5 Top SEO Tips for Beginners

  1. Speed

We’re starting with speed as it’s so fundamentally important! Statistics suggest that every 1 second delay in a page load can result in 7% loss in conversion and longer than 3 seconds for a site to load can result in 40% abandonment, 80% of which won’t return.

With mobile traffic driving such a high proportion of your website traffic, speed is even more important. Google has a page speed insight tool which is a great place to start to get insight and opportunity suggestions. In general, remove or reduce any non-essential elements from your website that cause your site to slow down such as removing unused apps or reducing image file sizes.

  1. Write for your audience, not Google

Engagement is so important, what’s the point in getting someone to your website if they don’t engage once they arrive, therefore it's vital to write for your audience. This doesn’t mean neglecting keywords, this should 100% be part of your research and give you guidance but SEO copywriting is all about creating content that will help someone. Think about what a customer might be looking for and why, and then how you can create content to help and engage them. This, alongside keyword analysis, should be used when creating page titles, meta descriptions, product descriptions, blog content and meaningful URLs.

I just want to touch on reviews - if you can add product or service reviews to your website this is another way of building content on your site which is not only useful to potential customers to indicate trust but also useful for search engines as reviews tend to be written in a natural way and aligned to how customer’s search.

  1. Encourage inbound links

Inbound links are still fundamental to SEO growth, we should note that inbound links should be from trustworthy sites. If you receive a link from a trustworthy source, some of the equity from that website will move onto your site. This helps build domain and page authority which are both factors Google looks at when ranking your website.

If you use an SEO reporting tool such as SEO Moz or Sem Rush you can review competitor’s inbound links to identify potential websites to engage with. If you don’t subscribe to an SEO reporting tool you can use Google News to search for competitors names to see websites talking about their brand. 

  1. Image file names

This is one of my favourite tips and so often overlooked. Google devotes a whole section on search results to images, so this indicates how important Google views images and therefore how important you should view them.

When saving an image on your computer to upload onto your website, use keywords when saving your file as this will help you appear in Google Image Search. For example, see image below:

 

 

Current filename is: /photo-1572196284554-4e321b0e7e0b?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=668&q=80

This file name is pretty useless for image search, it includes a lot of code which is meaningless. We suggest you follow a guide when saving images e.g.

product_name_product_category_company_name.jpg

In this example, you could change the image to: black_canvas_tote_bag_accessories_times_2_studios.jpg, which is much cleaner and more informative, and will rank significantly higher in Google, and for more relevant search terms.

    1. Unique Content

    A final point in relation to content; search engines like unique content so make sure the content across your website is unique where possible and particularly unique to competitors, who may be selling the same products as you. Rather than using manufacturers descriptions, like so many websites do, rewrite these and add as much additional, useful information as you can, to help your SEO.

     

    We offer a range of services from one-off SEO website audits through to monthly SEO retainers focussing on your SEO strategy. If you need a bit more help on your SEO strategy feel free to get in touch.  

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