Affordable SEO Quick Fix in Minutes
Have you got a sound business concept but just don’t know how to generate good traffic to your website? If you are in search of an affordable SEO quick fix, simply follow these 7 tips.
1. Checker Your URL
First, type your web address into your browser with and without the “www [dot]“. You should be able to pull up your website with and without the www, however, both versions should take you to the same web address. In other words, if you type in your domain name without the www, you should be redirected to your www.your-domain.com, with the www. Google sees the www version and the non-www version of your site as two different web pages. If they don’t resolve to the same address, you could get hit with a duplicate content penalty.
2. Don’t Use “Home Page”
Once you log into your site, check the title that is listed in the upper left hand corner of your web browser. Make sure it’s an actual title and that it contains your keywords. Hint: “Home Page” is not a very effective title tag.
Many small business owners use their company name as the home page title. And while you can incorporate your company name, your keyword phrase should be given priority. For instance, if you manufacture pillows and mattresses and your company name is Slumberland, a good title would be Pillows and Mattresses by Slumberland instead of just settling for the title Slumberland.
3. Use Keyword Rich Titles
After checking your home page title, click through to the other pages in your website and check their titles in the upper left hand corner of your browser. Each page should have a unique title tag. You also want to incorporate your keywords into each of the interior pages title tags. Google does consider your title tag when determining the subject matter of your web page.
4. Make Sure Your Page Loads Quickly
Next, clear out your browser’s cache (on your browser’s menu bar, click Tools, Clear History). This will take all of your web pages out of your computer’s “storage” and ensure that you load a new, fresh page. Once your history has been cleared, reenter your domain url into your browser, but this time, pay attention to how long it takes for your home page to load. And then visit some of your interior pages and pay very close attention to load times.
Google’s new algorithm takes page load time into account, and if your page loads slowly, it can be penalized. Ask your webmaster to remove any unnecessary images, to consolidate style sheets and reduce DNS calls to speed up your web page. If you’ve designed your site yourself, make sure your images have been reduced to 72dpi and, if you want to change the dimensions of a graphic on your web pages, you’ll need to resize the graphic in your image editor (i.e. Photoshop). If you simply change the height and width measurements in the image tag, the entire image will need to be loaded and then resized by the web browser, which will actually slow down your page load time.
5. Use Image Alt Tags
And while we’re on the topic of images, make sure all of your images utilize ALT tags. Now I’ll admit, this is purely speculation on my part, but since Google’s new algorithm seems to be looking at the “professionalism” of websites, taking advantage of usability techniques can only help. Remember, your image ALT tags are meant to aid in usability and not aid in keyword stuffing.
6. Publish Original, High Quality Content
Take an honest, unbiased look at all of the content on all of your web pages. Is it something your target market truly wants to read? Do each of your web pages provide useful, high quality information? Avoid regurgitating the same PLR content you’re your competitors are using. Google’s new algorithm gives preferential treatment to high quality, unique content.
7. Find Relevant Links
Try to build up as many links into your website as possible. But put the vast majority of your link building efforts on getting relevant links. You’ll get a better SEO advantage from 4 incoming links from relevant websites than 40 links from off-topic sites.
And here’s a final bonus tip. Take a look at how your page will display in the Google search results page. It’s easy to do – just copy a complete sentence from your web page and paste it into Google surrounded by quotation marks. With any luck, your site should come up as the first listing. You’ll be able to see exactly how your site is listed in Google. Take a good look at the description. Is it compelling and enticing? Would it make you want to click through and read the rest of the web page? If not, make any necessary changes to your description tag. Then repeat this process for each of your web pages.
Karen Scharf, small business marketing consultant, works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several papers, reports and checklists, including her FREE 4 Simplest Tactics for Increasing Your Customer Base and Growing Your Bottom Line. Download this and many other small business marketing tips now.
