Do you want to lean how to drive your page higher in Google Search results, without a developer?

It's easier than you think, in this article, we will go through a ways you can improve your SEO.

Developing your site properly is very important to SEO however there is only so much a developer can do for your site. If you want to go that extra, you need to do a couple of simple tricks to support your site.

‍

1) Add value to other blogs

This one is simple. Read other blogs who are in your industry or target the same clients you are targeting. Add a comment to their blog supporting them, adding to the discussion, and mention your business name with a link to your site.

for example, I'll write on a blog about optimising images for websites something like this:

What great advice and amazing suggestions. Your tools seem well researched. Optimising image size is very important, there are also more tips like Alt Text and more on a blog form Red Panda Designs, check it our HERE.

Mention your name and link your URL. This adds value to your both as Google will identify the link and connection between you both. The connection help prove that you are adding value to the internet, which Google use in their algorithm to rank you higher.

‍

2) Reach out to your network

We seem to have two kinds of networks, a personal network being friends and personal Facebook account and then a professional network being work environments, events and LinkedIn. 

Both of these networks are great resources for you. Who best to advocate for you than your friends? Your friends have their own professional networks and if you are a retail business, then they are your target audience. Your professional networks can be more targeted, you know their businesses and can be specific about how your service or products can solve their problems. 

Here are some tips on using your networks:

• Post on your social media with links to your blog or site. Remember, tone is very important so post in a positive tone that reflects you and your business encouraging others to take action.
• Call your mate who has another business or a client / service provider. Ask them if they will write a blog about you and your services. Even better, write the blog yourself and ask them to post it on their site. The post will work better if it says your business name a few times and has a link and images to your site.
• Write a blog about your mates business and ask them to do the same to you.
• Write a blog about a person, business or service provider you value. Then email or call the company asking them to share a link on their social media platforms. If you can get them to do this, it’s a win/win. For example, I'm planning to write a blog about Loom, then I'll reach out to them.

‍

3) Include images in your own blog post

Don't just write a slab of text with a few ads in it. Add images, even better, your own images or illustrations.

Images should:

• be relevant to the blog post
• add to the story
• be of you/your business. Try not use too many stock photos.
• be optimised of web
• include Alt Text.
• Have a caption

‍

4) Search your own images

If you have made images, taken photos or have custom illustrations, it's a good idea to google search your own images. If someone else is using your images and you don't mind, that’s great, but they should be crediting you.

Here are a few steps on what you should do if you find your images on other posts.

1. Read the blog post and see if they talk about you or reference you.
2. If not, email or call them asking to reference you for using your image.
3. Check the Alt Text of the image, if its blank or not relevant, ask for it to include your name and image description. In Chrome, right click on the image and select "Inspect" then search for the letters "alt=" in the side panel that just came up. After the equals is the Alt Text Google read.
4. Check the link to the image. If clicking on the link simply makes it bigger, ask them to change the URL to your site. Home page or your blog post. In the inspector, look for "srcset=" and that URL is where the user is directed when the image is clicked on.

‍

5) Search for key words before starting to write a blog

There are a few tricks you can use to search for phrases and key words to include in your posts. This is a never-ending topic and no matter what I write, there will always be more you can do however, I’ll give you some tips. 

1. Google search they title you are planning to use. Remembering Google show results based on your usage, so this isn’t a perfectly sound system however the alternative is a system that costs about $90 a month and the results are questionable. 
2. See how many other posts show up with the same title. If there aren't many then you’re onto something.
3. If there loads of articles and posts with the same title, then change it a little. For example, from “How to boil an egg” to “Best way to boil an egg”.

‍

6) Use key words in your titles

Like any headline, your blog title needs to be catchy. When your post is shared, the title is what will catch the new reader because they may not have the context as the first reader. For example, someone reading your site sharing your post with someone who was just watching cat videos, the cat video person then needs to shift their cognitive flows into context of your article. 

Here are a few ways to make your titles stand out:

1. Be descriptive with the least amount of words.
2. Be honest with your title. Deliver what you say.
3. Although they might frustrate you, use words like "the best way..." or "5 most ...."
4. Use words that are relevant to your site and post.

‍

7) Use case studies in your blog posts

Case studies can be used as a separate section in your site to validate your services or tell a detailed story of how you can help. Another way is to tell a small story or give examples in your posts. For example, I helped a customer reach new markets by not only building an attractive website targeting new markets, I also provided quality advice. I did this by setting up a teleconference and emailed the top 10 actions my client could do to expand into the target areas.

The result was great, but I'm also writing this blog because of that situation.

‍

8) Include stats in your posts

‍Depending on your blog type, statistics will help build trust and value in your post. Make sure the stats are relevant and referenced. 

• Use stats that support your key objective
• Use stats that are relevant and interesting to your reader. This will also increase the chances of your blog being shared. 
• Reference your stats, if it’s your data, just include that. 
• Visualise your data. Use Excel or a Google Sheet to create a graph, pie chart of table. 

‍

9) Link to valid data and references

Links are important, other people linking to your site helps your sites ranking. You linking to other data points also help you a lot. Google sees these links as validating and adding. There is a difference between linking to www.myer.com and www.myer.com/retail-statustics-to-support-your-site.html. 

Remember point 4 though, if you are linking from other peoples images, credit them and link to their site. 

‍

10) Fix any broken links on your site

‍There are free tools that can help you search for broken links. A broken link can occur when you mention one blog in another blog then delete one of the blogs. We have all experienced this, you click on a link and get a 404 - page not found message. 

Google notice these and will rank your down, mostly because you are not creating a good experience.

‍

Bonus Tips

• Don't wait for a blog to be perfect or you'll never post it. Get it to a point where you're happy with it and refine it. For example, at time of writing, this post doesn't have pictures because the content is most important to my clients right now, not myself trying to get more views.
• Watch your analytics and adjust as needed. You can make changes to a live post but if your changes are fundamental, call out whats changed.
• Write your blogs in Word or Docs then paste them into your site and format it. Browser based documents are designed to not refresh however most site editors have a 15 minute window where the page will time out if you haven't moved from that page for 15 minutes.
• Stay on track. Make sure the start and end of your post are talking about the same topic, stay on topic.

If you are following these tips and still not getting the results you want, please reach out to us for help. SEO management requires updating because your content, the internet and google algorithms are always changing. 

‍