Quick SEO Tips that You Can Do Right Now
In this current climate, it has never been more important to make sure your website is fully optimised so that you can be seen online. With nearly all places of business closed, that is where everything is happening right now. So if you’re not online, how is anyone going to find you?
Having great SEO services in Australia will allow your website to rank better in search engines (like Google), and in turn, increase your chances of being found online. And while SEO is a long-term strategy, and can be quite technical and confusing, there are a few things you can do yourself NOW to help give your website a boost in the weeks and months to come.
Here are 10 quick tips to help you SEO-ify your website yourself:
#1. Increase your Authoritah!
This is the perfect time to create content that will help you increase your brand trustworthiness and your authority as an expert in your industry or field. All things that are important to a potential customer when they come a’knocking on your website door. So how can you increase this on your site?
Update your about me page - add recent photos of yourself and your team, include any badges from publications you’ve been featured, awards you may have won, partners you’re working with or qualifications you’ve received
Add fun stats about your business to showcase your expertise and increase your social proof - for example, instead of saying you’ve married couples for 15 years, say you’ve helped 2,000 couples cement their love for each other
Write a blog - been putting it off? Then take the opportunity of any downtime you may have and just write it! Ask your audience what they would like to know more about, or Google keywords related to your business to find a topic of interest, and then just get writing. Blog content will help boost your SEO, but it also helps to establish you as an authority in your space
#2. Use Your Google Tools
And make sure you have them set up properly! Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google My Business! These will either help you be found online, or make you aware of any issues that may be preventing your website from performing optimally.
Be careful not to get lost down the rabbit hole of analytics - if you’re just starting out with these tools, it can be overwhelming. But just start small, and learn as you go. There are plenty of online tutorials to help you set these tools up and show you how best to use them. Or, we can help!
#3. Be Safe
If your website isn’t already secure, do this now! Get your SSL certificate and get your website set up as HTTPS. If you want more info, check out this blog here.
#4. Do a Keyword Deep Dive
Have a look at what keywords you’re already ranking for in Google Search Console and use these to update your website content. Or use tools like “Answer the Public” to come up with new keywords and content topic ideas. You can also review your direct messages and emails to see what questions you get asked a lot, and use this to inform a FAQs page that incorporates your keywords.
When adding keywords to your website, make sure you’re not “keyword stuffing” - i.e. don’t overfill the page with keywords. The sentences should still flow and sound natural. You should place your main keyword into your page title, as well as into the page description. And then incorporate it into the body copy where it makes sense.
#5. Bulk Out Your Content
It is recommended that your website pages should have a minimum of 300 words on it (not all pages will have this, like your contact page, but any important landing pages should follow these guidelines), so have a look through your site and identify any pages where the content is a bit thin, and then either get rid of it, or rewrite it and add to it. Keep your keyword tips from above in mind while doing this, and be careful not to just add content for the sake of adding it - your content should always offer value, be helpful or answer a question.
#6. Check your H1’s
H1 is the term used for your main page heading - aka Heading 1. You should only have one H1 per page, so check the formatting of your pages and make sure you don’t use multiple H1 tags per page.
#7. Ask for Reviews
Whether they’re on your website, your Google My Business page or on your Facebook page, reviews and testimonials are big SEO boosters, as well as great for establishing trust and authority with potential customers. So if you don’t already have a process in place of getting reviews on your products (especially if you sell online), set that up. Or if you supply a service, go to your current and past clients and ask them to leave you a review, and include a link to your chosen platforms. We know - asking feels weird, but honestly, the worst they can do is ignore you. For more tips on this topic, check out this blog!
#8. Remove Anything Slowing You Down
Page speed is a really important aspect of SEO - no one is willing to wait around for your website to load, so if your site speed is slow, you’re potentially missing out big time! [Use this tool here to find out your page speed!] So get rid of anything that is not essential on your page. Deactivate plugins you’re not using; compress your images and site banners using an image compression tool or plugin; implement AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages - in Squarespace its a simple as ticking a box to enable this); or host videos on a different platform like Youtube and just embed the link. There’s heaps more that you can do, but it does start to get a bit more techy from this point on.
#9. Linking
Review your site and add links where you think its relevant - either to your own content (i.e. to a past blog post that might add more information - like we’ve done in this post), or to someone else’s content. Link building is fundamental to SEO because at the end of the day, its supposed to help the user and give them a more valuable experience (by providing links to other valuable resources) and search engines love that!
Ideally you also want other sites linking back to your content, and if you produce high-quality content, that may happen organically, but that topic warrants a blog piece all of its own.
#10. Optimise Your Social Profiles
Make sure your profiles are fully filled out and ensure that the formatting you use for your address, phone number and other contact details match across the board. Add images with descriptions, include product or service information, write a unique blurb, add your website link. If you can weave in calls to action, like phone calls or Facebook Messenger. These platforms are free for you to use (for profiles) so make sure you’re using every avenue they give you to present information to your customers.
So, you may not be able to do all of these tips all right now. But there are definitely some you can do straight away, and then prioritise the others if you haven’t already done them. And if you’re not sure how to do it, what to do or if it needs doing, book in your FREE discovery call with us and we can chat all things SEO, including our new Healthcheck package!