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Chapter 10 of the book discusses the anatomy of an SEO campaign. The chapter provides a brief overview of the five main steps involved in an SEO campaign: keyword research, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, progress monitoring, and evidence-based refinement.

  1. Keyword Research: This step involves conducting due diligence and preparation to choose the right commercial keywords for your SEO campaign. The keywords should have a balance of monthly search volume, commerciality, and competitiveness. Choosing the wrong keywords can waste weeks of work.

  2. On-Page Optimization: This step refers to optimizing the website itself, including both content and coding, to please Google. It involves telling the search engine what topics and keywords your site is about. Some factors to consider in on-page optimization include header tags, meta tags, keyword density, content word count, synonym placement, and internal link architecture.

  3. Off-Page Optimization: This step focuses on how other websites and online entities interact with your website. It involves how they cite, reference, and link to your site. Off-page factors complement on-page optimization. For example, if you optimize your website perfectly for the keyword “dog grooming” but other websites refer to you as a printer merchant, Google will see this discrepancy. Off-page ranking factors include the number, quality, and relevance of backlinks, Google reviews, social media interactions, and consistency of contact details across the internet.

  4. Progress Monitoring: This step involves tracking the impact of your SEO efforts on your rankings. It is important to monitor your position in Google for your target keywords to measure the success of your campaign. There are two main ways to monitor search engine results positions (SERPs): manual tracking and SERPs tracking software. Manual tracking involves checking your rankings regularly by typing each keyword into Google and searching for your site. SERPs tracking software, like SerpFox, provides an easier and more accurate way to monitor SERPs.

  5. Evidence Based Refinement: Once you have enough feedback from monitoring your results, you can assess if your SEO efforts are having the desired impact on your rankings. If necessary, you can go back to keyword analysis and make adjustments to your on-page and off-page processes. The SEO process is a cycle, with incremental wins as you refine and optimize your campaign.

Chapter 11 provides guidance on how to use the book effectively. The book acknowledges that the format is not ideal for teaching onscreen computer elements. Instead, the book focuses on providing the map and blueprint for achieving SEO success, while the external websites and online tools themselves provide the necessary education and support on how to use them. The book references various online resources and tools, but it does not go into specific instructions on how to use them since those resources typically provide their own instructions. The book also assumes that the reader is using WordPress as their content management system (CMS), which is the most widely used and recommended CMS for SEO. The book mentions an accompanying video series that provides video tutorials for certain sections, and directs readers to a website for more detailed tutorials. Overall, the book aims to guide readers through the entire SEO process, without unnecessary content that can be better expanded upon elsewhere.

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