Is your website not showing for your target keywords? Not really sure what to do to get your website showing? Lucky for you, I’m a Google SEO consultant and I’m going to reveal some top tips to get you started. This is especially useful if you are starting on your SEO journey and need guidance from a reliable Google SEO consultant. All of the tips I have listed can easily be done and are all in according to Google’s best practices. Brought together by Paul Gordon, from 720 Digital.
1. Image ALT Tags
When I visit new Google SEO consultant clients, one of the things I check are their image ALT tags and these are either missing or not optimised most of the time. These are important because the Google bots cannot read images and so they need these tags to be able to read them. I remember first visiting a Google SEO consultant client of mine and straight away could see that their homepage was just one big image with no content or ALT tags. It was no wonder their website wasn’t ranking, Google had no idea what the website was about.
2. Use Of Headings
Google bots always read the headings first which is why I tell my Google SEO consultant clients to include a target keyword in their headings… only if it is natural. Having a properly structured blog post will not only help Google bots crawl it but it will also be easier to read for users. You can always ask your Google SEO consultant for the best way to structure your blog posts but I would always suggest having one H1 header and a number of H2 headers.
3. Social Share Buttons
Social media is becoming more and more important for SEO. As a Google SEO consultant who has been in the industry for a number of years, I have seen how it has evolved from solely relying on backlinks for trust signals to now counting social media into their trust signals too. This is why I advise all my Google SEO consultant clients to make sure they make it easy for their visitors to share content socially. You can do this by adding social share buttons onto your product pages and blog posts.
4. Title Tags
I cannot stress enough, as a Google SEO consultant, the importance of optimising your title tags. These are probably one of the most important aspects of on-page SEO. Not only do they help improve rankings but they can also improve your click-through-rate. I advise all my Google SEO consultant clients to edit any duplicate title tags and to include a target keyword that is relevant to the page in each title.
5. Friendly URL’s
As well as title tags, another on-page SEO ranking factor is your URL’s. Just like I advise my Google SEO consultant clients about their title tags, I advise they also include a target keyword in each URL on their website. When it comes to blog pots URL’s; remove any non-value words such as “and”, “or” and “of” to shorten the URL’s so they don’t look spammy.
6. Meta Descriptions
While writing meta descriptions for your many web pages and blog posts may seem like the most boring task in the world, it is not one you want to delay or ignore. A lot of Google SEO consultant clients of mine were confused about meta data when I first met with them. To clear it up, they do not directly affect how your website ranks but they do affect your click-through-rate. There is no point in ranking highly when no one is going to click on your website. Take the time to write compelling and enticing meta descriptions that include target keywords as these are highlighted in bold when a user is searching.
7. Write For Users First
When writing blog posts, many Google SEO consultant clients of mine used to be focusing their content too much around what Google wanted. This caused the content to feel unnatural and forced. Nobody is going to share or engage with content that was written for robots. If people aren’t sharing or linking to your content then Google isn’t going to receive any trust signals. Therefore trying to please Google was a wasted effort after all. I tell all my Google SEO consultant clients to write directly to their users and not focus on what Google wants.
8. Fresh Content
Google loves fresh content! The more you are publishing valuable content to your blog, the more Google is going to crawl it. A recent study found that companies who blog once a day have a higher ROI. If you haven’t got the time or the knowledge to create valuable content every day, it may be time to seek help from a Google SEO consultant.