5 SEO Quick Wins

I’m sure you’ve heard about SEO and know how important it is to your website or blog. However, if you’re like many people, you’re not sure what to do to improve your SEO efforts. Here are 5 SEO quick wins you can try right now and start seeing results. Now, results won’t happen overnight because SEO is a slow channel to grow but these items can all help.

1. Correct any truncation issues you have with your Title Tags or Meta Descriptions

You can identify truncation issues in three ways, and choose the method that’s most in alignment with your current SEO skill level.

• Beginner – review your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions on the Search Engine Results Page and see which ones are truncating.
• Intermediate – Use Mozbar to review each page on your website or blog and identify truncation issues.
• Advanced- run a Screaming Frog crawl of your website or blog to identify the pages with truncation issues. This is the easiest option, and Screaming Frog will crawl up to 500 pages with their free tool, but you have to be comfortable with the device.

2. Refresh Title Tags or Meta Descriptions that are outdated or repetitive

If you opted to use tactic #1 and reviewed your website or blog, take another look at the data and this time, look for pages that have duplicate Title Tags or Meta Descriptions first. Replace duplicate entries with unique Title Tags and Meta Descriptions. Update titles and tags that are old or outdated too.

You should keep track of the updates you make to your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions in a master file. A spreadsheet works well for this. I note the URL, the new Title Tag, the new Meta Description, the targeted keywords, and the date of the change. If you’d like to make sure nothing new truncates, you can add character count formatting in your Excel spreadsheet easily.

3. Ensure your keyword targeting is in alignment with Google’s ranking practices

Google will rank your site twice for the same keyword. That’s all. Two pages on your website will be ranked for any given keyword. If you’re targeting the same keyword on multiple pages, it’s time to review and refresh. You may need to rewrite some of your copy or update your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions to reflect new targeted keywords. You may be able to adjust slightly by targeting a long-tail keyword, rather than a short-tail one. If that’s potential, it’s a quick fix. If not, you may need to edit or create a new page altogether.

4. Resolve any mixed themes on your website or blog

A mixed theme is where you’re targeting multiple terms on the same page, and they’re not closely related. For example, you sell bags, and you’ve got bags, wallets, and keychains all on the same page. It’s hard for Google to know if the page is about purses, wallets, or keychains. You probably have a focus on that page and want it to rank for one term, but by having all three on there, it’s confusing to Google. Review your website for any mixed theme issues and create new pages for each item. This is a bit more involved, but by targeting only one core term per page, it will be easier to rank for all three keywords.

5. Refresh any outdated but well-performing evergreen content

If you have an evergreen blog post or website page that is performing well but could use a refresh, now is the time to review and update. Google wants to deliver new content to their users, their technical name for this is, Query Deserves Freshness. While it’s not essential to know QDF, it helps to keep it in mind when you’re working on your website. A blog post from five years ago is not fresh. However, if that blog post still drives good traffic and engagement, it’s worth a refresh, new pictures, and an update to the information. In five years (or even one) something’s probably changed, and at least one part of the old post is perhaps outdated. Give it a quick refresh and see if it helps drive even more traffic.

Refreshing Your SEO Can Lead to More Traffic

Try these five SEO quick wins for your website or blog today and see how much new traffic you can generate. SEO doesn’t have to be scary or super involved to be effective. You just need to manage your program on an ongoing basis. It requires continual refresh/renewal to stay at the top of the rankings.

Have you done a quick SEO refresh? What did you do and what type of results did you see? I’d love to hear.

If your website or blog is in need of a review and refresh and you don’t have the time, energy, or even desire to do it yourself, contact me today to ask about my SEO services. I can do this for you.