SEO: How To Optimise Your Website

SEO - It's harder than ever to rank

We are all trying to fight for a TOP spot on the Google search results.

With the recent Google Algorithm update things are not as easy as they were before. We are sure numerous businesses have seen a drop in traffic, positions & visibility. We felt the effects of the UPDATE!

So we are sure you are wondering, what do I do? how do I fix it? how do I get my rankings back up? The answer is NOTHING EXTREME! Go back to the basics of SEO & focus on well written & relevant content.

Here are some of the TOP 18 SEO elements that you still need to focus on:

1. Meta Title / Meta Description Tags

Your Meta Description & Title tags are very important. Write a compelling headline that will capture your potential user's attention. Your titles & descriptions should contain your targeted keywords. If you are using Wordpress - Yoast is one of the best plugins out there.

2. Heading Tags - H1, H2, H3

Google recently stated that the use of H1 is not that important but through a lot of research, I found it is still a key element. H1 tag signal to Google that the word is important to you. Your most important keywords or keyword should be used here. Make use of H2, H3 for your other focus keywords.

3. Keywords

Focus on 2 to 3 main keywords per pages. Don't keywords stuff! Repeat a keyword no more than 3 times. Use them in your headings & subheadings. The main keyword/keywords should appear in the first paragraph of your page.

4. Bullet Points

Highlight your key benefits & features by using bullet points.

5. Relevant Content

Make sure your content is relevant & that you are providing your users with useful & helpful information. Try and write content that is evergreen. Write more than 500+ words per page.

6. Blog

Start a blog on your site. Discuss relevant topics & share it on your social media accounts & Google My Business. Blogs can rank for more keywords & improve your website visibility & traffic.

7. Internal Links & Outbound Links

Use Internal links on your website to easily link to other pages within your site when it relates to the topic you are discussing. Try & use at least 1 internal link per page. Use outbound links when discussing certain topics on your blog.

8. Images

Use images on your web pages. Give them the relevant ALT tags. Name your images correctly before uploading them to your site.

9. Speed Of Your Site

The faster Google can crawl your site, the higher your chances of ranking. It is not only important for Google but important for your users.

Minify your CSS & Javascript. Lazy Load your images. Upload your images to your website at the correct pixel size.

10. Mobile Friendly Website

Make sure your site is mobile friendly. Check that your site displays correctly on each mobile device, desktop & laptop.

11. Secure Your Site

Your site should serve over https. Make sure your website does not have mixed content. Everything should be served over https. Soon Google won't be allowing sites that arent' secure to show on the search results. Update your site & plugins if you have a Wordpress site.

12. Robot.txt

Disallow Google from crawling pages that you don't want to be found. For example, the layout templates your site is built on - I am sure you don't want people to see these :)

13. Sitemap

Submit a sitemap to google search console. Make sure that your site map is correct. Don't use a plugin & automatically think it will generate the correct sitemap.

14. Broken Links

Google hates broken links. Install a plugin like broken link checker to scan your site.

15. Use FAQ Schema

Seeing that the review snippet is now a thing of the past, FAQ Schema is the next best thing.

16. Building Quality Backlinks

Build backlinks by using local directories. Utilise free & paid.

17. Google Search Console

Request your site to be indexed after making any major changes. Use the search console to see any mobile or broken link issues.

18. The More Traffic The Better

Get more visitors to your site! The more traffic, the more likely Google will see your site as relevant. Use SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to boost your traffic. Google Ads & Facebook are really great platforms to advertise on.

Conclusion

Your long terms strategy going forward is to write content for your clients/users. Keep your content & website up to date. Your website is an ongoing project & is never complete.

Keeping your content fresh & up to date gives your clients a reason to return to your site! AND IT GIVES GOOGLE A REASON TO RETURN TO YOUR SITE!

If you don't have the time to implement SEO & need someone to run your Google Ads & Facebook Advertising - Contact Us!