Search engine optimization (also known as SEO) is one of the best ways to organically market your business and maximize your visibility. But, it’s a long-term game and in order to see results, you need to be diligent and constantly work on optimizing your website so you can be found organically.
Tips for Improving Your SEO
Whether you’re launching a new website, have already been working hard to optimize your website, or have been putting it off for years and finally feel ready to tackle it, here are five easy ways to get your website optimized.
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Take Advantage of Google’s Free Tools
Before you even get started optimizing your website, you’ll want to take advantage of all of the free tools Google has to offer! We’re talking Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Search Console.
These tools will give you a much better idea of what your traffic is like, how users are getting to your site, what searches they’re making, and how they’re engaging with your website. By having this information at your fingertips, you’re able to better optimize your website based on your audience’s needs and current trends.
These tools will also allow you to track your improvement as you work on your SEO strategy!
Optimize Your Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
The easiest way to instantly improve your SEO site-wide is through your page titles and meta descriptions. Whether you don’t have any metadata written for your website or it’s been years since you’ve optimized it, go through and make sure your page titles and meta descriptions are properly optimized.
Things to remember:
- Keep your page titles under 60 character and your meta descriptions under 160 characters to ensure all of the text is show on search engine result pages (aka what you see after submitting a search in Google).
- Always include your business name in your page titles.
- Highlight your products and services, keywords you want to be found for, and your service area.
- Be as descriptive as possible.
On WordPress, you can utilize plugins such as All in One SEO or Yoast SEO to implement these (get a list of our favorite WP plugins here!). If you’re utilizing Squarespace, you’ll be able to optimize your metadata through page settings.
Publish New, Fresh Content
Is there a service, product, or keyword you’re trying to rank organically for? Write a blog post about it!
By publishing new content on your website, you’re not only providing your audience with free resources and information that position you as an expert, but you’re also giving search engines more information to crawl and lets them know your website is active. As you create unique, high-quality content that highlights the products and services you offer, you’ll start to see an increase in your organic rankings.
Plus, adding new content to your website also gives you more to share on social media. It’s a win-win!
Update Old Content
Have content on your website that hasn’t been updated in years? Instead of deleting it, update it with new information and republish it. This will allow you to capitalize on the trust you already have with search engines since it’s most likely already been crawled and indexed.
Optimize for H-Tag Structure
Updating the head tag structure on your website is one of the easiest ways to optimize your website. Not only do H-tag break up content, but they also tell search engines what information is important.
When utilizing header tags on your website, keep in mind:
- There should only be one H1 tag per page (this is usually set automatically as your page title).
- There is an head tag hierarchy; H1 -> H2 -> H3 -> H4 -> H5 -> H6. You never want an H6 before an H2, even if it “looks better.”
