Top 10 DIY SEO Practices that Will Skyrocket Your Rankings in 2017

Top 10 DIY SEO Practices

There’s no denying the importance of SEO practices and upkeep when it comes to your website. Though SEO is clearly essential to online success, some businesses are still hesitant when it comes to their SEO skill set. However, optimising your website for search engines doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. In fact, there are certain steps you can easily take today to boost your search engine rankings. Now is the perfect time to invest more heavily in your website and online presence in order to see the rewards. Don’t get left behind in 2017: here are do it yourself SEO practices you can start implementing right now.

1. Make Use of Google’s Keyword Planner

You can easily use Google’s keyword planner to see what keywords Google attributes to your website. This will help you get a better idea of what keywords you should be focusing on and how you can implement them in the future. You can also use this tool to see search volume and competition of certain keywords, helping you plan new content. Generally, ideal keywords have a large search volume but low competition; look for these keywords and see how you can integrate them into your content.

2. Do Basic Optimising for Your Pages

SEO doesn’t start and end with what’s on each page. Don’t forget about title tags, meta descriptions, and image tags when optimising for SEO. The title tag and meta description are what’s visible on the search engine results page. These should include your keywords as well as be an appropriate length; too long and they’ll get cut off. In addition, you can tag your images to help search engines “read” them.

3. Get Active on Social Media

Google doesn’t just pay attention to your website when ranking it on the SERPs. It also tracks the number of likes, comments, and shares you receive on your social media platforms. Make an effort to post interesting content at least once a day. The more engagement you have on your social media accounts, the more Google sees you as an important and helpful business. This signals to them that you should be ranked higher, so get to posting!

4. Blog, Blog, Blog

One of the best ways to get quality content onto your website is through a blog. This is the perfect space to write about what may interest your customers or other industry professionals. Not only are blogs a great opportunity to post keyword-rich content, they’re also easily shareable. This makes it easy for others to link back to your site, driving traffic. Google rewards helpful and valuable content, so try to post about things that others will find helpful or interesting.

5. Pay Attention to the Competition

Study up on what your high-ranking competitors are doing right. Pay attention to what keywords they rank for and how their website is optimised. You can learn a lot from others and then implement what they’re doing well on your own website.

6. Make Use of Free Tools

Tools like Google Analytics can help you review the SEO on your website and offer suggestions on how to improve it. This is an easy way to get ideas on how to better your website. There are also various websites that test the speed of your website, a sometimes overlooked component of SEO. The loading time of your website is an important factor in determining usability, so make sure that your site isn’t lagging.

7. Build Relationships

Get in contact with other people in your industry as well as customers. Cultivating these types of relationships make you seem more authoritative, a positive signal to Google. Not only that, but getting in contact with others in your industry can help you improve your business or come up with fresh ideas.

8. Think Like Your Customer

Identify and research your target audience. Then consider how they search and shop for things. People can search the way they talk, with longer phrases and questions. Consider this when focusing on your keywords. These long-tail keywords have higher conversions because they often pull up exactly what a customer is looking for.

9. Be Mobile-Friendly

As smartphones grow even more prominent, more people are performing searches on their devices. If someone finds your website on their phone, you want to make sure they’ll be able to access it and view it. Being adaptive is imperative, especially because Google favours websites that are mobile responsive.

10. Monitor

All of the SEO practices in the world won’t make a difference if you pay no attention to how they’re performing. Monitor your various keywords and web pages to see how they’re performing. If something isn’t working, change it. If something is working really well, replicate it with other parts of your website. SEO isn’t a one and done venture, but is constantly evolving. Make sure you continually tweak your strategy in order to stay on top of the game.

So there you have it! Here are 10 DIY SEO practices that will help you stay at the top of the SERPs as we go into 2017. It’s a new year: embrace it and see how search engine optimisation can help your business this year.