Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can sometimes seem a complex landscape, but it doesn’t have to be too complicated. Kerry from KMedia gives us 5 tips to help increase the organic ranking of your website.
1. Review your technical SEO
Ensure the structure of your website is clear and that search engines can properly ‘read’ and index your site. Search engines don’t read websites like we do, so you need to ensure that your website is indexed correctly.
- Create a sitemap
- Submit your sitemap to Google
- Find any broken links and fix them
- Optimise your images
- Remove/consolidate any pages that don’t get much traffic
2. Do keyword research
What search terms do you want to appear for in Google? Once you have these keywords and phrases written down, make sure you do some research. The terms you may think will increase your site traffic might only receive an average of two searches a month. Think outside of the box with keywords! Sometimes it’s not the obvious ones that will benefit you the most.
3. Optimise your on-page SEO
Spend some time ensuring that all of your on-page SEO is live and relatable to your keywords. Remember to look at page titles, meta tags, H1 and H2 tags and ALT-tags for your images. Utilise your keywords in all of your on-page SEO naturally, Google doesn’t like it when they look too spammy!
4. Build authority with links
Think of backlinks as a popularity contest: the more external good-quality websites you have linking to your site, the more popular your site is in the eyes of Google, therefore the higher your website will rank.
Evaluate your outreach strategy! If you don’t have one already, it’s time to get one written down. Create a simple spreadsheet that includes names, emails, numbers, etc. of potential contacts. These can include local newspapers, bloggers, local events or other relevant businesses. Keep an eye on your competitors: where are they getting their links?
5. Write engaging content
If you’re writing your latest blog post, write content that your readers will want to share. The same applies with all social media content – if you don’t think your post is worth sharing then don’t post it. All content you share should be of value to the reader. Don’t just rely on organic search, either: small businesses that succeed use the power of social media!
SEO doesn’t have to be a daunting exercise, but it can take months before you notice an increase in traffic from any SEO efforts so please don’t feel deflated if you don’t see an instant increase. SEO done right is a marathon, not a sprint.
About the author: KMedia is a marketing agency helping businesses grow their presence through targeted marketing. They cover a range of digital and offline marketing tactics to suit your business needs. Find them on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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