Do you want to know some easy SEO tips to help you to move the needle without costing you a fortune? Journalist Stephan Spencer has seven for you.
Maybe you have already discovered the simple stuff and your “low-hanging fruit,” as it was: relevant keyword phrases for your niche optimization of title and body text and an XML sitemap. Yet, it would help if you stood out from your competitors on Google SERPs with your most sought-after keywords.
You need more time or money to undertake an extensive overhaul of your website or even invest in SEO for the long term. You might only require some minor tweaks to aid in moving the up-the needle.
You’re in luck. You’re in luck since you don’t require years of SEO education to master these hacks. These hacks only require a little time or cash to implement. You don’t have to alter the major components of your website. Intrigued? Let’s go on.
1. Share your home page’s link authoritativeness to the most significant pages of your site
Your home page is naturally a magnet for more links than other website pages. The most crucial aspect of your SEO strategy is ensuring that authority in your link is effectively delivered from your home page to the most important subpages. While Google can provide JavaScript and AJAX more effectively than ever, the most secure option is to stick with plain HTML hyperlinks.
You’ve already ensured your website’s most relevant category pages are on the top navigation. What about putting the links to your most valuable products (or those you’re most eager to be ranked) within the body of the homepage? If your site doesn’t include any product pages, you can include things like landing pages on the body of your page. Links within the body of the page will generally confer more link credibility than navigational links, especially footer links.
Creating clear, well-known hyperlinks is beneficial from a user’s perspective because it allows users to discover your top content quickly.
2. Stop using such huge images
Most websites I check need help with large images on their home page. Content creators often need to consider the size of files or the resolution of images before uploading them to a webpage. They don’t shrink images to the minimum size required for web pages nor save them in the correct resolution.
A 600 dpi image that has been “resized” to be tiny by using the width and height attributes of the IMG tag isn’t simply unprofessional. It’s a blunder to the site’s visitors. A large image (I’ve had single photos that are as big as 6.8 MB for a homepage page) could significantly slow down the time it takes your page’s load time, affecting both your rankings as well as the users’ satisfaction (and consequently, your website’s efficiency in conversion).
It’s straightforward to reduce the image’s size to a more manageable size and then upload it again. This is likely to be the top “quick hack” for improving the speed of your website.
Use a tool such as WebPageTest to test the size of files for every element on the page. (Or you can use the Developer Tools built into the Chrome browser. If you’re a geek, as I am.) Review your images and then have your designers improve them. Train those who design the content and then upload it to adopt a routine of checking image dimensions before publishing any information.
3. Make sure that no one connects to pages that have 404s.
Find URLs showing a 404 error on your site and contain external links pointing at the site. Google Search Console allows you to look at the pages with 404s on your website and determine if they’re connected to (and from which source). If you have an externally linked site that is returning an error page, you should fix it immediately since you’re wasting the authority of your link every minute it is not fixed. Restoring that link equity or traffic is a straightforward “quick win.”
To check this out to do, in Google Search Console, go to Crawl > Crawl Errors > Not Found, and then click on every URL that returns a number 404. Google will typically sort errors according to the most important and less important; the most significant ones include external hyperlinks. When you click on a URL, you can select”Linked From” and then click on the “Linked From” tab, which will display the URLs that link to the specific page. Ensure these URLs have been 301 redirected to the following appropriate URL for your website.
As you become more proficient in this linking reclamation, you’ll likely also be looking to supplement GSC with other tools to analyze links, including Link Research Tools’ Link Juice Recovery Tool and Ahrefs’ Broken Links report. We’ll keep this for another day.
4. Utilize the microsite, article, or even video you don’t have on your main website
Articles, videos, and microsites significantly increase brand recognition and attention. But, if you host the content on other domains, you could miss out on SEO opportunities. When the buzz has waned, the content will leave with excellent hyperlinks. If the links point towards a different site than your primary site, it must gain SEO value.
Victoria’s Secret missed an opportunity to be mentioned on The BuzzFeed front page in the article “12 Things Women Do Every Day That Is Fearless” because the article did not hyperlink on the victoriassecret.com website. Therefore, all hyperlinks inbound to the site only benefitted BuzzFeed. If brand recognition is not your only objective, you should have an inbound link to your website by syndication of the content.
The best choice, however, from an SEO standpoint is to host the content on your site. Even then, it would help if you looked for ways to redirect the traffic and authority of that material to one of your valuable product pages or landing pages.
5. Use social and forum sites to discover relevant keywords and topics ahead of your competition.
Get a valuable keyword before your competitor’s notice by keeping tabs on conversations on social media and forums within your industry. Do you notice a standard reference or a question that is asked repeatedly? Please find a way to incorporate it into your website’s blog or blog.
It’s more than just helping you get ranked for the phrase or question and will place you in an authority position by having the correct answers to the questions that everyone asks. Being the first to know about that content and ahead of the competition will give you an edge in the realm of thought leadership and traffic, and ranking.
Sometimes, this can reveal phrases you don’t think could relate to your product. For instance, a baby furniture store might consider “baby names” a valuable keyword to target even though they don’t offer anything. If the subject is slightly related but is looked up by your specific customers, then you should include it in your strategy for content.
6. Make your SERP listing using powerful snippets
Snippets are similar to placing a bow tie on an adorable cat. Cute cats by themselves are lovely, and so are the first-page listings. Put a bow tie on the cat, and you’ll have something that people can’t resist. Rich snippets are one of my most-loved SEO techniques. Together with a fantastic, attractive Meta description and a title tag, they help your snippet stand out. If you’re in search of the most effective slackline for your partner who is outdoorsy If you’re looking for the best slackline, you’ll need to search for the one that appears to be a top-quality item from a reliable seller.
Each rich snippet added to the search results is a chance to make money. The rating tells the consumer that the product is of high quality, as proven by the reviews of previous buyers. The price and “in stock” markers tell users what they must know about investing in your high-quality product.
The additional product information and review stars will naturally draw the customer’s focus to your site and boost your click-through rates. The snippets of information you provide won’t boost your rank, but your site’s ranking can bring more people to your website.
7. Utilize Link analysis software to search for the best competitors’ links
Its well-known the importance of authoritative hyperlinks is crucial for high Google rankings. In the process of acquiring these links, many people need clarification. The easiest thing is to discover hubs that connect to several rivals. Hubs are websites that connect to leading players in a specific niche. It can be a trade magazine, a review site, a blog, or a forum. Find such hubs using an instrument such as Majestic’s “Clique Hunter” or SEOprofiler. Hubs have already linked to other sites; therefore, having them connect to you is not a giant leap.
Look for websites linking to your competitors, and look at them to determine which could connect to you (Not all of them will be logical to pursue). Reach out to them. This is likely the most straightforward link-building process you can undertake since the competitors you are competing against have completed the job of not only locating the websites and certifying them as sites that can link to websites similar to yours.
