Are you struggling with ranking in the search engines? Then why not try some SEO strategies that are free and work? These methods are free and provide some great SEO benefits, the ultimate benefit being your site ranking higher in the search engines!
Here are some methods you can use to help your site rank better. These results will help you start ranking sooner rather than later!
1). Google Analytics for Tracking Metrics
Are you currently using Google Analytics to track your website’s metrics? If not, you’re missing out on some great insights from the data Google can provide about your site and site users.
You can find data about your site and more by going to Acquisition>Source/Medium. Here, you’ll find information on the number of visitors that arrive on your site from organic search, as well as how these visitors interact with your site.
Google Analytics can help learn how much time users spend on the site, what pages they visit, and even show your site’s bounce rate. All of this is extremely valuable data. It’s a great way to improve your site’s SEO and other aspects of the site if needed.
2). Improve Mobile Website Speed
Loading speeds are essential when it comes to ranking high in the search results. Sites that have slow loading times are penalised by Google. The penalty is that your site falls in the ranking. This not only applies to regular website pages but also to mobile site pages.
To make sure your site meets Google’s “requirements” (expectations), then be sure to use the Core Web Vitals Tool. This will let you know how your site performs across the major ranking categories. The tool even shows the issues and how you can improve them.
Here are some ways you can increase the loading speed of mobile pages:
- Remove unused themes, plugins, pages, backups, and more from the database and server
- Install a caching plugin, which compresses your site to make it more lightweight and increase its speed
- Use themes and plugins that are built to be fast
3). Ensure Your Site is Accessible
Accessibility is essential when it comes to SEO. You can use Core Web Vitals here, too. It will let you know about each inaccessibility issue that would cause Google to penalise your site. However, the tool itself does not make the changes needed to make your site more accessible.
Not only will a bad UX lower your site in the search engines, but it could also cost a lot of money, as well as site visitors. These days, there’s been an increase in website accessibility lawsuits. So, you’ll need to make sure your site is accessible in order to avoid this type of problem. You’ll also ensure your site ranks in the search.
4). Create Excellent Content
While there are technical issues when it comes to ranking in the search engines, don’t forget about the content on your site.
We’ll use an ecommerce site as an example of excellent content. An ecommerce site can either sell services and products. However, the products page is quite different than a services page. And this should be considered when creating the content for each page.
What do we mean? Let’s consider a services page first. Generally, a services page contains the following information:
An explanation on why hiring the business/individual is a benefit
- What the services include
- Expected results for the customer
- Social proof, such as testimonials and/or a portfolio with samples
- Information on next steps and/or how to get in touch
On the other hand, a products page will be completely different. Here’s the information a site user expects to see on a product page:
- Brief summary of the product
- Photos of the product from different angles, any variations of the product
- The price
- A way for customers to add the product to their cart or save the product for later
- Related products or alternative products
- Technical specs
- Customer ratings/testimonials
Consider what would happen if a customer saw a products page that read more like a services page. Talk about confusing!
In addition, all content on the site needs to be well-written, free of spelling and grammatical mistakes, and it needs to fit the user’s intention and expectations. When these are met, the user will stay on the site longer and read the content thoroughly. This also helps to increase the site’s rankings in the search engine. The search engines see site users are getting value from the site.
5). Structure Content to Make It Readable and Scannable
Along with having great, consistent content, it’s essential to have the right format and structure to that content.
You can accomplish this by:
Including a linkable table of contents (for pages that are longer)
- Use header tags
- Use descriptive and supportive imagery
- Use text callouts created with blockquotes and bolded phrases
These are only some of the methods you can use to ensure content is both readable and scannable. The goal here is to make it easy for site visitors to read the content. Remember that many site users are short on time. For this reason, making the content scannable is a huge help. It allows users to find the information they want quickly and easily.
6). Get an SSL Certificate
Security and privacy are major issues for customers. In order to increase your company’s credibility and trustworthiness with customers, then it’s essential to get an SSL certificate. This is one of the easiest ways to increase trust and credibility with customers and also rank higher in search engines.
An SSL certificate includes the following information about your company:
- The certificate holder’s name
- A unique serial number and expiration date of the certificate
- The digital signature of the issuing authority
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates your website and company identity. It also works to encrypt all information exchanged between your site and the site user.
7). Optimise Images
Optimising the images used on your site is another way to speed up page loading times. This can be done by using lightweight image formats, resizing images, and even compressing them.
It’s also a good idea to add alt text to the most important images. This works to improve accessibility and helps Google rank your site higher. The alt text allows the search engines to find your page if SEO is applied to the tags and matches the user’s intent and expectation.
Summing It Up
These are only a few of the ways you can use SEO to improve your site’s ranking in the search engines. Using one or more of these methods can improve your ranking pretty fast.
Remember, the goal is to increase your site’s ranking in the search engines. But even more, you want site users to feel confident that your business is credible and trustworthy. Take the time to get the SEO correct on your site, and you’ll soon see some great results.
