How to SEO Your Website for Free – Top 12 Ideas

Search engine optimization (SEO) is more than a buzzword – it is an essential process for any online business seeking to increase traffic to their website.  It involves making sure your site is structured properly in terms of design, code, and content so that search engines will index each web page.  This allows your site to be included in search engine results pages (SERPs) which is how new customers will fine you online.

SEO can be expensive but there are steps you can take to optimize your website for free. You can still outsource for advanced SEO options.  Taking the time to implement these SEO strategies will help position your website and business for success.

1.     Use Website Design Best Practices

Your website’s design is an SEO element that is at the forefront once again because of the new way Google’s algorithm is ranking web pages.  The design needs to be customer-friendly and relevant to your general site purpose.  Navigation should always be logical.  If a visitor to your site needs a guidebook to figure out how to use your site, you are doomed.  It has never been easier to design your own website thanks to options like WordPress that have built-in optimization features.  Clean and simple designs are the way to go for maximum optimization.

2.     Conduct Keyword Research

Free keyword research tools are available that you can use to identify the best keywords for your site.  If you want your site to attract traffic, you simply cannot overlook this step.  And there is no shortcut so stop wasting your time looking for one.  You must follow-through with the research.  It is a good idea to use several different research tools to see what types of results you get from each.  You will want to do this on a regular basis as keywords that are most suitable for your site can change over time.  Check out the free keyword research tools available at Google and other sites.

3.     Consider Basic Coding Issues

You can easily optimize your title tags and meta descriptions for your web pages without having a Ph.D. in computer programming.  You will use your keywords again for these.  Search engines use tags and descriptions during their indexing and ranking processes.  Each search engine sets their own guidelines that specify the number of characters and words tags and descriptions can have so be sure to follow those for the best results.  Since these differ, prioritize the search engines that you plan to target for optimization purposes and find a middle ground with those that you can work with.  Be sure that every title tag and meta description is different for each web page and that they properly reflect the content of pages.  Violating either of these suggestions can significantly inhibit your SEO efforts.

4.     Write Quality Content

This is easily one of the most important ways to optimize your website for search engines. With over 100 search engines available, targeting your content to the top ones is likely to insure inclusion in most of the other ones.  The top search engines to focus on include Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. They account for nearly 75% of all online search queries.  Each has guidelines that webmasters can use to make sure they are providing the highest quality content that will get sites ranked high on SERPs. Never duplicate content, even on your own site.  And remember that spelling and grammar are very important in your copywriting activities.

5.     Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds offer excellent optimization opportunities by getting your content out to larger numbers of people faster. Feeds are included in SERPs and can, therefore, attract major traffic to your site.  Your RSS feeds need to contain engaging content.  Just like title tags and meta description for your web pages, the channel title and description for your RSS feed are the most important elements for SEO.  You need to use keywords to describe the theme and explain the purpose of the RSS feed.  Carefully craft your channel title as that is your first introduction to site visitors.  It is also used by search engines and RSS feed directories for indexing purposes.  It is suggested you include your business or website name at the end of the channel title.  Keywords should be incorporated in RSS feed item titles as well.  Because RSS feeds can be syndicated, they are the perfect SEO tool for websites.  Stay true to your website mission and always provide engaging and original content.

6.     Include a Blog on Site

Blogging remains a leading SEO method.  Blogging serves multiple optimization purposes.  Your blog can provide links to your main website. When you post articles on your blog, you encourage visitors to read the articles and submit comments. These conversations with visitors can significantly improve your site rankings in search engines because those links and comments tell the search engines you have relevant content that is of interest to their customers.  A blog is also an excellent medium for fresh content.  The more frequently you post content, the higher your site will be ranked.

7.     Simplify Your Sitemap

The sitemap is used by search engines when they index your site.  Having a sitemap makes it easier for the search engines to navigate your site since the map basically provides directions. The speed at which your site is able to be indexed can result in higher page rankings. Your sitemap should clearly relate to your page titles and content.  If it is significantly different, your site may not get indexed by the search engines.  And this indexing delay can cost you money and traffic.

8.     Build Links to Your Site

This is an area where more is not necessarily better.  Of course, you want plenty of inbound links to different web pages on your site.  But the quality of those links is now more important to SEO.  You can build links by leaving comments on blogs other than your own.  You can also build links by writing compelling articles and submitting them to acceptable directories and authority sites.  If you already have back links, you can improve your site’s SEO by removing spammy and irrelevant links.

9.     Select the Right Domain Name

The best domain name for SEO purposes is one that matches your business name or that of your website.  The closer the match, the more the domain name will be optimized.  It is possible your preferred domain name is not available.  In this case, consider using one of your identified keywords in the domain name.  It should be included naturally with all or part of your business name for a domain name that makes sense.  Don’t try to use cute domain names unless you have absolutely no interest in making sure people can find you on SERPs.  You can check to see if your domain name is available by visiting any number of reputable domain-selling or registrar sites such as Namecheap.com, GoDaddy.com, or NetworkSolutions.com. You can check available names without making a purchase.

10.     Test Web Pages

Testing is a crucial aspect of SEO that is often not given enough credit in the optimization process. It is not enough to simply build your site and hope the web pages meet your SEO expectations.  Much of their success is in your hands.  You have full control of the content of each web page on your site.  So test web pages using different content and keywords. Keep those pages that attract the most traffic.  Continue to modify the low performing pages until they are performing at an acceptable level.

11.     Use Free Analytics Tools

SEO is nothing without the ability to measure performance of the SEO techniques you implement to drive traffic to your site.  When you test web pages, you will need to use these analytics to measure performance.  You need to know the number of visitors, how long they stayed on each page as well as on your site in general, and what they do while on your site.  Are they signing up for your e-mail alerts?  Perhaps they are making purchases.  Do they stay on one particular page longer than any other page?  If so, what is the big attraction on that page?  Analytics can help you get the answers to many of these questions which you can then use to continue to improve the optimization of your site.

12.     Establish Site as One of Authority

The more visitors you have returning to your site, the more likely search engines will interpret this to mean visitors see you as trustworthy.  At the very least, they like the content you provide. As this happens more frequently, and in conjunction with quality onsite content as well as content submitted to other sites, you can become known as an authority site.  This is why you must provide compelling and original content at all times.  Fresh content offered regularly can make you an authority even sooner.

These are just a few of the ways you can SEO your website for free.  Each takes time and commitment on your part to implement. There are plenty of sources at your disposable that offer free tips and techniques you can use for SEO.  It is a good idea to do as much SEO yourself as you can so you develop a thorough understanding of the process.  When the time comes to hire a consultant to assist with advanced SEO, you will know the skills you are looking for in the ideal candidate.  And you will be better prepared to oversee the work of the consultant.

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