Many of the tips that are given for an effective SEM strategy are often beyond the technical capabilities of a normal website owner, who perhaps just hired an SEO company to do some light optimisation.
Below, we explore some simple tricks and tips you can use to rank better that don’t require any type in-depth knowledge in web developing or SEO.
Write Compelling Description and Title Tags
Use the free Google Keyword Tool to establish the keywords that have the highest search volumes and are relevant to your business then use them for the relevant page title tags. These have the highest SEO value out of any alt attribute and are simpler to effect than placing the keywords in your content.
A good meta-description doesn’t have any SEO value but it does serve as a short sales pitch on the Google SERP so that a user will pick your site over the others. And a good Clickthrough Rate (CTR) is a vital ranking factor.
Make Sure Your Link Profile is Above Board
They say links have less importance to the modern search engine marketing strategy but just going on the dangers of a drastic ranking penalisation for spam linking activities, it’s easy to see that it’s important as ever to have a link profile that’s above board.
Check all your outbound links to other websites. It can be easy to separate valuable links from the spam ones just by looking at the quality of the site’s design and content. Don’t be too hasty in condemning a link as spammy though.
Inbound links can be hard to control properly. Google has launched a link disavow tool in its Webmaster Tools, which is freely available to all webmasters. Otherwise just email the webmaster of the offending site asking them to take it down. Results not guaranteed for the latter though.
Engage on Social Media Sites
Social signals have become increasingly important to a good search engine marketing strategy, but it seems like too much interaction for the average website owner.
But it can be just as simple as creating profiles on all the relevant social sites and perhaps just posting updates on these pages when you publish new content on your site. Posting schedules also allow you to create a timetable for the posting of new content on these profiles, increasing Freshness scores without having to personally do it every day.
Create Localised Content
If you’re a physical business who only really offer it product to a generally local area then it imperative you get a Google Places page on the G+ network. This will allow you to show up in the Google+ Local results when people close to your search for your type of business. This appears at the top of the SERP with a Google Maps image of your location.
To complement this on your website, embed a Google Maps image on your contact page as well as the full address (using the appropriate format that would appear on Maps). Directions to your office on the page would also help emphasise content locality.