How to Do Basic On-Page SEO for Your Website
In order to know your SEO is working—
You must first start by actually creating AND plugging in an SEO strategy for your website.
The surest way to trust your SEO is working for you—is to do SEO “right” from the beginning.
I’ve broken the basics of SEO into 3 steps…
3 Steps to take to Improve Website SEO:
Before we can even begin to talk about SEO working, we need to ensure it’s done correctly.
And as much as the “bro” SEOs will want to do battle with me on this—SEO truly does start with keywords.
You need keywords to create an SEO strategy → to plug into your site → to know if the strategy is working.
Yes, there’s absolutely a time & place for what’s called Technical SEO!
Technical SEO:
These are the parts of SEO that are a bit more advanced. These are things like SEO errors (i.e., broken links), page load speed, & mobile-friendliness.
But it’s easier to get started with On-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO:
How you go about making sure each page is optimized for SEO—so you get found online 24/7 organically.
So let’s find some good keywords & make sure you know where to put them on your website! ⇣⇣⇣
1️⃣ Before you do Keyword Research: Run yourself through the 3 Q’s
I’m like a broken record at this point. People can hear me coming from miles away with these questions!
You know why? Because this method works.
Whether you join me for a workshop or hire me for DFY website SEO optimization, you will be asked these questions, so you might as well take 15 minutes to answer them now! 🤭
1. WHO do you help?
(A: what niche, industry, type of person do you serve? what’s your area of focus?)
2. HOW do you help them?
(A: what types of offers do you have? 1:1 coaching, products, digital downloads, etc. what does someone get when they say yes to working with you?)
3. WHAT do you want to be known for?
(A: have you been given a nickname like “SEO Queen?” or do you have a mission like “to be the BEST and BIGGEST resource for vestibular disorders.")
These questions are so critical because they’re the filter you’re running every piece of your SEO strategy through—keywords, blog post topics, etc.
📝 NOTE:
These are internal tools!
These answers aren’t really meant to see the light of day—not at first, at least.
Eventually you may find yourself saying things in your messaging like “I weave the magic of SEO into your entire online existence—because your people are looking for you everywhere!” but these answers are really just intended to help you get clear on where you’re driving this bus.
Now that you’ve got your answers, you’ll use them to guide your keyword research efforts.
And then it’s time to use those keywords to make you more findable online!
2️⃣ Ensure you know Where to put Keywords on your Website for SEO
Maybe you’ve already downloaded my SEO Guide for Beginners.
Whether or not you’ve used it is an entirely different topic. 👀
I’m not here to call you out on not using a free download! Nuh uh, nope.
Not while I’ve got my own stockpile of them neatly tucked away in a Google Drive Folder...
However, I am most def here to remind you to actually use the thing! Because the first step to knowing if SEO is working for you—is to plug the SEO strategy in!!!
Don’t wanna do it yourself? That’s precisely why I created my DFY Website SEO Optimization offer.
The down-n-dirty details:
→ $1,750
→ DFY keyword research
→ Copy+paste SEO strategy for main website pages
→ Website copywriting review & recommendations
→ 30-min Zoom Wrap Up call (recorded)
The SEO Guide covers things like:
✅ Where to add keywords in blogs & main website pages
✅ How to create SEO-friendly image titles
✅ Which headlines to optimize
Once you plug the SEO strategy in for your website—it’s waiting time. Everyone’s favorite part 🤭
3️⃣ How Quickly SEO Works Depends on…
There are a number of factors that impact how fast SEO goes to work for you.
Newer websites can expect things to potentially take a bit longer simply because there’s a lack of “track record,” if you will.
Industry standard is about 3-6 months to start seeing evidence that SEO is improving.
When SEO is “working” you’ll notice things like:
→ website traffic increases
→ email subscribers increases
→ people spend more time on the pages and...
→ post more comments on blog posts
→ increase in inquiries
→ more referrals
→ more sales
And!
→ more people saying “I found you on Google!"
You’ll be able to spot things like this using tools like Google Search Console (GSC) & Google Analytics (GA).
You can also check these metrics in your Analytics of your site.
I use Squarespace—here’s a screenshot:
For support tracking—and understanding—your metrics, I offer quarterly SEO Support Packages!
Contact me for more details, but the quick-n-dirty of it:
→ $500/mo (3 month commitment)
→ 1 60-min Zoom call per month
→ Telegram access
→ Monthly report to show SEO changes & recommendations
SEO Client Success Story Snippet:
The G.S. team has been working with me for monthly blog optimization & quarterly SEO support.
We’re entering month 5 & they’re already seeing sustainable growth—
🎉 Quicker & higher keyword rankings
🎉 Month over month increase in website traffic
🎉 More backlinks, time spent on page, AND blog comments (which they never had before!)
🌶️ Hot SEO Tip 🌶️
This client is VERY image-heavy in their blog posts! One major thing we’ve changed with their blogs is to ensure each image has an SEO-friendly title.
Simply by doing that, they’ve got images ranking in the TOP few rows of the “images” tab in certain keyword searches they’ve been dreaming of showing up for!
This stuff (SEO) works—and it can work quickly!
Just how quickly SEO will work for you depends on a whole host of factors! (Think: social media presence, how long you’ve been in business, brand authority, reputation, paid vs organic marketing efforts, etc.)
SEO requires patience. It requires trust, intentionality, & clarity.
So again… back to those 3 Q’s. Start there.
Get super duper clear on those answers—even if it makes you a little sick to your stomach to sit there & have to choose something. 🤭
I guarantee it’ll be worth it in the long run when you’re able to look at your metrics & see just how many people are finding you on Google.
Once you’ve locked in your website SEO strategy, you’re cleared to move on to blog optimization!
In fact, that’s exactly where Eman Ismail was when we connected to chat about her blog SEO.
She’d just launched her re-branded website—which had a new focus on SEO—and wanted to get back into blogging.
But she’d been on such a long break & was questioning whether it was worth it to push “play” on the blog… And if so, how to do it in a way that incorporated simple SEO.
I’m happy to report, Eman took many of my suggestions & already has some wins to report!
⬆️ Domain Authority
⬆️ Backlinks
⬆️ Traffic
It doesn’t take much time or effort to optimize blogs for SEO once you understand what’s needed & how to do it.
And the payoff—is huge!
So much of SEO is just taking that first step to get started. 👣
⇢ Maybe that first step is walking through this 3-step process.
⇢ Maybe it’s downloading the SEO Guide for Beginners.
⇢ Or maybe it’s inquiring about SEO services.
People are looking for you! Let’s make sure you’re showing up in their searches.
-B
