The quickest wins in SEO

SEO is a key part in drawing traffic that results in more data to be monetized. This lesson shares some tools you can use to fix SEO mistakes and the type of content that can help improve your search traffic.  A healthy site would get about 30-50% of their traffic from search engines. Users from search engines usually have a higher rate of conversion because they are already interested in your domain so it makes sense to optimize search as it’s the first place users find you at the top of your funnel.

Start with easy technical fixes 

Do a simple check to see if search engines can understand and find your website, it’s a key piece in understanding SEO. If your site isn’t easily found or understood when they search for them then they have no chance of showing on Search Engine Results Page (SERP). There are several mistakes most websites make that can be fixed easily that help with this problem. 

The first thing to do is check which of your websites pages Google has indexed and how many they are.  You can use an advanced search operator like “site:yourdomain.com” 

Doing this will help you get an idea of the amount of work that needs to be done. Examples of things that might need to be done include 

• Adding alt tags to images so search engines know what they are
• Unique and descriptive meta descriptions and titles

You can also use automated tools to test for these mistakes, then after fixing them verify that they are live by registering for Google Webmaster Tools.

Optimize for humans using the search engines

Think of the keywords users would search for when they are trying to find your product and create copy that includes these keywords in them. They keywords should be broken down the way users would write them. Use a variety of combinations of different keywords associated with your product.  Try not to write spammy copy oversaturated with keywords if you want to rank with long tail keywords. 

Work your keywords into useful content

Write content that is actually useful to your customers, you can do this by matching your content with the long tail keyword. Give the people who search these keywords something interesting to read while infusing the keyword into it enough times so that search engines pick it up. 

Try it out 

Try creating content that is funny and shatters so many assumptions that users want all of their friends and family see it and it gets shared over and over. Doing this isn’t always easy, sometimes you’ll hit the jackpot and other times, not so much. Keep practicing your writing, stay in the loop with what happens in your industry, have your writing reviewed by other writers and make sure the timing is right when you post it. Research and find popular topics in your industry and write on it. 

 Tools like HubSpot, SEOmoz, Google Webmaster Tools and Marketing Grader are great for helping you fix technical issues. When you resolve these issues, ensure you remain focused on not repeating them and making great content.