McDonald Jason - SEO Fitness Workbook 2016 Edition The Seveion Success on Google Edition: The Seven Steps to Sh Engine Optimization Success on Google

by Jason McDonald, Ph.D.

2016, JM Internet Group

https://www.jm-seo.org/

Tel. 800-298-4065

Contents

0.1 Introduction Pg. 2

1.1 Attitude Pg. 15

1.2 Goals Pg. 21

1.3 Basics Pg. 27

2.1 Keywords Pg. 33

2.2 Keyword Worksheet Pg. 50

3.1 Page Tags Pg. 61

3.2 Website Structure Pg. 75

3.3 SEO Audit Pg. 87

4.1 Content SEO Pg. 92

4.2 Press Release SEO Pg. 100

4.3 Blogging Pg. 107

5.1 Link Building Pg. 112

5.2 Social Media SEO Pg. 127

5.3 Local SEO Pg. 135

6.1 Metrics Pg. 146

7.1 Learning Pg. 154

Introduction

Welcome to the SEO Fitness Workbook, 2016 edition ! Fully revised and updated for 2016, this workbook explains how to succeed at Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) in seven steps . SEO, of course, is the art and science of getting your company to show at the top of relevant Google or Bing searches, for free . With most customers turning first to Google, Bing, or other search engines, SEO is your free gateway to more inquiries, more customers, and more sales.

SEO =

Free Advertising on Google

Free advertising on Google? Yippie! On Bing? Double Yippie! But, heres the rub: SEO seems really complicated . Is it too good to be true?

Believe me, I understand your frustration with SEO and with the frauds, scoundrels, and dishonest robbers who plague my beloved SEO industry. I know the complaints, and I hear them often in my classes in the San Francisco Bay Area, including my very popular Marketing without Money class at Stanford Continuing Studies. Here are some of the most common complaints :

• We need to get our company to the top of Google for relevant keywords; our competitors are there, but were not!
• Our website sucks. It not only looks terrible, we dont even show for our own company name!
• We hired an SEO company, spent several thousands of dollars, and achieved nothing. So-called SEO experts are just thieves!
• I dont understand computers, cant write HTML, and I cant do SEO. Help!
• I pay attention to Google, and SEO seems to change constantly: theres no way we can keep up: Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird. Isnt there a nice animal in the Google zoo?
• We hired an obscure third world SEO firm, they built 50,000 blog links, and now we have been obliterated by Googles Penguin update.
• SEO is just too hard for anyone without a degree in Computer Science from Yale University to be able to do. We give up! (They then start uncontrollably sobbing).
• Well just do AdWords (and spend thousands of dollars). Google clearly needs more money from struggling small businesses just like ours, so they can invest in drones and self-driving cars!

I hear and feel your pain. I am just a regular guy, and I have been confronted with what I call techtimidation probably as much as you have.

Techtimidation =

The use of jargon by techies to intimidate mere mortals

However, I firmly believe that a little education, a lot of hard work, and some common sense are all you really need to succeed in SEO. The computer nerds (and Googlers) would like us all to believe SEO is difficult no impossible without a computer science degree.

Poppycock. Hokum. Hooey. Malarkey, Rubbish, Baloney and even B.S.!

You can do SEO. You can succeed at it. It is easier than you think.

The purpose of this book is to, first , make you believe in yourself, second , empower you with the basic knowledge of how the SEO game is played, and third , to help you make a detailed SEO plan for your business.

More on this later.

Lets return to SEO, the art and science of getting your product, service or company to the top of Google and Bing .

Google Algorithm Updates

Recent years have seen some terrifying Google search engine algorithm updates, namely Penguin and Panda . In a nutshell, Penguin has been an algorithm attack against low quality links, and Panda has been an algorithm attack against poor quality content. In addition, Google has recently penalized sites that are not mobile friendly and made major changes to local search results. Its Hummingbird update was a move towards semantic search. Google, in short, has been busy changing the rules of the SEO game.

Google makes changes, and we have to adapt. But heres the good news: the basics havent really changed, and if you stick to the basics according to white hat SEO youll be fine.

Let me repeat that:

the basics have not changed in SEO.

This workbook will explain what not to do, and what to do, to succeed at SEO in this post- Penguin , post- Panda world. And, it will also educate you on the unchanged basic rules of SEO success.

(If you dont know what Panda and Penguin are dont worry Ill explain later).

Back to SEO.

What is SEO? SEO, of course, is the art and science of getting your company, product, or service to the top of Google's organic (free) results. If youre a seller of industrial fans, it means when customers search for industrial fans, they see your companys product at the top of Google.

Why is SEO so valuable? Simply put, SEO is valuable because SEO is free advertising on Google! And there aint nothing better than free, is there? (Well, a few things, but please return to the subject at hand).

Customers turn to Google first to find new products and services, new companies and consultants. And showing up for free means you are getting free advertising.

Everybody uses Google!

( Well, a few people use Bing, but the game is the same. Rest assured that all techniques covered in this Workbook apply equally to Bing ).

An SEO Checkup

Some questions for you:

1. Do your potential customers use Google or Bing to find companies, products or services like yours?
2. Taking a common search query relevant to your company (e.g., industrial fans, or best pizza Tulsa), do you see your company on Page 1, positions 1, 2, or 3? High on the page, or low on the page?
3. Taking a whole bunch of keyword search queries ( the universe of search terms by which customers might search for your company, product or service ), do you generally show up on Page 1 of Google, positions 1-3? positions 1-10?, or not at all?

If you generally appear on Page 1, positions 1, 2, or 3, for all your relevant keywords, you can stop reading this book. You pass with an A+. If you generally do not appear, then keep reading. You need help.

If you have no idea what search word queries, positions on Google, or high vs. low on the page mean, dont worry. Dont feel stupid. You need help, and I am going to teach you.

Isnt SEO Hard?

Well, thats what Google would like you to think ( so spend money on AdWords ) And thats what many in the SEO industry would like you to think ( so pay us big consulting fees, and dont ask any questions! )

I dont agree. SEO isnt easy, but it isnt exactly hard either.

Ive taught thousands of people in my online classes, in classes in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in corporate workshops, and I can confirm there is a lot of confusion about SEO. People think its hard, or impossible, or mysterious, and thats simply not correct.

SEO =

Google Fitness

SEO , you see, is a lot like physical fitness . Although everyone can conceivably run a marathon, for example, few people make the effort to learn how and even fewer take the disciplined steps necessary to train for and ultimately finish a marathon.

Does that make running a marathon easy?

No.

But does that make running a marathon hard?

Not really.