SEO That Works: A No-BS Guide to Getting Ranked on Google

Gareth van Rensburg

If your website isn’t showing up on Google, you’re invisible to your customers. SEO — search engine optimization — is what makes your business findable online. At Yoho Digital, we help businesses of all sizes move from buried to visible using real-world strategies derived from data-driven insights.

We use Ahrefs to scan your site, analyze your competitors, and identify exactly what’s holding you back. This isn’t guesswork — it’s methodical, tested SEO that drives leads, traffic, and revenue.


🔍 Step 1: Nail Your Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of SEO. They’re how people find you — or don’t. But many businesses target the wrong ones: either too competitive or too vague.

At Yoho Digital, we use Ahrefs Keyword Explorer to identify:

  • Terms your audience is actually searching
  • Gaps your competitors haven’t claimed
  • Long-tail keywords with clear buyer intent

If you’re selling SEO services in Cape Town, ranking for “SEO” is nearly impossible — and not that useful. But “SEO consultant Cape Town for small businesses”? That’s targeted, local, and actionable.

Your content, page titles, and meta descriptions should reflect these terms — naturally. Google penalizes keyword stuffing, so always write for humans first.


🧠 Step 2: Optimize Website Content

Good SEO content isn’t about stuffing keywords into a blog. It’s about clarity, relevance, and structure. When Google crawls your site, it’s looking for well-organized, trustworthy information that meets the searcher’s intent.

Every page needs a clear goal: is it informing, selling, or converting? That goal should drive how the content is written and formatted.

We advise clients to:

  • Use descriptive H1 and H2 headings
  • Break long text into readable sections
  • Add context with images (with proper alt text)
  • Include internal links to related services or blog posts

The more your content answers a real user question, the more likely Google is to reward you with higher rankings.

seo guide

🔗 Step 3: Build Links That Build Authority

Backlinks — links from other websites to yours — are one of the strongest signals Google uses to rank your content. But quality matters more than quantity.

A single link from a respected industry site is worth more than 50 spammy ones from irrelevant blogs.

At Yoho, we:

  • Use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to audit your current backlinks
  • Identify competitor links you can replicate or outdo
  • Build relationships with publishers for guest posts and digital PR

If your website has no backlinks, you’re not in the game. Link building is how you earn trust in Google’s eyes — and trust equals visibility.


⚙️ Step 4: Clean Up the Technical SEO

Even the best content and keyword strategy won’t work if your site is technically broken.

We often find clients with great products and services, but their site is:

  • Slow to load
  • Full of broken links
  • Not mobile-friendly
  • Missing basic metadata

These issues stop Google from properly indexing your site. Using Ahrefs Site Audit, we check all the backend essentials and create a todo-list of what needs fixing.

Once your technical foundation is clean, everything else becomes more effective — content ranks faster, and users stay longer.


📍 Step 5: Dominate Local SEO

If you serve customers in a specific location, local SEO is your lifeline. Google prioritizes businesses that clearly state where they operate and have consistent online presence.

We help local clients:

  • Set up and optimize their Google Business Profile
  • Build trusted citations across directories
  • Encourage and respond to customer reviews
  • Target city-specific keywords and content

Local SEO isn’t just for retail or restaurants — it’s for anyone serving a local audience.


✍️ Step 6: Let Content Do the Heavy Lifting

SEO without content is like a gym without weights — you have nothing to train with. Google ranks content that educates, solves problems, or answers real questions.

We work with clients to develop content calendars tied to high-value keywords, and then write blog posts, service pages, or resource hubs that deliver results.

Content that performs well:

  • Is focused on a specific keyword and topic
  • Provides unique, firsthand insights
  • Includes strong calls to action or next steps

Publishing once a quarter doesn’t cut it. You need consistent, relevant content that supports your SEO goals over time.


🎯 Ready for Advanced SEO?

Once your SEO basics are handled, we dig deeper:

  • Schema markup helps Google understand your site’s structure
  • Content clusters improve topical authority (great for B2B and SaaS)
  • Competitor audits expose weaknesses in your niche you can dominate

SEO is always moving — and we stay ahead of it so you don’t have to.


🚀 Want to Know What’s Holding You Back?

If your rankings are flat or your traffic’s going nowhere, there’s a reason. Let’s find it.

Yoho Digital offers a free SEO audit — we’ll show you exactly where the problems are and how to fix them.

👉 Contact us today to book your scan and start getting seen.