SEO Guide

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is the practice of enhancing a website’s visibility in search engine results. A solid SEO strategy can lead to increased brand awareness, more leads, and ultimately, higher sales, making it an essential component of marketing efforts.

Effective SEO helps build credibility and trust with potential customers, as higher-ranking sites are generally perceived as more authoritative. By optimizing websites for relevant keywords and improving user experience, businesses can attract organic traffic, which is often more cost-effective than paid advertising.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

These tips are based on the following post:

Lazy SEO guide for startup founders: pic.twitter.com/BLuowaPpQU

— John Rush (@johnrushx) September 6, 2024

Technical SEO

Use Static Site Generation (SSG) or Server-Side Rendering (SSR) to render your site. Do not use Client-Side Rendering (CSR) (like React, Vue, etc.) because it relies on JavaScript to generate content in the browser, making it difficult for search engines to index the page effectively.

Tip

Read more about rendering modes and how to configure them:

• Astro Rendering Modes
• NextJS Rendering

Domain Name

Research Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner for keywords to find high traffic and low competition keywords. Try to go for an exact match.

Tip

Learn the Basics of Google Trends in 5 minutes.

Preferred Top-Level Domains

Go for these Top-Level Domains (TLD) only (from best to worst):

• com
• org
• ai
• net
• dev
• io

On Page SEO

Spend more time researching keywords in Google Keyword Planner and make a list. Go to your home page and other pages and insert it into

• meta tags (title, description)
• h1/h2

Word Count

Make sure your pages have at least 2000 words.

Blog

Write 20-100 articles.

Tip

John Rush’s strategy:

• I generate them all quickly using SEO Bot
• I wait for a few weeks to see which articles drive impressions
• I manually improve or rewrite those articles to make them great (often articles are great out of the box)

Indexing

New sites or pages are not indexed immediately. There are 3 options:

1. Wait patiently, potentially for days, weeks, or months
2. Manually request each page one by one
   • Ask Google to recrawl
   • Ask Bing to recrawl using IndexNow
3. Use indexing tools (e.g. IndexRusher)

Domain Rating

Domain Rating (DR) is a metric that shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile. To grow DR you need good backlinks:

• Ask friends
• Submit to directories
• Use a tool like ListingBott

Tip

• Ahrefs’ advice is not to buy backlinks.
• Check out 34 Inbound Link Building Strategies to Help Your Site Rank Higher.

Social Media Backlinks

Social media backlinks are beneficial for SEO. While most social media backlinks are nofollow (meaning they don’t directly pass SEO authority), they can still contribute to your overall link-building strategy by increasing exposure and the likelihood of earning quality backlinks from other sources. Here’s why they matter:

1. Increased Visibility
   • Sharing your content on social media can significantly boost its visibility.
   • When more people see your content, there’s a higher chance of acquiring organic backlinks from other websites.
2. Traffic Generation
   • Social media can drive traffic to your website.
   • Increased traffic can lead to more engagement, which search engines may interpret as a sign of quality, potentially improving your rankings.
3. Brand Awareness
   • Active social media presence helps establish your brand, making it more recognizable.
   • This can lead to more searches for your brand on Google, which is beneficial for SEO.

Tip

• 6 Benefits of Social on SEO
• 28 Social Media Backlinks To Increase Your Rankings In 2024

Internal Linking

Make sure you have lots of internal links. Every page you have must have 3+ incoming links from your own website.