When it comes to search engine optimisation the information available can be a minefield. Here are a few handy tips to get your SEO started on the right foot and help you avoid those costly mistakes than can stop a website reaching the first page.
Are all your contact details up to date?
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. NAP is critical for businesses wanting to rank highly in local search results. Google cross-references your contact information across your own website, and local online directories in order to validate your company. Inconsistent information can be the reason your SEO is failing. Let’s face it, a website that can’t get its contact details right is more than likely not worth a visit. Hence, Google ranks these websites lower. You have to get your digital footprint right before you do anything else.
Does the extra s even matter? S for Security
HTTPS stands for ‘Secure’. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. Switching to HTTPS will help you stay in Google’s good books. Why is that? Well HTTPS is a far more secure system for your website to operate. It goes without saying that search engines will have a preference for trusted websites. So, in terms of your overall SEO strategy HTTPS over HTTP is a big yes seeing as though 1 in 4 visitors would abandon a website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load.
Duplicate content, Duplicate content
Duplicate content as an SEO issue is a major factor. Duplicate content is when more than one page has the same content. Basically, don’t try to spam the same content across your website as this doesn’t arouse Google’s attention. This includes keywords (yes, we recommend you use keywords a number of times across your site but don’t go overboard and focus on just repetitive keywords.) Search engines can push your site further down the rankings and favour your competition which has more valuable and interesting content.
Speed it up
Seriously, what is worse than staring at a blank page waiting for it to load? The page speed is a huge ranking factor when it comes to search engines. Google’s latest update had a heavy focus on the user experience and site speed can undoubtedly affect this. This means that search engines look at page speed and provide ranking advantages to faster matches. Common sense, right?
Our easy tips for optimising your website speed and getting it below the recommended time of between one to five second mark would be to reduce the image file size, minimise the use of plugins, considering a move to a faster hosting provider and use microdata. We recommend less content across the web pages and utilising the use of a blog to give your site the keyword rich content it needs.
Basic SEO can kick start your marketing and push your website in the right direction but It’s easy to become bamboozled. In the digital era, simple SEO just doesn’t cut it anymore and with the current competitive market you need an omni-channel approach. You need to utilise all aspects of digital marketing to form a full SEO strategy. This will put your business on the map and really increase those website hits. GRO will work with you and find your most valuable keywords to your business through a deep analysis of competitors, keyword densities and popular search terms for your industry to really tailor our service to work for your business. Ask us anything we know the answer.
Give us a call today on 01482 333833 or email info@gro-marketing.co.uk for more information. Let’s GRO together.
