SEO Tips: Things You Can Do Yourself

SEO. Search Engine Optimization. It sounds confusing - but there's a lot you can do with your website to make sure you're helping (and not hurting) your site's SEO. Making sure you're doing the right things with your body copy (or the writing on your website) can make a huge difference when it comes to keywords and getting found on Google.

Always remember to use links, both within your site and to other websites as well, and to encourage others to link to your website.

Managing the images on your website appropriately and increasing the content on your site are two other important ways of improving your SEO.

Body Copy

When you’re adding new content/writing to your site, make sure:

• The content on your page matches your meta/page description. This will ensure that when people arrive at your page, they will find what they actually searched for, and this improves your ‘bounce’ rate, or how long people spend on your website

• Make sure your body copy is keyword rich. (Refer to list of keywords, and make your own list according to what you find people search for when looking for maple products)

• Make sure your body copy is keyword rich. (Refer to list of keywords, and make your own list according to what you find people search for when looking for maple products)

• Avoid pages with sparse content. Google needs a certain amount of text to read and understand what the page is about, and these empty pages are not good for SEO

Linking

• Try to include internal links whenever relevant. Internal links are links between the pages on your website. (On the homepage for example if you mention wedding favours, link to the page in your shop where you sell them.)

• Link to other websites with relevant content. This gives your site legitimacy and also helps SEO. Make sure these links open up in a new browser ( you should be able to do this through the link settings.)

• Encourage other websites to link to yours. These are referred to as ‘backlinks’. Backlinks are essential for SEO, and show Google that your site is relevant and important.

Images

• Always shrink your images before uploading them to your website. This keeps your site light and fast, which also impacts SEO.

• Use an app like Squoosh to shrink photos: Just drop the image onto the page, then in the left hand bottom menu select ‘Browser JPG’ and hit the download button in the bottom right hand corner of the page. The new, smaller image will go to your Downloads folder.

• Always rename your images to give them actual names (IMG 3264 doesn’t count!) This gives search engines the opportunity to find your photos and leads people to your site. Images are an SEO opportunity!

• If it allows, give images a description as well, with relevant keywords

Stuck on what to write about? Here are some tips for improving your site content:

• Update your website frequently. Out of date content makes your site feel stale to visitors and tells Google that it is no longer relevant. Remove pages and information that is out of date.

• Try to regularly add new, long form content to your site. The easiest way to do this is through a blog. Blogs are great for your site’s SEO performance because they:

  • Give you space to use your keywords, including long-tail keywords (phrases)

  • They create reasons for other sites to link to your website.

  • Long form content makes you an authority on certain topics and gives you an opportunity to show off your expertise.

• Use sites like https://answerthepublic.com/ to come up with ideas for blogs, or think about the questions you typically get from visitors.

Looking for more SEO tips? Check out 9 Tips for Improving Your Small Business' SEO