Beware of SEO companies that claim to “get you to the top of Google.” Ninety-five percent of them are rip-offs, as evidenced in the numerous small businesses that have fallen victim to the black hole of SEO. I hear it almost every week as I advise small business clients ranging from start-ups to well-established businesses. Most basic best practices needed to make your site search engine friendly and thereby draw relevant and targeted traffic to your website can be done yourself. In fact, the foundation of all good SEO rests in the following six words: dynamic, weekly, relevant, and fresh content.
I significantly improved my Alexa ranking over the past two years. I have increased my site traffic by well over 1000%. I’m not so much interested in a Google ranking as I am seeing a consistent, growing trend of relevant traffic to my website. Below are a few of my tips:
- Use WordPress. Period. Let me say it again: use WordPress for your website. It’s not just a content management and blogging platform anymore. WordPress does it all.
- Include a blog as part of your site.
- Post at least once per week.
- Post relevant content that relates directly to your business and area of expertise.
- Make your posts benefit-oriented with tips and practical info to help your readers.
- Use an SEO plugin like Yoast to filter and improve each page and post.
- Do keyword research and integrate those leading terms and phrases into your page copy. Write in a natural, not mechanical style.
- Use tools from Alexa to post your site map to all the major search engines.
- Use Google AdWords and learn from your keyword research.
- Use custom descriptions for each page of your site. Match the page title to the focus content of each page.
- Link Facebook and Twitter posts back to your blog using a social media share bar with each post. There are plenty of good share bar plugins for WordPress.
- Use the Alexa toolbar. Go to Alexa.com to see what’s available and where your site ranks. It will be an eye opener the first time you enter your URL and hit enter.
- Get your blog listed on Technorati.
- Get your site URL listed on as many relevant websites as possible. The better the external links returning to your site the better your site visibility.
- Watch your page load speed. Slow will hurt you. Check out your page load speed at Pingdom.com
- Be patient. It takes time for Google to trust you.
- Don’t over design your site. Google likes sites that offer relevant content, not digital art museums that dance around like the Disneyland night parade. Again, relevant content beats fancy design any day.
- Use AWSTATS and Google Analytics to track your site traffic and progress. If you don’t check what’s happening with your site numbers you’re flying blind. Don’t fly blind.
These are just a few of my tips. Apply the above and you will both save money and increase relevant traffic to your website.
Stuart Atkins
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