Seven top tips to improve your SEO without paying for it
There are around 1.2 billion websites currently in existence, with 252,000 new ones going live each day. That’s 175 every single minute of the day, every day! That’s why SEO (or search engine optimisation) is such a hot topic. SEO is all about making changes to your website to make sure it gets seen. You need to make sure you stand out from the crowd and your site is optimised so that your perfect next customer can find you when they type just a few words into Google.
Just having a website that looks good and has some information about what you do isn’t enough, but it’s something we see a lot! Business owners often think their work is done once their site is designed, built, and live on the web. They simply sit back and wait for website traffic, sales leads and conversions to roll in. But for most businesses, this just doesn’t happen!
Why? It’s simple – a website going live is just the first step in using it to generate sales. You can spend lots of money, time and effort to create a website that stands out, looks good and has the information your potential customers need…, but it’s likely to all go to waste if you don’t optimise, monitor and evaluate it.
There are lots of ways you can influence how well your website performs. Luckily, they don’t always have to be large-scale or structural changes. They can often be nothing more than simple tweaks and alterations to make sure visitors are enjoying the most optimised experience and that your website is serving their needs. With that in mind, here are seven top tips from our website and IT experts that will help you improve your website’s viability without spending a fortune on SEO packages.
- Updating website content
Regularly changing the content on your website (such as uploading at least two blogs a month, adding new products or updating page content) is highly recommended. Google doesn’t like, and won’t promote, a dormant website, so keep it fresh, keep it updated and keep it relevant. If you’re not able to keep up with regular blogging, think about outsourcing it. We’d love to speak to you about our blogging packages and content creation services.
- Local SEO
If your business has physical premises, the SEO visibility for local searches is a great option to start ranking. Being registered with directories and promoting local business is the way forward as this will increase your client base due to the searches being very specific.
- Google reviews and Google+
Don’t forget the importance of Google reviews and Google+ as a social media platform. Google will naturally rank its own platform higher than others, so if you can update this and become more interactive with their platform, the higher you will rank in searches with minimal effort.
- Image names
Make sure you’ve named images on your site – including those in blogs and on product pages. Google will pick up on all back-end titles and tags, so uploading an image with an odd or random name is not going to help with SEO. Name the image with the product or service name to keep it relevant and help your SEO.
- Increase traffic
Keep in mind that the more new and unique visitors you get to visit your website, the more likely Google is to rank it. Encourage social media followers to visit your website (you can add links in the comments on Facebook or in stories on Instagram, plus the bio links) and use your email list, signature and so on to drive traffic too. The more active Google sees your website as being, the higher it is likely to rank.
- Keywords
Choose your keywords wisely and on a page by page basis – and don’t “keyword stuff” your content! That is where people try to ram the keyword or phrase in as many times as they can, but this will make the copy horrible to read and can cause Google’s crawler bots (that check your site for SEO) to downgrade your site. Your keywords and phrases should be based on what your potential customer is searching for – do some research. The Google Keyword Planner and tools such as SEMrush are helpful here!
- Build backlinks
A backlink simply means whenever a link to your website appears on another trusted website. Google loves backlinks as it thinks they help prove that a website is trustworthy (provided the site your link is on is a real, functioning website). You can get backlinks by offering to guest blog on a fellow businesses website and having a link to your site in the blog, by placing some digital PR on an industry news website or by being included in online business directories.
These are just some of the many ways you can help improve your own SEO without paying for the service.
Obviously, these tips will help your ranking, but should also be done even if you are paying for SEO support.
At Black Nova Designs, we have a range of affordable packages to help with your SEO and therefore give you the visibility your business needs! Contact us to learn more about our SEO packages and how we can assist you in boosting your online presence.