Google is the most popular search engine globally, and getting your website to rank highly on google can be a massive boon for your business. You want people to find your business, but figuring out how to optimize your site for search engines can be overwhelming!
The good news is there are some things that you can do as a small business owner and marketer that will improve your ranking without any technical knowledge or coding skills.
We’ve compiled an easy-to-follow list of 10 non-technical ways to improve your website’s ranking on Google, so you’re sure not to miss anything important. Let’s get started!
What is SEO, and why is it important?
Technical SEO vs. Non-Technical SEO
10 Non-Technical Tasks that will Boost Your Search Rankings in One week
1) Make your content easy to read.
3) Optimize your website’s URLs
4) Publish new content regularly
5) Link to other similar websites
6) Use keywords in your titles, headings, and content
7) Optimize social media profiles for search engines
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SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s a process by which you can improve your website’s ranking on Google and other popular search engines.
The higher your website ranks, the more likely people find it. And the more people who see your website, the more business you’re likely to get!
When people search for something on Google and click on your website, this is called ‘organic traffic,’ and it’s one of the most valuable forms of traffic you can get.
Your organic traffic will grow if google likes your page! And the way to get google to find and choose your page is through search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization is not something you can do in one day, and it’s not something that, once completed, will boost a site’s performance indefinitely.
SEO is an ongoing process of learning, adjusting, and evaluating to keep up with the frequent changes with Google’s search engine algorithm.
However, it is not necessary to be tech-savvy or spend hours at your computer to make SEO work for you.
There are easy ways to improve your SEO that require little to no tech experience, and you can do it in as little as a week.
This article will show you an easy way to improve your SEO in just one week. How? By tackling just one SEO task per day. No matter your level of SEO literacy, I promise you will be able to take care of business yourself. You’ve got this!
But first, let’s talk briefly about the technical and non-technical aspects of SEO.
For a description of different types of SEO (all of which are important!), please see the article here. (article on the four types of SEO not yet written!)
When people are trying to improve their SEO, they often think of techniques called “technical SEO” or “on-site optimization.”
Technical SEO is all the tiny intricate steps you can do on your website to make it as technologically sound as possible. These steps include fixing broken links and making sure your site loads quickly.
On-site optimization, aka technical SEO rank, is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). On-site optimization is done by improving your website’s content and structure and optimizing your site’s title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, etc.
Non-technical SEO is everything else, and it’s the stuff you can do off your website to improve your rankings. This includes getting other websites to link to your site, promoting your great content on social media, and improving your website’s user experience. Non-technical SEO is often called “off-page optimization.”
While technical SEO is essential, it could be difficult for small business owners to keep up with on their own. It might be helpful to hire an SEO expert to take care of the nitty-gritty of technical SEO.
But if you are hands-on and want to dive into SEO on your own, the most important aspects of SEO that you can control as a small business owner are off-page optimization tasks.
Now that you understand the difference between technical and non-technical SEO let’s dive into the ten easy ways to improve your website’s search engine ranking in as little as one week.
Almost any small business owner can do these ten strategies with little to no tech experience.
Your content’s purpose is to communicate something helpful to your readers, not impress them with big words and designer fonts!
If you want people to read what you’ve written, you need to make it easy for them. This means keeping your sentences short, using simple language, and breaking up your content with headings and lists.
You may be wondering what this has to do with SEO and ranking on google. Google takes user experience into account when ranking websites.
When someone hangs out on your site for a long time consuming your engaging content, google interprets this to mean that people like your site, find it helpful, and get the information they need from it.
Therefore Google will be more likely to bump your site up in the rankings as a result.
A Google My Business listing is a free way to create a business profile on Google that helps customers find your business online. It includes your business name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and photos.
You can claim and optimize your listing by adding additional information that Google doesn’t include in their pre-populated form, like a description of your business.
To claim and optimize your listing, search for it on google using the search term “my business” plus the name of your city. For example, if you are a hairdresser in Chicago, you would search for “my business Chicago.” You can also visit the Google My Business website and click “claim your business.”
Once you’ve claimed your listing, work on creating a helpful description. Include information like what you offer, how much it costs, and photos highlighting why people choose your business over similar businesses.
You can also use keywords in these descriptions because Google considers this when ranking websites.
Your website’s URLs should be easy to understand and include the main keywords you’re targeting.
For example, if you are a small business owner in Chicago who offers dog walking services, your website’s URL could be www.chicagodogwalking.com or www.businessname.com instead of www.weebyly.chicagodogwalking.com/business name.
Having a personalized domain gives you better opportunities to rank. Further, if your business name does not include your keywords consider a site that uses keywords as those sites may rank higher than business names.
Google likes websites that constantly publish fresh, new content because it means that the website is up-to-date and provides valuable information to its visitors.
Aim to publish new content at least once a week. Not only will this help your SEO ranking, but it will also build your readers’ trust in you and encourage them to visit and engage with your website.
Link building is a vital part of how Google ranks websites, and one successful way to get links is by creating “resource” pages on your site that link to similar websites. You can also use this as an opportunity to include internal links to content on your site that visitors may also find helpful.
By including links to other business pages or blog posts, you can do a few things:
– Diversify the content on your site, so Google doesn’t think you’re spamming them with duplicate content
– Encourage visitors to stick around and explore your website more
– Increase your SEO ranking because of the incoming links
Linking helps you build authority by showing Google that your site is the top source for information on the topic.
Including your target keywords in your website’s title, headings, and content is a great way to tell Google what your website is about. Make sure to use keywords naturally and not force words in where they don’t belong.
Targeting the right keywords is key to getting your website ranking because it tells Google that you’re an authority on the topic.
Creating social media profiles is a great way to engage with your target audience, but remember that search engines also use them like google! Optimize them for search engines to rank higher in search engine results pages.
Include your business name, website address, and target keywords in your profile information. You can also use keywords in the titles of your social media posts.
Google periodically releases updates to its algorithm that can affect ranking websites. One of the things that it looks at is website errors caused by broken links, missing images, and 404 errors.
Regularly check your website for errors and fix them as soon as possible. Not only will this improve your SEO ranking, but it will also make your website look more professional to visitors.
You can do this by simply accessing your site from both your mobile device and your desktop computer.
Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal, which means that you will rank higher if you use it on your site.
SSL is another way of saying “secure.” It protects your website visitors and search engine crawlers from hackers. When you use SSL encryption, Google knows that not only are visitors safe, but the information they’re providing (like email addresses, passwords, etc.) is too.
If you don’t see HTTPS, your site is not secure. Don’t panic, as most hosts will help you set it up. Reach out to customer service and ask them to help you set it up.
Google loves websites that are actively engaged in the online community. This could mean things like commenting on blogs, participating in forums, and even tweeting!
The more active you are, the more likely Google will rank your website higher.
Be sure to use your target keywords in your social media posts and comments so that people will be more likely to find you.
You can do so many things to optimize your website for search engines, and they don’t always need any technical know-how!
The changes we’ve covered in this article may seem minor or unimportant on the surface. Still, when put together with all of the other aspects that go into optimizing a site for Google’s crawlers, these tweaks will help drive up your rankings and show up in search results.
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