Search Engine optimisation, also known as SEO can be a timely and tedious job. Usually, it can take from 6 to 12 months to see results and it can be quite competitive to compete with popular keywords.
But with constant work, you make your way to the top spots within Google. Did you know that on the first page alone, the first five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks? This means optimising your website to get to one of the first five results will help you to increase sales.
In this blog post, we will delve into ten technical tips that will help you to start seeing even better results, these can be easily implemented with some tips that are a one time job and others will be ongoing.
One: Create an XML Sitemap
It is essential that your website has a sitemap, else Google won’t be able to find and index your pages.
Usually, if you have gone with a web company to create your website, then they should have done this for you. However, it is simple to create one yourself.
If you use WordPress, then there are many plugins that can help you such as Yoast or Google XML Sitemaps. These are free and can make the process much quicker.
You will then need to submit this sitemap to Google, using Search Console. All you will need to do is create an account or login to your Google Search Console, once you are in go to Sitemaps – add a new sitemap, type your website’s URL then press “submit.”
Two: Check and speed up your website
If your speed time is slow, then many people will leave your site before it has loaded and gone elsewhere. Not only are you losing potential customers, but you will be increasing your bounce rate (number of people who land on your site, then click straight off) which is a big factor that plays to your SEO.
There are many websites such as GTMetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights, where you can put your URL in and it will give you your site speed score.
From there it will give you a list of whether you need to fix anything to your site, to improve the speed.
Here are a few ways you can help increase your speed:
- Reduce your image sizes
- Enable browser caching
- Implement compression on your website
However, if you are currently working with a web company, it’s always worth mentioning to them what they would recommend to speed your site up.
Three: Include keywords within alt tags
A quick and simple way to help optimise your SEO is when you add an image to your site; fill in the alt (alternative text) description. The alt description is used within HTML code to determine the appearance of an image.
Usually, it’s helpful to add a decent amount of copy to describe your image including your keywords, but just like text on the page you don’t want to stuff the content with keywords.
Need any extra help on optimising images for search engines? Then check this article out.
Four: Install an SSL certificate
Not only does an SSL determine if your site is safe to visit but it can actually help you out in terms of SEO.
An SSL is a standard security technology that adds an encrypted link between the server and the client. Usually, URLs will start with HTTP but when an SSL is added it will turn the URL to an HTTPS.
SSL’s are relatively cheap to purchase and most web companies nowadays will add this onto your site. If not then you can head to 123-reg and purchase one.
Five: Find and fix any broken links on your website
When it comes to your users’ experience on your site, you want them to function through it seamlessly. So when they click onto a page and find a 404 error this can cause a bad impression. This can result in losing a potential customer.
This is why checking for broken links is essential, as a business owner or even an SEO specialist it’s good practice to get into a regular routine of checking for broken links.
If your site uses WordPress then there are many free plugins that will automatically check for broken links. The “free Broken Link Checker” plugin is great as every 72 hours they will check for broken links then notify you if there are any.
However, if you don’t use WordPress then you can use online tools such as ” Dead Link Checker” that will also help you to stay on top of your links.
Six: Write longer content
Yes, content is one of the main factors with SEO. This is how Google will build your credibility and scan to check for what keywords you are trying to rank for. But they don’t just want to see any old text, it needs to be relevant and optimised correctly.
It is recommended that when you are writing content for a web page such as your “about” or “services” page that the content is at least 250 characters. Within this content, you should have the relevant keyword at least 3 times, with a minimum of one internal and external link.
But as well as this, the page URL and title all need to correspond to the text. It is best practice to include your chosen keywords within this but make sure it doesn’t exceed Google’s recommended character amount.
On the other hand, when it comes to blog posts it is recommended that your content is at least 1,000 characters. After many studies over the years, it has been found that Google’s algorithms prefer longer content and will push this content further up rather than “thin content.”
If your site is utilising WordPress then you can add the free plugin “Yoast” which will give you indications on what you need to do to improve your SEO. The plugin works with a traffic light system, so red is not good, amber is that there is room for improvement and green means you are fully optimised.
Seven: Remove duplicate content
We understand that it can be quite a difficult job in creating high-quality content, that is different on every page. But although duplicate content won’t technically get you penalised. It can sometimes impact your rankings.
Google calls duplicate content, “appreciably similar” and this will result in search engines finding it difficult to determine which piece of content is more relevant.
Siteliner is a useful tool that allows you to input your URL and it will let you know where it finds “appreciably similar” content.
From there you can go through and change the content so it is slightly different, even if you just change some of the words to not make it duplicate content.
Eight: Optimise internal links
An internal link is a link that when clicked it will take the user to another page on your website. These are especially important for when it comes to your SEO. Internal links are used to help enact the site’s architecture and to spread link equity.
These links are essential as you are in control of them and with using the right links you will guide your web users to the correct places on your site.
Within these links, it’s also important to utilise your keywords. For example, if you have a page that advertises what you do, you can link when you use the keyword to a blog post that you have written that describes this in more depth.
This will help search engines to fully understand the service that will result in you gaining higher positions in Google.
But don’t link the keyword every time you use it within your text, as you will get penalised for this; which will go against your final position.
Nine: Check and fix crawl errors in Google Search Console
Google Search Console will become your best friend when optimising your SEO. It is specially designed to allow website owners to see their optimisation and check the indexing of their pages.
We recommend that once a week you go into your Search Console and check for any errors. These can either be done by you or if you work with an SEO specialist then hopefully they are checking these for you.
This will help your website be free from any errors that if left could be harming your SEO positions.
Ten: Try to gain external links
An external link is when a site that is not yours has a link that points directly to your site and Google loves it when you have many of these.
External links can also be included on your site, say you have written a blog post and want to link to an external site; then adding the link will help boost both your SEO and the website you are linking to.
When you link to external destinations you are not only helping search engines to understand what it is that you do but you also help to build both trust and credibility to your site. This is why the more you have the better SEO rankings you will gain.
But it can be quite difficult to gain these link backs, what we recommend is either reaching out to people. Say you have found a website that has a broken link within their content and you have a blog post that would fit perfectly. Well, why not email them and let them know.
You could also ask people if you could write them a blog post for their website, including links that go back to your site.
Then you have the paid route, The Hoth is a white label SEO service where you can pay them to gain you a link back. This not only makes the process easier but you will be able to build credibility more quickly; which will help you to gain those top positions.
Get in touch
Hopefully, you have gained some extra insights to search engine optimisation and can implement some of these techniques that we have discussed. It is believed that 70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC, it can also be a lot cheaper.
But like anything in life you need to put the work in to see any difference. If you would like any more information then please reach out to us or in the meanwhile why not look into the SEO packages that we provide.
Thank you for reading.
Megan.