Search engine optimization is a very popular strategy for online marketing, which means it is also quite competitive. Due to its drawbacks and limitations, there are a large number of marketers and business owners who decide not to engage in SEO. One of the biggest misperceptions about this marketing strategy is that it is expensive and this fact is substantiated by the high-level packages available at online agencies that charge tens of thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. Sure, SEO is a bit expensive for national-scale and hyper competitive businesses, but this doesn’t mean that it is unaffordable for the business owner.
As a matter of fact, there are numerous simple strategies that you can execute for free for optimizing your site in a better way for search engines. Some of the top ways you can boost your website’s SEO for free are:
1. Getting rid of duplicate content
If your website has any duplicate content, it will be immediately displayed by Google Search Console. Typically, this duplicate content doesn’t happen because of plagiarism; it is mostly due to canonicity errors, but it still has to be corrected to ensure your website’s standing is not impacted.
2. Dealing with 404 errors
These errors are similar to dead ends and dead ends are annoying for everyone. You should close these gaps by setting up 301 redirects where required to avoid frustrating your visitors.
3. Writing unique title tags
There should be a unique title tag for every page, which should be below 70 characters. This should provide a description of the page, boast the keyword and should be completely different from other title tags on your website.
4. Compelling meta-descriptions
There should be separate meta-descriptions for every page about 160 characters, which should describe the page elaborately. While your actual page rankings may not be heavily impacted by meta-descriptions, it can have a definite impact on the click-through rates. Your rankings are influenced by these click-through rates so your meta-descriptions should be compelling, concise and unique.
5. Finding better keywords
You should optimize your website for keywords that have fewer competitors and are closer to your niche. There are various tools you can use for finding such keywords. Most businesses just opt for the top keyword and consider their job done, but the problem is that others are also using the same keyword so you don’t get results. There are tools available, such as a free SEO analysis tool from Website Rocket and even more, which can help you find most relevant keywords.
6. Polishing your URL structure
There should be a breadcrumbs trail in your URLs and they should also have readable indicators of the page’s content such as the page title. You should not use random strings of text or numbers in your URLs.
7. Regularly updating blog
As long as the content is valuable to users, you should add more content. Fresh content is always prioritized by search engine algorithms so you should always keep your blog updated.
8. Adding internal links
You should link the different pages of your website together as it helps in providing a better experience to your users. Also, it can help Google in understanding the relationship between various pages of your website in a better way.
9. Optimizing your images
You should ensure that the images you are using on your website have been optimized for SEO, which is quite easy to do. All you have to do is give them an appropriate title, include descriptive alt tags and keep them in the required format.
10. Including social media integrations
You should always incorporate social share icons with every article you post on your website. Research has proven that social shares contribute to indirect ranking signals and this gives you the opportunity to benefit from inbound links, which add onto the authority of your website.
11. Optimizing your website loading speed
This can be complicated or simple, depending on how you deal with it. There are a number of ways you can boost the speed of your website like adding a caching plugin, reducing the size of images, deleting any unnecessary plugins and changing hosting providers if necessary.
12. Optimizing for mobile devices
As most of the searches are conducted on mobile devices, your site should display attractively to all mobile devices. Otherwise, you miss out on traffic and your rankings will also suffer.
Waqar Hassan is a Blogger, Author and Entrepreneur who heads an IT & Web Company. He loves writing and manages several blogs including https://menaentrepreneur.org and https://www.migratemusicnews.com. Waqar Hassan is one of the top Freelancers in the SEO and Digital Marketing Industries. He can be contacted at http://www.waqarhassan.con OR via [email protected].
