Four SEO quick wins every site can implement
In general, SEO is much more about building for the long-term, rather than quick wins. At Artemis we take a measured and engineered approach to optimising sites, but we understand that getting results is what’s truly important. There are some things that almost every website owner with limited time can do that will make a big difference to rankings, performance, and, ultimately, sales. Here are four quick wins that virtually every website can implement today.
1. Optimise your images
Page loading speed is still an important factor in search rankings, and given that there are so many things that anyone can do to improve their page speed, there really is no excuse not to make changes. One of the best things that you can do is to optimise your images and compress their file sizes – you’ll still have stunning images, but they will take a fraction of the time to load.
This is even possible with large banner images, which you might typically think of as being very large file sizes. Take a look at our blog on how to successfully compress large images for a real quick win for your page loading speed.
2. Make mobile your priority
Mobile search is a big deal. In 2017, mobile accounted for more than 50 per cent of all web traffic generated across the world. And yet the vast majority of marketing and digital staff interact with websites at work through the use of a desktop or laptop. This can give you a skewed perspective on how your site looks and performs.
The important move here is to understand your Analytics data. If your website receives a higher proportion of traffic to its mobile site, then you should be spending more time working on the mobile version, rather than the desktop. To get into the habit it can be a great idea to have staff spend a whole day of work accessing the site and working exclusively through tablets and smartphones. This can provide a huge insight into how user-friendly the mobile version of your site is which will give you countless ideas for how to improve the site’s usability.
3. Fix 404s immediately
Site errors can be a huge problem for SEO. For example, a 404 page error is a guaranteed way to increase bounce rate and is a terrible user experience for customers. Unsurprisingly Google and other search engines see 404 errors as a red flag and even just a few of them can see your whole site tumbling in the rankings.
Use a site crawling tool such as Screaming Frog regularly to find rogue 404 errors and fix them as soon as possible. You might be surprised at how many you have if you have never taken a look before.
4. Refresh your content… even if it performs
We have known for a long time that Google loves to see fresh content going up on a site. But what do you do if you’ve had a page for a time and it’s still doing well, even if the information isn’t quite as good as your competitors?
It might sound counter-intuitive, but even your top performing content needs to be regularly refreshed. The crucial aspect here is keeping the content as up-to-date and relevant as possible. Google loves to see content that is well received by users and provides answers to their questions. As Google begins to utilise artificial intelligence more and more in its analysis of pages, it will become better at understanding whether your content is actually useful and engaging for your customers. This will increasingly affect rankings. Improving your content now can help to ensure that you keep your position or improve.
