SEO for Beginners: Rank #1 In Google Search in 2024
Summary
TLDRIn this comprehensive SEO tutorial, Nathan Gotch from Gotcha SEO Academy outlines a step-by-step process to rank on Google's first page. He emphasizes the importance of SEO, driven by user intent, and breaks down the strategy into four key pillars: keyword research, technical SEO, content optimization, and backlink acquisition. Gotch provides actionable tips using SEMrush tools, such as identifying low-hanging fruit keywords, optimizing site architecture, and prioritizing quality backlinks to boost search rankings.
Takeaways
- 😀 SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of improving rankings in Google's organic search results and is considered the best inbound marketing channel due to the high intent of searchers.
- 🔍 Nathan Gotch, founder of Gotch SEO, shares his in-house SEO process to rank on the first page of Google, emphasizing the importance of SEO with data showing Google's dominance in the search market.
- 🔑 The SEO process is divided into four pillars: Keywords, Technical, Content, and Backlinks, each playing a crucial role in achieving high rankings.
- 🔍 Keywords are the foundation of SEO campaigns, with the goal of targeting keywords that ideal customers are searching for, focusing on 'low-hanging fruit' for quick traffic gains.
- 📈 The importance of targeting keywords with transactional intent is highlighted, as these are closer to the bottom of the sales funnel and more likely to convert.
- 🛠️ Technical SEO is compared to the foundation of a house, necessary for achieving first-page rankings, with quick wins including site audits and optimizing for crawlability and indexability.
- 🚀 User Experience (UX) is a critical factor in technical SEO, with page loading speed being a significant part of Google's ranking factors through Core Web Vitals.
- 🏗️ Site architecture is essential for internal linking, affecting crawlability and indexability, with pages ideally not being more than three clicks deep.
- 📝 Content optimization involves avoiding keyword cannibalization, ensuring pages are unique and not competing with each other for the same keyword.
- 🔄 The use of SEMrush's tools is recommended for identifying keyword opportunities, auditing technical SEO, and optimizing content and backlinks.
- 🔗 Backlinks remain the number one ranking factor, with the quality of backlinks being more important than quantity, and the need to avoid toxic backlinks.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video by Nathan Gotch from Gotch SEO?
-The main focus of the video is to provide a step-by-step guide on how to rank on the first page of Google using SEO strategies.
Why is SEO considered the best inbound marketing channel according to the video?
-SEO is considered the best inbound marketing channel because of the high intent of searchers, who are often closer to becoming customers when they search for specific terms.
What are the four pillars of SEO mentioned in the video?
-The four pillars of SEO mentioned are keywords, technical SEO, content, and backlinks.
How can one identify low-hanging fruit keywords for their SEO campaign?
-Low-hanging fruit keywords can be identified by using SEMrush to find keywords that are already ranking between positions 2 to 15, which have the potential to be optimized for higher rankings with minimal effort.
What is the significance of targeting keywords with transactional intent in an SEO campaign?
-Targeting keywords with transactional intent is significant because these keywords are towards the bottom of the sales funnel, indicating that the searcher is closer to making a purchase decision.
How can SEMrush's keyword difficulty tool help in keyword prioritization?
-SEMrush's keyword difficulty tool helps in prioritizing keywords by filtering them based on competition level, allowing one to focus on easier-to-rank keywords first.
What are some quick wins for optimizing technical SEO performance mentioned in the video?
-Quick wins for optimizing technical SEO performance include ensuring the website is crawlable and indexable, improving page loading speed and user experience, and optimizing site architecture through proper internal linking.
Why is it important to avoid keyword cannibalization in content optimization?
-Keyword cannibalization, where multiple pages target the same keyword, is detrimental to SEO performance because it forces Google to choose which page is best for that keyword, leading to potential confusion and diluted rankings.
How can SEMrush's On-Page SEO Checker assist in content optimization?
-SEMrush's On-Page SEO Checker provides recommendations on how to optimize a target page from various perspectives, including strategy, content, semantic, technical, and UX, ensuring that the page is fully optimized for search engines.
What are the three characteristics of a good backlink according to the video?
-A good backlink should be from a website that is relevant to your own, has real organic traffic, and is authoritative with a high-quality backlink profile.
Why is backlink auditing important before acquiring new backlinks?
-Backlink auditing is important to identify and address any toxic or low-quality backlinks that could harm your website's rankings and SEO performance.
Outlines
😀 Introduction to SEO Training
Nathan Gotch, founder of Gotch SEO, introduces a step-by-step SEO training aimed at beginners. He emphasizes the importance of SEO, backed by data showing its popularity and effectiveness in driving traffic and sales. Nathan offers a four-pillar SEO process covering keywords, technical SEO, content, and backlinks. He encourages viewers to subscribe for updates and hints at revealing common SEO mistakes in future videos.
🔍 Mastering Keyword Research for SEO
This section delves into the first pillar of SEO: keyword research. It explains the significance of keywords in attracting ideal customers and how to find keyword opportunities using SEMrush. Nathan details how to identify 'low-hanging fruit' keywords for quick ranking improvements and discusses the importance of intent in keyword selection. He also previews further keyword research techniques to be covered in upcoming videos.
🛠️ Technical SEO: Foundational Optimization
The third paragraph focuses on the second pillar, technical SEO, which is likened to the foundation of a house. Nathan outlines steps to audit a website's technical performance using SEMrush, emphasizing the importance of crawlability, indexability, and user experience. He discusses core web vitals as a ranking factor and provides a method to check and improve site architecture through internal linking.
📝 Content Optimization: Enhancing Page Relevance
The fourth paragraph discusses content optimization, which is crucial after addressing technical SEO. Nathan outlines a process for ensuring content is keyword-focused and not cannibalized across multiple pages. He advises on upgrading pages, optimizing on-page elements, and ensuring sufficient internal link coverage to build topical authority.
🔗 Backlinks: The Core of SEO Ranking Factors
In the final paragraph, Nathan discusses the importance of backlinks as a primary ranking factor in SEO. He warns against the risks of toxic backlinks and advises on auditing existing backlinks with SEMrush. Nathan also stresses the need for acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites to improve SEO performance.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡SEO
💡Intent
💡Backlinks
💡Keyword Research
💡Technical SEO
💡Crawlability
💡Indexability
💡User Experience (UX)
💡Content Optimization
💡Internal Linking
💡Keyword Cannibalization
💡Topical Authority
Highlights
Nathan Gotch, founder of Gotch SEO, shares his proven in-house SEO process for ranking on the first page of Google.
SEO is defined as the process of improving rankings in Google's organic search engine, emphasizing the importance of user intent in SEO strategy.
SEO is the most popular inbound marketing channel due to its alignment with user intent and sales funnel positioning.
Data shows that search-driven websites like YouTube, Amazon, and Google dominate the top five most popular websites globally.
Google holds 87% of the search market share as of 2021, indicating the vast opportunity for SEO.
The four pillars of SEO are identified as Keywords, Technical, Content, and Backlinks.
Keyword research is foundational, focusing on finding low-hanging fruit keywords that can be optimized for higher rankings.
Semrush's keyword gap tool helps identify missed opportunities and untapped keywords for SEO campaigns.
Understanding user intent is crucial for selecting the right keywords to target in an SEO campaign.
Technical SEO involves optimizing website architecture, crawlability, indexability, and user experience for better rankings.
Site audit tools in Semrush can identify technical issues affecting SEO performance.
Content optimization requires avoiding keyword cannibalization and ensuring pages are unique and superior to existing content.
Semrush's On-Page SEO Checker provides recommendations for content and technical optimization.
Internal link coverage and topical authority are key for content to perform well in search engine rankings.
Backlinks remain the number one ranking factor in SEO, with quality being more important than quantity.
Semrush's Backlink Audit tool helps evaluate the health of a website's backlink profile and identify toxic backlinks.
A strategic approach to acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks is essential for SEO success.
The video promises a deep dive into advanced keyword research techniques in the next installment of the SEO training series.
Transcripts
hey are you an seo beginner well perfect
because in this video i'm going to show
you exactly how to rank on the first
page of google step by step and watch
until the end because i'm going to prove
that 99.9
of people do this one seo action
completely backward so if you're excited
about this free seo training then drop a
comment below with let's do this and
let's dive right in hey so i'm nathan
gotch the founder of gotcha seo and i've
personally led hundreds of successful
seo campaigns in my agency and i've
trained thousands of seo professionals
in my program gotcha seo academy so in
this free seo training i'm going to walk
you through my proven in-house seo
process so you can rank on the first
page of google every time now before we
dive in please subscribe to the semrush
youtube channel below and hit the bell
button because you'll get notified when
i publish the next video in this series
so the first question i need to tackle
is what is seo seo is an acronym for
search engine optimization which simply
is the process of improving rankings in
google's organic search engine and
there's one reason why seo is by far the
best inbound marketing channel and
that's intent when someone searches sem
rush free trial the intent is clear
they're towards the bottom of the sales
funnel and they're getting closer to
becoming a customer more on that in a
second but intent is why seo is the most
popular inbound marketing channel and
the data proves this to be true for
example the keyword seo gets double the
amount of searches compared to other
marketing channels like facebook ads or
even social media marketing but that's
not all according to sem rush rank three
out of the top five most popular
websites in the world are search driven
youtube is the most popular video search
engine amazon is the most popular
e-commerce search engine and as you know
google is by far the most popular
traditional search engine in fact
according to statista google owns 87 of
the search market share as of 2021. so
now that you know the opportunity that
exists with seo how do you actually do
it well let's dive into it so the proven
seo process i'm going to show you can be
broken down into four pillars number one
keywords number two technical number
three content and number four backlinks
let's start with pillar one which are
keywords so keywords are the foundation
of any successful seo campaign because
they are what searchers use to find
solutions and answers to their problems
and the goal is for your website to show
up for keywords that your ideal
customers are searching for so with that
said the first part of the keyword
research process is to find keyword
opportunities now how you go about doing
this will depend on if your website has
existing organic search traffic or not
so here's how to find out open scm rush
enter your domain into the search bar go
to organic research and look under
keywords if you have existing keywords
then that's where you want to start
because it indicates that you're already
doing something right in this case what
you'll want to do is identify what i
call low hanging fruits and these are
keywords ranking from positions number
two to number 15. so while in sem rush
click on the positions tab and then the
positions drop down and enter 2 and 15
into the custom range and now you'll
have access to all of your low hanging
fruit keywords and these are the
keywords that you need to prioritize
because with some simple optimization
and possibly some backlinks you can push
those rankings up and you'll see a big
spike in organic search traffic in fact
according to a study conducted by
backlinko the number one spot gets
approximately 31
of the total clicks for a keyword while
the number five spot only gets nine
percent of those clicks that means if
you go from position number five to
number one it will produce huge traffic
gains and that's why you should focus
all of your initial effort on these
low-hanging fruits now you might be
wondering how do you improve the
rankings for these keywords well i'll be
tackling that in a second now what do
you do if you have no organic keywords
because you haven't done seo or you have
a brand new website well here's what you
need to do go to semrush and go to the
seo section and click on keyword gaap
enter your domain and then enter a few
of your top organic search competitors
domains if you aren't sure who your top
competitors are in organic search then
go to keyword research and keyword
overview and then enter a keyword
related to your industry in this example
i'll use seo tools then scroll down to
serp analysis and refresh the metrics so
you can see which domains have the most
search traffic while keeping this tab
open go to the competitive research
section open keyword gaap in another tab
enter your domain first and then copy
and paste one to four competitors from
the previous section into the keyword
gaap tool then click on the position
drop down click on competitors and
select top 10 then scroll down and look
under all keyword details for you can
then sort these keywords based on a few
different criteria and the two you
should be most interested in are missing
and untapped which both mean that one or
both of your competitors are ranking for
these keywords but your website is not
so now that you know how to find keyword
opportunities in both scenarios let me
tell you the truth anyone can find
keywords but the real magic happens when
you know how to filter through these
keywords and select which ones are
actually worth targeting and in the next
video in this training series i'm going
to dive deep into the second and third
parts of keyword research however here
are two things to consider when trying
to select keywords number one what is
the intent you should always prioritize
keywords with transactional intent that
are towards the bottom of the funnel and
the best way to understand this is to
know the five main categories of intent
which are informational investigative
comparison transactional and
navigational and every strong seo
campaign will target keywords at each
stage of the funnel so let's say you're
building a keyword strategy for semrush
so at the top of the funnel scrmes would
want to target keywords with
informational intent like learn seo or
how to build backlinks these keywords
are broad and will drive the most
traffic the next phase of the search
journey is to target keywords with
investigative intent like seo tools or
best seo tools now notice that this is
much more relevant to what sem rush
offers so now at this point the searcher
is likely brand aware which means they
know about the big players in the seo
tool market like sem rush and that means
they'll likely begin searching keywords
with comparison intent like sem rush
versus moz and as you can tell the
searcher is getting very close to making
a decision and they're weighing their
options and now we've arrived at
keywords with transactional intent which
in this case would be sem rush free
trial and the conversion rate for a
keyword like this will be sky high and
the final type of intent is navigational
which is just sem rush or sem rush login
and you won't need to spend too much
time on these because the brand should
automatically rank so with that said you
should always start at the bottom of the
sales funnel and work your way up i'll
help you much more with this in the next
video in this series so make sure you
subscribe below and hit the bell icon to
get first access when the next video
goes live now the next question you need
to ask about your keywords is number two
can you actually compete for this
keyword now the good news is that you
can use scmrush's keyword difficulty
tool to quickly filter through all of
your keyword opportunities so just enter
your target domain or a competitor's
domain into the search bar and go to
organic research then click on positions
and go to the kd filter start with very
easy and work your way up these are the
keywords you want to attack first
because they won't require as many
resources to rank so just to review
prioritize keywords with high
transactional intent and low competition
first now there are many more steps that
go into keyword qualification and
prioritization but i'll share those in
great detail in the upcoming video now
let's move on to the second pillar which
is technical so you may have found some
awesome keywords but your site won't
rank without optimizing for technical
performance think of technical as the
foundation of a house it alone likely
won't help you achieve first page
rankings but it's a requirement to get
there and i'll be diving deep into seo
audits in a later video in the series
however let's cover some quick wins
right now so first go into scm rush and
look under on page and tech seo and
click on site audit click add new
project and enter your domain and the
project name now before you change the
site audit settings open up google in
another tab enter sitecolon
yourdomain.com in this example i'll use
semrush.com they have roughly 55 000
pages indexed so i'll select a hundred
thousand from the limit of checked pages
drop down you can keep all of the other
settings the same and click start site
audit now once the audit is complete you
might be a little overwhelmed because
semrush provides an enormous amount of
data and different opportunities now in
a perfect world you could pursue fixing
everything and long term you probably
should however you need to prioritize
because some opportunities will have a
far bigger impact on performance than
others and at a high level you need to
optimize three core categories to
achieve optimal technical seo
performance first you need to make sure
your website is crawlable and indexable
and there are many factors that impact
crawlability and indexability but some
of the biggest include your website
architecture more on this in a second
your page experience your robots.txt
file and tags like no index which could
prevent google from crawling pages on
your website now while in the sem rush
audit section click on issues look for
the category drop-down and then select
crawlability scm rush will then show you
all the possible issues that could
negatively affect crawlability then
repeat this same exact process except
change the category to indexability once
again you can see exactly what could
hurt your indexation tackle these items
asap because if google can't crawl your
pages then they won't be indexed and if
they're not indexed it's impossible to
rank second you need to optimize for
user experience or ux for short one of
the most important ux factors is page
loading speed in fact google recently
stated that core web vitals is a ranking
factor so you need to do everything in
your power to improve loading speed and
page experience so while in the overview
tab on the audit you'll see the new core
web vital score from scm rush click view
details and you'll see the exact pages
you need to improve and the cool part
about optimizing your site for core web
vitals is that most changes will have
positive effects on a site-wide basis
meaning you won't need to go page by
page optimizing for core web vitals for
most of your pages and now the third
technical pillar you need to optimize
for is your site architecture or in
other words internal linking now there
are a few core tenets of internal
linking first your pages shouldn't be
more than three clicks deep into the
architecture otherwise it could
potentially hurt crawlability and
indexability so go to the crawled pages
tab in the semrush audit click on more
filters select crawl depth from the drop
down and then select four plus clicks
from the second drop down and now you'll
know what pages you need to push further
up into the architecture the second part
of optimizing your site architecture is
to identify pages with poor internal
link coverage and the fastest way to
find these pages is to use semrush's
internal link rank in the audit so first
while still in the crawled pages tab
click on the drop down and select
internal link rank this is a proprietary
score mechanism created by scm rush
which gauges how much authority and link
equity a particular page has so if a
page has many internal links from pages
with many backlinks the ilr score will
be high and a low score is an indication
of poor internal link coverage so on the
second drop down you can select less
than 10 and then you can see some pages
that need more internal link love so
that is just a preview of how to
optimize for technical seo once again
i'll be going deeper into this in a
later training video so let's move on to
pillar number three which is content so
you've identified solid keywords and
your technical performance is now on
point now you need to optimize your
content so i follow a simple process
when trying to optimize a page and here
it is number one is there keyword
cannibalization so keyword
cannibalization is when you have two or
more pages targeting the same exact
keyword phrase and it's detrimental to
your seo performance because it forces
google to decide which page is best for
that keyword and you don't want google
making those decisions it's our job to
direct google in fact john mueller the
search advocate at google said this
about keyword cannibalization we just
rank the content as we get it and if you
have a bunch of pages with roughly the
same content it's going to compete with
each other kind of like a bunch of kids
wanting to be first in line and
ultimately someone else slips in ahead
of them personally i prefer fewer
stronger pages over lots of weaker ones
don't water your site's value down so
the quickest way to identify keyword
cannibalization is to use semrush's
position tracking tool go to keyword
research and click on position tracking
then click on new position tracking to
start a new project enter your target
keywords and once the scan is complete
open up the project and then click on
the cannibalization tab this will show
you instances of keyword cannibalization
for the keywords you've specifically
entered the next content check is simple
number two does the page need to be
upgraded your seo driven pages should be
different and better than what exists
plain and simple number three is the
page optimized well at the most basic
level your primary keyword should be in
your url title h1 tag first sentence and
last sentence but to take things up
another notch i recommend using scm
rush's on-page seo checker go to the
on-page and tech seo section click on
the on-page seo checker and start a new
project click on import keywords and
pages and then select your preferred
option in this example i'll use manually
enter your target url and the exact
keyword phrase you want to rank for and
then click collect ideas scmrush will
then show you how to optimize the target
page from a strategy content semantic
technical ux and even link building
perspective so make sure you benchmark
your performance today and then execute
on these recommendations the next point
to tackle is number four does the page
have enough internal link coverage so go
back to the audit and see if your target
page is getting enough internal link
coverage and the final checkpoint is
number five does the page need more
topical authority if you find that the
page doesn't have much internal link
coverage then it likely doesn't have
much topical authority either in other
words you need to create more keyword
driven content to support that primary
asset and now moving on to the last and
fourth pillar of the seo process which
are backlinks so i've been doing seo
consistently since 2011 and one thing
has stayed the same backlinks are still
the number one ranking factor and this
isn't just based on my experience alone
according to a ranking factor study
conducted by scm rush they found that
the more backlinks a domain has the
higher its position on the serp now the
key is to remember that not all
backlinks are created equal in fact some
backlinks can wreck your rankings and
get you penalized now before you attempt
to acquire new backlinks you first need
to audit your existing backlink profile
open up semrush go to the link building
section and click on backlink audit tool
create a project and then run the audit
schmush will then give you an overall
toxicity score and if you have a high
percentage of toxic domains there are a
couple ways to handle it first work to
acquire higher quality backlinks to
offset the low quality backlinks and
then second if the backlinks are really
nasty then you can attempt to get them
removed through outreach and if outreach
fails then disavowing with google should
be the final option now keep in mind
that disavowing backlinks can have a
negative impact on your seo performance
because you may decrease overall website
authority so that's why you need to be
actively working to acquire new
backlinks so like other parts in this
seo process i'll be diving deep into
effective backlink acquisition in a
dedicated video in this free training
series but for now you should aim to
acquire backlinks on websites that have
the following three characteristics
number one it's relevant to your website
so if you own a coffee shop you should
try to get backlinks from coffee
websites food bloggers etc number two
it's a real website with real organic
traffic so think about it if a website
has organic search traffic then google
probably trusts it and the opposite is
true as well if a website has no organic
search traffic then you should probably
be a little concerned number three it's
authoritative and their backlinks are
high quality so aim to get backlinks on
websites with strong high quality
backlink profiles now there are many
more qualifying factors but for now
those three will work so the cool part
is that you can run any backlink
opportunity through semrush and quickly
see at a glance if it has organic search
traffic if it has authority and if the
backlink profile is high quality all
right so you made it all the way to the
end and we covered a ton of ground so at
this point you know the four pillars of
proper seo in the next video in this
free seo training series i'm going to
dive deep into keyword research in fact
you'll learn advanced keyword research
techniques that 99.9 of your competitors
are not using i guarantee that so if you
got any value from this video please
like it subscribe and hit the bell
button because you'll get notified when
we publish the next video in this series
thank you so much for watching and drop
your questions below this video i'll see
you in the next video
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