When it comes to making websites easy to find on the internet, there's a checklist that SEOexperts follow. The thing is, some experts stick to their old ways because they worked for them before. But here's the catch: these methods need an update each year to keep up with what people are looking for online and how search engines work.
Whether you're someone who likes sticking to what you know or you're all about staying ahead, it's important to add some new strategies to your toolkit. Let's check out some simple SEOtasks you need to complete nowto keep your website in the game.
Eliminate Duplicate Content From Your Website
Duplicate contentcan cause problems for your website's SEO, so it's essential to clean it up to avoid penalties from Google. You can quickly identify duplicate content using tools like Copyscape or Siteliner.
Another helpful practice is using canonical tags. Let's say your website is www.oldiemane.net, and there are other versions like oldiemane.net or oldiemane.net/index.html. To avoid confusion, you should use the rel=canonical tag for just one URL. This tag signals to Google that these sites are essentially the same, preventing any issues with duplicate content. It's a smart way to keep your SEO in good shape.
Track Keywords
If you want your website to show up high in search results, keeping tabs on the right keywords is crucial. Start by creating a list of the keywords you want your site to rank for. Luckily, you don't have to check them manually - there are tools for that. Once you have your list, it's important to track them consistently, ideally daily.
In the tracker tool, each line represents how well a keyword is doing. You can choose the time period at the bottom, and hovering over each line shows you the keyword, its position, the URL, and the date. Just make sure to add your keywords first to see the trend lines. This way, you stay on top of your website's performance in search rankings.
Choose A Primary Keyword For Every Page
Ensuring your pages target specific keywords is a crucial aspect of SEO. While finding the right keyword can be challenging, there are tools available to assist you. The widely used Google Keyword Planner is a popular choice, despite undergoing several changes recently.
To access detailed data, it's necessary to have at least one active campaign in Adwords. Otherwise, you'll only see limited data in the average monthly searches column, such as 0, 1-100, 100-1K, 1K-10K, 10K-100K, 100K-1M, 1M+.
Maintain Unique And Relevant Title Tags On Your Site
After creating content, it is advisable to optimize the title tag to effectively convey the intended message. Checking for duplicate title tagsis crucial, and this can be done by registering the website in Google Webmaster Tools. Navigate to HTML Improvements in the menu to identify any duplicated titles.
Upon identifying duplicates, it is recommended to modify them and explore other relevant alternatives. A suggestion for enhancing Click-Through Rate (CTR) is to craft clickbait title tags, ensuring they are within 60 characters, including the core keyword, make a persuasive promise to the reader, and optionally incorporate the brand name.
Craft A Meta Description Under 156 Characters
Craft compelling meta descriptionsfor each page, addressing the user's question: "what's in it for me?" Stand out from competitors by highlighting your unique value proposition. Research thoroughly to choose the most effective meta description within the 156-character limit - Google's maximum display for search results. Optimize each description for onsite SEO to enhance visibility and user engagement.
Optimize Content - Use Keywords In Titles And Headings
Ensure that your core keyword is strategically placed in various elements to optimize your webpage. This includes the title tag, headings, URL, content, image alt descriptions, and meta description. Crafting unique and enticing title tags for each page is crucial for click-through rates.
By incorporating the keyword into these elements, you enhance your post's optimization, potentially leading to a higher ranking in search engineresults. Additionally, utilizing the keyword in the URL contributes to the perceived relevance of your site. Keep title tags within 60 characters for optimal effectiveness.
Shorten The URL
A proficient SEO specialist understands the importance of maintaining a straightforward URL structure. A user-friendly URL not only enhances readability but can also contribute to improved rankings. To achieve better readability, opt for a permalink without dynamic parameters, utilizing hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_). Don't feel compelled to include the entire title in the URL; instead, focus on key elements.
For instance, if the article is titled "5 Common Myths About Healthy Eating," a well-structured URL could be:
http://healthmyths.com/common-myths-healthy-eating or http://healthmyths.com/blog/common-myths-healthy-eating
Both options are effective.
Avoid leaving your URL on autopilot, as automated systems may include irrelevant stop words (a, the, so, with, for, to, at, etc.). Take control to ensure a clean and optimized URL structure for your website.
Optimize Images With Descriptive ALT Tags
Validate the importance of SEOby incorporating alt descriptions in your images for increased content relevance. Consider adding at least one image to enhance readability and clarity in your content. For users of open-source content management systems like WordPressor Blogger, adding an image alt description is a simple task. If you're using HTML, include alt="here you can write your alt text" within your image tag.
Create Competitive, High-Quality Content
Ensuring the uniqueness and value of your content is paramount, but it's equally crucial to make it competitive enough to stand out among your rivals. Before delving into creating new content, it's advisable to investigate how your competitors have addressed the same information.
One convenient method for this is to examine their websites. You can accomplish this by using a Google search with the query "site:competitorsite.com keyword." Alternatively, a more streamlined approach is to leverage tools like BrandMentions to pinpoint the discussions and content types that matter most to you.
Maintain A Regular Blog With Smart Content
To enhance your website's visibility, attract more visitors, and generate leads, you may consider incorporating a blog. Consistently updating your blog with fresh content is a key SEO indicator.
Not only does regular blogging contribute to improved search engine rankings, but it also positions you ahead of competitors in search engine results pages (SERP). Maintaining a blog provides a straightforward means of regularly introducing new content to your site, thereby boosting your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
If you currently don't have a blog, you can easily create a free version by signing up on platforms like WordPressor Blogger. Once registered, the process involves building your blog, selecting a template, installing the necessary plugins, creating a user account, and customizing the appearance of your blog.
You'll also need to establish categories, edit settings, and ensure that your site displays information correctly with fast page load speeds. Verify that all buttons and features, such as the comments section, are functioning properly before you start writing. While it might initially seem like a complex task, once you dive in, the process tends to become more manageable and engaging.
Ensure The Organic Nature Of Your Backlinks
Numerous valuable tools are available online to assist you in monitoring the authenticity of your backlinks. One such tool is cognitiveSEO, which provides a range of features, including the Unnatural Links History chart for exploring statistics. The Link Velocitychart is particularly useful for identifying spikes in different time frames that may indicate an unnatural link profile.
A notable advantage of this tool is the Unnatural Links Navigator, which allows you to review your inbound links, identify potential issues, and conveniently disavow problematic links. Moreover, you can export the disavow file with a single click, making it easy to submit to Google for further action.
Ensure Your Website Is Optimized For Mobile Devices
The landscape of front-end development entered a new era in 2002 when Audi introduced a website featuring a layout that seamlessly adjusted to various browser viewports. Fast forward to 2013, Mashable declared it the "Year of Responsive Web Design," marking a pivotal moment. Today, having a responsive design isn't just a trend; it's a necessity for ensuring optimal user experience.
Responsive website design encompasses:
- Adaptable screen resolution:The site seamlessly adjusts to different screen sizes, whether in portrait or landscape orientation.
- Flexible media:Images and videos are dynamically scaled to suit the device's screen size.
- Liquid layout:The overall design is fluid and can adapt to the unique characteristics of each device.
- Different navigation methods:Navigation varies; scrolling is common on desktops, while tapping is more prevalent on other devices.
- Smaller-sized graphics:To enhance mobile loading speed, images are optimized for smaller file sizes.
The mechanics of responsive website design are evident in its dynamic content presentation. On a desktop, it displays three paragraphs of text; on a tablet, two paragraphs; and on a mobile phone, just one. Furthermore, the desktop format is landscape, while tablets and phones adopt a portrait layout.
In the contemporary digital landscape, an array of tools and HTML codes facilitate the creation of responsive website designs and contribute to improved loading speed. One notable solution addressing this need is the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project (AMP). AMP offers an elegant and streamlined approach to constructing web pages for static content, ensuring faster rendering.
Interestingly, for websites that primarily feature static content without custom JavaScript, creating a separate AMP version might be unnecessary. Each AMP document automatically integrates the AMP JS JavaScript library, optimizing performance by enforcing and validating essential rules within your markup.
Boost Your Site's Loading Speed
The speed at which your website loads and its bounce rate are closely intertwined. If your site takes too long to load, visitors are likely to leave and might not return. In today's fast-paced technological era, there's a prevalent expectation that every webpage should load almost instantly.
The speed of your site is not only crucial for the user experience but also impacts its search engine ranking. Various free tools available online can help you assess your site's load speed. Slow load times can result from multiple factors, including poorly optimized code, server or network issues, and the presence of analytics codes, among others.
Google offers one notable tool for measuring speed. It provides a score out of 100 for both mobile and desktop load speeds, along with a detailed list of suggestions and guides on how toaddress identified issues. It's essential to reevaluate your site's speed a week or two after implementing these suggestions to ensure improvements have been achieved.
Use Google Search Console For Site Diagnosis
An essential SEO task to prioritize is ensuring a seamless connection with Google Search Console. If you've registered your site, it's crucial to navigate to the message board in the left menu for guidance on initial steps before making any modifications.
Within the left menu, there are four categories: search appearance, search traffic, Google index status update, and crawl data. It's advisable to thoroughly review each category and address as many issues as possible. If you encounter any uncertainties, the help center provides comprehensive information about the tool and can assist in resolving queries.
Resolve Crawl Issues In Google Search Console
Under the Crawl category in Google Search Console, you'll find the Crawl Errors list. While some websites may experience just a few crawl errors, others might encounter thousands, while some lucky ones might not face such issues at all.
If your site falls into the fortunate category of having no crawl errors, that's great. However, for those experiencing problems, solutions are available. Crawl errors typically encompass DNS errors, server errors, and robot failures.
To address DNS errors, consider options such as using the Fetch as a Google tool to crawl each link, checking with your DNS provider, or ensuring your server appropriately displays a 404 or 500 error code when necessary.
If you encounter robot failure, it's crucial to verify your robots.txt file. Regularly inspecting this file is essential to prevent future errors.
Beyond site errors, there are four other types of URL errors on desktop: "server errors," "soft 404," "access denied," and "not found." Additionally, there is one type on mobile, which is "not found." It's important to review each link in the list and mark them as fixed to ensure optimal performance.
SEO Tasks You Need To Complete Now - FAQ
What Are The Four Important Stages In SEO?
The four stages of SEO are creating a strategy, building your site, creating and publishing content, and promoting your site on other channels. Let's break down each of these important stages to make it easier to get a handle on how to apply each of them to your own project.
What Does An SEO Do In Their Day To Day Work?
Every day, SEO experts check website performance and keyword position analytics to see how things are going. The results may change from day to day with Google algorithms, updates, and user dynamics. So, it's crucial to do daily checks to see how every page of the website you promote is working.
Can You Do SEO Yourself?
Yes! Search engine optimization(SEO) doesn't always require help from a specialist. Anyone can study SEO best practices and use SEO tools to optimize their website in-house. In fact, most SEO experts got their start with do-it-yourself (DIY) SEO.
In Conclusion
Optimizing your website for search engines is an ongoing process that demands attention to various crucial elements. The SEO tasks you need to complete now play a pivotal role in ensuring the validation and success of your website. Regularly monitoring and adapting to the evolving landscape of SEO is key to maintaining a strong online presence and staying ahead in the competitive digital environment.