5 Top Tips: Simple SEO steps you can take today to help your website rank better in Google
Search Engine Optimisation can seem like an overwhelming topic that requires advanced digital skills. While there is a lot of information you can learn about optimizing your website, there are also loads of simple steps that you can take right away without needing special training. At our recent workshops and webinars on this topic, business owners have gone away with practical action plans to improve the SEO on their sites. Here are a few tips from those free events for businesses.
1. Optimise your Title Tags
Search engines expect your title tag to be a good description of what your page does. Your title tag will display in the results, so it's vital to get it right in order to get clicks on your link. Make your title tags unique for each page on your site, and limit them to 60 characters each. Try searching “examples of good title tags” and also look at your competitors for inspiration.
2. Get the wording right
Think about sentence structure, and keeps things simple. Also use explicit words. If you're talking about the safe cooking of chicken, don't use a word like "done" that can be interpreted in various ways - say "fully cooked". A search engine might misunderstand a sentence that a human would correctly interpret. Look at the answer snippets that Google gives when you ask a question, and notice how they structure their sentences.
3. Get the right amount of content on your pages
Lots of very short pages suggest to Google that your website doesn't have sufficient information to be of high quality, and your ranking will suffer as a result. If your site has multiple pages that are very brief, try clustering related topics onto one page.
4. Answer your customers next question too
Search engines reward pages that can answer the next question a user might ask after their initial search, because it provides a seamless journey for the user.
First, enter a search term in Google that's relevant to your website. Then look at the "people also ask" and "related searches" sections within the results. This will give you an indication of other things your audience want to know. Now go and make sure your website can also answer those questions, through sub pages and blog posts that don’t dilute your main message and purpose.
5. Be specific when you name your links
Links between your own pages – if done right – will improve your ranking, as they demonstrate a site that is easy to navigate. The text you use in a link to another part of your site tells search engines what the topic is, so just "click here" won't help your ranking. Find descriptive but concise ways to name your links for better ranking.
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