Search engine optimisation (SEO) can be a scary prospect, especially if you are a new or small business with a limited marketing budget. This blog will detail how you can improve your SEO rankings on a tight budget, in fact, the majority of the ways listed in this blog require an investment of time rather than money. Of course, we would always recommend using a reputable digital marketing agency for your SEO but here are a few tips that can help you climb the Google rankings ladder.
1. Keyword Research
Spending time researching relevant keywords to implement in your SEO strategy is an easy way to improve your SEO rankings. This is mostly due to the fact that your content and website will be focused on what users are searching for. For example, if your current keyword strategy focuses on your brand you are unlikely to be found. But switching the brand focus to concentrating on a service or product you offer will increase your online visibility. You can read more about the importance of keyword research on our blog.
2. Use long tail keywords
Previously, you could focus all your attention on short-tail keywords such as ‘dress’ and gain small increases in search engine ranking. However, with all the recent Google updates, search engine updates and advancements in AI technology, robots can now read content like humans. This means you need to adapt your content and keyword strategy to suit humanised robots - trust us, it isn’t as crazy as it sounds!
So what is a long-tail keyword? A long tail keyword is phrase or group of 4 words or more. This means that instead of using ‘dress’ as your keyword, you’ll need to use a phrase like “pink recycled cotton dress”. Using long-tail keywords creates niche and specific search opportunities. When these opportunities are implemented, you will see improvements in your search engine rankings.
3. Create High-Quality Content
The phrase “content is king” is not going anywhere and with the push towards naturalistic content, it is more important than ever before. Creating high-quality content isn’t just about keeping Google and its search engine friends happy, it is also about engaging your customers and users. If the content on your website is informative, engaging and is in the correct tone of voice for your audience, they will spend more time reading it. Hello, improved website stats! Having engaging content on your site will increase your dwell time, reduce your bounce rate and demonstrate to Google that your website is relevant to your audience. That’s a lot of extra ticks in boxes!
Does the thought of writing content more than a few words long terrify you? Then enlist the help of a professional copywriter who can take the pressure off and create engaging content for your website that is in the correct tone of voice. We promise it will be money well spent.
4. Build a network of internal and external links
Building a network of internal and external links is essential when looking to improve your search engine rankings. If you wondering what internal and external links are then here is the answer:
Internal links link to different areas of your website. For example, if you have written a blog about cotton dresses, you will most likely link to the cotton dresses page of your website. These links are important because they show Google that your content is connected, related and relevant.
External links are links from other sites to yours. For example, a business directory that lists your business. It is important to focus on high-domain and trustworthy sites when building external backlinks as links on toxic websites will damage your rankings rather than improving them.
5. Prioritise your keywords
Prioritising your keywords is one of the best ways you can improve your search engine rankings. It can be easy to want to throw every keyword you can at your website, however reducing the list to 20 to 30 and prioritising them. This will give your content, metadata, meta titles, alt tags and other SEO elements much more focus.
Hopefully, our top tips will help you improve your search engine rankings. However, if you would like further advice or for our team of experts to complete a free SEO review, then please contact us.
