As a business owner you have a lot on your plate. But, if your business depends upon your website for any leads at all, then SEO is something worth focusing on.
Luckily, there are a variety of things you can do to bolster your SEO efforts, and best of all, they don’t take that much additional work. When it comes to SEO you want to lay a solid foundation that all of your additional traffic-generation work can build upon.
Below we offer five quick wins that’ll help bolster your current SEO strategy.
1. Get a High-Quality Host
Site speed plays a big role in how high your site will rank in the search engines. One of the biggest determining factors of how well your site will perform is the host you choose. It can be very tempting to simply go with the cheapest hosting option available, but this isn’t always recommended.
If your site loads slowly you’re not only going to provide a poor user experience. But, users who came to your site once probably won’t come back again. None of these factors give your site a positive review in the eyes of Google.
When it doubt, go with a hosting provider that is towards the top end of your budget. You don’t want to struggle to pay hosting costs every month, but it’s often recommended to go with something a little more high quality than the basic plan.
2. Choose a Strong URL
Back in the old days it was a recommended course of action to buy a URL that included the keywords you were trying to rank for. This isn’t a recommended practice anymore, but your URL is still very important.
Your top level domain (TLD) should exude authority. What is a TLD? It’s the portion of your URL that follows your brandable domain. For instance, things like, .net, .com, .org, etc. Remember, TLD’s like .biz and others that are related can end up looking spammy and lower the trust in your business.
3. Utilize a CMS, Like WordPress
Building out a site that looks good and is ready to rank can be a difficult task. Luckily, content management systems like WordPress make it incredibly easy to build out a beautiful site that’s also ready to rank when the time comes.
When choosing the right CMS for your website, make sure you think long-term. It is possible to migrate to another CMS over time, but it can be a total pain.
4. Use an Optimization Plugin
Looking for ways you can further optimize your posts and content for certain keywords. Look no further than Yoast SEO. If you’re utilizing WordPress as your CMS of choice, then installing this plugin is as easy as a couple of clicks.
Instead of spending time educating yourself on the ins and outs of onsite SEO this plugin will walk you through the necessary steps of optimizing your content around a chosen keyword.
5. Adjust Your Permalinks
Permalinks can be incredibly easy to change, if you’re using a CMS like WordPress. Sadly, a lot of business owners miss this step and end up having a website that has less than stellar permalinks.
Essentially, permalinks make your links more SEO-friendly. Usually, you’ll want to have the simplest permalink structure available. This allows for easier customization and the inclusion of certain keywords on a per-post basis.
By checking off the five site elements above your site will be much better prepared for ranking in the search engines. If you want a fully developed SEO strategy custom-tailored to your business, then reach out to our SEO Jacksonville team today.
