I recently read Danny Dover’s book, SEO Secrets, and it helped me tremendously! I always thought that the SEO world was changing at such a rapid rate, and that nobody really knew “exactly” the science behind SEO ranking. However, since reading this book, I have realized that there is a formula, and a step by step process to making your business’ website better, more popular and more relevant online. Plus, Danny Dover gives links, lists, and insider tips in little side notes all throughout the book, and I love the organized, easy-to-read layout. As an added plus, this book will look great on your bookshelf or coffee table because of it’s blue smoky and industrial graphic design (which I learned later is one of the ways he markets–visual appeal). Here are some things that I thought I would share from this book, that helped me tremendously, and hopefully will help you too!
Firstly, this book is meant for people who are already familiar with SEO, which is good because it goes really in-depth (unlike some of the other sites I’ve looked at that barely graze the surface). If you are confused about any of the terms I am using, visit this site for SEO beginners. Here we go!
Google Search is built around relevancy and popularity. Google ranks websites and articles based on relevancy or keywords, and popularity or links and shares. The way to boost the success of your site is to gain a high popularity and a high relevancy. This will all you to compete with websites like wikipedia, about.com, yahoo.com etc.
Relevancy is determined by keywords that are what the potential customer is looking for. Think about when you are searching for something in Google Search. You type in some gibberish about green patent Ivanka Trump purses, and hope for the best. Google is fluent in the language of “stuff and things,” and it will pull out key words from your search in order to find your item. Green, patent, Ivanka Trump, and purses are all run as separate searches until Google Search finds something that contains all four key words. The reason this is VITAL for your business is because, if you’re creative enough, you could be the first site that has all four key words. If you are, google will list you first in the search results and the potential customer will click on your site. This will most likely lead to a sale.
Some tricks for this are:
- Use Google Analytics. I cannot repeat this enough. Use it for everything you write on your site. Search for words with a low competition rate and a search count of over 100. This is how to find keywords that aren’t being used by every site out there. This is especially helpful for fashionpreneurs because trending items will have a high competition rate, so you need to use keywords that aren’t being used all the time.
- Put keywords in the URL/permalinks, so that google is not only looking at your content’s key words but also at your domain name.
- Content is king (don’t just repeat the same keyword over and over, actually teach the reader something–the internet is meant to INFORM). If you are creative and different, you might be the only site that has what the customer is looking for. Try using different words for colors, styles, brands, and products. Synonyms are your friend!
- Keywords should progress naturally every 100-200 words.
Popularity is determined by links. If your website is linked to someone’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, Google Plus account, etc. your page has popularity, and Google tracks that.
****If your site doesn’t have a high ranking popularity right now, don’t fear! If you have a high relevancy, that supersedes the popularity. For instance, if you write a blog post about Imperfect Concepts, and your content is highly intelligent, filled with keywords, and written well, it will have a higher ranking on Google. Don’t become that spammy site that asks everyone to link their page.
The second thing I learned from this book were the three views: 1,000 feet, 100 feet, and 10 feet. Danny Dover, when he looks at a website for the first time, has a system for finding problems both from a wide-pan view, and from very specific details.
1,000 ft:
- Find sites that are similar to yours and analyze how they market. Plan strategies that will make your marketing better than theirs.
- See how “mature” your niche is. The keywords for lawfirms and the keywords for videogames are entirely different maturity level. Videogames might use profanity, lawfirms might use law jargon. Find out how professional you must be to fit into this niche, and find out what level of vocabulary your keywords should fall under.
- Identify major competitors and keep a list of their keywords. Make yours better, or find synonyms for theirs!
100 ft:
- The domain name is the single most important element of a website, make it searchable; avoid hyphens, misspelling (both purposeful and otherwise), and anything longer than 15 characters.
- Looks matter! Make your website really pop to potential customers. Avoid lack of focus, crowded text, slow loading times, auto playing music, unclear navigation, and excessive redirects. (Tasha recommends hiring a web designer, and so do I, but be careful that they are knowledgeable about SEO).
10 ft:
- Make sure all your headings are specific to your niche, easy to understand, and are bold/highlighted/catchy–something that will make potential customers linger on your site.
- Make your site information based. Make sure that there is interesting, creative and ORIGINAL content on your site that the reader cannot get anywhere else.
- Create titles that are catchy, but that also highlight what you are going to be talking about by using keywords. Do not make your titles too spammy. Do not make promises you cant keep (if you do not have a proven method, do not waste potential customers time by making them your Guinea pigs).
Here are some helpful links for more on SEO: SEO basics (beginners) Google Founders History Danny Dover’s Website Google Analyzer Traffic Travis I also highly recommend buying this book. It is great reference material for finding out how to make your business better, while keeping the integrity of your vision.
This post includes affiliate links to Amazon which I will receive a small commission on sales generated by your purchases.
