SEO has changed a lot over the years. Back in the day, you were able to stuff a bunch of keywords on a website page, set the color to white so they were invisible, and it would help you rank. If only it was that easy! Today that’s a big no-no, but there are many things you can do for your website, and onsite optimization should be at the top of your list when implementing any SEO plan. I’ll go over the top 7 I do for my own sites and all my clients’ sites.
1. Internal Linking/Siloing
I’m big on internal linking. It helps get users around your website plus makes it easier for Google to crawl your site. The way I like to do it is I set up a website silo structure for my content. For instance, I might have a page on Learning Adwords and then some pages about different Adwords tactics. I would link them like this:
Learning Adwords (links to my homepage)
As long as your silos make sense, this is a powerful way to build some nice internal link juice.
2. Add Image Alt Tags
Google loves to crawl text. When they crawl an image, they can’t see that the image is a hamburger. You need to tell Google, “Hey! I’m a big, fat, tasty hamburger I sell at my restaurant.” Maybe not exactly like that, but you get the point.
I like to include an alt tag for each image. You would set it up like this:
Now don’t go crazy and stuff a bunch of keywords in there. Tell Google what the image is.
3. NAP Should Be Dead-on
This isn’t the NAP I desperately need because I have newborn and a 19-month-old (yikes!). This is your business’ Name, Address, and Phone number. This needs to be PERFECT across all your web properties, including your website. If you have a Google My Business page, I would set it there first. Google can be funky with your address so see how they display it. Then copy that exact format to your website.
If your GMB page displays your NAP as:
Lisa’s Salon
55 Smith St.
Austin, TX 78787
555-555-5555
Then you want to use this exact format on your website. DO NOT display it like this:
Lisas Salon (no ‘)
55 Smith Street (Google abbreviated St. so you should too!)
Austin, Texas 78787 (Google again abbreviated TX so do the same)
BONUS TIP: Make sure this is the same on Yelp, Facebook, and any other local directory site you might have your site listed on. Google wants to see consistency.
4. Fix Broken External Links
This happens to all of us. You link to an external site from your website and then one day that site decides to yank their site off the web. You’re then left with a broken link. I have a really simple and free tool you can use. Simply pop your site into here:
http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com
and see if you have any broken links on your website. If it discovers broken links, either remove them or point the links to another source. Broken links send Google a signal that your site is messy and not maintained. Could this affect your rankings? I’m not entirely sure, but it’s something that’s easy to fix and I recommend you take an hour and clean up those links.
5. Add a Blog to Your Site
You might already have a kick-butt blog on your site, but if not then you should add one. Google likes consistent, quality content. You don’t need to write a new blog post each day. I would start slow and then build if you can. It’s better to create one awesome, long blog post than five general posts. Try to shoot for these metrics:
• 1000-2000 word count: I know this isn’t easy, but if you can, write a 2K word count blog post on your site once a month.
• Write for your customers, not for Google. I would base the article around a specific topic or keyword but don’t obsess about it! Write an amazing piece of content that your audience will love.
• Don’t be afraid to link out to external sites. It’s okay to link to other sources as long as it makes sense.
• Spruce your post up with graphics and pictures. Use real life photos instead of standard stock photos.
6. Optimize Your T&Ds
I talk about titles and descriptions in another post so you can read up on those if you need help with improving them. But make sure these are all unique and are spot-on. Again, write them for your audience, not for the search engines.
7. Add an XML Sitemap
This is an older tactic but it only take a few minutes to do and I still do it for all my sites. If you use WordPress, then I recommend installing the Yoast plugin and they will take care of your XML sitemap. This sitemap is a list of all pages on your site, and Google will crawl this file and look for any site updates. You’re making it easy for them to crawl your site so it’s good to include. Head over here if you don’t have one:
and generate a sitemap. The sitemap generated at the site above isn’t dynamic so it won’t change when you update your site, but it’s better than not having one at all. Once you create the XML file, you’ll want to upload it to the root of your site.
These SEO edits aren’t going to rocket your site to the top of Google, but they will help. If you want rankings your website must be in perfect working order. If you have any questions, let me know below!
