In this post I will show you step by step how to rank for a keyword in 2020. Eventhough we will be using our 2020 SEO checklist, these strategies mentioned below are fairly evergreen. They will work for years to come because here at The Affiliate Resource we use a foundational approach to ranking blog posts and pages on the search engines.
The methods we use work. I own two different blogs in two completely different niches and these principles work for both niches. Plus, thousands of students within the affiliate marketing community for which I belong use these same foundational strategies and have many 5, 6 and 7 figure earners within the affiliate marketing space. So, plain and simple, the following strategies work, and they work in 2019 and beyond.
That being said, most people are interested in learning how to rank for a keyword because they are interested in driving free traffic for their website, for whatever reason. The reason does not really matter because the strategies that work are the same regardless of the reason you want to drive traffic to your website.
In our case, we drive traffic to our websites to help us provide information to help others find the information they are looking for and to recommend products and services to potential customers through affiliate marketing.
The following methods include sound SEO (search engine optimization) principles which include both on-page and off-page SEO strategies. Follow these strategies and you can easily rank for keywords that follow these guidelines.
Find the Right Keyword to Rank For
Before we use the 2019 SEO checklist, me must start our with the right keyword phrase to try and rank for. This is the heart of the foundation to rank on t he first page of the major search engines. Keep in mind, we are attempting to rank on the three top search engines. Google, Bing and Yahoo.
To find the right keyword phrase we need to focus on three different elements, and look at the desired metrics involved with these elements. The elements include:
- Average monthly search volume
- Website Competition
- SEO score
Let’s break these three elements down and discuss the desired metrics.
Average monthly search volume
This element is self-explanatory. This is the number of people who are searching the keyword phrase you are trying to rank for. A good metric to look for here is at least 100 searches per month or higher. This metric is a minimum number. It is an “at least” number. So the higher the better, but, we have to balance it with your competition, because the lower the competition the better. Of course, this also means the higher the number of monthly searches, the higher the competition, and what we want is lower competition. So, like most things in life, it’s a balance.
Website Competition
Website competition really means the number of other websites that are trying to rank for the exact keyword phrase you are trying to rank for. This is also known as QSR, which stands for “Quoted Search Results”. It specifically tells you the number of competing websites. I believe the ideal metric for this element is 50 or below, at least for a younger website. For an older, more established website, 100 or below would be a good metric. Just keep in mind, the lower this value is, the better.
SEO Score
The SEO Score is a percentage score indicating how difficult it would be to get onto the first page of Google. 100 is the highest, meaning it would be very easy to rank for that particular keyword phrase. For this particular metric I always try to stay above 90.
So to review the ideal metrics, you want the keyword phrase to be 100 or above, the competition to be at least below 100, ideally 50 or below, and an SEO score of 90 or above. Now, you may think there are not that many keywords within these parameters, but I can assure you there are millions and millions of these types of keywords available.
You just need a good keyword tool to find them. I use a tool called Jaaxy. This tools gives you all the necessary information to find excellent keyword phrases to rank for. You can check out my Jaaxy review here to get all the details. I highly recommend it.
Provide Valuable Content For the Keyword You Want To Rank For
The next step of the process on how to rank for a keyword is to create valuable content on your blog post or article. I am sure you heard it said before, content is king. This is very important, because it is content and information that people are looking for. Once you find a good keyword phrase, you then want to write the kind of content that will help people find the information they are looking for.
It is not hard to write this type of content, it just requires some research on the subject at hand in short paragraphs. The length should be at least 1000 words, ideally 1500. Most of my articles and blog posts are 1500 words or more of content mixed with relevant images. This is very important because it breaks up the content making it easier for people to read it.
It is all about the user experience here. You want to give them what they are searching for. If you do this, they will read your content and be more likely to complete the call to action you are giving them.
The next thing you want to do in addition to adding images, is to add a relevant video. These are easy to find on YouTube, and yes, if the embed code is available, then you can legally use it. Just make sure the video is relevant to the subject matter you are writing about. The other option is to create your own video and embed it onto the post.
How To Use The Following On Page SEO Checklist For 2019
As we mentioned before, content is king when it comes to ranking in the search engines. But the queen of the content is using the following On Page SEO techniques while writing your content that is relevant to the keyword phrase you chose.
But, what are the On Page SEO techniques we use to rank ? They are as follows:
- Finding the right Keyword phrase to rank for (high search volume/low competition)
- We covered this fairly well in the above sections
- Put the Keyword phrase in the Post Title
- I recommend that you put your researched keyword phrase in the post title exactly how it is. In other words, in the same order. If possible and grammatically correct, put it first, followed by a catchy line of text.
- Put the Keyword phrase in the Meta Title
- This is actually different from your post title. This is usually done through an SEO plugin such as Yoast or All In One SEO. The plugin provides a spot for this Meta title. Use the same suggestions provided above for the post title. The Meta title should be between 55 and 60 characters in length. It should be noted that you can have a different Meta title than the one you have in your actual post. The Meta Title is the one that shows up in the SERPS. This is short for “Search Engine Results Pages”.
- Put the Keyword phrase in the Meta Description
- This is also from your SEO plugin and there is a spot for this one as well. You want to make sure that you add your keyword phrase within the content of this description. The description will also appear in the SERPS. You want to make this description between 150 and 160 characters. Ideally, 155.
- 1 Internal Link within the Post
- In addition to having a site map, Google really likes to see interlinking within your website. What this means is that in your post or page that you link to another post or page of your website. Plus you want to do this with an anchor text. For example, if you want to link to a page that talks about a certain product review that you wrote and you named that particular post “Product A review”, then in your current post you might say something like, “I Talk specifically about product A in my Product A review”. Then you simply link “product A Review” to that particular blog post.
- In addition to having a site map, Google really likes to see interlinking within your website. What this means is that in your post or page that you link to another post or page of your website. Plus you want to do this with an anchor text. For example, if you want to link to a page that talks about a certain product review that you wrote and you named that particular post “Product A review”, then in your current post you might say something like, “I Talk specifically about product A in my Product A review”. Then you simply link “product A Review” to that particular blog post.
- 1 External Link within the Post (to an authority source)
- Here you want to link to an outside authority source like Wikipedia or some other definition source. This is where you might want to define a work or phrase and then link it to a definition adding value to the reader. Another source besides Wikipedia can also be YouTube. Notice how I linked it to the YouTube site.
- Use Alt tags within Images with relevant keywords
- The use of images are very important. They break up long lines of text so that the attention of the reader does not easily drift. You want to add images along with short paragraphs and the use of bullet points. When you do use an image you want to add your keyword phrase in the Alt Text section of the image. The rest of the checklist is fairly self-explanatory so I won’s go into detail. Should you have any questions regarding these feel free to comment below.
- Comments within your Post along with engagement (e.g. reply to comments)
- Make sure your site is Mobile friendly
- Fast Loading
- Site SSL (https)
- Create a video and add it to your post
Conclusion
As you can see ranking for a keyword phrase is not that difficult and by utilizing the proper keyword research you can start with both feet on the groups, so to speak. Also, with the proper use of the 2019 On Page SEO checklist that you can follow for every single post, it makes it that much easier.
One thing to consider is that as you write more and more content on your website, you will generate more and more traffic to your site. The reason for this is that each article or post stands on its own. 100 potential visitor here and 200 potential visitors there (meaning different posts) add up to thousands of visitors to your website, and depending on how you are monetizing your blog, can add up to a lot of profit for you.
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