Let's Spread Some SEO Love
Start by having a cookie 🍪.
Ok, now that you are fed, let's spread some SEO love.
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Which tools do you use ?
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What is your strategy for keyword research & backlinks?
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What are your recommendations for transforming those keywords into content that works?
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Tools:
I tried Ahrefs 7 day trial, while it's an industry favorite, the $99/mo lowest tier isn't friendly to smaller makers that you typically find here on IH. If I spent all day thinking and breathing SEO, it would make sense, but as a solo founder, that is not how it works.
Eventually I found and happily use katlinks.io, which is made by fellow hacker @RobertoDigital. There are some typical tools you'd expect, page-audits to alert you about SEO issues on your site, keyword rank tracking, keyword research. etc. My favorite tool is the Backlink Gap tool, which let's me find sites that link to my competitors. This let's me find solid opportunities to find webpages that may link to me as well.
While the tool isn't perfect, Roberto is super responsive to issues and feedback and it shows in how he's actively working on making his product better. The value you get for the price is awesome, and it nicely matches my use case.
I also use Google Search Console to know what keywords are bringing me traffic. I like looking for keywords I get few clicks on, but high impressions. That shows that if you rank better, you could WIN a lot of traffic. Doesn't tell you how easy it will be.
I also use Google Analytics atm, but plan to switch to a privacy friendly version sooner than later. I'm looking at Plausible. I just have been spending a bunch lately, so slowing down purchases for a little bit.
P.s. "recommendations for transforming those keywords into content"
More content is better than the perfectly researched and worded piece. Don't crap out words, but make it easy on yourself for consistently writing content.
At the beginning of the year, I set out to write 1/mo (blog posts). By the end of July I had 0. I finally published in August and got aggressive. I find talking about what I'm interested in the moment works well for me. I crank out parts of a draft and then push my self to finish one of my drafts at the start of a day. I look for whatever is closest to finished and I spend some time revising to get it published.
Just publish.
Oh and I beat my yearly blogging goal and published over 12 posts: https://www.svgbackgrounds.com/blog/
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/after-8-months-of-drafts-i-completed-my-first-blog-post-7349f0ed99
Thanks for the recommendation. Will check it out and congratz on your blog, no SVG stone will be left unturned !😉
You're welcome and thanks!
I use https://katlinks.io – I've tried some of the more expensive SEO tools and wasn't getting enough value from them as a casual user, so Katlinks was a sweet spot for me. Keyword research is a mixture of Katlinks + Google + Competitive landscape scoping.
Thanks for sharing this. Hadn't known about katlinks before but was searching for an SEO tool
For keyword research/checking backlinks, I use KatLinks.io. It's got a great price point and offers everything I need to be able to track my current progress, and assess what keywords I need to target. For copywriting, I use my own tool SEOCopy.ai to help generate copy. I take the keywords identified in KatLinks.io and then put them into the Blog Post Generator tool in SEOCopy.ai, they work well together, and it's great for me to be able to put my own tool into practise and see what works well/doesn't.
Hei. I’ve wrote an article some time ago and I mention there the tools that might help, about seo.
https://boobo94.github.io/startup/resources/tools-analyzing-competition/
Good list. I wish you had mentioned the pricing for each as well.
They have a free plan each. But sure probably I’ll revise that. Thanks
Good idea :)
Thanks for your answer! How are liking the keyword research tool of Katlinks?
I still use ahref for intense research phase (sign up for a month and cancel). But katlinks is great for day-to-day quick checks.
p.s. I wrote a Twitter thread about this recently :)
Very interesting thread! @philmcp Thanks for sharing.
Would you mind elaborating a bit on that? How can you tell that a certain keyword is searched for by your customers?
You can do SEO for free if you're just starting. Use Google Keyword Planner, Search Console and Google itself to check SERPs.
The main thing you'll be missing is links data. Links data is useful for assessing competition and opportunities. Ahrefs is the best tool for that. But you can also just look at the SERPs and make a judgement based on quality of pages there - can I do better than these results?
But SEO takes time and effort, especially link building. Often there are no quick wins for Indie Hackers in competitive markets. Investing in tools doesn't change that.
I also offer free SEO quick win via my website as well as an affordable approach to SEO strategy. I'm an SEO specialist.
Isn't Google Keyword Planner more suited for PPC? Ahrefs ' Keyword Research tool seems way more attractive and more suited for SEO. The filtering capabilities it offers too. But it appears more geared towards more advanced users and less towards IHs.
GKP data can be used for getting a general idea of search demand for free. Ahrefs is not free, but you're right it's designed for SEO keyword research. Ahrefs did a post recently comparing the two tools' data.
But its important to not put too much faith in these tools. You can get analysis paralysis and won't ever start.
+100 about this, you don't need more tools, you need to understand what you're doing and then you can figure it out with the tool you already have!
That being said, if you do it on a massive scale, I can see how the aforementioned paid tools are useful
I don't know. Sometimes the right tool drives the learning and learning by doing becomes feasible.
Very timely post. I actually just posted a high level case study with the content creation software I use that I built myself.
Check out the thread here:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/case-study-making-5k-mo-from-my-blog-using-my-own-seo-content-software-ba395c1b60
@mscyoc very interesting app, kudos! How are you dealing with plagiarism concerns?
I differentiate between plagiarism vs duplicate content. I think as long as the sources are cited and linked to, there isn't a problem there. My software does this automatically and encourages citations every time an answer is selected by the user.
As far as duplication goes, each time a user requests to generate their own tools/models we can train a feature to rewrite the answer content. That can also be continuously improved by the user over time. The goal is to make it unique and provide the same value or quality it would be if the user rewrote it themself.
Signed up for the open beta! 👊
This is a great discussion. The main tool that I'm using is just Google Web Master Tools. Would love to hear some recommendations that do not cost a fortune.
I am actually shopping for a SEO tool and the task is proving to be as arduous as finding a life partner. There are a lot of tools out there and the ones that seem worth the trouble are kind of pricey.
Hi! Thanks for creating an interesting thread.
Let me share some tools I use for doing keyword research and creating content:
I analyze competitors' content using UberSuggest, Ahrefs, SemRush and try to find the keywords that are missing on our site, that have moderate keyword difficulty. Then I either create blog posts or separate landing pages for a specific keyword.
Looking for topic ideas for the blog posts I sometimes use https://answerthepublic.com/
As a SaaS I noticed that the following strategies work:
I also would like to share my love to the free SEO tools - https://www.seoreviewtools.com/
I am really struggling getting the backlinks, so will listen to the strategies of others.