Decoding SEO: A Step-by-Step Guide to Ranking Higher Driving Organic Traffic

When the name of a search engine comes to mind, you might immediately think of Google. However, there are other major search engines like Bing and Yahoo where people search for information and receive relevant results. Google is a massive platform, and a vast number of people use it for searching because its algorithms are very strong. You get exactly what you need; the results match your intent. Therefore, Google is the biggest search engine, and we will focus our discussion on it.

When you type a query, for example, “Digital Marketing Course,” you get the first website, the second, and then the third. Google’s algorithms are working behind the scenes. Search engines like Google have billions of websites in their data, and they provide you with relevant results based on your query. This is an entire engine running in the background. You search, you find websites, and you get content relevant to what you typed. If you’re looking for a product to purchase, you get e-commerce websites. If you’re looking for product information, you get informational websites. This entire system, this engine working behind the scenes with its algorithms, is called a search engine.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In simple terms, SEO is a process of optimizing your website according to the policies and standards of Google or any other search engine. This is a complete SEO process. You might create a website, but if you don’t implement SEO, it won’t rank on Google. Later, when you check, you might find that it has no original content, no headings, no images, its load time is very high, or it’s not mobile-friendly. Without these crucial elements, how can it rank? This is where SEO comes in.

When we perform SEO for a website, we consider many factors based on the policies and guidelines Google provides. Google gives us a framework of things to consider when building a website, and only then will you get a rank. If you haven’t reviewed or read these policies, how can you expect Google to rank your website?

SEO is a process with clear guidelines from Google. Google provides extensive documentation, stating, “Do these things within your website, and then we will give you a rank.” If these things haven’t been done, we cannot expect ranking. So, the first step is to perform proper SEO, working on all the aspects we will discuss.

Google Crawlers and Bots

Let’s understand what a Google crawler is. When you create a website—whether a developer built it or a company—Google’s crawler visits it. It might discover your website organically, or you might submit it, share its link on social media, or mention it elsewhere. The Google crawler will then inspect your website to understand what it’s about. It takes a complete snapshot of your entire website and saves it in its data. After that, it assesses whether your website and its content are valuable and relevant. It checks if the keywords you’ve used and the content on your page are suitable for users.

This entire initial process is performed by Google bots. What are bots? Bots are basically programs, automated programs set up by Google’s team. They are designed to take a screenshot of a website, check if it adheres to current guidelines, and then decide whether it should be ranked. Google’s bots are highly efficient, strong, and fast programs that check websites in minutes. They might even check your website 10, 50, or 100 times in a single day. There isn’t a team manually checking your website for proper SEO or original content; it’s all handled by these automated programs.

The Three Pillars of SEO: On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO

When we begin a proper SEO course, three things are very important within SEO. Major SEO experts have divided SEO into three main areas: On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO. We will discuss each of these in detail, starting with On-Page, then Off-Page, and finally Technical.

On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO refers to everything that is implemented directly on your website page itself. This includes your title, description, main content, and images. All these elements are part of your on-page optimization. Think of it as “inside SEO.” Whatever you implement on your page, like your title, description, content, website speed, images, videos, and website structure (including product details and images if it’s an e-commerce site), all of these fall under On-Page SEO. These are the things you structure and build directly within your website.

Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO involves targeting your website from other websites or external platforms. This is what we call “off-site.” We talk about things like backlinks and content marketing on different websites. For example, Google My Business. If I have a website for “Digital Marketing Course in New York, USA,” I create an account on Google My Business, list my business with my website, contact details, and other information. When someone searches on Google, my business listing appears alongside my website.

This provides a link back to my website. Since I added my website to Google My Business and not directly on my own site, this falls under Off-Page SEO. Any implementation done on other websites through backlinks, content marketing, or social media is categorized as Off-Page SEO. We will discuss this in full detail later in the course.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO, as the name suggests, involves the technical aspects of your website. After building your website, you need to define its structure in a way that is user-friendly. This includes ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, so what appears on a desktop also looks good on a mobile device.

Other technical aspects include:

Multilingual Support: If your website is available in both English and another language (e.g., Spanish), you need to specify which version corresponds to which language. For instance, if your website is searched in the USA, the English version appears; if it’s searched in a Spanish-speaking country, the Spanish version appears.

Sitemaps: If your website has thousands of pages, you need to create a sitemap. We will discuss sitemaps in detail later.

Redirections: If you have deleted some old pages or created new ones, you need to manage redirections properly so that old links point to new, relevant pages. All these aspects are covered under Technical SEO.

On-Page SEO Deep Dive

Title Optimization (Meta Title vs. Page Title)
Whenever you search for a keyword on Google, for instance, “Digital Marketing in New York,” you see a list of websites. When you open the first website, the first thing you notice is its title. There are two types of titles on your website: a Meta Title and a Page Title. There’s a difference between them.

The Meta Title is what appears on Google search results for your query.

The Page Title is the title of the article itself once you open the page.

These two can be the same or different. Google doesn’t have a fixed recommendation for title word count or character length. However, SEO experts generally recommend that the length of your title should be around 60 characters. This length ensures that the title appears smoothly and fully on both mobile and desktop screens. If it’s longer, it might get truncated with ellipses (…). If it’s too short (e.g., 10 characters), it won’t look appealing on Google. So, aiming for around 60 characters is ideal.

The Meta Title uses a specific syntax within the tag of your HTML. This tag helps Google understand and define the title of that particular page.

Meta Description

You must have noticed the text that appears below the title in Google search results. This is your Meta Description. It’s basically a brief summary of your page. For example, if I’m selling a “Digital Marketing Course,” I would write a short summary that appears on Google.

The Meta Description also requires a specific HTML tag to be valid. You cannot just write it in plain text. If you have a WordPress website or are working with a developer, you provide them with this description and specify which page it’s for, and they will implement it within the correct tag.

Similar to the title, Google doesn’t have a fixed length for the Meta Description. It can vary, and sometimes Google might even pull a snippet from your page’s content if it better matches a user’s specific query. For example, if your page is about a “Digital Marketing Course” but also contains a paragraph on “What is Digital Marketing,” and a user searches for “What is Digital Marketing,” Google might show that specific paragraph as the description.

However, it’s best practice to define a relevant description for your page. The recommended length for a Meta Description is around 160 characters. Exceeding this limit will result in truncation, while a slightly shorter description is generally acceptable. A proper description is crucial because when we discuss keyword stuffing and placement later, you need to be clear about the optimal lengths for titles and descriptions.

Heading Tags

When you plan to rank a website, you first need a relevant page for your target keyword. For example, if your keyword is “Digital Marketing Course in New York,” you need a page specifically dedicated to that. If you have the keyword “Digital Marketing Course in New York” but your page is “Contact Us” or “About Us,” there’s no relevancy, and it won’t rank.

• Once you have a relevant page, the first thing you use is headings. Google recommends using specific HTML heading tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6).
• The H1 tag is used for the main heading of your page and should only be used once per page.
• H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 tags can be used multiple times depending on the content’s needs and page length.
• Headings are also a place where keywords can be strategically placed (keyword stuffing).

You should have an idea of how headings divide content. For example, an H1 for the main topic, H2s for major sub-sections, and H3s for sub-points within those sections.

Content Optimization

Once headings are clear and selected, the content itself comes into play. Whether it’s a homepage, contact page, about page, or services page, content follows headings.

Imagine a user wants to read about a course. They see a heading, and then a very long paragraph. This will make the user leave the page quickly. Users won’t easily stay. Instead, your content should be structured with:

• Short paragraphs (3-4 lines)
• Checklists
• Icons
• Bullet points
• Lists
• Tables

All these elements make the content readable and engaging. It shouldn’t be a single, long paragraph of 500 or 1000 words. A proper, optimized content piece will use bold and italic text, underline certain words, and incorporate H2 and H3 headings. The goal is to make the content understandable and enjoyable for the user.

When optimizing content, consider the user’s intent. If I’m selling a course and the user is looking to buy, they need a “Buy Now” button. If the button is placed at the very end after a long article, the user might leave and go to another website where a Call to Action (CTA) is visible earlier. So, after optimizing the title, you need to manage your content in such a way that it includes buttons, bullet points, and everything else that makes it engaging for the user, even on mobile devices.

Image Optimization

Images are highly interactive and quickly engage users with your website. When adding images, they need to be optimized for size and should include an Alt Text. This is a specific HTML attribute within the image tag that Google prefers and is considered a best practice for SEO and a ranking factor.

The Alt Text should describe the image and contain your target keyword. For example, if the image is about a “Digital Marketing Course in New York” or “What is Digital Marketing,” your keyword should be included in the Alt Text with proper syntax.

Furthermore, image size matters. Using a 5000×5000 pixel image that takes a long time to load will increase your page’s load time. Therefore, always optimize and compress images to the appropriate size for your website. This gives a positive signal to Google, showing that your page has relevant images, and their Alt Text is optimized with keywords.

Internal and External Links

Let’s discuss Internal and External Links as part of page optimization. You’ve written content, optimized your title, and added images.

Internal Links: These are links within your own website. For example, if you have a page for “Digital Marketing Course” and another page for “Web Development Course,” and your digital marketing content mentions website optimization or web development, you can link the relevant text to your “Web Development Course” page. This signals to Google that you have another related service, and if the user clicks, they land on that page. This helps keep users on your site longer, reduces bounce rate, and builds user trust, showing you offer more than one service.

External Links: These are links from your website to a third-party website, used as a reference. For instance, if you’re writing about “What is SEO” and mention “Google’s 2020 Ranking Factors,” you can add a link for users to click and read the official Google page with full details. SEO experts recommend using external links in your content as good references to boost your page’s authority. These also have specific HTML tags.

URL Structure

The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is very important because when a search query is made, three things appear in the results: your Meta Title, Meta Description, and the URL.

A URL typically includes your website’s name, followed by a slash, and then possibly a category name, product name, or a description of the product. For example, for “Digital Marketing Course in New York,” your URL could be: yourwebsite.com/services/digital-marketing-course-new-york. This simple URL is clear and directly reflects your main keyword.

Bad URL practices include adding extensions like .php, .html, or random page IDs. These are considered bad SEO practices. Your URL should be simple, directly incorporating your primary keyword (e.g., digital-marketing-course-new-york). Avoid adding unnecessary words like “best,” “Pakistan,” “Lahore,” etc., if your target is specific. The URL should match the main keyword of the page.

Keyword Research: Types and Strategy

Whenever SEO is discussed, keywords are the first thing that should come to mind. You must identify the keywords you want to target, and you need a corresponding page for them. If you don’t have keywords, you need to find them.

Types of Keywords

Keywords can be broadly categorized:

• Question Keywords: These are phrases that pose a question, e.g., “What is Digital Marketing?”
• Generic Keywords: Broad terms, e.g., “Digital Marketing Course.”

Long-Tail Keywords: These are longer, more specific phrases, often 3 or more words. For example, “Digital Marketing Course in New York” is a long-tail keyword. It indicates a clear user intent and a physical location.

Short-Tail Keywords: These are very short and broad terms, e.g., “Digital Marketing.” They lack specific intent.

Long-Tail vs. Short-Tail Strategy

It’s often better to start by targeting long-tail keywords. While they might bring less traffic, the traffic you get will be highly qualified and more likely to convert. For example, if you target “Dell Laptop” (a short-tail keyword), you might get a lot of traffic, but the conversion rate could be low because the user’s intent is unclear. They might just be looking for specifications, not to buy.

However, if you target a long-tail keyword like “Buy Dell Laptop in New York”, even if the traffic is lower, the users are actively looking to purchase. Your page can then be optimized with CTAs (Call to Actions) like “Buy Now” buttons, discounts, and sales information, leading to higher conversions.

LSI Keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing)

LSI keywords are those that are semantically related to your main keyword. For example, if your main keyword is “Digital Marketing Course in New York,” related LSI keywords could be “Digital Marketing Course by Google,” “Certified Digital Marketing Companies,” or “Digital Marketing Course in another city like Los Angeles” (if you offer services there).

When performing keyword research (which we will cover in tools later), you will find these relevant LSI keywords. You can also find them by typing your main keyword into Google and looking at the “People also ask” section or related searches at the bottom of the page. Incorporate these LSI keywords into your content to improve its relevancy and ranking potential.

Indexing and Ranking Process

Once your page is built, optimized with content, images, links, and everything is defined, the next step is indexing.

How Indexing Starts:
After creating your page, you need to submit it to Google. There are different ways to do this, such as adding it through Google Search Console or submitting a sitemap.

Once submitted, the indexing process begins. Google’s crawler (bots) will visit your page, take a complete copy (snapshot) of your website, and save it. Then, these bots will check if the keywords you’ve defined in your title, description, content, and images are being fulfilled. If these criteria are met, the process moves towards indexing. Your page then gets indexed, appearing somewhere on Google.

After indexing, ranking begins. Your page might appear on the first page, second page, or third page, and then gradually improve to the first page, and eventually to first, second, third, or fourth position. If you update your content, Google’s crawlers visit your page many times. Even if they don’t, you can request them to re-crawl your updated page. They will take a new copy of your updated content, save it in their index, and when a user searches, they will be shown the latest version of your page.

At this point, we can say that we have completed the On-Page SEO discussion.

OG Tags (Open Graph Tags)

Just like we discussed Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions that appear when you search on Google, Open Graph (OG) Tags are important when you share your page on social media or other platforms. we will discuss how to add and customize this frame on a website, so your social media titles and descriptions are different from those on Google Search Results.

OG tags are part of a proper system with specific codes. I will provide you with the necessary code. For example, you can define what the title, description, and image will be for Facebook. This code is then implemented on your website. When you share the website on social media, the title you defined in the OG tag will appear, not the main title of your website.

All the work we do on-page, like setting the title, content, description, images, and load time, is implemented on our own website. However, when we work on other websites, it is called off-page.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO is also known as Off-Site SEO. As I mentioned, it means working on other websites. Why is this important? Because Google says that when you go to another website and introduce your own website by linking it, it acts as a vote of confidence for your website.

For example, if I am teaching a digital marketing or SEO course, and a big, well-known teacher refers me by saying, “This person is a good teacher, you should learn SEO from them,” that reference adds credibility. Similarly, if you go to a large, authoritative website and add a link to your own, Google will see it as a vote for your site.

In Off-Page SEO, the activity is about going to other websites and getting links back to your own in a natural way. For example, if I have a page on “Digital Marketing Course in New York,” and I find another website that writes about digital marketing agencies, I can add my link there. This creates relevance and shows Google that both pages are related.

Natural Placement of Backlinks

The placement of your link is very important. Let’s say you go to a website like ABC.com and place a link for your “Digital Marketing Course in New York,” but the placement is not optimized. For instance, the anchor text (the clickable text) is something strange, or you just placed it randomly. This is not natural.

A good placement means your main keyword is present in the content, and you link from that keyword. For example, in an article about digital marketing, the words “digital marketing” or “digital marketing course” should be linked to your website. Don’t add a link in an irrelevant place, such as in an article about digital cameras. A proper backlink should be placed naturally within content that is relevant to your page.

DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links

NoFollow Link: When you add your website’s link to another website, and that website has a nofollow attribute on its link, Google’s bot will not follow it. It will read the content on that page but will not move on to your website to crawl it. The only benefit you get from a nofollow link is potential traffic if a user manually clicks on it.

DoFollow Link: When a link has a dofollow attribute (or no attribute at all), the Google crawler will follow it. It will read the entire page, and when it finds your link, it will move directly to your website. The bot will crawl and index your page, which can give your website a ranking boost. This is especially beneficial if the backlink comes from a website with a high Domain Authority.

This is the code for a basic hyperlink. The URL is placed between the inverted commas. When you click on the text that says “Visit Whools.com,” you are taken to the new page.

This code is the same, but it includes an added attribute rel=”nofollow”. This tells the Google bot not to follow the link, even though a user can still click it.

You can check if a link is dofollow or nofollow in a couple of ways. You can inspect the page’s HTML code to see if the nofollow attribute is present. A simpler method is to use a browser extension that highlights these links. It’s a good practice to check this when building backlinks.

Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA)

Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are metrics introduced by Moz. They were created because there was no tool available to check a page’s value or authority.

Domain Authority (DA): This is a score from 1 to 100 that represents the authority of the entire domain (e.g., ABC.com). If a domain has a DA of 20, it means it’s 20 out of 100.

Page Authority (PA): This is the authority score of a specific page within that domain (e.g., ABC.com/digital-marketing-course-in-new-york). Each page has its own PA, but all pages on the same domain share the same DA.

Backlink Creation Methods

There are many ways to build backlinks, including:

• Guest Posting
• Blog commenting
• Image submission
• PDF submission
• Infographic submission
• Creating a profile on a forum or website

Participating in Question & Answer forums

Image Submission Backlinks

Image submission is a popular method. You can search for “image submission websites” and find a long list. For example, on a website like 500px.com, you can create an account and upload an image.

When uploading an image, you need to provide a title, description, location, and category. It’s crucial to provide a proper, relevant title and a good description. The location can be set to New York, USA.

In the description, you can embed your backlink. To do this, you will need to use a specific syntax: Anchor Text. Copy your website’s URL and place it in the URL section. Then, use your main keyword for the anchor text. This way, when a user clicks, they will be taken to your website.

Infographic Backlinks

Infographics are creative images that contain a lot of information. They are highly engaging and provide value to the user. For example, you can create an infographic that outlines your entire course, with a few headings and creative visuals.

Websites like Pinterest are great for sharing infographics. If you create a valuable infographic and share it on a platform like Pinterest, you can get a beneficial backlink from a high-authority site.

You can create infographics using tools like Canva. Once you create a high-quality infographic, you can submit it to various infographic submission websites. Some websites might take a while to publish your infographic, but it’s a great way to get a valuable backlink.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords to target. We will discuss which tools to use and how to avoid common mistakes.

1. Semrush

Semrush is a very useful tool, available in both free and paid versions. It’s a great tool for analyzing websites and finding keywords.

Keyword Overview: In the Semrush dashboard, you can click on “Keyword Overview” and enter a keyword, like “Digital Marketing Course.” You can select a country, and it will give you a full report.

Volume: This shows the average number of searches per month for that keyword.

Keyword Difficulty: This score from 1 to 100 indicates how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword. A score of 76% is difficult, while a score of 30% or less is easier.

Keyword Variations: The tool also provides many related keywords and questions, which are great for your content and FAQs.

2. Ahrefs Keyword Generator:

Ahrefs also has a free tool called “Keyword Generator.” You can enter a keyword, select a country, and it will give you a list of related keywords and questions. This is a great way to find keywords for free.

3. Google Keyword Planner:

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool available through your Google Ads account. It helps you find keywords and get a good idea of their search volume.

Competitor Analysis

Analyzing your competitors is crucial for a strong SEO strategy.

Competitor Domain Overview: In Semrush, you can enter a competitor’s domain, and it will give you an overview of their website. You can see their Authority Score, organic traffic, and backlink count.

Organic Keywords: You can get a list of all the keywords your competitor is ranking for. This helps you find new content ideas and identify which keywords are working best for them.

Backlink Analysis: You can analyze your competitor’s backlinks to see where they are getting links from. This can help you find new opportunities to build your own backlinks.

So, these are all the methods through which you can improve your SEO. All these methods are working. If you want, you can bring a lot of traffic to your blog or site and get it ranked. If you run an e-commerce, then you can grow your business. If you do dropshipping, even then you can grow your business. Here you can also generate sales.