A Step-by-Step SEO Strategy Guide to Improve Your Website's Visibility in 2024

Knowing where to start SEO for your website is challenging. Especially if you are a small business owner who wears multiple hats! 

That’s why I created this simple guide.

I’ll walk you through the basics of SEO and provide an actionable step-by-step approach to ensure your website stands out from the competition in 2024. 

I hope this guide helps you better understand SEO principles so that you feel confident in your ability to perform keyword research and content optimization, build authority with backlinks, and create more meaningful connections with prospective clients and customers. 

In this blog, I cover:

• Is SEO still relevant in 2024?
• How do I create SEO Keywords?
• Three Strategies of SEO
• Where should you put your keywords

Is SEO still relevant in 2024?

Absolutely! SEO is an ever-evolving field and continues to be a powerful digital marketing tool. By leveraging the right strategies, you can keep your website at the top of search engine results for years to come. 

How do I create SEO Keywords?

Begin by researching relevant and targeted search terms that people use when seeking information about your product or services. As a consultant, coach, or small business owner, this will help optimize your website for search engine rankings.

Step 1: Open a SemRush Account

Open a free SemRush account – an invaluable tool in your keyword research process. The free account has a limited number of searches per day, but if you follow the steps of this guide, you should be able to at least start collating the correct type of keywords for your business.

Step 2: Google Short Tail Keywords

Go to Google and input a short-tail keyword relevant to your business. For example, if you’re a Sustainable Fashion Brand CEO, you might use ‘Sustainable Fashion’. Take note of the other terms that come up in the search results.

E.g. Sustainable Fashion

When crafting a webpage, it is crucial to select a primary keyword to concentrate on. Additionally, strategically incorporate two to three secondary keywords that are closely relevant to your main subject throughout the page. To avoid repetition, use synonyms and variations of your keywords. This simple technique will effectively communicate the purpose of your page to search engines, while effortlessly captivating, informing, and persuading your audience.

Step 4: Create a Keyword Spreadsheet

Use your findings from Google to identify the keywords most relevant to your business. Input these into a Google Spreadsheet for easy access and organisation.

Step 5: Evaluate Keyword Difficulty

Return to your SemRush account and utilize the Magic Keyword Tool to determine the keyword difficulty (KD) percentage of your chosen keywords. Aim for keywords with a KD of less than 50%.

Step 6: Categorize Your Keywords

Create two lists:

• Keywords with a KD between 2-15%
• Keywords with a KD between 16-50%

KD indicates how competitive a keyword is. The higher the search volume, the more people search for that keyword, which benefits your visibility.

Step 7: Analyze Search Results

Starting with your list of keywords having a KD between 2-15%, return to Google and search for those keywords. Ignore sponsored ads as they are paid and focus on the pages that are listed organically. These are the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The first organic page to appear will be the top-ranking page.

For example, ‘sustainable fashion brands uk’.

Utilize Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ Feature: Google provides a list of other questions people also ask. This can be useful for generating content ideas for your site or blog post.

Use 'Related Searches' on Google: Google’s ‘Related Searches’ can provide additional keyword ideas to include in your content. This can help your content appear in more search results, increasing its visibility. 

3 Strategies of SEO

1 - Identify Patterns and Create Unique Content

Popular advice says you should make something better or different when creating something. But here’s how I see it: no matter what you do, you should put your own spin on it. That means adding your opinion based on what you know and what your audience will find most helpful.

For instance, let’s say I wanted to write a blog about Email Marketing Strategy. I’d consider my own experience with email marketing, but I wouldn’t want to overwhelm my readers with too much info. Instead, I’d give them a taste of what email marketing strategy is and how they can use it for their business. I’d keep it simple and easy to understand, maybe sharing 5-7 essential tips. And I’d make it clear that it’s for coaches, consultants, or small businesses. So, I might call it:

‘Top 5 Tips for an Excellent Email Marketing Strategy | Maven of Momentum’

And make sure the metadata said something along the lines of:

Are you a small business owner struggling with email marketing? Use these top five tips to create an effective email marketing strategy and convert more customers today!

It’s different because I’m listing a specific number of tips, keeping it in single digits (personally, I think 13 tips is just way too many) and being very specific in the meta description about who it is for. More on where to put your keywords later in this guide. If you’re looking to improve your copywriting then I suggest you check out some courses by British Author, Beth Kempton.

2 - Understand Backlinks and Their Importance

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. They play a key part in SEO optimization and website visibility. Search engines use backlinks to determine the popularity and quality of your site’s content.

Quality backlinks can boost your domain authority, content relevance, and trustworthiness, leading to higher search engine rankings. Remember, quality trumps quantity – aim for high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites with good referral traffic rather than relying on automated link-building software.

How to get backlinks

There are many ways to get backlinks, but here are two you could do today. 

1. Conduct a survey with your clients or customers where you can use the research that could be backlinked to from other peoples sites. This gives the content a good reason to be shared and will give you a great backlink. These tactics will help get more eyes on your work.
2. If you’re part of any community, suggest creating a backlink collaboration document where people can populate their research, articles, blog posts, or podcast episodes related to specific topics. This is a great way to build backlinks and build strength in the communities you are part of as a coach, consultant or small business.

When linking to another website from your page, it's important to remember not to direct it to the homepage. Instead, select a relevant page within the website to provide a more valuable user experience.

3 - Incorporate Internal Links

Linking between your blog posts and pages can guide visitors through your site and improve your site’s SEO. Select a high-ranking page on your site and link to other pages or blog posts with a lower ranking or if they are a piece of new content.

One way people do this is by setting up pillar pages. Pillar Pages are pages with an outline of different topics that link to other blog posts within your site. This is a great way to engage readers and get them to look for more information about the topic they’re reading about. These are often set up as pages rather than blog posts.

For example, if I had an ‘Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing in 2024’ as a pillar page, I might link to my blog post ‘Top 5 tips for an excellent email marketing strategy’ within it.

Where should you put your keywords?

Whether it is a standalone webpage or your blog, below outlines where you should include your keywords throughout your site.

REMEMBER: There should be one primary keyword per page, and then secondary keywords sprinkled throughout the body of the page. To avoid repetition, use synonyms and variations of your keywords.

Title tag

Also known as the 'page title' which that appears in the search results and on the browser window (or in the tab). According to GoDaddy, it should be about 65-70 characters or less. 

Here's an example of Rapanui – I've put a purple box around the tab where the page title appears.

URLs

So URLS typically look like this: www.yoursite.com. When you create a page on your website, a ‘slug’ is created. For example, if you create an about page, that URL will look something like www.yoursite.com/about. The "/about" is the slug. So, when you create your pages, use your keyword as part of your slug. Using the Email Marketing strategy blog post as an example, I might have www.heyimjo.com/blog/email-marketing-strategy-tips

H1 tag

This is often referred to as 'Heading 1' which is the main heading (or title) of your webpage or blog post. 

Subheadings

These are the secondary headings that divide your page or blog post into sections. 

Body text

This is the main content of your web page. It should include your keywords naturally and strategically, without overusing or stuffing them.

Meta description

This is the first line of text that you see underneath the page title in the search results. Typically this is under 150 characters, it describes the page and who it's for.

Alt text

You can use Alt text to describe the images on your webpage. This is also helpful for accessibility.

To Sum Up...

Navigating the complexities of SEO for your website can be daunting, especially for small business owners juggling multiple responsibilities. But it isn't impossible for you to do yourself.

Hopefully, this guide has eased your nerves and provided you with directions on how to get started. With the right content strategy in place, you’ll be well on your way to increasing organic traffic and improve your search engine rankings! Good luck!