Search Engine Optimization: 5 Key Steps to Take Your SEO Beyond the Basics

Prioritize Keywords for High Traffic Pages 

Use high search volume keywords to optimize the pages that are at the top of your website’s hierarchy. Place the most important and relevant keywords in the title and above the fold on each page.

The Importance of Small Images SIzes 

Your website’s user experience (UX) should be the same across all devices, locations, and times of the day. A very common problem is that websites are not optimized for people who are accessing them on mobile devices. Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices usually have larger image sizes and, as a result, perform slower. To help optimize your website’s performance and enhance its UX, keep your website’s image sizes small. 

• Check your website’s speed with Google Page Speeds Insights
• Make your image sizes smaller with imagecompressor.com

Google My Business 

Update your Google My Business profile with your website, phone number, and pictures. Check to see if all of your information is up to date and ask customers to review you on Google. 

Google Search Console 

Set up a Google Search Console account for your website. Because you cannot rely on Google to index your entire site without uploading a sitemap, it will miss key pages and could hinder your website’s SEO ranking. When you set up your Google Search Console account, make sure to upload your website’s sitemap as well to allow Google to immediately crawl your entire website and rank you accordingly. 

Google Analytics 

Google Analytics gives users information about the visitors who visit a website, their journeys through the website, and the content they find popular. Link your Google Search Console Account for more powerful demographic data about your organic traffic. Review your reports under Acquisition > Search Console. With Google Search Console Integrated, you now have a section to review your organic search traffic (e.g. landing pages, time on site, etc). This Google Analytics data will allow your to measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and help you use this information to develop new and accurate goals. 

Looking for more in-depth help with enhancing your site’s SEO? Our consultants can perform a website audit on your site and business to determine how to improve your search optimization ranking. Make an appointment with one of our expert marketing consultants – all at no cost to you. Schedule an intake consultation at ociesmallbusiness.org/intake-appointment or give us a call at 800-616-7232.