How to Optimize Your Website for SEO in an Afternoon

Optimizing your website for SEO helps you generate more traffic, leads, and conversions without paying for ads.

Organic search refers to the results that appear on a search engine results page (SERP).

If you were looking to buy a friend some hypoallergenic jewelry, you might type that into a Google search.

Here are two examples of the results that would appear from your organic search:

But these efforts rely on a solid SEO strategy and an optimization plan for various factors that affect your search engine rankings.

This guide explains how to go from beginner to pro and optimize your site in an afternoon.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

SEO is not just one thing.

There are many ranking factors in search engine algorithms. Each factor plays a role in where your site and specific pages appear in SERPs.

We’ll address these five key ranking factors:

1. Technical SEO: Makes it easy for your website to be crawled and indexed by search engine bots (crawlers)
2. On-page SEO: Makes your content easy to understand for humans and search bots
3. Content strategy: Maps your website’s content to relevant keywords and search terms
4. Off-page SEO: Establishes site authority to help improve your search rankings
5. Local SEO: Optimizes your site for local search features to increase brand awareness and foot traffic in a physical location

So now what?

The following steps will help you learn how to optimize your website for SEO.

Step 1: Audit Your Website

Perform an SEO audit to see...