What are your SEO techniques?

[Jason]

How have they worked for you? Were they different in the past? Where did you learn them? Did it take you a long time to learn? How do they mesh which what is considered the best SEO by the search engines? Myself, I haven't messed around with SEO in many years. However, I did SEO way back around 2011, but it was a very early archaic version. In fact, it was too easy and see why Google cracked down on it.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I do SEO for my blog content.

My technique is simple:

1. I choose a topic based on audience feedback that I research and survey on online communities, social media, and question sites in my niche.

2. I then research and select keywords (long-tail keywords) using SEM Rush, Keywords Everywhere, Uber Suggest, and a few other online tools. I'm looking for three things when I research. I'm looking at competition to make sure the keyword isn't heavily competitive. I'm looking at search intent to understand exactly what people are searching for, and I'm looking for search volume to understand how often a keyword is being searched for based on intent.

3. After I decide on my keyword, I write content for it. I focus on high-quality content that gives significant value to readers. I do this by researching the top 5 results for a keyword I'm targeting. I go for organic results, not paid listings. I look at each section and ensure that I cover it in my own words. Then, I add value by filling in the gaps that the competition left out. That makes my article unique. Typically if the competition has written a 1,500-word article, at minimum, my article is around 3,500 words. A lot of times, I am more in the 10K to 13K word count on keywords I really want to dominate.

4. I focus on putting my keyword in:
* The Title and URL slug
* The H1 (only use one H1 header)
* The first H2, maybe a few more H2 headers if the article is large
* The first sentence in the first paragraph
* The first image's ALT tag
* Repeat the keyword a few more times throughout the article
I use Yoast Premium on WordPress to help me audit my SEO. But don't put too much into how much time you need to use the keyword in the content. There is such thing as too many times but not so much as too few times. The trick is making the keyword blend in and not look awkwardly placed in there.

5. I submit the blog post. I market it mainly on social media, my mailing list, online communities, and paid listings on social media if my CTA will gain more of a profit than I paid into the marketing campaign. I have to have a profitable ROI if I spend money.

Doing the technique above has got me on page 1 most of the time and has turned my blogs into secondary income.

 

[Jason]

I do SEO for my blog content.

My technique is simple:

1. I choose a topic based on audience feedback that I research and survey on online communities, social media, and question sites in my niche.

2. I then research and select keywords (long-tail keywords) using SEM Rush, Keywords Everywhere, Uber Suggest, and a few other online tools. I'm looking for three things when I research. I'm looking at competition to make sure the keyword isn't heavily competitive. I'm looking at search intent to understand exactly what people are searching for, and I'm looking for search volume to understand how often a keyword is being searched for based on intent.

3. After I decide on my keyword, I write content for it. I focus on high-quality content that gives significant value to readers. I do this by researching the top 5 results for a keyword I'm targeting. I go for organic results, not paid listings. I look at each section and ensure that I cover it in my own words. Then, I add value by filling in the gaps that the competition left out. That makes my article unique. Typically if the competition has written a 1,500-word article, at minimum, my article is around 3,500 words. A lot of times, I am more in the 10K to 13K word count on keywords I really want to dominate.

4. I focus on putting my keyword in:
* The Title and URL slug
* The H1 (only use one H1 header)
* The first H2, maybe a few more H2 headers if the article is large
* The first sentence in the first paragraph
* The first image's ALT tag
* Repeat the keyword a few more times throughout the article
I use Yoast Premium on WordPress to help me audit my SEO. But don't put too much into how much time you need to use the keyword in the content. There is such thing as too many times but not so much as too few times. The trick is making the keyword blend in and not look awkwardly placed in there.

5. I submit the blog post. I market it mainly on social media, my mailing list, online communities, and paid listings on social media if my CTA will gain more of a profit than I paid into the marketing campaign. I have to have a profitable ROI if I spend money.

Doing the technique above has got me on page 1 most of the time and has turned my blogs into secondary income.

That sounds like a good plan. Also, it's probably not as difficult as it seems.