Most useful things to do without developer resources on SEO

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

@Kris: Have you even read this post and watched the video that Gianluca posted on this thread earlier: https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/keyword-density-seo-myth/ ? I do agree that mentioning keywords needs to happen obviously. But what I'm completely against is measuring that against a metric like keyword density. TF-IDF is already a better way (which was also already written about in this thread).

For many reasons keyword density is a flawed metric, like I mentioned before. But let me add some more explanation to it:

• The percentage of 1 keyword mentioned v.s. all words on the page. But what does that percentage mean, you have no clue right? Is 1% good, is 2% bad?
• Keyword density takes very many things not into account: the number of words on a page, if I have a 100 word description and 10 mentions of the keyword it could potentially be fine and not keyword spammy. But if I have 1000 words and 25 mentions it could potentially be that it's absolute spam.
• Competition? What are all my other competitors doing, what is their density for a certain keyword. All of that is not being taken into account when looking at these numbers. Maybe a 5% density is high in your industry, maybe it's 0.5% you wouldn't know.

These are just some examples of why the metric in itself is not more then just a percentage and for that I would never recommend using it.

[WebMarkets]

After a week of reading your posts, I would expect a better response.

My initial point was to focus on on-page content, by utilizing the diagnosis and keyword density tools on SEO Quake as one of my preferred tools without the use of developer tools.

As Matt Cutts stated in the video, there is a law of diminishing returns when dealing with keyword content. And absolutely there is. So, if there is a law of diminishing returns, there must also be a law of increasing returns. Correct?

I respect your opinion and appreciate your feedback. But not the type of feedback that puts down another person for their opinion. You make good points, but a weak argument on why the metric is flawed overall.

A better discussion would be how does too much keyword density effect Conversion Rate Optimization? Or how a keyword density tool differs from a TF-IDF calculation.

All in all, its been fun. Agree to disagree about pieces of you perspective. And I'm sure the feeling is mutual.

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Eric_S, this is a great question!

Have you looked into installing Google Tag Manager on your site?

Depending on how your website is managed, installing GTM on your site may or may not require minimal development resources. Once it's up and running, though, you can use GTM to implement all sorts of SEO changes. On your site. Yourself.

[Igor.Go]

There are alternatives like Serpstat's "related keywords" and Ahrefs' "also rank for". they determine "LSI" keywords by finding connections in SERPs.
Take top 10 for keyword A and compare it to top 10 for keyword B, if 5 pages from SERP A were found at SERP B it's safe to assume that keywords A and B are related.

You can find some cool keywords with these tools
Example: https://i.imgur.com/wO62vII.png and more https://i.imgur.com/HWiBchu.png

Here's what fitment is for those unfamiliar: https://i.imgur.com/RptDZ1e.png

[TimHolmes]

Along side your content for your blog, ensure you try to answer commonly asked questions, this can help to position you in P0 (knowledge area) if answered well.

A great tool to use is answerthepublic.com where you can see what common questions are asked around you main terms. Adding this great unique content either on a blog or selection of FAQs could be beneficial.

[BeckyKey]

Hi

If you're creating this great content - is social amplification through your own brand channels still worth pursuing?

I am facing the same challenges as Eric & am trying to push for more social - but as a way for us to share the content we're producing.

Becky

[Moreleads]

You could use GSC to find some actionable insights to optimize your on-page content.

1. go to the search analytics area and click on the "pages" option.  Then click on the page and change the option to "queries" to find relevant keywords you can add to the that page on your site.
2. Find pages in the same report with low ctr´s on good positions and optimize the meta descriptions and page titles.
3. Identify your top queries and see if the right pages are ranking for them.  If not diagnose why and correct the issue(s). You can check out his moz resource https://moz.com/blog/wrong-page-ranks-for-keywords-whiteboard-friday

[Packaging-Group]

Most importantly, follow all of the suggestions in the site crawl report, and tackle as many of these as you can. Here are some of the free tools I use regularly that can help you take your efforts further.

• Use the free dashboards and custom reports from the google analytics gallery to get more insight into your traffic and to identify any errors (outside of what you see in moz).
• Google Data Studio (Free) also has reports you can use for keeping track of different metrics and it connects directly to google analytics and search console.
• Google Sheets has a free addon for google analytics and search console data that allows you to schedule automatic reports, once you have identified errors you want to monitor.

Aside from metrics, content is king, and you will benefit greatly from researching your target keywords, and posting articles that include links to the related pages.

Is it a permission issue, or are you not comfortable editing any of the technical aspects?

What platform is your website running on?

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I face the same issue

Are you the only SEO & do you have the support of a content team? I'm focusing on KWD research & optimisng our product descriptions/titles, content & starting to do social.

As the blog content/social falls on me as well, it's hard to keep up with all of that plus SEO stuff as our site is so big.

Did you get anywhere with an answer to your question?

Becky

[Shalusingh]

Hi Eric,

There are a lot to do without having developer resource and the things you doing is a great start but only if you are doing in an effective way. It is all about what your customers want from you. So firstly analyze them - what they like, what they don’t, what they are seeking for, etc and then put yourself at their position. You will get the answer how to make them happy. Do research and analysis. Believe me, you don’t have to worry about your rankings. Once you will make your customers happy, Google automatically be happy. And in reverse Google will give you the top rankings.

For your help here are some of the suggestions written by Dr. Peter J. Meyers and Ronell Smith.

Hope this will help!

[SouthernPowerflushing]

Hi Eric,

Do you currently use any other software to improve your SEO? ive just signed up to Moz and its absolutely amazing!!! but was wondering if there is another where i can manage my social media accounts in one go? (that is good).

Many thanks,

zach

[TimHolmes]

I personally use a number of tools, MOZ bing one, Google Search Console, SemRush, and SeoPowersuite.... as for managing my social my personal favourite is Buffer..... where i manage, FB, Twitter, G+, Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn.

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Eric_S,

You've received a lot of great ideas for improving your SEO in this thread! Have you implemented any of them? We'd love to get an update from you!

Christy

[Eric_S]

Thank you for clarifying this. We have a social media platform within which I am curating a content schedule for. Knowing how to make the best use of this is essential for SEO I think.

[Eric_S]

Appreciate the myth busting and all the articles here. I am getting the sense that to be in control of SEO is to do it holistically. This is not just content creation but content amplification/promotion too!

[Eric_S]

This is a great practical suggestion that I will be putting forward!

With the ability to manage our site that comes with much more power to make a difference. Thank you.

[Eric_S]

I recognise that content is king. Also, to be able to build links by connecting with websites that have a similar niche will be hugely beneficial. I will start making a plan for this.

In terms of metrics and measurements. To manage is to measure. What are some of the things I should be measuring, using the tools you have suggested? Do you have any articles or youtube videos that explain this?

The dev resource is indeed a permission issue. If there is a case for it, I can push for it to be done. In this case, measurements are the best forms of data to give to make a case! Cost vs value right.

[Eric_S]

Hi Becky,

I feel you. I work in operations so I manage a lot of other things beyond the SEO and social media. In this case, I probably have an even less amount of time than you to implement these things!

A tip from me is to leverage other people's time. Have guest posts but make sure you share on all social media platforms.

I am struggling to come up with a strategy to build links for our content though. Do you have ideas/examples/blogs of how others have been successful in this area? Also, how to encourage social media shares in the public sphere. If ONE article goes viral, that is all it takes to make a huge following on the blog and twitter.

Anyway, I have so much to learn! Please share your successes with me too!

[Eric_S]

Thanks for the suggestion on Buffer. Seems like it utilizes all major social media in one go.

[Eric_S]

I do like this idea of making use of the highest performing pages. This is good because it leverages our best content and makes it even better!

Thanks for the suggestion and article too.