7 Free SEO tricks to increase your rank in Google

Don’t be afraid of the SEO monster.  He really isn’t that scary once you know how he works, he is a big soft fluffy monster.

So What is SEO?

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’. What is a Search Engine you may ask?

Well, most of you would use Google as your search engine. Every time you go to Google to ask a question, you are typing your questions into Google’s ‘search engine’.  Other search engines include Bing and Yahoo search and there are a few more out there but you and I have never heard of them.

So what does it mean to optimise search engines?  It basically means doing certain activities that help increase the rank of your website so that when people type in a question, such as “best donut in Australia”, it will come up with your amazing donut store on the first page. Stats show that page one of Google search results receives 95% of web traffic with subsequent pages receiving 5% or less, so ultimately you want to be on the first page of search result.  However, like anything in life, nothing happens overnight and it can take a while for you to get to page one especially if you are in a highly competitive landscape. For example, me being in web design, this is very competitive and there are so many web design companies in my area, who have been around a lot longer then I have. I started my business in June last year (2017) and I began on page 15 of Google search results for my keywords, I then progressed slowly to page 8 then page 4 and then eventually page 1. This took 4-5months of doing these SEO activities and trust me I am a slacker when it comes to doing SEO stuff, so I’m sure you could beat my recordSO there are 7 free activities you can do to help increase the rank of your website.

Lets take a look

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  1. Add your website to Google Search Console. This is an easy way to let Google know that your website exists and it can then start to crawl it.  Go to Google webmaster, add a property which is your website address
2. Add SSL which stands for Secure Sockets Layer which adds an encrypted link between your browser and server which basically protects your visitor’s data if they enter details into your site such as their email or credit card etc. You will notice https instead of jus http and also a padlock symbol in the address bar, this means this site is safe for you to enter your details onto. You need to be very cautious of sites that don’t have this and want you to purchase something.  Why is it important for SEO, well Google rank these sites higher. You can add it via your website host or your web developer can add SSL certificate to your site. If you have a WordPress site there is a free version, but usually its’ about $25 a year to add SSL.

3. Add your business to Google My Business. Which is basically adding your address so you will be shown in Google Maps but this definitely increases your rank in Google because Google likes to be able to show all businesses and options on their maps so they love it. You just need to add your business and they will send a verification letter to that address so you can confirm it. Getting people to review you on google also helps.  Read this Blog on how to set up Google My Business.

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4. Always add alternate text to your images when adding them to your website. Google cannot read images but it can read text so make sure you add text to make sure google can find this valuable information
5.  Yoast is a free plugin for WordPress sites which makes it super easy to add keywords and descriptions to every page and blog post on your website. It’s great cause it has red, orange and green lights, ultimately you want all green lights.
6.  Adding external links and social media sharing can increase your ranking. Google likes to show results that are relevant to the visitor’s search request so outbound links helps Google understand your blog or website more and make the results better for their visitors. It’s all about gaining trust with Google. And with social media sharing, if people are sharing your content this makes more people likely to visit your site which increases ranking. As the saying goes by Jae Baer (some marketing guru) “content is fire and social media is gasoline”
7.  Start Blogging. Google loves content, especially if its new.  Blog titles are key to rank well in google. So make sure your Blog titles are answering questions that your customers would be asking in Google search engine.  For example – ‘How do I make dairy free donuts?’ And that would be your blog title if you are in the baking, food, diet, health, food intolerance industry.

So how often do you need to blog you may ask?. The more content you have on your site, the better. However quality content is much better than quantity. The content needs to be valuable and relevant to your audience. Google loves quantity but only if it’s good quality so build up your content slowly rather then just throwing anything up.

P.S. Another thing that Google loves and helps increase your rank, make your site mobile friendly. I use the Divi Theme on WordPress which makes your website mobile friendly. (See link below)
Divi WordPress Theme

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Ranking higher with Facebook.

If you don’t have a website and just a FB page, you can still increase your ranking in Google.  Get more likes, add content to your about section, fill in everything, email, website, phone etc. Add content on a regular basis that is relevant for your target market.

Remember SEO is only one part of your marketing strategy.  Really think about your target market and how they are going to find you. Networking or being a guest speaker may be more valuable than spending hours on SEO activities.  There might be only a small percentage of people who actually look for your industry via a search engine like Google, so use your time wisely.
See you next time lovely humans

Leisa

1 Comment

  1. leisa@retrohex
    leisa@retrohex on December 19, 2018 at 9:21 am

    Hi Marketing Roo thanks so much for those kind words. Leisa

    Reply

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