Are you ready for your website to reach its full potential this year? But don't want to pay thousands to a big SEO agency that offers SEO services, promising lofty goals of SEO optimization for your website with a SEO specialist? You don't have to! Start the year with increased site traffic, conversions, and sales without spending a dime. Together, let's go over the 7 (and FREE) steps you can take to get your website seen by customers!
Crawlability:
Before anything else, search engines need to be able to find your website. This means diving into the backend of your site and ensuring you're allowing Google and others to crawl your website. Depending on how you've built your site, this step looks different. However, the one thing that remains the same for ALL of them is that you must first connect your site to the Google Search Console. For a lot of website builders like Wix and Squarespace, this step is as easy as following a couple of buttons on your admin dashboard.
Then, once you've connected your site to the Google Search Console, you can submit a sitemap to Google. What is a sitemap? It's simply a list of all of your live pages/files/videos/and more on your website - it's a guide for Google crawlers on how your website is connected. Again, this step will look different depending on how you've built your site. If it's on Wix, your sitemap will automatically be submitted to you. However, if you're on Squarespace, you'll have to go through the admin dashboard to manually submit it. Things get a bit more complicated if you're trying to submit a sitemap for a WordPress site. With that, you'll have to create an account with the Google Search Console (which I recommend doing regardless), add your property (website), verify your domain ownership, and upload your own sitemap.
Lastly, depending once again on how you've built your site, you can manually turn on what pages Google can crawl. Most sites have this set to be automatic once your site is connected to the Google Search Console and has a submitted sitemap; however, it's always worth double-checking.
Compelling Content:
Once found, your site needs to offer valuable, engaging content that keeps visitors on your website. You'll want to make sure that your site offers the answer(s) to their original search query. The longer they stay on your site the better. Every second counts! Your goal is to address their question and provide content that encourages them to continue to explore your site. High-quality, original content is key.
Keyword Optimization:
Without the right keywords, your site may never find the people who are actively searching for it (or what you offer). Use relevant keywords throughout your content to connect with users searching for what you offer. You can find keywords using Google's keyword planner (free), or subscription-based keyword tools like Semrush. Using keywords throughout your site, and in the backend description for your site and pages is quite literally key to helping folks find your website!
User Optimization:
Don't forget that your website MUST be enjoyable to use. Make sure it's readable, the loading speeds are fast, it's optimized for mobile users, and navigation is easy. All of these elements boost user satisfaction and encourage them to stay longer and return in the future to your site.
Be Sharable:
Ensure your site has content that's worth linking and sharing. Having people share your site on social media and on their websites will not only help you reach more people. But these all provide backlinks that Google takes into account when it comes to establishing how trustworthy your site is and how high they should rank it. This circles back to creating a site that has compelling content. That's key!
Clickability:
How good are your titles and descriptions? Does your site encourage people to continue to click around to learn more and explore? What you share and how you share it matters! Highlight your main points and focus on the benefits to your customers.
Snippets:
Make sure your snippets for each page is optimized and ready for Google and other search engines to highlight. These small summaries are key for getting people to click on your listing in Google.
By addressing each level of your website's SEO needs, you create a strong foundation for online success! By focusing on crawlability, compelling content, keyword optimization, user experience, authority, shareability, and conversion, you'll create a website that thrives in the digital world.
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