SEO isn’t something you can learn in one night. And although it can take several years to become an expert, there’s a lot of space between knowing nothing and knowing everything. So, how long does it take to learn SEO? Or, more specifically, how long does it take to learn enough SEO to grow an audience for your own blog?
Start with an Online Course to Learn the Basics (2-4 weeks)
To start off, take an online SEO course. This is a nice way to introduce yourself to the topic and get an overview. That way, you’re more familiar with the terminology and the basics so you can start putting some skills into practice. It also can help you understand what specific aspects of SEO you want to dig into deeper.
ClearPath Online offers a free How To Do SEO Yourself course. It is completely self-paced. There are ten lessons that come out each weekday. So, it’s at least two weeks. However, if you implement each lesson before proceeding it will take more time. Expect it to be about a month to complete the entire process.
Each course you find will vary. With the ClearPath Online course it will be about 2-4 weeks until you start to learn and understand the basics. When selecting a course make sure it’s self-paced so you can take the time you need to digest and comprehend the lessons.
Actively Maintain a Blog to Improve Skills (6 months – 2 years)
After you take a course to introduce yourself to the basics, start putting your new skills to use. The best way to learn is to do it. If you want to learn SEO, create a blog and optimize it.
This does more than help you learn. It allows you to identify when you have reached a point where you understand SEO enough to grow an organic audience. You can do this by using digital analytics data, such as Google Analytics. Digital analytics allow you to gauge how successful your efforts have been. Instead of making guesses, Google Analytics data will allow you to see the exact number of people you’ve been able to reach from search engines. Additionally, you can see if those people are converting and making a positive impact towards your goals.
While you’re learning, leverage the ClearPath Online DIY SEO Tool to guide you through what to do and how. The tool provides a pre-populated task list that you can follow to grow your organic audience. The tasks are staggered out so any given day doesn’t feel overwhelming. And you can click on each task to see how to do it. This is helpful when first learning, but also helpful as a quick refresher when it’s a task you don’t do often.
To see results from SEO efforts it can take anywhere from six months to two years. It often starts out slow, but once you start to get traffic it picks up momentum. And once you see good traffic numbers, stick with it. It will only continue to improve. You’ll want to blog for at least six months to two years to see the results. At that point, you’ll know you understand SEO and can grow an organic audience. But, once you have good results keep building that momentum and continue to post regular blog articles.
Stay Current on SEO Tactics (Ongoing)
One of the tricks to learning SEO is understanding that SEO is always changing. You have to stay current on new SEO trends. A true SEO expert understands that there are no SEO experts because the game is always shifting.
This is another area where the ClearPath Online DIY SEO Tool can assist. The digital marketing tasks are current with tactics that work today. That way you aren’t stuck repeating tasks that worked when you learned them, but may not apply today. Instead of a constant guessing game wondering if you’re wasting time on outdated SEO tactics, the DIY SEO Tool allows you to stay current. And without having to spend hours researching SEO every week.
In Summary
It’s possible to learn the basics of SEO in as little as one month. It can take years to become fluent in SEO and it will be a topic that you will always have to stay current on. If you’re looking for a shortcut, that is where the ClearPath Online DIY SEO Tool can help.
No matter how you choose to learn SEO, make sure you have a plan in place to put some of these lessons to use. That way you can improve your SEO expertise and see exactly what you’re capable of.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are two completely different tools. They don’t rely on each other. Yet, they do work well together when you choose to use both. Here’s the difference between Google Tag Manager vs Google Analytics.
Let’s first understand how these two tools work on their own.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a software tool that tracks website data. It gives you visibility into what’s happening on your website. It allows you to see how many people visit, what pages they go to, and how long they look at each page.
What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a Tag Management System (TMS). What that means, is it puts an empty container on every page of your website. Google Tag Manager provides you an interface that you can use to control the code that appears within that container. That means, someone other than a web developer can change the website within that specified container. That allows marketers and website owners to be able to add and modify tracking codes. And they can do that without having to dig into the code or bother a web developer.
How are Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Better Together?
In order for Google Analytics to collect data, it needs a tracking code added to every page of the website. This code can be manually added. It doesn’t need Google Tag Manager or any other TMS to add it.
Although it isn’t required, adding Google Analytics tracking using Google Tag Manager simplifies the process. Since they are both Google products, Tag Manager is already set up to add Google Analytics tracking with the click of a button.
And configuring Google Analytics tracking isn’t always a one-time process. To get the most value out of Google Analytics you’ll want to set up events and goals. Depending on how you want to set up your account you may find you want to customize the tracking code. The easiest way to add customizations is with Google Tag Manager. That way, you can make custom edits using the pre-built interface instead of writing custom code. This makes customizations as easy as drag and drop.
In Summary
Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are two very different tools with unique use cases. When you leverage both tools together, Google Tag Manager makes it faster and easier to customize and configure Google Analytics.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Adding hashtags to Instagram posts helps to increase the reach. It makes it easier for people to discover the content. The trick is to use the right hashtags for each post. That means, use the hashtags that are popular but not so popular that your post gets lost. And keep it relevant, don’t reuse the same hashtags for every post. Instead of choosing random hashtags, create a strategy to increase discoverability chances. Here’s an Instagram hashtag system you can follow.
To simplify the hashtag system, you can download the free Google Sheets template below.
Step 1: Generate the Hashtag List
The first step is creating a list of hashtags you would want your posts to rank for. Add any ideas you have to your list. Your list will have more hashtags then you end up using. This allows you to track hashtags and adjust your system as trends change in the future. (We’ll talk about that more in step 3.)
To generate ideas go into Instagram. In the search screen click on Tags. This allows you to search hashtags. Start typing in any ideas you have and then the search will autosuggest hashtags. Add any relevant suggestions to your list.
If you downloaded the template above, the ideas will go on the first tab labeled Hashtags.
Document the Number of Posts
Displayed under each hashtag in the Instagram search autosuggest dropdown are the number of posts using that hashtag. (You won’t see the number of posts there if you’re following that hashtag. In that case, the number displays at the top of the hashtag screen when you click on it.)
When you add the hashtag to the spreadsheet, also document the number of posts currently associated with that hashtag. This doesn’t need to be an exact number, instead document the range this hashtag is within. That way it’s easier to group hashtags by popularity.
There are six different buckets you’ll want to group your hashtags into. These are all based on the number of posts within the hashtag.
Bucket 1: Under 20k
This bucket contains hashtags that you can ignore for now. There isn’t enough interest to focus on them right now but you want to keep them on your list. That way you can watch them in case trends change.
Bucket 2: 20k – 49.9k
These are okay terms to focus on. They have some interest and if they are relevant you should use them. If you are at your max number of hashtags already you can leave these off though because they are low priority.
Bucket 3: 50k – 199.9k
These are good hashtags to focus on and these will likely account for the majority of hashtags you use.
Bucket 4: 200k – 499.9k
This is the sweet spot. These are the best hashtags and if you can include one or more, start with those.
Bucket 5: 500k – 2m
These hashtags aren’t worth focusing on. They are so popular that they get crowded fast. That means there are less opportunities for people to discover your post.
Bucket 6: 2m+
And these you want to completely stay away from. No one will see them. These hashtags are far too congested and there is little opportunity to stand out.
Step 2: Assign Hashtags to Post
Once you have your hashtag ideas in place use them to add hashtags to Instagram posts in a strategic manner.
How Many Hashtags to Add
Instagram allows no more than 30 hashtags on each post. When selecting the hashtags to use on your post don’t stress about using all allotted hashtags. Select the hashtags that are most relevant. If you only have 3-5 relevant hashtags, then stop there. Don’t add more to have the most possible.
You do need to be aware of the maximum number of hashtags. That way you can make sure you don’t exceed the amount. If you do, make sure you remove the hashtags in the buckets with the lowest number of posts first.
How to Select from Your Hashtag List
Organize your list of ideas based on the six post number categories. Highlight the rows with buckets 2-4 so it’s easy to identify the hashtags you want to focus on. Go through the hashtags one-by-one starting with the most popular hashtags (bucket 4). Work your way towards the less popular hashtags until you’ve selected all relevant hashtags.
Once you’ve made your selections you want to confirm you have 30 or less selected. If you’re using the template click on the second tab labeled Summary. Look for where it says # of Hashtags and make sure that number is 30 or less. If you aren’t using the template, count them up instead.
The Summary tab on the template will also include an easy way to copy and paste your hashtags. All the hashtags you selected are in one cell already spaced out with hashtag symbols. Copy that one box with the hashtags and then paste it into Instagram.
Where to Add the Hashtags in Your Post
Whether you post in your first comment or add a separate comment with hashtags doesn’t matter. That’s a personal preference. It doesn’t impact the algorithms or change the number of hashtags you can use. So choose a method that works for you and go with that.
Step 3: Maintain Your Hashtag List
To continue to get a benefit out of your hashtag system, you need to keep it updated. Trends will change and new hashtags will begin to be popular. Every quarter (every three months) review your hashtag list. Update the number of post buckets for the existing hashtags. And go back to the Instagram hashtag search to see what new ideas appear in the autosuggest list that you can add to your spreadsheet.
If you need help staying on top of this, you can use the ClearPath Online DIY SEO Tool. It’s pre-populated with tasks just like this so you don’t have to worry about remembering when it’s been three months and you need to updated your hashtag list again.
This will keep your hashtag list current. And it will provide new hashtags to improve Instagram discoverability.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
To see growth from SEO, you need a strategy. Understanding SEO basics and focusing on your target audience is a great start. But, to see growth you need a strategy that keeps you focused. Here’s how to make an SEO strategy with five easy steps.
Step 1: Set Your Goal
The first step in determining your SEO strategy is understanding your goal. What is the end goal? Do you have a paid course you want people to register for? Do you have a book you want them to purchase? Do you have a SaaS (software as a service) tool you’d like visitors to sign up with?
Figure out what the primary goal is for your SEO efforts. What are you hoping your site visitors will eventually accomplish on your website?
Step 2: Create a Lead Magnet
Next create a lead magnet. The lead magnet should be a bridge between your free content and your end goal. The lead magnet should help the reader overcome a hurdle that is stopping them from completing the end goal on your website. This should be a downloadable cheatsheet, a resource, or a guide that helps prepare them for your primary goal. It can even be a course if that makes sense for your website and goal.
Instead of a dollar amount, the lead magnet should be paid for with an email address. This allows you to start to communicate with the person on a regular and deeper level.
The lead magnet information should be available on all of your blog articles. Remember to prioritize the user experience. Instead of setting the lead magnet to pop up as soon as someone visits, add it at the end of the page. That way, people who read the whole article now have information to learn more and connect at a deeper level. There will be less people that read the article than load the page, but they will be more likely to be your target audience. Don’t worry about attracting everyone, worry about attracting the right people.
Step 3: Perform Keyword Research and Create Content Calendar
Once you have your goal and lead magnet in mind, start doing keyword research. Your keyword research should align with your goal and lead magnet. That way, someone who comes to your free content from search engines would be more likely to sign up for your lead magnet and eventually convert.
Once you’ve done your keyword research and found relevant content ideas, create a content calendar to make a plan. This will make it easier to know what to work on when and will help hold you accountable.
Step 4: Blog in Batches
Once you have a plan, create blog content in batches. Set some time aside to create all of the blog content you have planned for the entire month. Whether that is one, two, or four articles, get them done at the same time so you aren’t stuck doing nothing but blogs all month. You want to blog, but you don’t want it to consume all of the time you have available for your business.
Step 5: Perform Daily Digital Marketing Maintenance
Once you have your blogs scheduled out, spend some time each day performing digital marketing maintenance. These tasks can range from social, organic SEO, monitoring data, and making conversion improvements. For a shortcut, you can use the ClearPath Online DIY SEO tool. It’s prepopulated with prioritized digital marketing tasks. And it’s already set up to stagger them out so you have a short list each day based on your personal digital marketing needs.
In Summary
Creating consistent content that is focused on the needs of your target audience is the best strategy for long-term SEO success. To also see your business grow you need an SEO strategy in place. So, set your goal, create a lead magnet, do keyword research and create a content plan, blog in batches, and then take the time to conquer the digital marketing routine outlined in the ClearPath Online DIY SEO tool.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Collecting Google Analytics data is great, and important for all website owners. And when you first start out, sometimes simply collecting data is all you can handle without getting overwhelmed. Once a decent amount of data has been collected you need to start analyzing it in order to get a benefit. You need to make sense of the data and understand what story it’s telling in order to make improvements. An easy way to get started with analyzing your data is to focus on the Google Analytics automated insights. We’ll go over three simple ways to analyze data using automation built into Google Analytics.
Automated Insights
For a quick way to identify dips and peaks in your data look at automated insights. The automated insights detect unusual changes and emerging trends. The insights are listed in an easy to access menu in Google Analytics so you can at a glance review the biggest changes.
The automated insights can be found both in Universal Analytics and GA4.
In Universal Analytics, you can find the automated insights on the Home screen and then click Insights in the top right corner.
In GA4, scroll down to Insights on the Reports Snapshot screen. Then click View all insights.
Custom Insights
To get even more value out of the automated insights, you can create custom insights. Custom insights allow you to monitor the metrics that are most important to your business. When they trigger you can even be notified via email or text message.
Custom insights can be created in either version of Google Analytics.
In Universal Analytics, click on Customization and then Custom Alerts.
In GA4, once you click View all insights you can click Create in the top right corner to create a custom insight.
Ask Any Question
If you have a question about your data and it hasn’t triggered an automated or custom insight, that’s no problem. At the top of Google Analytics you can type in any question you have. You use plain English to create a question, and then it directs you to the data.
Some of the questions you can ask are:
On what days do I get the most users?
What devices are used the most?
How many users from organic search in the last 30 days?
What are my top products by revenue?
What’s my average page load time?
In GA4 you can even click on the insight icon in the top right of any of the overview dashboards. That pulls up a list of questions you can click on and immediately get the answer.
When you ask a question you’ll be able to jump right to the report with the data. This not only makes it easy to navigate the system when you are unfamiliar with the reports, it also puts you in the right mindset. Whether you’ve been using Google Analytics for years or you’re new to it, you should always have a question in mind that you are trying to answer with data.
In Summary
Collecting data is great, but you will get to a point when you need to figure out how to analyze it. These three automated features make it super simple to make sense of your data. The insight is there, take the time to review it so you can make data-driven decisions.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
What role does Quora play in digital marketing? Can Quora help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Here are three ways how Quora can benefit your site.
What is Quora?
First, let’s go over what Quora is. Quora is a question and answer website. There are countless topics. Any question can be asked and anyone can answer it. Answers can be upvoted and downvoted so when you look at a question ideally the best answer is at the top.
3 Ways Quora Helps Your Website
Referrals
Quora can be a good source of referrals for your website. Quora ranks well in search engines. It has a global Alexa rank of 380 which means it is a popular site and there’s a good chance it outranks your blog.
When you answer a question on Quora you can add a link. That link will be a no follow link. That means, it won’t directly impact SEO as a backlink. It will however be a source of referrals.
Quora ranks well in search engines. If someone searches in Google for a question related to your business a Quora result may appear. If you’ve provided an answer and included a link to a specific page on your website (since the question is relevant to your business) there is a chance that person will click through to your website.
So, the benefit of links on Quora isn’t to increase the number of backlinks to your website. The benefit of links on Quora is to help your target audience find the content on your website that can help them during the research stage.
Content Ideas
Another benefit of Quora is the understanding of the main questions and concerns that your target audience has. When you review and answer Quora questions on a regular basis you begin to become familiar with the common questions. If you already have content on your website that addresses these questions, great! Chances are though, you will find topics that keep coming up that you can answer but you don’t have a relevant link on your website to link out to.
This is a great way to identify content gaps on your website. Create an article that addresses the exact problem. This not only adds more content to your website, it also gives you another page you can link to when you are answering these questions.
Customer Service
Once your brand grows to the point where you have a following, you will start to find questions about your product directly on Quora. Use Quora for customer service. Take the opportunity to answer the questions yourself instead of letting the public respond.
Before your brand gets to that point, you can still use it for customer service by responding to general inquiries about your product or industry. When the question is not asking about your exact product it doesn’t hurt to include some competitors as well if that is the best way to answer the question. It’s important to always answer the question as completely as possible and don’t get too distracted trying to make it about your business. Think of the original poster’s concern first.
In Summary
Using Quora on a regular basis can benefit your website. Even though the links are no follow links they are still worth having. The links can increase your website referrals, you can gain content ideas through question insight, and you can even help stay on top of customer service concerns.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Getting natural backlinks to your website is one of the most difficult parts of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And many consider backlinks to be a strong ranking factor. There is a tool called Help a Reporter Out (HARO) that can help streamline this process. Let’s dig into how to get HARO backlinks to improve SEO.
What is HARO?
Let’s start by discussing what HARO is. HARO is an acronym for Help a Reporter Out. It is a tool that makes it easy for “sources” (such as website owners and bloggers) to connect with reporters. When a journalist is writing a story they can use HARO to find quotes and information to add to their article. If the author uses your content in the article, they generally include a backlink to your website.
The reporters that use HARO to find sources range greatly. Sometimes it specifies what company they are with. Many times it just says anonymous. The anonymous leads are usually the larger publications. HARO is a good way to get backlinks on popular sites that otherwise would be impossible to get.
Register as a Source
To use HARO, you first need to register as a source. By signing up as a source you’ll start to receive emails three times a day with leads. And, you’ll be able to respond to the leads using the email address you registered with. Registration is free and required.
Understand What You Want to Be Known For
Before you can start using HARO, you need to have a clear understanding about what you want to be known for. There will likely be several leads that you can respond to. But, you want to stay focused on the relevant leads that are worth your time. You want to focus on leads that relate to your target audience.
Spend the time to create a persona and understand the exact person you want to reach. That will save you a lot of time when going through HARO leads. When you understand who you’re talking to and what you want to be known for you can easily scan the leads to find any relevant requests. There are several leads so understanding what you’re looking for will save you time both in reviewing the emails and writing responses.
The goal is to end up on websites where your target audience hangs out. The best way to do that is to submit pitches to relevant topics. Focus on quality over quantity.
Review Leads Daily
To be successful with HARO, you need to review the lead emails daily. All leads have a due date. There is a date and time that the information needs to be submitted by. Sometimes the cutoff is in a few hours, sometimes it’s in a month. Either way, your best bet is to pay attention and submit your response as fast as possible.
Use Gmail Filters to Highlight Top Leads
The number of requests in each email can get overwhelming. It’s a lot to hunt through. To streamline the process I like to use a couple of filters in Gmail.
First, I create a filter to apply a label to all of my HARO emails. Then, I have those emails skip the inbox and immediately archive within that label. That way, my inbox doesn’t get cluttered with HARO messages and I can reserve time to go through all of them at once.
I also have a filter to add a star to the HARO emails that include keywords that I’m interested in.
This makes it easy for me to get into a routine to work on HARO responses. I go to my HARO label to see all of my unread leads. Then, I can see the emails that are the most important because they are starred. (Remember the star was applied from my filter when one of my keywords was found within the email.)
I start by reviewing the starred emails and respond to any (not expired) leads that are related to what I want to be known for. Then, I scan through the other emails to make sure there are no other leads I should respond to.
The emails are separated by categories. To save time only read through the categories that are related to your field. So, if you are a travel blogger you can skip the Biotech and Healthcare section and focus on the Travel or maybe even Lifestyle and Fitness section.
Follow Directions and Send Unique Response
When you find a lead you want to respond to, make sure you read the entire prompt. Follow any directions from the author. Spend the time to answer the complete prompt while also remaining concise. And even if the response is similar to another pitch you’ve sent, don’t copy and paste your response. Write a unique response. Don’t try sending canned responses. Make sure your response feels like a genuine high-quality response so it can beat out all the other responses.
In Summary
Getting HARO backlinks requires a routine. This needs to be done on an ongoing basis to continue to grow backlinks. For the most SEO benefit, you want steady backlink growth. Not a bunch at once and then no more. Not every HARO response will result in a backlink. In my experience about 15-20% of pitches get published. So, don’t stress about the outcome. Instead, get into a habit of checking HARO leads and responding to the best matches. Over time this will build natural backlinks on relevant sites.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
One of the most challenging parts about blogging is being consistent. And consistency happens to be an important piece. One of the best ways to tackle this is to create a blog content calendar. We’ll go over everything you need to know to create a content calendar for your blog.
What is a Content Calendar?
Before we can discuss creating a content calendar, we need to understand what it is. A content calendar organizes your content ideas and assigns them to publish dates. The specific medium used to create the calendar can vary. It can be a spreadsheet, post-it notes, or even an actual calendar. It is a system that allows you to organize your content ideas based on when they will be published.
Why have a Content Calendar?
The content calendar helps you create a plan. It makes it easy to understand what to work on to stay on track. It helps hold you accountable.
Instead of a list of random ideas, the content calendar has a specific timeline. You have committed the content ideas to publish dates. Of course, it’s easy enough to make edits and change the schedule. But, it is easier to be consistent when you already have a plan. Content calendars allow you to commit to deadlines and plan ahead.
How to Create a Content Calendar
Step 1: Determine Posting Frequency
You’ll need to determine a posting frequency. Ideally, you’ll want to post weekly content. The most important part about your posting frequency is to be consistent while focusing on quality over quantity. So, if your schedule doesn’t accommodate weekly high-quality content updates, then aim for a schedule that gives you more time. You can post every other week or monthly instead. The more posts you’re able to create, the faster you’ll see your search engine traffic grow.
Step 2: Create a Spreadsheet
My go-to tool to create a content calendar is Google Sheets. Creating a spreadsheet is simple and gives lots of flexibility.
To get started with a content calendar, you can download the free Google Sheets template below.
To create your content calendar list out your post schedule dates based on your posting frequency. If you plan to post weekly, you’ll add a date for each weekday you plan to publish a new post. Then, in another column, document the article topic that will be posted that day.
You can also add any columns you’d like to carry over metrics you found during the keyword research stage. If you use the template above the metrics will automatically appear on the calendar tab when you select the topic using the dropdown list.
Step 3: Plan out Next Quarter
Assign topic ideas to every day you want to publish a post for the next quarter. So, roughly three months. If you have more ideas, do the full year. Keeping blogs current takes time. Get the keyword research out of the way so you have a full calendar ahead of you. That way, when you have blog time you can focus on writing and batching your posts instead of figuring out what to write next.
In Summary
A content calendar helps you stay organized. If you commit your content ideas to dates, it will be easier to blog consistently. Having a plan will help keep you moving in the right direction and make it that much easier to push forward.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:
Let's start with a clear answer: no, social media is not essential for blogging success. Social media can promote your blog and expand your reach, but it is not the only way to attract a larger audience to your website. Here’s how you can grow your blog without relying on social media.Read More
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