Search engine optimization is incredibly useful for generating new leads and sales – but it isn't always cheap. Sure, you could hire someone to create comment spam or forum links to your website for $5 to $20, but that's not affordable SEO; that's digital marketing suicide. Search engines always choose quality over quantity, so steer clear of too-good-to-be-true offers.
On the other hand, hiring experienced SEO experts can leave a huge dent in your business' finances. So what is a business and website owner to do? While I always recommend hiring experts, here are my five best (and most affordable) SEO tips to help you get started.
Publish High Quality, Long-Form Content
If your articles, blog posts and other pages don't get past the 500-word mark, you are putting your business and website at a disadvantage.
If you want your site to rank in the search engines and get the traffic it deserves, you need to create in-depth and informative content that answers the reader's most pressing question. But don't sacrifice quality just to reach a certain word count – readers might hate you for it!
Increase Your On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages (their content and source code especially) to rank higher in the SERPs and earn more traffic.
Pass SEO Juice To Other Pages With Internal Linking
Internal linking, which refers to any links from one page in a domain to another page in the same domain, is an essential SEO tactic you shouldn't ignore. Through internal linking, website owners can draw the attention of Google and visitors to a particular page – and this brings a host of benefits for SEO.
Please The Eyes Of Google With A Responsive Design
More Google searches are carried out on tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices than on desktop computers. Google always puts user experience and satisfaction first, and it's not surprising that it now uses responsiveness as a ranking factor in its algorithm.
Improve Your Site Page Speed And Get More Search Engine Love
Google loves websites that load fast. In 2010, the search engine giant introduced site speed as a new ranking signal – and it makes perfect sense, especially from the searcher's point of view.
So when doing a full site audit, keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to increase your site speed. Do you use a lot of images in your posts and pages? If you do, make sure to compress them. If you're using a platform like WordPress, try to get rid of add-ons and plugins you don't use.
Proper SEO is not cheap, but it shouldn't leave your business in debt. These five optimization tactics are SEO starting points that hardly costs you any money and that you can implement now. Of course, getting better rankings take more than a fast and responsive website design, long-form content and well-written title tags and descriptions.
Courtesy of Forbes
