8 Ways to Improve Your SEO Today
SEO. We all need it. But it can feel like a huge and confusing task for so many independent businesses and brands. And while SEO is for sure a long game and there are a lot of ways to get ahead, we've outlined a few easy, simple ways to improve your site's SEO starting today.
Unsure of what SEO means? Let’s define it first:
Search engine optimization means taking a piece of online content and optimizing it so search engines like Google show it towards the top of the page when someone searches for something.
It’s a great way to ensure your brand pops up for certain keywords right when people are looking. And while there are a million tips, tricks and tactics for SEO that you can hire professionals for (hi!), here are 8 simple things you can do all on your own to rank better.
Read on to see how you can get started with SEO for your brand today.
1. Use Google Analytics: Google Analytics allows you to see where you are ranking, but also let’s you know what browsers your audience is using. By knowing this information you are able to cater your content to your audience’s desires. Also, it provides insight into competitors traffic which will allow you to make the changes to chip away at competitor search results. There’s a ton this tool can do - more on that in a future post! ways to
2. Make sure your website is mobile friendly: Most Google searches are done from a mobile device. Integrate a mobile SEO program to better understand what content and keywords you should be using to attract your desired audience. Make sure to place most important content at top of page so it will load first
3. Insert a SEO Plug-in into your website: Similar to google analytics, a SEO Plug-in will allow you to see important analytics (backlinks, keywords). It also can help find pages and posts with high potential, reorganize your website’s structure, fix broken links, conduct a comprehensive SEO audit, and more. When building a website, consider using Wordpress because it works best with plugins.
4. Proofread: While having spelling errors can look unprofessional, it can also hurt your SEO. A typo can take away your website’s ability to shine through in search results. It would even be a good idea to hire a professional proofreader.
5. Add more visual content: When you have visual content, it will be easier to engage your audience and they will want to spend more time on the website. Images help improve the chances of people clicking on and sharing your content. Also, great images can improve your chances of landing on the Google Images search page.
6. Optimize Your Content: When you make your site accessible to all users you are able to reach larger audiences. It is a smart idea to run your website through a program that evaluates how accessible your website is and what google is dinging you for.
7. Secure High Quality Backlinks: Engage with platforms and people you would want to share your content. You need to be seen as an authoritative person or influencer in your field for people to want to share your content as a backlink. Be sure you are writing high quality content.
8. Increase Page Speed: People want to use websites that load fast and lose interest when they can’t read the content fast enough. Consider downloading a SEO tool from google that will help increase page speed and makes sure your image sizes aren’t too large which can make for a slow load time.