Many say that SEO is difficult.  I disagree.  SEO can be easy if you know how to do it.   

I agree that it could seem quite daunting if you do not understand the process.  You can get caught up in the process without getting the results that you need.  Moreover, without the proper understanding of SEO, you can actually mess up your site big time. 

I will share with you, in simple and non-technical terms, the steps on how to do SEO so you can have a better understanding of what you need to do.   

1. Identify Your Goals  
   What is your site’s main purpose?  Know what you want your site to achieve and plan your course of action.  Map out the road you will take to accomplish your goal.  Knowing and understanding your product well will help you design a good strategy for achieving your goals.
   

2. Determine Your Market 
   Now that you have an understanding of what your goals are, it is now time to determine the market that would help you realize your goals.  Understand that an excellent SEO campaign will be useless to the wrong market.  You must target the right audience for your SEO campaign to be successful. 
   
   Understand that it is not enough that you identify your market.  Take time to understand them as well.  What do they like, how should you approach them and more importantly, what do they need?  Devise a strategy of letting them know how your offer could help their problems.  Find out which sites they visit and where they hang out.   
   
   Forums and other social networking sites are good places to start your market research. 


3. Do Keyword Research 
   Some people think that keyword research is all about creating a list of keywords.  It is not.  It is only the first step.   
   
   You want keywords that will give you a chance to penetrate the top ten rankings of Google.  And more importantly, you want keywords that convert visitors into buyers.  Keywords that convert traffic into income.   
   
   Some keywords may bring a lot of traffic, however, understand that traffic alone does not equal conversion.  Some keywords just do not convert.   
   
   What you should be after are keywords that would convert into sales.  You want visitors to accept your offer.  This is the way to grow your business.  Online success, after all, is not measured by how many people visit your website but rather, is measured by the amount of money your site is bringing in.   
   
   Huge traffic may give you bragging rights but unfortunately, will not be enough to grow your business.  Focus on keywords that convert and watch your online business grow.
   

4. Complete a Competitive Analysis 
   Visit your competitors’ sites and figure out what they are doing.  In this business, it always pays to be on top of the competition.  Analyze their site and run some statistics on them.  Check to see what keywords they are using and know where they are getting their links from. 
   
   There are many tools out there for spying on the competition.  Learn them and use them well.  Spyfu, among others, is a great tool to use for spying on your competitors.   
   
   I have written a separate article on Spying on the Competitor which discusses all these tools and what they can do in detail. 
   
   
5. Run a PPC Campaign 
   Yes, you read that right.  Run a PPC campaign on your keywords.  Right now, you may be thinking, “But what does PPC have to do with SEO?”  Allow me to enlighten you. 
   
   As I have previously discussed above the significance of using keywords that convert, I am sure by now, you are aware of its importance.   
   
   Pay Per Click (PPC) is the tool by which you determine which keywords bring you money.  Do not make the mistake of relying on a survey or data which suggest that your keyword phrase has “96% positive commercial intent.”  This statement will not guarantee conversions. By running PPC on your keywords, you will discover which keywords convert and which ones do not.   
   
   To know which keywords will convert, always test your search traffic against your offer.  Some keywords may bring you huge traffic but provide little to no conversions at all no matter how many changes you make to the landing page.  When this happens, you will find that the offer is usually not the problem.  Rather, you will find that the traffic that the keyword is bringing in is just not “convertible” traffic. 
   
   Briefly, here is what you need to do in your PPC Campaign:  
   
   Go to Adwords and set up a campaign with about 50 keyword phrases.  Ensure that you set the tracking code for these keywords and start driving the traffic.  The results of this campaign will show you which keywords are worth optimizing for. 
   
   You can always differentiate a good keyword from the rest by looking at the number of advertisers for that keyword.  A good keyword is not measured by the cost per click but rather by the number of advertisers.  If there are 30 advertisers for a keyword phrase, you can definitely be sure that someone is making money off it.  And that definitely is a good phrase to test.  
   
   
6. Complete an XML Sitemap for Google 
   People often confuse the sitemap on the site to be the same as the XML sitemap for Google.  This is very different.  This is a free service that Google offers to show you how Google sees your site.   
   
   It shows you which pages Google has difficulty crawling and which pages have errors.  Specifically, it shows you the following:
   

• HTTP errors
• Not Found or 404 errors
• URLs not followed
• URLs restricted by robots.txt
• URLs timed out
• Unreachable URLs 
  

7. Create New Content 
   New content is needed for an SEO campaign to be successful.  New content will encourage the search engines to index your site.  Without new content, Google will not index your page on a regular basis.  We do not want this to happen.   
   
   Sometimes, a few changes may just be needed to allow Google to re-index your page.  Look at your site and read the content.  See if your content needs to be updated.  Also check your title and your description and make the needed changes to improve it.      
   
   In reviewing your content, you should also keep in mind other factors such as title, headings as well as body text. 
   
   Make sure to create a compelling title to encourage people to click.  Shorter titles using the targeted keyword phrase is recommended over long titles.  Note that the position of the keyword phrase in the title does not matter as long as it is there.  To achieve best results, use three to five supporting words along with the keyword phrase and keep within the recommended seven-word title. 
   
   We have found that the use of three Heading 3 tags or three sub headlines has the same effect as Heading 1 without the fallout that usually comes from using a Heading 1.  If you use three Heading 3 tags, it is not recommended to use the keyword phrase in each heading.  What is recommended though, is to make your heading compelling and to use other phrases in your “theme.”  Doing this will let Google know what the theme of your site is.  Be warned that overusing the keyword phrase in headings and other bolded sections is not recommended as this will result to getting a penalty for suspected spam. 
   
   Body text is and has always been essential.  Keep your Keyword Density to 1-2%.  Anything above that will cause your site to drop in the SERPs.  One of the tools we have in the back office (Ultimate SEO Tool) will give you the percentages of your keyword phrases.   
   

8. Participate in Link Exchanges 
   Link exchanges are a good way to get your site known by others.  Search the internet for companies who are in the same business or related businesses.  Ideally, you are looking for companies who can help you further expand your site. 
   
   It is also essential to point out that the most effective link campaigns are done for a sub page, a category page or an article.  Linking to the homepage is just common practice and is not a requirement for a successful linking building campaign.  On the contrary, linking to a sub page allows for the PageRank to flow throughout the site.  This allows for deep crawling and greater spiderability. 
   
   Below are a few tips when doing link exchanges:
   

• Websites usually provide linking instructions on their site.  Always look for these instructions first prior to making a request.   A good place to look is at the footer of the page.  They would usually have a “Link to Us” link which provides the full details. 
  

• It is always a good practice to link to the site first before requesting for one.  This shows courtesy and will often be appreciated by the other site.  If you do not have a links page and have no intention of creating one, you can opt to make a comment on their site in one of your articles with a link pointing to their site.  If you give them a good link placement on your site, you will increase the probability that they will likewise offer you a better placement for your link.
  

• In the event that the site you want to exchange links with does not provide linking instructions on their site, it is recommended that you send them an email.  Use your company domain email and avoid using a free email address.  Aside from the fact that the company address looks more professional, be aware a lot of Webmasters (like me) delete any link request from any free email host.
  

• Keep your links clean and avoid linking to bad neighborhoods.  Make sure that your links are not listed in between Viagra and Casino.  You do not want to be associated with these sites.
  

• Check the cache date of the page you want to exchange links with.  You would like this page to have been indexed within the last 15 days.  Anything over that indicates that a stale page.  More importantly, it indicates that Google is not indexing it on a regular basis. 
  

• Vary your anchor text.  This will ensure that you do not get penalized for over optimization when over 60% of your anchor text are the same.  Look at your analytics for the page you are optimizing for and get four or five other terms which are relevant and can use a slight boost in ranking.
  

9. Complete a Website Analysis 
   Analyze your site and determine what changes have occurred and what else needs to be done.  The Internet Business Promoter (IBP) is a great tool for analyzing your site.  It will show you what is “wrong” on your site in red and will advise you what you need to do to correct it.