Running a blog successfully takes a lot of work, patience, dedication and, most of all, CONSISTENCY!
STEP #1
Move to WordPress ASAP!
Buy a domain (preferably a .com) and get hosting over Namecheap.
Try to get the Stellar Business plan. It´s <$50 and it´s a cloud base hosting service.
You won´t find a better hosting for the money.
And it allows you yo host unlimited websites among many other amazing features available only on more expensive plans.
STEP #2
In regards to themes.
Don´t look further beyond these...
- Astra Pro
- OceanWP
- GeneratePress
IN THAT ORDER!
In terms of plugins, these are some of what i believe to be a MUST HAVE!
- RankMath (Better alternative to Yoast - But if you want to use Yoast, use it! It´s still amazing)
- Elementor + Elementor Pro - Best page builder for WordPress
- Social sharing
- WP Rocket
- Broken Link Checker
- Akismet
- ShortPixel Image optimization
- WP Schedule Post
All of these can be found in the Members Download subforum from this incredible community!
Another amazing option is just to signup for membership on the
Festinger´s Vault.
There, you will have access to over 2,300 non-nulled, clean and premium themes and plugins updated frequently.
STEP #3
My next step would be to learn as much as possible about Keyword Research.
Be able to target the appropriate keywords will make a whole difference between having a steady income and spending 4-6 months building a website that doesn´t have a single page ranking on the first page of Google.
Fortunate, we have some great posts here that have just insane value...
[Keyword Research] Looking Beyond Search Volume
The Keyword Strategy THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE - A MUST SEE THREAD
Tired Of Wasting Time Finding Keyword Golden Ratio Terms? Instant Access KGR Terms
As of external resources to learn about this topic, i highly recommend you to check Ahrefs YouTube channel.
They have 3 amazing playlists on several critical topics suck as
keyword research.
As a personal note, i believe keyword research as a process it´s really easy and here you have all the required information in order to run your own process.
But, why so many people fail in this?
Because they blindly rely on the keyword difficulty scores offered by pretty much all the SEO tools.
And this is a big mistake.
I am not saying those metrics are wrong but you need to take them for what they are...A WEIGHTED AVERAGE BASED ON A FORMULA!
The single most important and critical aspect of any keyword research process is determining how hard will it be to rank on the first page of Google for that particular keyword.
And by far the best way to determine this is by running a MANUAL ANALYSIS!
Don´t worry, here are more resources on the topic.
[Ultimate Guide] How to Analyse SERP and Keyword Competition
[Guide] Analyze Your SEO Competition Without Spending A Dollar
Keyword Difficulty: How to Determine Your Chances of Ranking in Google
Keyword Difficulty Analysis – Learn How To Find Easy To Rank Keywords!
STEP #4
You need to write highly relevant and engaging content.
Let me repeat that...HIGHLY RELEVANT AND ENGAGING CONTENT!
There´s just no way around it.
You can have the best-customized theme, the fastest hosting service in the world, the best-looking website layout, and design, spend as much money as you want on links but if your content 1) doesn´t satisfy Google user´s search intent and, 2) It´s not reader-friendly and appealing, it´s just a matter of time before you see a regular and gradual drop in your rankings...PERIOD!
Search intent or keyword intent is the reason why people conduct a specific search.
It´s really this simple.
Your content must be optimized to fulfill the user´s search intent.
And you can do this initially by answering these questions...
- Why are they searching?
- What motivates them?
- What are they trying to achieve through their search?
- Are they trying to figure out the answer to a question or do they want to reach a specific website?
To make it easy for you and having SEO in mind, we can sum the user´s search intent into 2 main categories...
- Informational (How to...)
- Transactional (Best, Cheap)
There are others but we won´t bother to look into those for now.
INFORMATIONAL INTENT
These search queries are general perform by people looking to learn about something.
They aren´t ready to purchase anything yet.
The best and most effective type of articles to build around these types of keywords are...
- Best X for Y
- How do/does
- How can I
- What is/are
- What are the benefits of
- Ways to
- Guide
- How to
- Tutorial
- Best X
- Cheap
- Alternatives
- Compare
- Improve
TRANSACTIONAL INTENT
The intention behind these keywords is obviously from people looking to buy something.
These are some of the best types of articles you can build around these keywords...
- Product reviews
- Buyer´s Guide
- Product comparison
But, how can i define what angle should i take when building content around a keyword?
Really easy!
Are you ready for this?
SEARCH THAT KEYWORD ON GOOGLE AND CHECK THE TOP RANKING PAGES!
Google will tell you everything you need to know in regards to what search intention they are favoring and what they decide to rank.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Search Intent: The Overlooked ‘Ranking Factor’ You Should Be Optimizing for in 2019
Backlinko Guide on Search Intent
Once you have all the data on what keywords you need to target it´s time to move for the second point and that is...WRITE HIGHLY ENGAGING CONTENT!
I don´t know where you are in regard to writing your own content but you can always outsource this task.
but if you want to write your own content (which i think you must), there are some amazing articles/guides/tutorials out there that will help you a tone.
But to summarize it for you, just focus on the following...
READABILITY - Focus on aiming for a readability score of at least 70. This will guarantee your content will be understood by a lot more people in a more easy and "digestive" way. For this, i highly recommend using the
Hemingway Editor App and Grammarly. Seriously, this is all you need for this.
To improve your content readability just focus on the following factors...
- Casual - Write in a casual but NOT informal way. Imagine yourself you´re talking to a friend or a neighbor. One of the best ways to achieve this is to make use of "bucket brigades". Another way to make your articles stand out is to present them as a story (storytelling).
- Transition words - This will help your content having a logical "flow"
- Subheadings - These are critical as it not only helps to break the text down but also allows readers to scroll through the article fast and give them a clear idea of what the article is about.
- Short paragraphs - I can´t stress enough how important and critical this is. By all means, try NOT to write paragraphs longer than 3 lines.
- Active voice - Always try to focus on writing on an active voice. It´s a lot more appealing and easy to read and understand to the average reader.
- Clean and appealing font & font size - This is a no brainer and obvious factor. Especially, in regards to the font size. Remember, most of your visitors will come from mobile devices so you have to make sure you offer the best possible user experience (UX) for them.
- Mobile friendly - As stated above.
- Lists & bullet points - This will help with the readability of your article making it easier for readers to go through it with ease.
- Clear background - Pretty sure you will be using a black/dark font color so it would be best to set a clear/white background for your website.
- Blockquotes - These are amazing. You can use blocks for either quoting or for many other ways like offering a tip or just summarize a section of your article.
- Easy words - Avoid using overcomplicated or long words. It´s not about sounding smart or overly technical. It won´t do you any good if your content can only be read and people by PhDs.
- Images, images, and images - Using customizable pictures, graphs, images, vectors, etc., will greatly improve your content´s readability. Have you ever heard "an image is worth a thousand words"? Because it is true!
Just bu taking these factors into your article will deeply improve your content´s readability and appeal.
STEP #5
Now it´s time to dive in the amazing world of ON-PAGE SEO!
According to many, there are over 200+ ranking factors!
Obviously, we´re not going to touch each of those.
I am not even going to bother listing any here.
Instead, i am going to list of resources that further and better explain these points.
On-Page SEO for 2019 by Moz
On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page
Top 10 On Page SEO Techniques (Backed by Data) by Ahrefs
These resources have all the info you need to fully optimize any page and improve your Google rankings.
STEP #6
Lastly, and as we wait for the organic traffic to kick in, we need to start building some links to our article.
Personally, i have stated my position before in regards to black hat link building techniques.
I don´t consider them to be a healthy or secure approach to take in the long run.
This is why i can only recommend white hat link building techniques.
Hope this puts you on the right track,
Cheers!
OTHER VALUABLE RESOURCES
Big SEO Tutorials (for Google SEO) by Ahrefs
Link Building Tutorials (Step-By-Step)
[Successful Journey] Scaling Amazon Affiliate from $1000/m to $10k
Guide] How to Start an Amazon Niche Site (Or Any Affiliate Site for That Matter) + Giveaways
[Resource] 100+ Google Sheets Templates for Marketers
[Guide] How to Write Your Amazon Buying Guides the Right Way
A compilation of some of the best link building methods on BHW
A compilation of some of the best CASE STUDIES in BHW
