2020 Harkness Digital SEO Guide
Search engine optimization is always changing. Here is everything you need to know.
Don't want to tackle this alone? Harkness Digital can build you a complete SEO strategy to get you started.
The Three Main Components of SEO
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO includes the components of a website page that can be adjusted to optimize it for search engines. This is the only area of Search Engine Optimization that a website owner is 100% control of.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO includes backlinks and the strategies around acquiring them.
Digital Reputation (TrustRank)
TrustRank is the authority of a website as perceived by Google. When Google trusts a website, it begins to recommend it more, moving it up in search results.
The Harkness Digital SEO Strategy
1) Get Crawled
2) Get Indexed
3) Improve Rankings
Proactive SEO Tactics
1) Create great content. Great content increases the likelihood that bloggers and content creators link to a site; gaining these organic backlinks and building quality social signals tells Google that a site is good.
2) Be active and engaging on social media.
3) Visit other bloggers and content creators and comment on their pages. Offer them some value. Commenting on related content only when there is an opportunity to add value with the comment. Short non-relevant comments look spammy, will likely be caught by spam filters, and will ultimately be rejected. A good quality comment will bring you attention from the original content creator and all of the people following the conversation.
Important Things to Remember
White Hat versus Black Hat
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do SEO. Black Hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies that focus on search engines and not a human audience, employing tactics like keyword stuffing, invisible text, or content/page swapping (changing a page entirely once it has been ranked by a search engine); these practices are not only unethical, but may actually hurt a website if it is discovered that any of these practices have been used. White Hat SEO refers to the tactics that are in line with the terms and conditions of the major search engines.
This guide focuses exclusively on White Hat strategies.
SEO is a Long Game
There is no quick solution to search engine optimization. It often takes months to rank for specific keywords (longer if there is significant competition).
Patience and diligence is critical.
2018 Harkness Digital SEO Guide
Here is what will be covered in this guide.
1) Keyword Research Fundamentals
2) On-Page SEO Overview
3) AMP ( Accelerated Mobile Pages)
4) Sitemaps
5) External Linking
6) Schema, Rich Cards, Featured Snippets
7) Off-Page SEO Overview
8) RankBrain and the User Experience
9) Optimizing for Voice Search
Keyword Research Fundamentals
On-Page SEO Overview
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
Sitemaps
External Linking
Schema, Rich Cards, Featured Snippets
Off-Page SEO Overview
RankBrain and the User Experience
Optimizing for Voice Search
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