Another year, another leap forward in SEO. Google’s algorithms are ever-changing, but before you get too embroiled in the new, it’s always a good idea to look back at the fundamentals of SEO and check everything is working as it should. Call it a Christmas Check-up.
Browser Extensions that work for you
Getting SEO spot on is hard enough without spending hours going through different sites, using online tools and measuring your performance; the legwork can be exhausting. Luckily, both Chrome and Firefox have extensions that can be added to your browser for one-click SEO hacks. Places like QuickSprout have great tips for SEO browser extensions, including ones that help with:
– Seeing page authority and domain authority of pages in order to access the competition
– Mobile friendliness score on any given page
– Estimated traffic level of a page
– Meta information, keyword density and more.
Enhance Low-performance Content
More often than not, the traffic and leads coming to your site are due to a very small amount of optimised content. By using Search Analytics in the Google Search Console, you can optimise the content that will appear on pages 2-3 (or lower) on Google. Your goal using the impressions, positions and clicks to a keyword will give you an idea on what their average position and popularity is.
Tip: look for keywords in the 10-25 position range that you can boost, by doing the following:
1. Use the above method to find keywords on your site to add internal links to,
2. Add internal links from your most powerful content to these low-performance content (use a link analysis tool to do this)
3. Adjust on-page copy to see if the keyword is mentioned in the title meta tag, the heading, etc (Yoast SEO has a fantastic analysis tool for this for WordPress sites).
4. Track your keyword’s performance with Google Analytics or Accuranker.
Use that Old Content!
So you’ve enhanced your under performing content, what about that old draft you’ve got sitting on your CMS? And that blog post you wrote four years ago? Get it re-published. The older blog posts are, the less prioritised and lower in your website’s architecture they’ll be. The trick to a powerful, valuable page is its freshness! Here are a few things you can do with older posts:
1. Add some extra content to an old post. Has something in your industry updated in the time between when the post was written and now? Add it in!
2. Swap around old references, change the date of the post, and voila – you have a new post without the need to write up a load of new copy!
This is great move to make – you’ve added more relevant keywords to an older post and gained stronger on-page SEO because of it.
Of course, there are many more SEO tips to use to optimise your site – and we’ll be constantly updating our site with the latest news and hacks, workarounds and tips for SEO, so stay tuned!
