Article updated: 23rd May, 2020
SEO takes time and is not as easy as it looks. It’s not as simple as writing content in the hope that that page will rank. Nor, is it simply popping a few links on a couple of websites and think that this will somehow miraculously get you to page 1 of Google. SEO is in fact a science where all factors must fit nicely together, like a puzzle in order for it to work. This includes your website. If it is not Google complaint, then simply put, your SEO will not work. All external efforts will go to waste if your website fundamentals are not in place. So following are 9 quick wins or fixes that will have an effect on your SEO. Implement these now and see what happens.
1. You must fix up 404 pages with inbound links
There is nothing worse than having a 404 error pop up when someone is on your website. This means that there is a broken link and it needs to be addresses. The best way to do this is run your website through tools like MAJESTIC SEO which will identify any broken links. Once you have this list, you should then point these broken link pages to relevant pages within your site, through a technique known as 301 redirects. This will have the effect of not annoying your user as well as passing on any link juice that your old page had. This is quite common and happens when new websites are built and the old web pages are not re-directed to the new ones. It can get technical if you don’t know what you are doing. So, the rule here is if in doubt get professional help.
2. Boost all pages within your website.
You may not know this but there are probably many important keywords that have high volumes of traffic ranking on page 2 or they are about to hit page 1. Get a list of all your keywords that are ranking (through tools like SEO rush) and spot the ones that need a bit of a boost. Show these to your SEO agency and make sure they focus their efforts on these juicy keywords. Ideally, they should already know this but it’s good to be on top of things to keep them on their toes.
3. What about your Google places listing?
Many people forget about this and if you want to show up in Google places for a local listing then this is really a golden nugget. It takes a few seconds to do; write a brief description, wait for Google to authorise this and then see what happens. If you can get a few customers to write some positive 5 star testimonials then even better. It’s a very quick win and all businesses should have a Google place listing.
4. Do you know what a title tag is?
It’s the blue writing on the search results and it’s the first thing people read. And yes, Google reads this as well. Make sure you have carefully looked at all your titles on each individual page within your website so they are fully optimised. Never over spam this with keyword stuffing. Try to be as natural sounding as possible. Because your title is the first thing potential customers see, it must have a slight sales edge to it. Bear in mind each page on your website ( and it doesn’t matter how many you have) must have it’s very own unique title. Painful I know, but this is something that is very important if your site is going to rank.
5. Are your Robots.txt file active as well as no-index pages
Review your robots.txt file or no–index files to make sure that your website is being indexed by Google. Yes it does happen. Sites go live without the ‘no index no follow’ still active. This means your website is telling Google NOT TO index and rank your website. This is done generally during testing phase before a website is launched and developers sometimes forget to take it off.
Think is can’t happen. I get people calling me asking me why there site is not showing on Google after 3 months of it going live. Once these are gone and Google indexes your web pages – see what happens then to your rankings BOOM! Up they go. You have to tell Google you exist – its a basic SEO strategy.
6. Sites ranking but no one is clicking
Like your title, the description on the search results needs to be very sales focused and scream click me. You have about 25 words so make each and every one count. Most CMS platforms will allow you to manually change the description – I know that the WordPress plug in Yoest is great for this. Try testing the description for a month or so. See if the number of inquires increase. If not, change it again. It’s a valuable marketing tool and one that you should be very aware of.
7. Look at your long-tail keyword opportunities
Don’t ignore the low hanging fruit. Known as long tail keywords these are words whilst not your main money, high traffic keywords, still produce a number of decent monthly searches. Identify these and ask your SEO company to target them. For us an example would be : SEO prices in Sydney’. Whilst the majority of online browsers will not be typing this into Google, there are still a few keen people eager to know this and if you r website is ranking for this you should get the inquiry.
Sometimes, very competitive keywords are difficult to rank. They can take years and most businesses cannot afford to wait this long. Hence go after those long tails and see the inquiries improve. After all, it’s better to get some quick wins and sales than have to wait months.
If you really think about it, you can go after branded names instead of the main terms. For example; optimise ‘4wd Toyota cars’ instead of ‘4wd cars’. Then all you need to do is create a dedicated landing page for this long tail and you can start optimising it.
Also read: Is quality content good for SEO rankings?
If you are going to succeed online you are going to have to have a serious strategy in place. SEO is a long haul, process and any quick wins should be nurtured and celebrated. So the best plan of attack is to have an SEO agency working on those big keywords whilst you make sure that you have done everything possible to your website so it is 100% compliant. The above points should steer you in the right direction.
