Explode Your Content Marketing in 2019 with DIY SEO

ByMaAnna Stephenson

Explode Your Content Marketing in 2019 with DIY SEO

You work hard on your blog! You made it look nice and you consistently create great content.

But are you getting all the eyeballs you can on it?

Google wants to send folks to high quality sites like yours.

See how easy it is to make search engines fall in love with your content and put it in front of more folks who want to see it.

It’s Not About Keywords Anymore

That’s so 2013!!!!

No matter how much keyword research or placement you do, Google will not fall in love with your content over it.

All the time you spend on it is like raising the roof before pouring the concrete.

If you want traffic from search, start with a solid SEO foundation.

Get You and Google on the Same Page

Before finding me, a full 70% of my clients made an attempt to connect their site to Google Analytics and Search Console.

A full 0% were sure they did it right.

It’s not like Google has clear instructions or anything!

And then HTTPS came along and they didn’t know to make any changes to their Google connections.

I’ve heard all kinds of folks screaming that their analytics dropped severely after converting to HTTPS.

FYI If the conversion was done properly, and all the connections updated, there should be zero drop due to HTTPS. Zero.

And the only folks that knew that happened were the 20% that even bothered to look at their analytics regularly.

None of them looked at Search Console.

Feedback is Critical for Success

Most site owners never make use of the valuable feedback Google provides.

Google is so happy to tell you how your posts are doing in search.

It’s also happy to tell you which ones you could improve.

Google even tells you how folks found your site and what they visited after the first page that drew them there.

Wouldn’t you love to know:

  • which of your posts get the most eyeballs and clicks in search?
  • which of your images is going bonkers and bringing in traffic?
  • what post or page folks are going to next, and next, and next?
  • the last thing folks see on your site before they leave?
  • the keywords and phrases that folks type in where Google finds your posts most relevant?
  • what folks are clicking on that’s broken?
  • what important content Google can’t see on your site
  • what unimportant content Google is seeing
  • what opportunities you are missing out on because you didn’t know it was a “thing”

Why in the world would you buy expensive SEO services and tools when you can easily have all this critically important feedback at your fingertips for free?

Not to say that those tools aren’t helpful in their own way.

But until you lay the SEO foundation, those tools can’t really help you. They just can’t overcome all the important stuff that’s missing.

Get Over the “I don’t know what I’m looking at” Syndrom

Yes, Google Analytics and Search Console can be confusing.

Well, until you know what to look for and how to find it!!

And it’s way, way, way easier than you think.

All you need is for someone to explain it in plain English and help set you on a regular schedule of collecting info in a way that makes sense and is useful.

Every stumbling block you just read is one I helped site owners get over in less than 1 hour!!

Watching just a few 5 minute videos in the DIY SEO course made my peeps empowered site owners.

They are positive their site is hooked up to Google correctly in every single way.

They are sure they are seeing the right info.

And they understand the story it tells them about their content marketing.

Stop Chasing that Damn Green Dot

I LOVE the Yoast SEO plugin.

I appreciate all that Team Yoast does for the WordPress community and that we have such an awesome plugin to use for free.

But I HATE that green dot!!!

The on-page analysis tool is a super guide for beginner content writers.

And that’s where it ends.

It’s a guide.

In fact, ALL of my posts that hit not only Page 1 on Google, but the top featured spot, did not get full green dots.

Not a single one.

And I did ZERO keyword research on them.

This Stuff Works!

So, how did I get to the top of Google for my blog topics?

The same way Shannon Entin of The TV Traveler did – along with a 4000% increase in traffic. Oh, and not just for one search term either – but two!

And, the same way Marilyn Lesniak of Marilyn’s Treats got to the top of Google Voice Search.

And, the same way Jodi Murphy of Geek Club Books became an Amazon Influencer and ranked #1 for keywords in her niche.

Get Your SEO on Track

Each one of those site owners:

  • laid a solid SEO foundation
  • gathered the feedback from Google
  • improved all 14 levels of SEO on their posts
  • wrote fantastic content that Google and readers gobbled up like candy

You Can and Should do Your Own SEO

Well, you actually have to, as you are the content creator.

Oh yeah, an SEO agency can help, but you’ll be paying them to lay that solid SEO foundation that you could do yourself.

And then you’ll just trash all that work you paid for if you don’t know how to keep it going with every new post and page you create.

How do I know this?

I saw this SEO tragedy happen to one of my clients.

One of her local competitors owned a niche.

I helped her build a new site and educated her on content, conversion, and SEO.

Within 3 months of launch, she owned the niche!

(That’s not an atypical result for my Scratch to Published clients. They usually start getting results and earning money fast.)

She was coming up ahead of her competitor in all searches.

And then it all came crashing down.

She started outsourcing her content creation to folks who had not benefited from her training, nor did she pass that training on to them.

Just 6 months later she was on Page 3 of Google.

An SEO Education is Required

I belong to a lot of SEO groups.

I hear them complain about ignorant clients all the time.

It’s miserable working for a site owner who has:

  • zero understanding of how SEO works
  • unrealistic expectations of results
  • has no plan to maintain their SEO or content marketing

Those are the kinds of clients that get fired.

And they always blame the agency for dismal long-term results.

Don’t be that client!!!!!

Get educated.

You can’t even properly vet an SEO agency without it.

In fact, you’ll likely get ripped off.

Or worse, get your site into so much hot water with Google that you’ll never recover.

Black hat SEO works, and fast!!!! But within 6 months, Google will figure out what’s going on and penalize your site so that it will never, ever show up in search again.

White Hat SEO Gets Results

They are not as fast as Black Hat SEO, but they do work.

It’s just a longer strategy, and one that keeps you in Google’s good graces.

And it’s all the little things you do to get SEO on every element you are already handling on the content you’re making.

There are 14 places to do good SEO on every post you create.

It all adds up.

Remember Michael Phelps? You know, that swimmer who won a record number of gold medals at the Olympics.

Before every race he clipped his toenails and saved body hair, among other itty, bitty tricks to cut down his body drag in the water.

Each thing was small. But added all together they made him faster.

And he holds the record for gold medals in swimming.

There are 4 places to do critically important SEO before you even get to the post content!

SEO is All So Easy

My DIY SEO course members are bloggers just like you who write content for:

  • Recipes
  • DIY
  • Crafts
  • Travel
  • Health
  • Support networks and non-profits

Those are crowded niches!!!

And yet they stand out and get found.

They also aren’t geeks or techies. They want to post pretty pictures.

And they need SEO broken down into plain English with clear directions and a set of tasks they can do themselves.

SEO is not hard once all the mystery of how it works is explained.

You can DIY SEO.

Let 2019 be the year you explode your content creation
and get real results and traffic from search.

I’m here to help you do it!!

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MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English. She helps DIY site owners plus webmasters and designers create sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers.

10 Comments

  1. I wish I could brand this article into every person that tells me about pretty pictures, green dots and only wanting results without education. Thanks MaAnna for the shout out! This stuff works. I never thought I could surpass Kraft, Betty Crocler and The Pioneer Woman on anything. But I did!

  2. WOW! I am waiting patiently for the first of my new SSL certificates to be officially installed! It has officially been paid for! That used to terrify me, but my host has different levels and affordable certificates for the purpose. Now, I will be adding them, one by one! I also love the green light. I even sprung for the Pro version for one year. Probably a mistake because after practicing with free long enough, I’m surprised how many times my lights are mostly green at the writing, while the dots that aren’t green are that way because orange fits the topic better!

    1. JudyAnn, I’m sorry that your host does not offer free SSL certificates, like Let’s Encrypt. Unless you are taking credit card info directly on your site, you don’t need a paid cert. And, the cert is just one part of HTTPS. You must convert your database links and use proper security headers and forced redirects too. Please see this article on the top 7 HTTPS Myths.

      For the green dot, sorry if I wasn’t clear in the article. You may be doing more SEO harm than good with keyword stuffing. That went out in 2013. Google’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) works very differently now, which is why we don’t chase the green dot anymore and why folks are getting to #1 on Google without it.

      I’ve got a blog post coming soon about switching away from the paid version of the Yoast SEO plugin that will help you clear up the redirects it creates, so you don’t lose them. That’s the one thing I wish he would remove from that plugin. Causes a LOT of issues, way more than it fixes.

      1. Thank you for all of that information. I sometimes have to go with a non-green light on Yoast because the topic doesn’t fit their guidance. Rather like the grammar disagreements I have with WORD. I haven’t had much time to experiment with the paid version of Yoast. I only purchased for one site, figuring to practice wherever I install it and make use of what I learn at the other domains. Purchase was on a wild-hair-day, then work became more active!
        I’m working with the host for the SSL. It wasn’t very costly and I’m hoping their assistance/support will be worth it. I do not have an e-commerce level certificate. Your suggestions opened all sorts of questions for them. I have been back in contact to get more help.

  3. Thanks for your article ,once we start doing work with wordpress we definitely use Yoast SEO plugin, Yoast SEO plugin is good for our page ranking but it is paid version and Yoast SEO is the original WordPress SEO plugin

  4. I like how you focused on paying attention to how many clicks you get. That makes sense considering you can focus on the content of what people see the most. I’ll have to consider your tips so that I can get better at SEO.

  5. Content marketing is an important part of digital marketing, it helps to boost website ranking and get potential results for business. These strategies will help to work more potentially and get desired results. Thanks for sharing, keep sharing new updates.

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