6 Areas To Improve Your SEO In 2017
Are you wanting to improve your search engine rankings? Does it bug you that lower quality competitors are out-performing you on Google? Here are some quick-fire tips to accelerate your SEO performance at the start of 2017…
1. Improve Your Local SEO Presence. Sending search engines strong signals about your location will get you much better coverage.
- Optimise your Google My Business Listing (ensure all sections are complete and add photos to categories)
- Add a Google Map to your website
- Put your address and phone number on each page of your website
- Optimise pages for local keywords (e.g. “wellington florist”)
- Check your contact information is consistent in local directories and social media profiles
2. Do Some Google Tests. Find out what Google thinks of your site. Google has some very useful tests that are worth regularly checking in on.
- PageSpeed Insights – useful tips on how to speed up your site, though for more dynamic sites it can be difficult to get a score above 70 out of 100
- Mobile Friendly Test – verify whether Google thinks your site is mobile friendly
- Search Console – look for indexing errors and a range of other useful reports on your site
3. Test Your Website On A Mobile Device. Do some tests on your phone and on a tablet. Needless to say, we’re assuming you already have a mobile-friendly version. Check out how your site looks and functions.
- Mobile users are often looking for contact info – can you easily find your phone number, address and map?
- Do you have a prominent call to action?
- Does the design look compelling on a smaller screen?
4. Generate Great Customer Reviews. Reviews are especially important for tourism, restaurant and product-related websites but are also great for service businesses. Having top-notch user reviews will immensely boost people’s trust in your online brand and tangibly increase the chances of people buying / enquiring.
- Identify what the leading review sites in your industry are (e.g. Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zomato)
- Have a system where you identify who your particularly happy customers are and encourage them to add reviews
- You can’t please everyone all the time, so make sure you have lots of quality reviews to balance out any negative ones that crop up
- If there aren’t any good options to generate reviews, make sure you have customer testimonials on your website
5. Source Quality Links. Building site authority by encouraging other sites to link to you is still the sure-fire way that Google will recognise that you are worth knowing about.
- Review any new strategic relationships that you’ve developed – is there anyone that you have a relationship with that would be open to linking to your website?
- Do you have any memberships with local business orgs that have a member directory?
- More link building tips here
6. Spice Up Your Content. Have you read through your website lately? Does your content grab you or is it time for a re-write?
- Keep in mind that most people will scan and skim your website (not read it all word by word), so use headings, bullet points and images to break up large blocks of text
- Think about what information your target audience is looking for and what questions you consistently get asked
- Many people are scared of giving their industry knowledge away but it’s a powerful way to generate trust, credibility and new leads… so add FAQs and free resources to your website
Contact Avatar if you’d like to discuss any of the points above or would like to talk about customised ideas for your website.
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