Read an SEO Blog

Study an SEO guide such as my “SEO How-to” series. Then subscribe to an SEO blog.

Helpful, free beginner SEO guides include Moz’s “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO,” Search Engine Land’s “Guide to SEO,” and Google’s “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.”
For quick updates on SEO changes, try two YouTube channels: Moz’s “Whiteboard Friday” and “Google Webmasters.”
If you have more time and are keen to follow the SEO industry, subscribe to Moz and Search Engine Land.

Understand Google Analytics

You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. The importance of analytics in digital marketing is akin to financial reports in business. Both are essential to track performance.

Have a basic understanding of Google Analytics (or whatever web analytics package your business uses). In Google Analytics, study the reports under Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels. By clicking on “Organic Search,” you’ll be able to analyze performance for your SEO program.

Build Your Social Media Network

7. Build Your Social Media Network
Join Twitter and one or two other social media platforms. You have many options — Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, many more. Social media enables you to connect with your customers and prospects and offers an audience for your content.

Understanding and nurturing these relationships boosts your SEO in the long run. Increasing the exposure of your content also increases the likelihood that some of those viewers will blog about it or link to it.

The content you’re already producing should be targeted

The content you’re already producing should be targeted to different segments of the media or blogosphere. These pieces then become conversation starters with different sites, as an enticement for them to write about or link to.

The competitive research in step two, above, comes in handy here because you now have an idea of the most influential and best-ranking sites to approach.

DIY Public Relations

DIY Public Relations
Link authority is a major component of SEO, but purchasing links is forbidden by Google, Bing, and other search engines. That’s where outreach and public relations come into play. If you have PR representatives, coordinate with them so as to not invalidate their efforts. But if you’re doing it yourself, read on.

Google advises site owners to build compelling websites that users want to tell their friends about — sites that users visit over and over. This content-heavy approach to SEO is Google’s answer to the ever-present question of “how do I get more links ethically?”

Produce Regular Content

Produce Regular Content
You don’t have to start a blog or turn your business into a publishing company by posting content every day. It’s unrealistic for many ecommerce sites. But publish your own content regularly. Schedule weekly or at least monthly updates. Consistency is key.

Content does not need to be text. For example, an architectural firm could publish photographs of its projects with short textual descriptions. Realtors could publish weekly video bulletins with transcripts. Publishing content that is tailored to the consumption habits of your target audience is the goal.

Optimize Your Site

Optimize Your Site
The next step is to create the pages. This is the hard part. Depending on your ecommerce platform and your access to developers and designers, you may need to outsource some of this work.

Any website today should be mobile responsive to cater to the ever-growing faction of smartphone and tablet users. A mobile-friendly site is important for two reasons. First, according to Google, more than half of searches come from smartphones. Make sure that the experience of those users is seamless and engaging.

Second, Google now ranks all organic search results — for desktop and mobile devices — based on a site’s mobile experience, including page speed.