Updated 17 October 2020. This is a question that I get asked all the time, and there are actions that you can do. Here are seven quick things that you can do now to improve your SEO rankings.
#1. Register your business with Google My Business
If you are a local retailer with a physical storefront or a local service provider with a physical office open to the public, one of the first things you should to do to increase your local SEO is to register your business with Google My Business. In order to do this, you need to create a Google account for your business. Then simply go through the basic set up process on Google My Business. For added credibility once you have set up your process don’t forget to verify your business (this is fairly straightforward). Once you have done this you should find that your Google search rank improves and that you come up in local searches when customers search for what you offer.
#2. Research keywords carefully
The mistake some businesses make is to generate keywords off the top of their head without researching the competitiveness of each keyword, or to use keywords that are too generic. “Buy shoes online” is a keyword that would be highly competitive however “Buy red Pulp high heels online” because it is more specific would have much less competition and would drive highly targeted traffic to your site. A great way to increase your SEO rankings is to re-evaluate your keywords periodically and use Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool to find out common search queries and evaluate the level of competition for each phrase.
#3. List your business in online directories
Listing your business in online directories is also a great way to increase SEO. Your first step is to take out a Yellow Pages online listing, then list your business in generic online Australian business directories such as True Local. Once you have completed both these steps then find business directories relevant to your industry e.g. Zomato for food/hospitality or TripAdvisor for tourism providers and list in these. The more places you can list your business the better as the more mentions of you that Google can find the more credibility you will have in their eyes and the higher your website will rank.
#4. Utilise meta tag page descriptions
When some businesses create their website they never fill out the meta tag description for each unique page on their site. A meta tag is a 140-character snippet of text that displays under your website in the search engine results page. This text is not displayed on your actual website but is filled out in the content management system of your website or the web code. When it appears in the search engine results page it helps users more accurately decide if the page returned in the search results is relevant to their query. A good meta tag is one that describes the content on the page. For this reason, each page’s meta tag needs to be unique.
#5. Check for crawl errors
Sometimes businesses might not have good SEO and the reason is simply because Google hasn’t crawled the site and therefore the site isn’t indexed. Often this happens when websites are brand new or when a company has switched from an old website to a new one. To find out if Google can crawl your site follow the instructions in this short guide to crawl errors produced by Google Search Console.
#6. Improve site speed
Another reason why you might be languishing behind your competitors in the search engine results is because your website is too slow to load. Both Google and Bing take site speed into consideration in their ranking algorithms. A good site load speed should be three seconds or less. Use this free tool to test your site speed and get recommendations to improve speed. Common reasons for slow site speed include using images with huge file sizes or using too many plug-ins.
#7. Optimise headings with keywords
Most of the factors that determine SEO are related to the concept of usability. In other words, how user friendly is this website? One of the things that hugely improves the user experience for visitors is clean formatting of content. This includes using font size and typography that is easy to read, breaking content into short paragraphs, using bulleted or numbered lists for clarity and using subheadings. Subheadings which utilise header tags with keywords can help boost your SEO rankings and keep your customers happy, reducing bounce rates.
All of these tips are suggestions which are quick and easy to implement and check. Block out 30 minutes in your calendar this week and take action to improve your SEO. The increase in traffic will be worth the investment of time.
Want more? Get the latest coronavirus news and updates straight to your inbox! Follow Kochie’s Business Builders on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Now read this:
Trending
Weekly business news and insights, delivered to your inbox.