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Table of content

1. We are starting 3
1.1 Site niche. 3
1.2 Domain name 4
1.3 Where to host your site? 5
1.3.1 Shared hosting 6
1.3.2 VPS/Dedicated Hosting 7
1.3.3 Special Providers 9
1.3.4 WordPress-specific hosting 11
1.4 How to build your site 12
1.4.1 WordPress 13
1.4.2 WYSIWYG Site builders 15
1.4.3 Static site generators 16
2. Keyword research 17
2.1 What is keyword research? 17
2.2 Keyword research basics. 18
2.2.1 Google keyword planner 20
2.2.2 Additional tips for keyword research 26
2.3 Reverse engineer your competitors 32

3. On-page SEO 36
3.1 Basics 36
3.2 How to structure the site navigation. 38
3.3 How to structure the content/article. 39
3.4 Images and graphics 41
3.5 Structured data 42
3.6 Additional requirements 43
3.6.1 Open Graph tags 43
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4. Off-page SEO 45
4.1 Link building 45
4.1.1 Reciprocal link exchange 46
4.1.2 Guest posting 47
4.1.3 Link building with side projects 48
4.1.4 Leveraging Dev.to, Medium, Hashnode 48
4.2 Content marketing 50
4.2.1 Build your brand 50
4.2.2 Social media 50
4.2.3 Leveraging Quora, Forums, Reddit 51
5. Site Speed Optimization 52
5.1 Use CDN 53
5.2 Optimize Images 54
5.3 Minimize and reduce the number of Javascript and CSS files. 56
5.4 Use website caching 57
5.5 Prefetching techniques 58
5.6 You need to consider this... 59
7. Side projects for SEO. 61
7.1 How to choose a niche for a side project 61
7.2 How to structure links 62
8. Monetize 64
8.1 Ads. 66
8.1.1 Google Adsense 66
8.1.2 Ezoic 67
9. Resources 68
9.1 Backlinks and keywords 68
9.2 Official Webmaster tools 68
9.3 Page Speed test tools 69
9.4 Youtube channels 69
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1. We are starting

1.1 Site niche.

If you're looking to create a new website, one of the first things you'll need
to do is choose a niche. A niche is a specific topic or area of interest that
you'll focus on. For example, you could create a website about pet care,
DIY projects, or travel.

What to consider when you’re choosing your niche?

● Choosing a niche you’re passionate about and experienced with is

essential. Otherwise, you won't be able to write high-quality content.
● It’s good if this it’s a high-paying one. It is essential if you want to
monetize your content with ads.

Before starting with the keyword research, you must have your site niche
selected.
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1.2 Domain name

Years ago, choosing a good domain name was one of the most critical
ranking factors. Having keywords in the domain name was necessary.

The tactic of registering an exact match domain name was used a lot. This
technique was used a lot to build small niche sites with 20 - 50 articles
around a specific topic.

Not anymore. Even more, it’s penalized by Google. Avoid registering

domain names like: howtofixcomputer.com. Instead, try to use your
keyword with some common words in the domain name.

A good technique is to use prefixes and suffixes with the common word.
For example, if your website is about “dog food,” you can use something
like “dogfoodland.com” or “mydogfood.com”

You can use Domain Name Generator to generate your domain name.

Keep in mind that your domain name should represent the content on your
site. So if you are not sure if you’ll stay within the current niche, I would
suggest going with a broad domain name.

The good option here is to use some domain name that basically means
nothing (e.g. twicate). This technique is used a lot recently because almost
all good names are already registered.

When it comes to extension, always try to get “com” if possible. You can try
net, co, io if com is already registered.

Try to avoid “xyz” as spammy websites use it because it’s cheap for the
first year.
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1.3 Where to host your site?

Site hosting can be a determining factor in site load speed. So be careful

here. There are many hosting possibilities you can use today. Let’s mention
some and their cons and pros.
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1.3.1 Shared hosting
Shared hosting is a type of web hosting in which multiple websites share
the server’s resources.

Pros:
- It’s cheap. You can get one for as less as $3/month

- It usually contains a control panel that makes your life much easier.

- A good option for small businesses or personal websites that do not

need a lot of resources.

- It is convenient because you do not have to worry about maintaining

your server

Cons:
- If you want complete control over your server environment, it's not
your option.

- You are sharing resources with other users on the server, leading to
slower performance and stability issues.

- It can be less secure than other types of hosting since you are
sharing resources with other users on the server.
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1.3.2 VPS/Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an
entire server not shared with anyone. It is more flexible than shared
hosting, as organizations have complete control over the server(s),
including operating system, hardware, etc.

The hosting company can usually provide server administration as an

add-on service. In some cases, a dedicated server can offer less overhead
and a more significant return on investment.

Pros:
- Dedicated hosting servers are not shared with any other customer,
meaning that the performance of your website will not be affected by
the traffic or activity of other websites.

- Since your website is the only one on the server, you have complete
control over the security of your site. In addition, dedicated hosting
providers typically offer more robust security features than shared
hosting providers.

- Greater Flexibility. You have complete control over the

VPS/Dedicated server. It means you can install anything you want.
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Cons:

- Higher cost: The most significant disadvantage of dedicated hosting

is the cost. A dedicated server will typically cost significantly more
than a shared hosting plan.

- Requires more technical knowledge. Dedicated hosting also requires

a certain level of technical expertise. If you’re not comfortable
managing a server, you may want to consider a managed hosting
plan.
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1.3.3 Special Providers

This section contains unique providers like Netlify, Vercel, Render, etc.

Netlify is a cloud-based, all-in-one platform that enables developers to

deploy and manage modern web projects.

From simple static sites to complex serverless applications, Netlify provides

a streamlined workflow for building, deploying, and managing web projects
of all types.

These platforms are well suited for websites generated by static site
generators. They offer some backend functionality, though.

Pros:

- Continuous deployment: Netlify automatically deploys your changes

as you make them, so you can see your changes live as you work.

- Great free plan. Even with a free plan, you can host your website with
significant monthly traffic (Netlify offers 200GB/Month bandwidth for
free).

- Plugins. Netlify offers a wide range of useful plugins you can execute
during the deployment process.
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Cons:

- You don’t have complete control over the environment. If you want to
run cron jobs or make some unique customizations, you can’t do that.

- You’re limited in what you can host on the platform. If you built your
site in PHP, you can’t host it there.

If you are not a web developer or technically skilled enough, this

option may not be for you.
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1.3.4 WordPress-specific hosting

WordPress requires a specific hosting provider if you want your site to load
fast.

Most of the hosting providers use Apache as a web server that uses many
resources and is much slower, especially for many concurrent connections.

Dedicated WordPress hosting providers usually use NGINX or Litespeed

web servers. Both are much faster than Apache.

They also typically use unique caching infrastructure.

Here are a few suggestions for WordPress hosting providers:

1. Kinsta

2. SiteGround

3. Flywheel

4. BlueHost

Please remember that most use page view limitations for their hosting
packages. Basic hosting packages usually allow you to have 10K
visits/monthly.
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1.4 How to build your site

Google has announced that SSL is a ranking factor in their search

algorithm. Websites with an SSL certificate will rank higher in Google
search results than those without one. Be sure to have an SSL certificate
installed for your site.

Most shared hosting providers will do this for you and providers like Netlify
and Vercel.

If you use VPS or a dedicated server and run Linux, you can use Certbot.

It will install a free SSL certificate provided by “Let’s encrypt” for you and
renew the certificate every 90 days.

There are many tools you can use to build your website/blog. Let’s mention
some options here.
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1.4.1 WordPress

The most popular one is WordPress.

If you want to use WordPress, I suggest one of the providers I mentioned

here. Those hosting providers offer one-click WordPress install, so you
don’t have to deal with database configuration and stuff like that.

After you install your WordPress site, you should install some essential
WordPress plugins to help you increase the speed of your site and optimize
it for SEO.

Here are my recommendations:

- Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a plugin for WordPress that helps you optimize your website
for search engines. It includes features like keyword research, sitemaps,
and title and meta tags. Yoast SEO is a great way to improve your
website's visibility and get more traffic.

- WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a WordPress caching plugin designed to improve WordPress

websites' performance. Although it’s a premium plugin, I highly recommend
you buy it as it significantly changes your WP load speed.
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- W3 Total Cache

WP Total Cache is a powerful caching plugin for WordPress. It speeds up

your website by caching static files and eliminating the need to send
requests to the server for each page load. It can significantly improve your
website's performance and reduce its loading time.

- Smush

Smush is a WordPress plugin that helps optimize your images for faster
loading times. It automatically compresses your images so that they take
up less space, and it also helps you lazy load your images so that they only
load when they're visible on the screen.

For your theme, use a lightweight one.

Theme Page size Requests Load time

GeneratePress 696 KB 24 1.3 sec

Astra 833 KB 52 1.3 sec

Hello Elementor 475 KB 37 0.8 sec

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1.4.2 WYSIWYG Site builders

WYSIWYG is an acronym for "What You See Is What You Get." It is a type
of editing software that allows you to see what your final document will look
like while working on it.

A site builder is a platform that allows users to create a website without any
coding knowledge. It is a drag-and-drop tool that makes it easy to add
content, images, and other elements to a website.

Here are a few examples of popular site builders.

● Wix
● Weebly
● Squarespace
● Shopify (for e-commerce)
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1.4.3 Static site generators

A static site generator is a software that takes content, templates, and other
assets and generates an entirely static website. It contrasts with a dynamic
site, which relies on server-side code to generate content on the fly.

There are many different static site generators available, each with
advantages and disadvantages. Some of the most popular static site
generators are Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, NextJS and NuxtJS.

One of the advantages of using a static site generator is that it can be

much faster than a traditional dynamic website. This is because the content
is generated once and then served as a static page, so there is no need to
query a database or run any server-side code.

It can make your website much snappier and more responsive, especially if
you have a lot of content. Another advantage is that static sites are much
easier to scale than dynamic ones since you can simply add new pages,
regenerate and reupload.

Please read my thoughts here.

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2. Keyword research

2.1 What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and selecting keywords that are
relevant to your business or website. Keywords are the terms that people
use when searching for information on the internet.

We are basically talking about words people are typing into the Google
search bar.
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2.2 Keyword research basics.

Our goal is to find keywords with high search volume and low
competition.

🚨 CAUTION: Do not target keywords that do not comply with Google

guidelines. A good example is: “Download Youtube videos”.
Google won’t allow you to run Google Adsense on such a page as well as
your page or entire site may be penalized.

Before starting the keyword research, I suggest you create a Google sheet
with the following structure:

We have the following columns:

● Keyword
● Search volume
● Position 1 - Position 10
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Keyword - this column will contain keywords we would like to target

Search volume - number of searches/month

Position 1 - Position 10 - Here we will enter information about the site

that we will find at the specific position in the Google search engine results
page (SERP).
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2.2.1 Google keyword planner

To find search volume, we will use Google keyword planner.

Click Tools and Settings > Keyword Planner.

You may need to create a campaign to see the “Discover new keywords”
button. You don’t have to run the campaign, though.
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Enter location settings and choose USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.
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Enter keywords you want to analyze. If you're targeting high-paying

keywords, you can use filters for “competition” column.

Sort them by Avg. Monthly searches. We’ll try to target keywords with at
least 100 monthly searches.

In some cases, I prefer at least 1K monthly searches/month. Your article

will usually rank for more than one keyword. Even you’ll target just one
specific.

Use this method and add all your discovered keywords to the Google sheet
you just created with the name of the keyword and the monthly traffic.
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Now go to Google and search for that keyword. For every listed page on
the search results page, you’ll have to check what kind of site is listed on
the position and its Domain rank, keyword relevance, and article quality.

To get the domain rank, you will use Website Authority Checker.

Another option is to install keywords everywhere Chrome extension. This

extension shows domain authority from Moz, another service similar to
Ahrefs.

Keep in mind that both services will show slightly different numbers.
Website authority checker by Ahrefs is more accurate. On the other side,
“Keywords everywhere” shows results directly in your browser, so you don’t
have to check every single site one by one.

If the domain rank is above 50, it’s pretty problematic to over-rank it. You
should also check if the site on the position is a blog/forum or a
well-established brand.
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We’ll use this information and put colored information in our sheet columns
Position 1 - Position 10 based on our research.

Let’s explain:

1. Easy to rank if the site on the search engine listing position domain rank
is below 30 and it’s a blog or forum or another low authority site.

2. Harder to rank if the site on the position has a domain rank of 30 - 70

and it’s still a blog or forum.

3. Very hard to outrank if the site on the position domain authority is above
70 or it’s a high authority site.

The second thing to check is if the site in the listing uses the exact search
term in the title.

● ET - means the title is different from the search term/keyword

● ET - means the title is the exact same as the search term/keyword

The last thing we will check is the length of the content. How many words
are included in the article.

● 1K - means an article has less than 1,000 words

● 1K - means an article has more than 1,000 words
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The picture below shows what your google sheet will look like.

Note: The numbers/colors are just an example and they’re fictive.

As you can see the more columns with green background and green text
we see for a keyword the better.

So our goal is to select keywords where we can find a lot of “green” colors
in the row (cell background and text color).
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2.2.2 Additional tips for keyword research

If you scroll down the page, you will notice a “related searches” box that
contains the most popular searches related to the keyword you just
searched for.

You can use this list as a source of other keyword ideas.

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Another great source of keywords is a “People also ask” box.
The following picture shows related questions people ask about the
“backlinks” keyword.

You can answer these questions in the same article or answer them in a
separate one.
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The following pictures explain a few other techniques you can use to get
additional keyword ideas.

If you click at the beginning of the search term, Google will prepend
different keywords to your search term.
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Same works if you click in the middle of the search term.
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If you want to get even more ideas you can use the trick when you enter
the first letter after the search term.

Google will show you the most popular search terms starting with that
letter.
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Answer the public is another great site where you can get a ton of
informational keywords. Keywords starting with “who”, “how”, “where” and
many more.

They will generate tons of ideas for articles you can write about the topic.
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2.3 Reverse engineer your competitors

This technique on its own can be super helpful to find some hidden
keywords and outrank the competitor.

I’ll mention a few tools you can use to spy on your competitors.

Ubersuggest.

Go to ubersuggest.com, enter your competitor's domain name, and click

“Search”

You will get a list of keywords for the domain, with the monthly search
volume and average position on Google.
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Click the button as shown below.

It will show you a detailed list (20 keywords for free) for each keyword,
including SEO difficulty. Try to target keywords marked green or those with
SEO difficulty below 30.

It will also show you the competitor's page. You can simply visit it and do
some additional investigation.
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1. How long is the content on the page?

2. What type of structure are they using?
3. Is there a table of content?
4. What’s the title tag and description?
5. What are the H1 and additional H tags (H2, H3)?
6. Are they using images? If so, how many and what kind
7. Are they using video content?

The next step is to check the backlinks for the page. Go to Free Backlink
Checker by Ahrefs and check for backlinks.

Is it possible to replicate some of them? Maybe you’ll find some guest

posting possibility. Or they are using some public sites/directories where
you can also submit your URL.

In some cases, you won’t be able to outrank the competitor for specific
keywords. Even your will content will be much better. In this case, I suggest
you try alternative long-tail keywords similar to the ones you found on the
competitors’ web site.
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Keyword tool

This one is a hidden gem. It will show you Rank, Search volume, CPC and
Competition.

You can use the same technique I mentioned above.

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3. On-page SEO

3.1 Basics
According to recent studies, the average word count of the web pages
listed on the first page of Google search results is around 1,200. It means
the days when it was OK to write 200 words long articles are gone.
Google now prefers more in-depth and high-quality articles.
To understand how Google can measure this and decide on what’s good
and what isn’t, let’s explain how the process works.

Years ago, the only signal for Google to measure the quality of the content
was the number of backlinks the page had from other websites.

Not anymore. Google is much more sophisticated now. So how does it

work?

Google uses its chrome browser and other services like Google Analytics
to collect information about the behavior of the users.

So when you search for something and click the first result, Google will
check how much time you spent on the target site and if you came back to
search and clicked on another link.

If so, this is the signal for Google that you didn’t find the required
information on the first site.
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If enough people do this, Google may resort sites for this search in the next
few days. So the site on position #1 will become #2, and #2 will jump to
position #1.

I mentioned that Google measures the bounce rate and time you spend on
the page.

Google is sophisticated enough to categorize pages/sites and evaluate

them differently. For instance, solution-based sites like Stackoverflow have
a pretty big bounce rate of over 90%. It’s because people come, find the
solution and leave.
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3.2 How to structure the site navigation.

The structure of your site is essential. It’s critical for your visitors, Google,
and other search engines.

What does it mean? The deepest pages on your site should be accessible
with no more than four clicks from the site's root. It makes your site easily
accessible for your users and easier to crawl for Google.

💡Tip: Use breadcrumbs on the top of the page below the navigation. It will
make your site even more accessible and easier to navigate.
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3.3 How to structure the content/article.

To make your content user-friendly and Google-friendly, there are a few

rules you have to follow.

1. Use one H1 tag on your page

2. H1 must contain the main keywords you’re targeting in the
article.
3. Title tag should contain your main keywords. Google uses both
H1 and Title tags to identify what your page is about.
4. You don’t have to use keywords meta tag as it is completely
ignored by Google
5. The same applies to the description meta tag. But this one may,
in some cases, be used by Google.
6. Follow the “capitalizations rule.” for titles. Always capitalize the
first word and all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs.
7. The first paragraph must contain the main keywords in the first
100 words.
8. Use H2 and H3 tags to structure your content
9. Use a table of content if applicable (e.g., for listicles)
10. Use custom images instead of royalty-free images.
11. Use video on the page. It can be even an embedded
Youtube video. Google likes if you promote its services.
12. Use styling like bold/underlined content to emphasize
keywords.
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13. Don’t do “keyword stuffing.” It means your article should be
natural. If you write about “dog food,” you don't want every fifth
word to be dog or food.
14. Use numbered H2 tags for listicles. With this tactic, the page
may end up in Google as a featured snippet with all titles listed.
15. Don’t use long URLs. For instance, instead of using
“best-online-seo-tools-to-boost-your-ranking-in-2022.html” use
‘best-seo-tool.html’

💡Tip: If your article title is: Best SEO Tools to use in 2022, use a URL like
best-seo-tools.html. Why? Because you may need to upload this article
several times and change the title. It will contain “2023” next year. So, in
this case, you would also need to change your URL. It would lead to a
broken URL for sites that link back to your page.

💡Tip: If you’re using a table of contents in the right panel on the page,
make it sticky so users will always see it when they scroll. It’s a significant
benefit for your visitors as they can find the necessary information sooner.
You want them to find what they want, right?
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3.4 Images and graphics

1. Always use the “ALT” tag for the images. It should describe what the
image is about.
2. Use descriptive file names for images. Instead of using
IMAGE001.png, use black-spider.png.
3. Use the “Title” tag. This one is used when you hover over an image. It
will be displayed in a small tooltip.
4. Optimize images for size. Always scale images to the proper size. If
your image will be max. 500px in width on desktop don’t use images
1000px. I will talk more on this topic here.

When you’ve optimized your images, you can test your page with tools like
Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, WebPageTest.org, or Pingdom.
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3.5 Structured data

According to Google, structured data is "a standardized format for providing

information about a page and classifying the page content." In other words,
it is a way to label and organize your website's content so that Google (and
other search engines) can understand it better.

Google offers a Structured Data Markup Helper tool, allowing you to easily
add structured data to your web pages. Simply select the type of content
you want to mark up, then enter the URL.
If you add structured data information to your site, your site may appear on
the search engine results page with a rich snippet. It may boost the CTR for
your page.
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3.6 Additional requirements

3.6.1 Open Graph tags

Open Graph tags are HTML tags that allow developers to control how their
pages are represented when shared on social media. They were originally
created by Facebook but are now used by many different social media
platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Open Graph tags are used to integrate your website with Facebook,
Google+, or other social networking sites. When you add open graph tags
to your website, you can control how your website appears when it is
shared on social media.

For example, you can use open graph tags to specify the title, description,
and image that will be used when your website is shared on Facebook.

Here is the example:

<meta property="og:title" content="How to use open graph" />

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Here are the most used ones:

1. title - The title of your article or website

2. type - The type of your content, typically a website or article
3. url - The canonical URL of your article or website
4. image - A preview image for your article or website
5. description - A brief description of your article or website

To get more information about open graph tags, click here.

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4. Off-page SEO

4.1 Link building

Link building is the process of creating inbound links to a website with the
goal of improving search engine rankings.

Link building is crucial. It’s necessary if you want to grow and keep the
stability of your ranking.

Methods:

Reciprocal link exchange

Guest posting
Link building by doing side projects
Social media
Leveraging Quora, Forums, Reddit
Leveraging Dev.to, Medium, Hashnode
GitHub
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4.1.1 Reciprocal link exchange

A reciprocal link exchange is an agreement between two website owners to

link to each other's sites. This is a way to get links from websites related to
your own and can be a valuable part of your link-building strategy. To do a
reciprocal link exchange, you simply need to find a website that you want to
link to and then contact the owner to let them know that you would like to
do a link exchange.

This method was very popular years ago. It’s less used now. If you have a
friend with a website, you can ask him for a reciprocal link exchange.

🚨 Only use this method if your and your friend’s website is on the same
topic. Don’t mix apples with pears.

Reciprocal link exchange can be an excellent method if you’re running your

side projects. You can simply link between websites if they’re on the same
topic.
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4.1.2 Guest posting

If you’re running a blog, guest posting may be a good opportunity for you to
gain backlinks.

The process looks like this:

1. Make sure your blog is high quality and relevant to your niche.

2. Find guest posting opportunities by searching for blogs that accept guest
posts in your niche.

3. Reach out to the blog owner and pitch them your idea for a guest post.
Behind the link above you can find the best outreach templates including
suggested subject lines.

4. If your guest post is accepted, be sure to follow the blog's guidelines.

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4.1.3 Link building with side projects

Link building by doing side projects can be a very effective technique. It’s
because you can promote every side project separately, and they can get a
lot of backlinks. You can then push the link juice to your main project.

I did over 200 side projects in my career. Not all of them were published,
though. But for those that I published, I tried to promote them, as you can
see on my ProductHunt profile page.

Some of these projects receive over 50K visitors/month. You can link to
your main project from various places. I mostly link back from the footer,
but if there is a lot of content written, it’s better to link back from the content
with relevant keywords.

I wrote more on this topic in a separate chapter.

4.1.4 Leveraging Dev.to, Medium, Hashnode

If you’re a developer, you can write articles on Dev.to and Hashnode and
link back to your main site. Both platforms allow do-follow links and can
push some link juice back to your site.

On Medium, you can write about pretty much everything. Unfortunately,

Medium uses no-follow backlinks. They won’t help you with search engine
rank.

Still, you can get some decent traffic if your article will get traction. I do not
use this method myself, though.
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💡 Tip: Use in-content links with relevant keywords in the text. So for
instance, if you want to link to your blog/web page that's about “best SEO
tools” and this is the keyword you are targeting try to use the same
keyword linked to your article on one of the sites above.

4.1.5 GitHub

If you’re doing open-source projects, this can be a great way to get

backlinks to your content.

Github allows you to use one do-follow backlink in the right pane and point
wherever you want.
Usually, developers point to the home page of the project.

The domain rank of GitHub is high, so this would help a lot.

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4.2 Content marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating

and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and
retain a clearly-defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable
customer action.

4.2.1 Build your brand

If your business is branded that's a good opportunity for you. You can do
link building and content marketing and target your brand name.

You can also attend podcasts or events.

Easily check how you’re doing with your brand by checking Google Trends.
Just simply enter your brand name and search.

4.2.2 Social media

If you’re active on social media, leverage it. Share your articles with others.
It is an excellent way to spread the word, and some of your followers may
even link back to your content.

You can share your content on other social media platforms like Facebook,
Pinterest, or Instagram.
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Please remember that sharing on these platforms is usually followed by a
short-term spike in direct traffic. In the long term, it doesn’t help much. But
you may get a backlink, and that’s important to mention.

4.2.3 Leveraging Quora, Forums, Reddit

Quora, Forums, and Reddit can be an excellent opportunity for you to get
backlinks.

Go to Quora and search for questions relevant to your content. Write a

helpful answer and include a link back to your content.

Please keep in mind that most of the sites use no-follow links. They won’t
push any link juice to your site and won’t improve your SEO rank. They still
can help you to build backlinks. How?

People may notice your answer and write a blog post about it or mention it
in blog comments and include your link there. Awareness can help you in
long term.

The same technique you can use on Forums and Reddit.

💡 Tip: Before posting anything on Reddit, always check the rules for the
specific subreddit. All subreddits have their own rules and moderators. If
you are not sure about something, contact the moderators by DMs.
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5. Site Speed Optimization

Your page load speed is a Google ranking factor. Try to keep your page
load in under 2 seconds. It includes all resources used by your web page,
including those loaded from 3rd party domains like Google Analytics.

Let’s talk about how to optimize your site speed.

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5.1 Use CDN

A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers

(network) that deliver pages and other Web content to a user based on the
geographic locations of the user, the origin of the webpage, and the content
delivery server.

Probably the most popular and free one is Cloudflare.

Cloudflare allows you to serve static resources of your site from their CDN
for free. Their network is robust and well organized, with many edge
servers worldwide. Cloudflare also provides you with a free SSL certificate,
so you don’t have to care about it.
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5.2 Optimize Images

Almost all website contains images. Images and videos are usually the
most extensive resources used on your web pages.

To make your site load faster, you have to optimize them. It means you
have to use proper resources for specific needs. Here is how:

For photos and images, use JPEG format.

The JPEG format is a lossy compression format for digital images. It is

commonly used for storing and transmitting photos and other images on
the web. JPEG files are typically much smaller than other image file
formats, such as TIFF or PNG.

For images that use fewer colors or require transparency, use PNG format.

The PNG format is a lossless compression format for images. This means
that the image quality is not reduced when the image is compressed.
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For icons, use SVG format.

The SVG format is a vector graphic format widely used on the web. The
most significant advantage is that it is small, and you can scale it up and
down without using the image quality.

For image optimization, you can use desktop software like ImageOptim or
JPEGmini. If you’re running your site on WordPress, you can use many
plugins like TinyPNG.
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5.3 Minimize and reduce the number of Javascript and CSS
files.

If your website has a lot of JavaScript and CSS files, it can slow down its
performance. Try to group all JavaScript into one and do so with all CSS
files. It will reduce the overall number of HTTP requests. There are a lot of
tools to minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files quickly. If you’re using
Webpack or other bundlers, they’ll take care of this step.
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5.4 Use website caching

If many users are accessing a page simultaneously, it can slow down

servers, and they may take longer to deliver the web page to each user.

Caching is a way of storing the current version of your website on the

server and presenting this version until your website is updated. It
means that the web page doesn’t need to be rendered repeatedly for
each user.

Cached web pages don’t need to send database requests each time
they are accessed.

Using WordPress, you can use plugins like W3 Total Cache or W3

Super Cache.
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5.5 Prefetching techniques

Prefetching, also known as DNS prefetching, is a process that can

help reduce the latency associated with DNS resolution. By resolving
a site's IP address before a visitor clicks its link, prefetching can
enhance your site's user experience (UX).

On the other side, there is link prefetching and content prerendering

when the entire page gets preloaded in the background. Let’s talk
about this a bit.
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5.6 You need to consider this...

People have recently used all the fancy technologies to run their sites
like NextJS. Gatsby and NuxtJS. All of them are optimized for fast
load. Here is the “but!”

There are factors people do not consider when using these static site
generators. If your bounce rate is high (like 80%). It means that almost
all users visit just one page. Read it and then leave.

Both NextJS and NuxtJs use Javascript extensively to “preload” other

pages. So every user will load tons of unnecessary code. It is why I
mostly suggest using static site generators like Astro.

Astro reduces the excessive number of javascript code and allows you
to use your preferred Javascript framework like React, VueJs, or
Svelte to create page components.

You’ll be surprised with the Page Speed Score you’ll get in Google
Page Insights.
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Below you can see the page speed report for my web page created in
Astro https://consulting.csabakissi.com/
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7. Side projects for SEO.

As an SEO guy, you are always looking for new ways to boost your SEO
ranking. A side project can be a great way to do this.

By marketing your side project, you can reach a whole new group of people
who may be interested in what you have to offer. At the same time, you can
use your side project to push link juice to your main project and increase its
domain rank over time.

7.1 How to choose a niche for a side project

Your side projects should be related to your main project. For example, if
you have a site about weight loss, your side project can be a small
weight/calories calculator, diet plan, or anything related to weight loss.

Here, the goal is to create something that can be your “link magnet.”
Something that people will like to link to.
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7.2 How to structure links

You can place this side project on its domain or your main project's domain
or subdomain.

If you want more people to link to your primary domain, go with the
following option. In this case, side projects are under the same domain as
your main project.
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If you want to make a small network of side projects that will link to your
primary domain, go with the following...

It’s good to cross-link your side projects, but only if they’re, on the same
topic. So for the image above, you can link from side project #1 to side
project #3 and from side project #2 to side project #1. It’s totally OK as
they’re all related to your main project and are on the same topic.
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8. Monetize
You want to monetize your effort, right? Let’s see the options.

- Display ads

This is one of the easiest ways to monetize your site/blog. You can sell ad
space directly, or you can use networks.

Selling the ad space directly requires a lot of effort unless your site is very
popular. I would recommend picking up one of the ad networks. These
usually pay you ad clicks.

The revenue per click varies based on the visitor's country and the
advertiser (US traffic pays about 10x more than IN traffic).

It can also be highly dependent on your niche. For instance, if you have a
site about finances, you will get much more per click than if your site niche
is related to free stuff like open-source software.

- Consulting

If you have good expertise in any field, you can offer paid consultations.

I don’t like this type of monetization because it’s hard to scale. However, if
you’re an influential person, consulting can be one of the best types of
monetization for you.
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- Affiliate marketing

With affiliate marketing, you can earn decent money, especially if your site
is product-oriented. If you’re doing a product review and include an affiliate
link at the end of the article to buy the product, there is a high chance you
will get a decent revenue.

💡Tip: I suggest you search for offers with recurring revenue models. This
way, you will get paid every month while the customer is subscribed for the
product/service.

There are many affiliate sites like Affiliates - ClickBank.

- Sell digital products

Info product is another way to monetize your site. You can write an ebook
or create a software-related product (app, templates) if you’re a
programmer.

You can also sell Canva/Notion templates or photos.

As a payment processor, I suggest

● Gumroad
● Paddle
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8.1 Ads.
It's one of the easiest methods you can use to monetize your blog.

There are a few Ad networks you can join:

8.1.1 Google Adsense

It’s probably the easiest ad platform you can join. There is no traffic
requirement. You can start monetizing your site even with 1K monthly
pageviews.

Please carefully read the terms and conditions before you apply.

Google doesn’t allow you to run ads on certain types of pages which
violates the terms of their other products. For instance, if you have a page
where you talk about “youtube downloader,” you can’t run ads there.

If your site’s traffic is mainly from the US, CA, and the UK, your CPM (cost
per thousand page views) can be around $10. If not, your CPM may be
below $1 (traffic from Asia).
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8.1.2 Ezoic

Ezoic is a certified Google partner. They use AI and deep analysis to

optimize your ad placement for the best revenue.

It can take a few weeks before you start to see the differences. According
to various sources, Ezoic pays much better than Google Adsense.

You’ll have to change your name servers to theirs for the best results. For
some non-technical users, it can be pretty difficult.

On the other hand, they have a chrome extension that can help you define
your ad placements.
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9. Resources

9.1 Backlinks and keywords

Free backlink checker - backlink checker, 100 backlinks + total

Free Backlink Checker by Ahrefs - top 100 backlinks + referring domains
Free Keyword Generator Tool - find keyword ideas
SimilarWeb - Get traffic details for websites
Keyword-Tools.org - Identify keywords of your competitors
Free Keyword Tool by WordStream - Discover and export new keywords
Popular Keywords | WordStream - Popular keywords by category
Keyword Tool - Find Great Keywords Using Google Autocomplete
Google Rank Checker Tool - find top traffic-driving keywords for any site
Free Keyword Planner Tool - Free Google Keyword Planner tool alternative
AnswerThePublic - Discover what people are asking about

9.2 Official Webmaster tools

Google Search Central (formerly Webmasters) - Google Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools - Bing Webmaster Tools
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9.3 Page Speed test tools

Web Page Test - Test a website's performance

PageSpeed Insights - Google Page Speed Insights - Make your web pages
fast on all devices.
Pingdom - Pingdom Tools - Test the load time of that page, analyze it and
find bottlenecks.
GTMetrix - Analyze your site’s speed and make it faster.
Load Impact - Performance testing platform for developers.
Ping Test - Ping Test from Multiple Locations
Page Weight - Find out if images are slowing down your web pages

9.4 Youtube channels

Ahrefs - Channel of the best backlink checker

Brian Dean - This channel is all about giving you the SEO, link building,
and content marketing strategies you need to grow your business.
Chris Palmer SEO - dedicated to helping everyday people succeed through
SEO and internet marketing
Daryl Rosser - Learn how to scale your SEO business.
Google Search Central - official Google Search Central YouTube channel
Craig Campbell SEO - latest and best SEO tricks, tips, and tools