to protect other types of content from copying and provide stable traffic, but you can make your page as unique as possible.

There are tools for this:

• original and high-quality product photography, which will be better than competitors;
• unique and detailed description;
• отзывы.

This contributes to the ranking of the page, and also leaves a good impression of the site with its visitors.

4. Clarity of presentation

It is worth considering that today users are “spoiled” by a large amount of information. If the content is difficult to understand, no one will make an effort to understand it. Users will simply open another link, despite the fact that the information in the previous one could have been deeper and more useful.

An example of low-quality content is a submitted article about making grain beer that did not arouse the interest of potential readers.

The reason for the failure is not just a too small font, but also text that is not diluted with either images or lists.

To create content that is convenient and easy to read, you need to use:

• descriptive headings for structuring and hierarchy (H2-H6);
• quality images to break up text;
• simple words and constructions that will be clear to any reader;
• short paragraphs, concise sentences;
• large font so that the user does not have to peer at the page;
• light text style to make it more interesting.

If you do not adhere to these rules, a person will return back to the list of sites to find something more interesting.

Also, the “inverted pyramid” method is used to present information. The data that you need to know should be before those that “wouldn’t hurt to know.”

If we look at this method using an article about golf clubs as an example, we can see that the top-rated articles first list (in most cases in a numbered or bulleted list) a list of the best golf clubs, and only then give their full descriptions, the advantages and disadvantages of each. a set of products.

Section 3: How to optimize your content

Creating content that would be ranked by Google and at the same time be interesting to users is not an easy task, but feasible for everyone. To raise the rating of the site, you need to work with the technical component, which includes meta tags and the URL. This is necessary for the best result, and we offer a clear and simple sequence of how to optimize.

1. Keyword in title

This is one of the foundations of optimization, without which it is hard to imagine filling the text with keywords. The title is formatted using the H1 tag, and you should make sure that it contains a keyword or phrase. This common practice can be seen in many articles.

EXAMPLE OF KEYWORDS IN TITLES

But not in every case it is worth using direct keys: the heading should sound natural and easy to perceive, so keywords are often “diluted” with unions, or used in the case.

2. Short Subject URLs

They make it possible to understand what the subject of the site is, even before the user clicks on the link. Therefore, it is very correct to pay enough attention to this. As an example, consider two pages that are placed side by side in the query results ranking. Only in the first site, by the URL, you can understand what the page will be about.

Standard CMS makes it possible to easily correct the URL (or rather, its part after specifying the domain and folders) using a keyword or phrase, which provides simple optimization.

At the same time, it is important to be brief, indicating only the main thing, because the search engine will shorten a long text with three dots, and optimization work will not bring the desired result. An example of how this happens is in the image below.

3. Vibrant Meta Description

The Google search engine often shows the meta description of each article when displaying search results. This is a small fragment that should contain the quintessence of the page – what it is about, what is useful to the user.

The meta description is shown very often: according to research, users see it in 1/3 of all results. In other options, Google shows the article description elements.

Despite the fact that the meta description does not affect the ranking, users see it, which means that you need to write it well. There are a few tips for this:

• Address directly to the target audience.
• Repeat keywords.
• Shorten the meta description to 120 characters or less.
• Focus on what the user needs.

But do not worry too much about meta descriptions: they are only needed for the correct perception of the site by a potential client.

4. Image optimization

Images traditionally increase traffic, so we offer simple steps to optimize them:

1. Use the correct names. Image filenames give Google an “understanding” of what is in the image. Therefore, files with digital codes should receive thematic names. The description should be concise, and words should be separated by dashes. Example: black-cat.jpg, or black-cat.jpg.
2. Alternative descriptive text. These are HTML characters that are used to describe the image if the text is not loaded. It also improves ranking results. It is important to format the alt descriptive text correctly: not using the word “Image”, but describing what the user should see. An example of a great description: <img src=”puppy.png” alt=”black and white puppy playing fetch”>.

Adding alt text is easy if you are a WordPress user.

But you can do it in Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix too.

1.​​Image compression. Thanks to this, the file size becomes smaller and the download speeds up. This is relevant because customers often use mobile devices or an unstable Internet connection. The best image compression program is ShortPixel.

3. Internal and external links

There is a myth that external links in an article have a bad effect on its optimization. Content managers do not recommend sending users to other sites, because it is assumed that they can find everything they need on this page. But in fact, external links are very convenient for customers, because you can’t fit all the information in one article, in addition, they can “send” the user to related services or thematic videos. Internal links are very convenient for large texts or a group of articles on similar topics that are posted on the same site.

Section 4. Advanced optimization on the online page

There are several more complex optimizations than those already described that are suitable for improving the ranking of a site. We invite you to familiarize yourself with them.

1. Optimization with featured snippets.

You have noticed more than once that when searching, the definition may appear at the top of the page as a piece of text.

It appears as a search result, and if Google selects your site, it will attract users. But there are nuances: the article must be in the top 10 of the search. If so, add a short snippet with a definition of the term. You can check if a site is leading in the search for one of the key queries in Site Explorer.

2. Adding External Links

Analyzing successful sites, we can conclude that they contain external links, including links to competing articles with the same subject. But the answer is simple: it increases the ranking of the page.

3. Create rich snippets with markup

Featured snippets are a demonstration of a site in a ranking with 

There are different types of rich snippets, which are chosen depending on the subject of the article, but they do not affect the ranking and are only necessary to focus the attention of users, to motivate them to open this particular page.

Adding schema markup to WordPress is easy, with the Yoast and Rank Math plugins.

4. Professional approach to the relevance of the text

In section 2, it was already said that the text on the site should contain as many words and phrases as possible that “resonate” with the keys. To do this, they study the subject of the article well, be sure to get acquainted with the content of rating sites, analyze them, and supplement their own text with information with keys, pictures and videos, links.

But sometimes the user forgets to write about something important, and the site loses its position in the ranking. You can avoid this by using the Also Discuss report in Ahrefs Keyword Research.

It is not necessary to use all the keys and write “about everything”. This analysis will allow you to check yourself, to understand if there are things that you forgot to mention.

TF-IDF analysis: help to work on the relevance of the text

Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) will analyze the frequency of the keys and compare it with sites that are at the top of the ranking. This will help you see which subtopics and how deeply your competitors have covered.

But you should not trust TF-IDF in recommendations on the number of keywords: this does not have a positive effect on rankings.

Section 5: Free SEO Tools

We offer several useful links to free services that will help you with your own SEO optimization of the page:

• MetaTags.io. With it, you can preview your work: what the title, meta description, and snippets will look like for the user.
• Ahrefs webmaster tool. It will help solve problems with tags, meta descriptions, alt text, and more. on the page you created.
• Merkle schema markup generator. Structures data in JSON-LD.
• Ahrefs SEO Dashboard. It is necessary to analyze the most ranked pages on your topic.
• Extended results test. You can check whether the definitions in your text match the rich snippets in the search engine.
• short pixel. Suitable for image compression.

When using these tools, it is important to remember that the main thing is the relevance of the text to the request and its quality, and additional SEO improvements will only improve the result, but will not replace it.