SEO is often seen as a magical art that you need a high degree of technical knowledge to succeed in. But although there are aspects of SEO that require a large amount of skill and expertise to understand and act upon, that’s not the case for the basics.
There are measures you can take to make sure that your site is SEO ready. Remember that it’s not always necessary to hire a professional to increase your traffic.
Titles & Descriptions
The title of your page and the description that appears under it should be a priority for you. This type of DIY SEO should have a marked effect on your SEO ranking.
With 51% of search traffic being organic, you need to get this right because it will influence the bulk of the traffic flowing into your website.
Research your keywords and make sure you have them inserted into both the title and your description. But don’t spam them otherwise Google will penalize your website.
Keywords Placement & Images
Two things Google searches for are keywords and images.
Despite what you may have heard, keywords and keyphrases are as relevant today as they have always been. The difference is you need to take care as to how you fit them in. Don’t stuff them and don’t spam them.
Images are also useful because this gears your content towards mobile users. Infographics have become particularly popular for a reason.
Update Social Profiles
Keep your social media profiles updated to keep Google interested. This is also important to keep people finding your social media profiles. If it’s not updated it just makes you look inactive.
And Google is measuring your traffic levels and how people are reacting when they visit your social media profiles and websites. Are they clicking through? How much time are they spending on the page? Did they get what they wanted?
Maintaining an updated social media footprint should be a top priority.
Local Citations
Local citations for SEO basically goes back to Google’s renewed focus on localized digital marketing. You can get these local citations by gearing your company towards a local audience. That applies even if you happen to be an online business. Google doesn’t know that you don’t have a brick and mortar store.
Establish a relationship with other local businesses and bloggers. Get those citations and your reputation will steadily grow as you continue to implement your strategy.
Google My Business
What is Google My Business?
This is Google’s latest feature to help businesses get noticed in their local community. To get involved you need to make sure you fill out as much information about your business as possible. That means you need an accurate pin on Google Maps. Again, it doesn’t matter if you have a physical store or not.
Another important point to remember is you must go out of your way to include information about your opening hours. Online businesses often don’t fill this out and it costs them in the rankings. Fill it out anyway, even if it’s not necessarily relevant to you.
And keep this data updated to rank well.
Do you have any other ideas for things you can do at home before you hire an SEO professional?