Looking for guidance

Hey everyone, I’m a firefighter paramedic in Florida, and I’ve launched a service-based EMS certification website for South Florida. The keywords I’m targeting aren’t very competitive, but I’m struggling with ranking because my domain authority is low compared to my competitors. My website’s content, structure, and overall development are far superior to the competition—most of their sites are outdated and poorly built. However, since I’m new to this and not an SEO expert, I know I need guidance to improve my rankings. I’m looking for someone who can help me understand what steps I should be taking to grow my website while I continue self-learning. If anyone is interested in learning more about my situation and offering guidance, I’d be happy to compensate for your time.

PaperMate said:

Hey everyone, I’m a firefighter paramedic in Florida, and I’ve launched a service-based EMS certification website for South Florida. The keywords I’m targeting aren’t very competitive, but I’m struggling with ranking because my domain authority is low compared to my competitors. My website’s content, structure, and overall development are far superior to the competition—most of their sites are outdated and poorly built. However, since I’m new to this and not an SEO expert, I know I need guidance to improve my rankings. I’m looking for someone who can help me understand what steps I should be taking to grow my website while I continue self-learning. If anyone is interested in learning more about my situation and offering guidance, I’d be happy to compensate for your time.

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We share freely on the forum so no compensation should be on the table.

What social media do you have tied to your site?

BassTrackerBoats said:

We share freely on the forum so no compensation should be on the table.

What social media do you have tied to your site?

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I have none which is something that I should do. I hear that youtube in itself is another version of a search engine and currently there is no informationm about my certain nieche in the state of florida when you search on youtube. I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel educating on what my academy offers/ what the certification does/about.

Also, I was curious if there are any free tools or websites you’d recommend for analyzing content quality and domain authority without requiring a subscription.

PaperMate said:

I have none which is something that I should do. I hear that youtube in itself is another version of a search engine and currently there is no informationm about my certain nieche in the state of florida when you search on youtube. I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel educating on what my academy offers/ what the certification does/about.

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That is a SPECTACULAR idea... your niche is one that should do well on YT.

Do shorts on TikTok also and set up a Facebook, X, Truth Social, and keep those maintained on a regular basis as well.

I'm not sure this would do well with Pinterest but someone else may know but I think that the demographic there is probably not your demographic.

BassTrackerBoats said:

That is a SPECTACULAR idea... your niche is one that should do well on YT.

Do shorts on TikTok also and set up a Facebook, X, Truth Social, and keep those maintained on a regular basis as well.

I'm not sure this would do well with Pinterest but someone else may know but I think that the demographic there is probably not your demographic.

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You see I currently don't own a training facility though. Do you think its bad if I run a faceless channel in the beginning trying to just put information on youtube. I'm concerned that the information I would be posting would target those specific keywords but honestly who in their right mind wants to watch some boring informative video

A faceless channel would be 100% fine... there are a ton of them that do very well on YT.

You can get away with a Go Pro and a decent editing program and end up with some nice quality.

Start your off site with some soft SEO, maybe some Web 2.0s, link to your site from your Social Media accounts, guest posts that come from sites with traffic and DA will also help but you do not want to rush things just yet... start slowly and build velocity.

BassTrackerBoats said:

A faceless channel would be 100% fine... there are a ton of them that do very well on YT.

You can get away with a Go Pro and a decent editing program and end up with some nice quality.

Start your off site with some soft SEO, maybe some Web 2.0s, link to your site from your Social Media accounts, guest posts that come from sites with traffic and DA will also help but you do not want to rush things just yet... start slowly and build velocity.

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thank you for the tips, can i also ask I had another idea to essentially advertise my service through reddit by going through chats and "claiming" that I earned my certification at "xyz" academy. after looking at this forum Im assuming reddit is pretty good when it comes to flagging accounts responding with that kind of content. Also another random question but is it possible to lower my competitors domain authority my connecting their website to sites like adult content/wacky stuff or is that illegal?

PaperMate said:

thank you for the tips, can i also ask I had another idea to essentially advertise my service through reddit by going through chats and "claiming" that I earned my certification at "xyz" academy. after looking at this forum Im assuming reddit is pretty good when it comes to flagging accounts responding with that kind of content. Also another random question but is it possible to lower my competitors domain authority my connecting their website to sites like adult content/wacky stuff or is that illegal?

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I would not mess with your competitor's site(s)... waste of energy when you can promote yours properly.

I don't know that Reddit would be a hit but I would think it is; Facebook groups will surely like to see some of what you offer and when you set up X, you can connect to many others related to your industry.

I am currently working with someone on Fiverr. I kind of feel like its a waste of my money. I've paid 210$ for meta titles and descriptions only, despite them advertising full SEO optimization. Do you think I should discontinue it and just try to learn everything on my own?

PaperMate said:

I am currently working with someone on Fiverr. I kind of feel like its a waste of my money. I've paid 210$ for meta titles and descriptions only, despite them advertising full SEO optimization. Do you think I should discontinue it and just try to learn everything on my own?

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Discontinue that as fast as you can... actually faster than you can.

That information is all over this forum for free and, if you own a website and are a small business, you need to know how to do all that anyway.

Learn how to set up your own private blog network also as you can build your own network to help rank in Google.

Thank you man seriously, can i ask last question. As far as building quality back links do you think that's something I should pay to outsource for (perhaps on this BHW) or should i instead try to do it myself.

PaperMate said:

Thank you man seriously, can i ask last question. As far as building quality back links do you think that's something I should pay to outsource for (perhaps on this BHW) or should i instead try to do it myself.

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Although it is work that can drive you bananas, you should do that yourself so you get a handle on how that all works so you are a knowledgeable buyer when it comes to outsourcing.

BassTrackerBoats said:

Although it is work that can drive you bananas, you should do that yourself so you get a handle on how that all works so you are a knowledgeable buyer when it comes to outsourcing.

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Thanks man i apricate it!

PaperMate said:

Hey everyone, I’m a firefighter paramedic in Florida, and I’ve launched a service-based EMS certification website for South Florida. The keywords I’m targeting aren’t very competitive, but I’m struggling with ranking because my domain authority is low compared to my competitors. My website’s content, structure, and overall development are far superior to the competition—most of their sites are outdated and poorly built. However, since I’m new to this and not an SEO expert, I know I need guidance to improve my rankings. I’m looking for someone who can help me understand what steps I should be taking to grow my website while I continue self-learning. If anyone is interested in learning more about my situation and offering guidance, I’d be happy to compensate for your time.

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You're on the right track! Since your domain authority is low, focus on:

1. Building High-Quality Backlinks – Guest posts, local citations, and niche-relevant directories.
2. Local SEO – Optimize Google My Business, get local backlinks, and encourage reviews.
3. Content Marketing – Publish authoritative guides and share on forums/social media.
4. On-Page SEO – Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, and internal linking.
5. Technical SEO – Improve site speed, mobile-friendliness, and schema markup.

PaperMate said:

Hey everyone, I’m a firefighter paramedic in Florida, and I’ve launched a service-based EMS certification website for South Florida. The keywords I’m targeting aren’t very competitive, but I’m struggling with ranking because my domain authority is low compared to my competitors. My website’s content, structure, and overall development are far superior to the competition—most of their sites are outdated and poorly built. However, since I’m new to this and not an SEO expert, I know I need guidance to improve my rankings. I’m looking for someone who can help me understand what steps I should be taking to grow my website while I continue self-learning. If anyone is interested in learning more about my situation and offering guidance, I’d be happy to compensate for your time.

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According to your niche, Tiktok and YouTube short videos would be a great way to make popular your site. make quality content, sand ocial share those on different platforms like yt and TikTok. after 1/2 months backlink your site from a high DR site like having a DR of more than 60. Thats it. Hope you will get rank soon.

I think you should get some super relevant backlinks which is possible through qwoted. I liked everything that BTB said though.

Here are some examples that I saw

kshatriya said:

I think you should get some super relevant backlinks which is possible through qwoted. I liked everything that BTB said though.

Here are some examples that I saw

View attachment 422948

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Im unfamiliar with "qwoted" is this a website where I pay to have guest blogs featured on a high DR website?

PaperMate said:

Im unfamiliar with "qwoted" is this a website where I pay to have guest blogs featured on a high DR website?

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So, think of the knowledge in your head, about firefighting, the exams, the experience of being one, the daily routine etc.

In some cases, journalists would be writing stories that involve topics the intersect with your experience. So, if you look at the image attached, there's a request for Erie News Now, where they want an expert on firefighters to speak about some hiring freeze that occurred. Since you're a firefighter paramedic, you're in a great spot to offer your expertise to this journalist for their upcoming news segment. There's even a chance for you to be on broadcast media, either on the news or on the news channel's YouTube playlist.

So, if I were you, and I didn't want to pay to get backlinks, I'd do the following

1) Open a Qwoted account as you being the expert firefighter paramedic
2) Open it everyday and submit or answer questions to show your knowledge and expertise while also answering whatever questions the journalists are requesting
3) Hope and pray for the response. They'll either ignore you, or ask you follow ups. If they ask for followups, just do your best. If they don't, then there's nothign you can do.

In some cases, they don't give you a backlink. You can send them a request, but that's something up to their editorial team, so you can't really ask them to go against their policies.

But, in some cases, that article gets picked up by other news channels, and they'll ask you to come on or give a quote. Maybe you'll get a backlink there

If not, then you can always email other journalists who used to talk about similar issues and say something along the lines of

Hi Journalist

I'm PaperMate, you might have seen me on Erie News on the 22nd of February 2025 talkign about the hiring freeze for firefighters. I'm a firefighter paramedic and I'm trying to spread awareness about my EMS training system designed to help other firefighters and paramedics who want to get certified. If you have any future stories about firefighters or anything in the allied health profession field, please get in touch. I'll do my best to help you.

Sincerely
PaperMate
PaperMate's Website
PaperMate's email + number

You can also use this as a point of pride on your site, showing that you're been featured on such and such publications, because this would improve trust in you, and your training system. You're not just any person anymore, you've been featured in a publication.

So, all this starts with you doing the work, or hiring someone to do it for you. (Ahem Ahem coughs for no reason)

PaperMate said:

Im unfamiliar with "qwoted" is this a website where I pay to have guest blogs featured on a high DR website?

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Also, no you don't pay them, you pay qwoted for the right to answer these queries, but you can get a free account for 2 queries a month.