More than 5,000,000,000 Google searches are performed every day and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the best way to make your website visible to those “Googlers” looking for something related to your website’s products, or services. Although we’re giving out 3 SEO free tricks here, don’t be fooled into thinking that Search Engine Optimization itself is a free service. Large companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for premier SEO services! Although rates for small businesses (with smaller web presences and smaller budgets) are less expensive, the key is to focus on the return on investment you’ll be receiving. Now on to today’s free SEO tricks…
1. Clean Up Your Meta Data
This one’s easy but time consuming depending on how large your website is. Google frowns upon websites that have multiple pages with suspiciously similar meta descriptions, page headers, or page titles. However, considering most websites contain information related to a single subject, it can be fairly easy to accidentally reuse meta data on two related pages. If your website contains 50 pages, going through and making sure each page has a unique and relevant meta description won’t take more than a couple hours. Have 50,000 pages? That could take a while… Google loves a website with distinct content on every page and post, so use this SEO free trick to make those crawler bots happy!
2. Clean Up Your XML Sitemap
This free SEO trick can make a huge difference in your rankings. This is another simple task if you have a website that’s on the smaller side. Make sure your sitemap is set to alert Google and other search engines to crawl your website frequently, especially if you’re posting new content daily or even weekly. Posting high-quality content on your site consistently is absolutely a best SEO practice, but it’s of no use if Google isn’t seeing those changes and reindexing your site!
3. Clean Up Your Website’s Mobile Compatibility
This SEO free trick is somewhat more contemporary, but it’s gaining momentum fast. The mobile space is becoming so popular that Google is rewarding websites in terms of rankings for having a site that’s compatible with mobile browsers. Check with your web developer immediately to make sure your site has a strong mobile presence. Better yet, whip out your smartphone right now! If you open up your company’s site using any web browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc) and it looks exactly like it does on a desktop computer, chances are your website is not build for mobile devices and is taking an SEO hit.
