If you want to start off on the right foot for 2018, you need to refresh your SEO and make changes right now to help aid better rankings this year.
SEO is changing all the time and keeping up with the latest developments in the search world can be exhausting, which is which we’re writing this very article to let you in on the 3 SEO tasks you can start working on right now to improve your rankings.
Improve Page Speed
We all knew it was coming; a slow landing page is never a good page. Google has recently announce that mobile page speed is set to become a ranking factor from July 2018, so now is a better time than any to sort your website out before this change comes into play.
Not only is the load time of your website on mobile devices going to impact how Google will now rank your website in the search results, slow load time also kills your user experience and drives potential customers right on over to your competitors where their website loads in less than three seconds.
Head on over to Google PageSpeed Insights and get tips from Google themselves on how they recommend you improve your website to follow their guidelines.
Google has always recommended a site load time, on desktop and mobile, that is below 2-3 seconds. Use this as your goal!
Change Up Your Link Building
If you’ve been link building for a long time, I bet you’ve been using the same templated outreach email for at least the past 6 months…or more. Don’t get us wrong, you may have the most amazing outreach email that turns any opportunity into a link every time – but this is unlikely.
Link building outreach is difficult; outreach emails have become like cold calling in the sense that as soon as you open them you delete straight away. If a large percentage of emails you are sending out are not receiving responses, it’s time to switch up your tactics.
The best way to connect with people is just that, to be a person – not an automated email. Create a personal brand that people want to connect with, use intrigue and humour to increase your chances of getting a response. Be present on key social media networks and actually populate your profile with content that you have made and topics you actually have knowledge about.
Give Video A Go
We’re not suggesting you become the next big ‘vlogger’ or start live streaming your coffee breaks, but video can be an amazing drive force in your digital marketing efforts in two ways.
Firstly, having video content keeps users on your website for longer which Google sees a positive user experience which naturally will have a positive impact on rankings without you having to make a massive change to your website. Simply embed a video that showcases the best your business has to offer and let it do the work for you.
Secondly, YouTube is often referred to as the second largest search engine in the World. Circulating your videos on this platform will open you up to a much larger audience via YouTube’s search result pages.
Putting yourself out there on video can be daunting, but it really does work. It can be as formal or as informal as you like, whichever fits your brand the best.
Or, like us, you could opt for an animated video!
SEO can be time consuming and one wrong decision can jeopardise your performance, want to leave it to the experts? Our monthly SEO management packages start from £350+VAT per month, check out our case studies to see the amazing results we have attained for our clients.