# The One Thing You Have to Do Before You Start Doing SEO \| Ep\. \#865

**URL:** https://www.singlegrain.com/episodes/marketing-school/the-one-thing-you-have-to-do-before-you-start-doing-seo-ep-865/  
**Published:** 2018-12-13  
**Author:** Selena Templeton  
**Summary:** In episode \#865, we discuss the one thing you have to do before you start doing SEO\. Tune in to hear what your first step should be\. We have committed\.\.\.  

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In episode #865, we discuss the one thing you have to do before you start doing SEO. Tune in to hear what your first step should be.

We have committed to throwing a FREE Marketing School Live Event in Los Angeles, once Marketing School reaches 1M downloads in a 30 day period. Take action: Rate, review, subscribe, and SHARE. Check the progress [here](http://marketingschool.io/stats/)!

**TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:**

- \[00:27\] Today’s Topic: _The One Thing You Have to Do Before You Start Doing SEO_
- \[00:36\] Look up your competitors in [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/) or [SEMRush](https://www.semrush.com/).
- \[00:44\] These tools will show you their most popular pages, the terms for which those pages rank, their positions, and total traffic value.
- \[01:02\] This information will help you determine what you should target.
- \[01:45\] Once you find one competitor, you can find others using the above listed tools.
- \[02:10\] When you are looking at information on Ahrefs, you can see the content gap. The content gap is the content that your competitors are covering that you are not.
- \[02:36\] Use the [Keyword Difficulty Tool](https://www.semrush.com/info/kdt) to see how hard it would be to rank for a given topic.
- \[02:50\] [BuzzSumo](https://buzzsumo.com/) will give you an idea of competitors’ social shares.
- \[03:10\] That’s it for today!
- \[03:25\] Go [here](http://marketingschool.io/stats) to see how many downloads the show is getting. Also rate and review to help us meet our goal of 1 Million downloads per month. Hopefully, we’ll see you at the live event in L.A.!

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The post [The One Thing You Have to Do Before You Start Doing SEO | Ep. #865](https://marketingschool.io/the-one-thing-you-have-to-do-before-you-start-doing-seo-ep-865/) appeared first on [Marketing School Podcast](https://marketingschool.io/).