SEO Guide

This guide answers the question of what SEO is, and takes you to the point where you can run keyword research, produce content, handle technical optimization and build a backlink strategy yourself.

If you want the short answer to "what is SEO", Google's own resource is a quick watch. Before starting the guide you may also want to read how to become an SEO specialist.

What will you find in this guide?

By the end you will be able to run keyword research, produce the best possible content for your site, develop strategies on the backlink side and carry out technical work that lifts your SEO visibility.

But to do any of that you first have to enjoy SEO, be excited by it, never begrudge the effort of testing what you learn, never get bored of research, and always read a great deal. Let's begin.

The fundamentals: every factor in one table

Content

• Intent; Does the content meet the user's intent? Does it match their purpose?
• Quality; Is the content good? Does it repeat information needlessly?
• Fast experience; Can users reach what they came for as quickly as possible?
• Media; Does the content include alternative media such as images and video?
• Readability; Is the content easy to read? Do users get bored reading it?
• Answer; Does the content answer the whole query?
• Research; Which searches do users make to reach this content?
• Keywords; Are the targeted keywords actually used on the page?

Technical

• Crawl; Can search engine bots crawl the site easily? Can they read all of the page content?
• Mobile; Do the pages work properly on every mobile device?
• User experience; Can the user find the answer to their query easily?
• Non-duplicate; Does the site suffer from duplicate pages?
• Page speed; Is the load time as low as it can be?
• URL; Are the URLs simple and memorable?
• SSL; Does the site use an SSL certificate?

HTML

• Title; Does the page title catch the searcher's interest? Does it contain the relevant keyword?
• Description; Does the description persuade the user in the search results?
• Structured data; Is schema used to earn richer listings and help Googlebot?
• H tags; Do the H tags carry questions? Do they state the purpose of the intent? Are they used to target long-tail terms?

Trust

• Branding; Is the site (brand) name searched for? Is there work under way to raise that volume?
• Loyalty; Does the user think the page is worth their time? Do they trust your content enough to read it?
• History; Is the history of the site and the domain clean?

Backlinks

• Quality; Are the backlinks good ones? Do they carry authority in the eyes of search engines?
• Brand backlinks; Does the site receive links using the brand term or site name?
• Anchor; Do the links pointing at the page carry the relevant term?
• Relevance; Do the links come from sites relevant to you?
• Trustworthiness; Are the links pointing at the page safe?
• Volume; Is the number of links to the site high?

Social

• Reputation; Do well-known people on social media share the pages?
• Sharing; Is there extra work going into producing shareable content?

Negative factors

• Thin content; Are there thin pages on the site? Are pages you do not target traffic with being indexed?
• Cloaking; Does the page serve the same content to users and to search engine bots?
• Desktop-mobile parity; Does the page serve the same content on desktop and mobile?
• Site history; Has the site been reported for hosting banned content in the past?
• Aggressive advertising; Are there too many ads? Do they disturb users?
• Spam links; Were links taken from forums, blogs and similar sites just to raise the backlink count?

The SEO hierarchy

The SEO hierarchy — from the foundation upwards

1. Snippet / schema markupRich results
2. Title, URL & descriptionClick-through
3. Share-worthy contentEarns links
4. Great user experienceSpeed, usability
5. Keyword optimizedReachable
6. Compelling contentAnswers the intent
7. Crawl accessibilityThe foundation

I would describe the pyramid above as the most general view of how SEO works. If we read it as an order of importance, it shows what the foundations of SEO work really are.

1. 01 Crawl accessibility

   Accessibility, so search engine bots can crawl and index the content easily.

2. 02 Compelling content

   Content that answers the query according to the user's intent and fits their purpose.

3. 03 Keyword optimized

   Keyword optimization in the content so the page can reach users at all.

4. 04 Great user experience

   Ease of use, excellent page speed and access to all content on every device.

5. 05 Share-worthy content

   Content worth quoting and worth sharing, so it earns links.

6. 06 Title, URL & description

   An eye-catching title, URL and description for a high click-through rate.

7. 07 Snippet / schema markup

   Structured data for richer appearances and for standing out in the snippet.

The most important ranking factors in SEO

To learn the most important factors across content, analysis, technical work and backlinks, I offer three separate sources. They are long — but they are not boring.

Before the sources, let me summarise the questions they answer.

Content

• How much does content relevance matter?
• How much does word count matter?
• What should the keyword ratio be? Does it matter?
• Does keyword density in the body matter?
• How much does having the keyword in the title matter?
• How much does having it in the description matter?
• How much does having it in the H1 matter?

User behaviour

• Is CTR a ranking factor?
• Is bounce rate a ranking factor?
• Is time on site a ranking factor?
• Is direct traffic a ranking factor?

Technical

• How much does H1 matter?
• How much does H2 matter?
• How much does SSL matter?
• How much does page size matter?
• How much does page speed matter?
• Is URL length a ranking factor?

Social

• Are Facebook shares a ranking factor?
• Are Twitter shares a ranking factor?
• Are Pinterest shares a ranking factor?

Backlinks

• Is the number of backlinks a ranking factor?
• How do dofollow links affect a site?
• How much does the number of linking domains matter?

The sources

• Searchmetrics — Rebooting Ranking FactorsPDF e-book↗
• SEMrush — Ranking FactorsPDF e-book↗
• Moz — Search Ranking FactorsCorrelation study↗

These ranking factors are tables and charts built from averages across millions of sites and results. Agreeing with them is usually right, but agreeing without ever questioning them is a mistake.

Where the generalisations fail

Is bounce rate a ranking factor?

We cannot call bounce rate a direct ranking factor. Someone searching "iftar time in Istanbul" takes what they came for and leaves immediately, and the bounce rate there is 100%. However much work goes into lowering it, the user's intent will not change, so lowering it is close to impossible. It is still a useful metric for measuring experience.

Is page speed a ranking factor?

Although its importance is not obvious in the source documents, in 2018 Google stated plainly that "we use page speed as a ranking factor".

Is word count a ranking factor?

The charts may show longer content in the top positions, but trusting them unconditionally is a mistake. Rather than focusing on word count, produce the content that gives the user what they want fastest.

SEO strategies

Work to do on the technical side

• Crawl Budget Optimization→
• What Is Canonicalization? Canonical Tag Best Practices→
• The Best SEO Practice for Discontinued Products→

Work to do on the content side

• Why User Intent Matters in SEO and Content Marketing [Video]→
• How to Come Up with New Content Ideas [Video]→

Tips and common mistakes

• 12 Advanced SEO Tips→
• The Most Common SEO Mistakes [Video]→

Resources worth following

Some resources for anyone who wants to research and learn SEO in depth:

• Amit Purohit51 SEO blogs worth following↗
• OncrawlThe most popular SEO accounts on Twitter↗
• Search Engine JournalThe most-read marketing articles↗
• Saijo GeorgeA full list of SEO tools↗

My favourite blogs: GSQI, Sparktoro, Moz, Backlinko, Gotch SEO, SEMrush, Authority Builders.

If you have read this far, you know the fundamentals of SEO, which factors genuinely matter and where to go next. All that is left is doing it: test what you have learned on your own site, measure the results, and never stop reading.

Sources I drew on and quoted while preparing this guide: Search Engine Land, Moz-1, Moz-2, SEMrush, Searchmetrics.