Using Search Engine Optimization has long been something that business owners have had to learn about, and yet the world of SEO is always changing. There are some things that remain constant while others are changing and becoming more complex; it seems almost every week. So, as an Australian business, what kind of SEO hacks can you use to get your search ranking up in 2020? Well, that’s what we are going to look at in this article, and by the time you have finished reading, you are going to have 10 hacks in the bag for when you need them next year!
Use Keywords
The first thing that we are going to look at is using keywords. If you don’t know what this means already, there are certain words and terms that people seeking out your services often use. These are somehow related to your business, and you can use them to help rank higher in search engines such as Google and Bing. What you need to do here is do some research and find out what some of these words and terms are so that you can use them in future content. Once you know the words, it is going to be far easier to slide them into your blog posts and have them picked up by the search engine’s algorithm when someone types that word or phrase into the internet.
Now, there are services who can do this for you and if it’s not something that you have ever done before, we suggest that you take these services up on their offer. The reason for this is that if you get this wrong, you could risk damaging your entire marketing campaign. For example, if you research and find the wrongs words or phrases, then your pages are going to be full of words that are irrelevant to what people are looking for. You will see your website traffic decrease instead of increase, and this could only be the start of the problems you might end up facing.
Videos Are Important
Another thing that you need to consider is the use of videos on your website and social media pages. Blog posts are great for getting across content, but so are videos, and they are more likely to keep customers engaged than a huge block of text. These are not hard to make and can be a fun task for your company. As long as you get the same message across that you would in your text post, the video is going to be both productive and entertaining, which will draw more people to your business.
Also, the search engines have a great algorithm that picks up the meta tags on the video, which allows them to scan through the content without actually seeing the video. What you tag your video with will help determine your ranking when people type in your services. Something else that you will find is that people are more likely to watch your videos than they are to read the text posts, meaning that you will see an increase in site traffic if you switch to using this tactic!
Keep Blog Posts Relevant
A lot of businesses struggle with this, and yet it is so important. Your blog posts need to be relevant to your company and your services. There should be no random 750-word rant about cats on your business website as this is not relevant and could be marked as spam by the search engines. If this happens, your page is going to end up at the very bottom of the SERPs, and this is not where you want to be. When you are searching for something online, how many pages will you look on? 1, maybe 2 at maximum, so it is not going to be any good for your company if your website is coming up on page 202.
Use the keywords that we have talked about above in these blog posts to ensure that they are Search Engine Optimised in the best way possible. Nothing on your business website should be irrelevant, and this is something that you need to remember. Don’t post anything that has not been double and triple checked because while you might not think little errors matter, we can assure you that they do. You don’t want to post the wrong thing and have your business pushed back to last place for a small mistake.
Look Into The Technical Side
The next thing that we recommend is that you look into the technical side of Search Engine Optimization. You need to check your robot’s META tags as well as the .txt files, as these will limit Google’s access to certain files. You need to ensure that the architecture of your site is perfect and is not blocked because if Google cannot access your website, then nobody else will be able to either. This can be tricky, and it is often not something that you can do alone, so either hire a professional to go through this with you or look online at the best ways to get this task completed.
Mobile Optimisation
Many business owners forget that a lot of their audience are now going to be accessing their website through their smartphones and devices, which means that the site is not optimised for this kind of use. You need to make sure that your site is the one that stands out and works on all devices that you can think of. In 2020, more people are likely going to be accessing your site through their phone than any other device, and if they can’t get onto your site, they are going to go to one of your competitors that allows them to.
Social Media
If your company does not currently have social media profiles set up on all the leading platforms, then this needs to be done as soon as possible. This is a great way to improve your search ranking as it will display more hits when your business name is typed in, or when a keyword associated with your company is. As well as this, the more followers you have, the higher in the SERPs you are going to rank, so you are certainly going to need to start building your client base sooner rather than later.
Ensure that you have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn that people can access, as this will help you get your business to page one.
Update Your Old Content
You might think that you can just leave your old content alone, but we would advise against this. You should regularly be updating your old content to make it current, up to date with everything new that is going on, and scattered with keywords to make your business easier to find. It is always going to be easier to refresh old content than it will be to write a new lot, so do make sure that you are not just recycling everything that you have ever done.
You might have written an article that is still relevant, but some of the information has changed. If this is the case then you don’t need to be writing a whole new article, just adding the new information to the old one, and taking out anything that no longer makes sense. This saves you a lot of time and also improves your chances of ranking higher.
Use Backlinks
Using backlinks in your article will encourage people to check out other areas of your website. For example, if you make a guest post on a site and you include a backlink to something on your site, people are more likely to follow that and check it out than they are to search for you alone. So, for this reason, you need to be using them as frequently as possible. Think about it, when a website that has a high domain authority uses a backlink to your website, it boosts the credibility of your entire site. In terms of a search engine algorithm, a backlink to your site is equivalent to being credible.
Focus On Your Target Audience
Don’t forget who you are writing your content for. You don’t want to go off on a tangent trying to attract as many people as possible; you always want to keep in mind the people that you are targeting, as these are the ones who are more likely to visit your site. What platforms do they use the most? What do they want to see from you? How are you going to connect with them? These are just a few of the questions that you need to consider when you are writing content to drive more traffic to your site than ever before.
Loading Times
Finally, you need to look at your loading times. On average, a person will wait two seconds for your page to load before they click off and go somewhere else. Large picture files and video files are often to blame for slow loading time and lack of optimisation, which is not what you want for your company. Ensure that all files are as small as possible before being uploaded to your site, and this should help the overall load time of the page.
We hope that these tips help you grow your business, and remember, if you need help or just want it sorted out for you, then check out our SEO packages to make your life easier; we service Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart & Adelaide.
