Blog

What are the seven steps to successful SEO?

Carl Setzer
SEO Graphic
  • “What are the seven steps to successful SEO?”
    • Successful SEO has seven key steps, per MOZ’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO“. These are valuable ways to help your website be discoverable by new users by ranking high in Search Engine Results Pages.
      • Crawl accessibility so engines can read your website
        • Enabling search engines to find and index my site
      • Compelling content that answers the searchers query
        • The site needs to answer questions in an interesting and engaging way.
      • Keyword optimized to attract searchers & engines
        • Be thoughtful with the composition of the website so that relevant keywords are featured in the articles
      • Great user experience including a fast load speed and compelling UX
        • The site needs to be streamlined so that it loads quickly, yet also has an interesting and engaging design
      • Share-worthy content that earns links, citations, and amplification
        • Content that engages your audience enough that they feel compelled to share it.
      • Title, URL, and description to draw high Click-Through Rates in the rankings
        • Thoughtfully considering article titles, the site’s URL, and description to make it compelling to someone, seeing it in a search, is very interested in clicking on the link and coming to the page.
      • Snippet/scheme markup to stand out in SERPs
        • Make the additional comments that show up on the Search Results Page engaging and encouraging the viewer to click over to the site.

What is SEO?

Carl Setzer
SEO Graphic

This quarter I studied SEO techniques, mainly working off of Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. Let’s take a look at some of my main takeaways. Today, let’s start with the basics: What Is SEO?

  • SEO is otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, this is a technique to strategize your website’s content to place better in the search results of Google and Bing. This requires deeply understanding your target demographics, what they are interested in, what sorts of things they search for, how they search, and the way they structure their searches. Also, you need to understand how search engines work. They crawl the internet, creating indexes of the content they find. Ultimately, SEO is about creating better organic search results, as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. SEO has 20 times more traffic opportunities than PPC (via both mobile and desktop). SEO also pays off over a longer time.

Edit: corrected the link to Moz’s “Beginner’s Guide To SEO”. 

A Good Morning Haiku

Carl Setzer

songbirds chattering

a feature of my morning

crocuses waking

I hope your Tuesday brings you closer to your goals.

Winter’s Motion

Carl Setzer

this winter’s motion
sunlight climbing through the sky
crocuses blooming

This Morning’s Earworm: Kate Bush “Running Up that Hill”

Carl Setzer2 Comments

Pretty much every morning I wake with a song in my mind. Sometimes it’s simply my latest auditory obsession. Sometimes I think it’s my subconscious “telling me something”. This morning I woke with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” on earworm. I’m not sure if my brain has a message for me or this just a song I’ve long loved popping back into my awareness. But it’s not unwelcome.

Through the Rainfall

Carl Setzer

through the rainfall
as it changes to snow
the birds now confused

Found this blossom during my walk the other day. More signs that spring is almost here. Yet today we had rain, wind, snow and hail. It was quite a day, weather – wise.

Looking At Laptops

Carl Setzer
Apple M1 Logo

My main laptop right now is an OLLLDDD MacBook Pro. It’s nearly 10 years old, and it’s starting to really show its age. And we do have need of a laptop.  So, it’s time to think of a replacement.

I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve seen of Apple’s new M1 chip. Also, my wife is most comfortable with Mac OS. And I pride myself on being OS agnostic. Additionally, one of the things I’m considering once I’m done at Edmonds college is UW’s Interactive Design program. They require a laptop and, though they don’t mandate a MacBook, they do highly recommend one. So, with all of that, I’m leaning towards an M1 Macbook Air. I still need to explore more, though. Due diligence and all that. Fortunately, I do get a student discount.

So, I’ve done a bit of research already. Check out these videos below. The first is a review of the MacBook while the second talks about the M1 chip compared to Windows PCs. Both point towards the M1 and Macbook.

Is the move from big cities permanent?

Carl Setzer
Map of the US

My son and a number of my friends have asked what I think about all these people moving out of cities. Well, a Twitter friend, Bernie, posted this to his blog today: Iowa shows why the move from big cities may be only temporary. I agree with his assessment: cities offer more than affordability. I lived for the better part of 10 years in downtown Seattle and loved it. Arts and culture are a part of my soul. Having galleries, coffee shops, restaurants a short walk away delighted me deeply. One my favorite times in my life.

Anyway, Bernie references an article that looks at Iowan politics that might impeded this desire to attract the coastal urban dwellers to the mid-west*: Wood: About that public narrative we’re crafting to attract out-of-state people to move to Des Moines. Summation: the state’s anti-progressive agenda will impede growth. It’s an interesting point of view. For me, personally, politics might be a part, but, ultimately, the whole urban west coast thing is who I am. Even if they had the fastest internet on earth, I doubt I’d be heading east in a U-Haul.

 

*As a life-long west-coaster, I have long loved calling the middle part of the US the middle-east. 

A Saturday Morning Haiku

Carl Setzer

resisting waking

sunlight reaches my window

life keeps on moving

Another morning, life keeps moving. Onwards…

Under the Clouds

Carl Setzer2 Comments
Under the Clouds

set under the clouds
my city moves through the rain
while fueled by coffee

A rainy day here, just north of Seattle. One that brings me memories of northwestern Oregon. The winter rains in Astoria where my feet were my main mode of transportation. I guess that came from the heavy weight of the rain drops along with their coldness.

Created with Adobe Spark.