If you hear the term SEO and inwardly cringe, you are not alone, writes SEO strategist Simone Pavils but there are some quick fixes you can put in place that will immediately have an impact.

When it comes to boosting your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO), navigating through all the advice available online can be overwhelming. 

Most of us read a few articles only to find ourselves scratching our heads, or we try out an SEO tool through Google and end up with more questions than answers.

Fortunately, there are some easy changes you can make straight away that can result in a huge difference when it comes to getting some love from Google and turning up in the search results of your dream clients.

These are the exact strategies I roll out with every single new client. Let’s dive in. 

Reconsider marketing pop-ups!

Here is the thing. Your potential customers have only just landed on your site and they have no idea who you are, let alone if they want a ten per cent discount. That little popup can feel intrusive, annoying, and is generally something your viewer closes quickly. 

That is if they can get to the close button at all. For mobile viewers, the popup edges often fall off the screen and they may just close your page completely.

Instead, imagine this. Your dream client comes to your website and browses before falling head over heels for your product. They are HOOKED! Now, that discount you offer is the icing on the cake that gets them to snap up their favourite product.

So, if you are going to use a pop-up, add a delay of at least 45 seconds or opt for a page scroll percentage that allows them to scroll down your homepage first. Consider how this might impact the user experience. Remember that search engines like Google are mobile-first and prioritise the user experience.

Make the Menu easy to use and keep the site structure simple

This is important for two reasons. Firstly, it improves your customer’s journey from the moment they land on your site, making it easier for them to navigate around your site. Think about this: if your main menu is confusing and your site is hard to move around, then no amount of optimising your site is going to keep people on your site. It’s like getting lost at IKEA when you are busting to pee! The only thought on your client’s mind is, “I’m lost- get me out of here!”

And secondly, it’s an important part of SEO strategy, as you need Google to understand which pages of your website are most important, so it knows what to pop into search results! Your site structure holds important information that helps search engines work out what should and shouldn’t be crawled by their little bots. Don’t overcomplicate it. This is one area to KISS – Keep It Super Simple!

Improve site speed

Pretty sure all of us have visited a site that took forever to load. It is not a good start. In fact, research shows that you have just 5-7 seconds to capture a user’s attention, so don’t waste those precious moments on load time! Google has been using site speed as a ranking factor since 2010 and considers it a key factor in determining if it should recommend your site over Bobby Down the Road’s site.

So, one of the first things I do with my SEO projects is improve site speed on my client’s website.

1. Start by removing any sliding or moving hero images. Yes, I know they are funky! But they are slowing your site down.
2. If you have a social media feed on your website consider limiting the number of posts or remove that feed completely.
3. Then compress the file size of your images to reduce the overall site speed.

Site speed is often simple to address, and can make a significant difference to your SEO ranking. Data shows that the average time spent on a website is 15 seconds. So, hack the numbers! Keep users on your site for longer starting with improving your site speed. Not only will you minimise the chance of your ideal customer going elsewhere, but you will also give Google a reason to rank your website higher!

Enhance Site security

Did you know that site security is another factor that not only impacts your SEO ranking, but also matters in building trust with your visitors? Site security might feel unimportant if you are not handling card details, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

• Get the basics out of the way by adding two-factor authentication, changing your password, and creating user profiles for all those on your web team. Then, install a website backup tool (or check that yours is keeping 2 rolling backups).
• Once you have backups in place, go ahead and check that the site themes are up to date before updating any templates, and compatible plugins or apps. Please note that there can be compatibility issues when updating things so it is essential that you do a backup first! You might also like to install a security plugin if you don’t already have one.
• Don’t forget to turn on comment approval on blogs, and delete spam comments as soon as you can. Finally, ensure the SSL certificate is in place. Site security might not feel like the fun part of SEO improvements, but it is well worth the time to build trust, improve rankings, and protect a core piece of your business entity!

Update contact information

Make it super-duper easy for your potential clients to contact you, ask questions, order products, or check open hours. Aside from making it easy to do business with you, it also helps prove to your audience that you are in fact a real business and not a scammy website that is going to take their money and run!

Add contact information including location, address (if you have a business address), telephone number, and opening hours to your footer and contact page. Bonus points for adding a map if you are a local business.

If you have a Google Business Profile, make sure any detail on your website matches your profile exactly. Trust me – I know it might seem minor, but it matters when it comes to verifying your business details and getting you showing up for local Google searches (like ‘hairdresser near me’). Contact information is known as a ‘citation,’ and they are a factor that gets you heading towards the top. So take the time to check everything matches to build your credibility with your website visitors and improve local search results.

How to tackle website SEO if you are overwhelmed

Start with taking a deep breath and reminding yourself that you eat an elephant one mouthful at a time (but – don’t actually eat an elephant, okay?).

SEO as a whole is a pretty large task, but the point here is to just get started! These are 5 things that you can action on your own to improve organic traffic without a lot of technical know-how. 

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