5 Tips to Start Doing Your Own SEO
If you run a small business and you are looking to maximise your exposure to the public, you may be considering doing your own SEO using the internet and online marketing. With all the different methods of advertising, as well as the new audiences you could potentially reach with your product, it would be a waste to completely ignore this stream of potential customers and revenue. Here are 5 tips to help you get started on this.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!
A good and affordable way to start off your online marketing journey is through SEO. And one of the best places to start with SEO is keywords. Keywords are one of the most important parts of SEO. You need to know what keywords and key phrases you are ranking for in google, as this is what people type in to find you. Making sure you know what keywords you are already ranking for, as well as a list of relevant new keywords that you may want to rank for in the future is very important. It can help focus your work, as well as help you with things like rankings, since you can monitor your progress month on month with these keywords, as well as see which SERPs you can rank you.
It is important to understand how keywords work and what types there are, as well as understanding the marketing consumer funnel, as this can impact what keywords you use. Consumers at the beginning of the funnel will use different keywords than those at the end of the funnel, and this should guide you in what to show these people and where you should use the keywords. There are some tools that let you know what stage in the funnel the keywords are most likely to be, like SEMRush, and others can warn you of issues like cannibalization (when one keyword is dragging down the ranking of another).
Make Sure You Focus on Your Meta Tags
Meta tags can seem like a waste of time, or can often be easy to forget. If you don’t already know that they are something you need to do, it can be easy to forget to make them, especially considering Google will draw something out of your website, so they won’t seem empty. But they are empty, and they’re a huge waste of potential if do your own SEO and you ignore them. The meta title and description are very important tags to include on all pages of your website, and they often come included as part of any SEO plugin if you are on WordPress (YoastSEO or RankMath are 2 good plugin options if you don’t know where to start). You shouldn’t leave them empty. It is important to remember, when writing for these tags, that the title tag shouldn’t exceed 60 characters and the meta description shouldn’t exceed 160 characters. Other than that, go crazy! Try and ensure that your main keyword is mentioned in the title and description tags (because keywords are king!) and make sure the title is short enough that you can put your company’s name at the end of it. A title might look like this:
Shop – MyCompany
Blog | MyCompany
5 Tips to Start Doing Your Own SEO | Property Square
Your meta description can contain a number of things, but it should entice people to come and look at your website. Here are a couple examples:
At MyCompany, we offer a wide range of products that will capture your interest for very cheap prices! Find out more on our website or call us on 0345 000 0000.
The blog on MyCompany’s website is a great place to get more information about our products and the wider topic around it. Learn more about the industry here.
These tags are very important because, when you Google the keyword, the title and meta description will appear. They are the text section of the Google search results pages. This is why they are so important. They are the first thing that people will see about your website, so it is very important to make sure your title and description are eye-catching and enticing. Consider using things like dates and numbers to make your titles more exciting.
Optimise Your Headings
Your H1-H6 Headings are a great focus when you do your own SEO. They are very important for optimising your website and increasing the chances that your page appears for the keywords you want to rank for. The H1 tag is the most important tag and should only be used once on any page. It is the title of the page so it shouldn’t be repeated and should go at the top of the body tag. The H2-H6 tags can be repeated as many times as you like, but look at them as defining different sections, rather than simply for the size and appearance. The appearance can always be changed, and you want to make sure that Google reads the page correctly. You should try and include your keywords in the h1-h6 headings (because keywords are king!) to make sure that Google sees it and understands that your content is relevant to the keywords.
Research Your Competitors
When doing your own SEO, if you’re stuck for content and don’t know how to improve your website’s ranking, look at your competitors to see what they are doing. Figuring out who your online competitors are is a very useful tool to try and help you reach the first page on search pages. To find out who your main competitors are, make sure you have a list of the main keywords you rank for/wish to rank for and check who comes up on Google search. Record all the urls for these results. Some of these won’t be competitors, but many of them will. This process can be slightly tedious and can take some time, but it is definitely worth it to make sure you can compare your progress to others, and see what new tricks they may be implementing that you too can implement.
Competitor analysis can take a long time, but it is definitely worth it when working on your own SEO. You can use this to see what content Google values and promotes higher, as well as find ideas of topics you could possibly cover (if relevant) on your website, as well as looking to see how their websites look visually, and see what your own website is lacking. Of course, you must be careful not to copy things directly, but taking inspiration from your competitors is a good way to improve your own website.
Industry Information Helps!
Whether you are attending a seminar, or following a blog or YouTube channel, it is always a good idea to keep up-to-date with industry relevant information. The same applies with information on SEO. Following a number of SEO related blogs and pages is a good way to make sure your website doesn’t become outdated or slip in the rankings if you are learning to do your own SEO. Following websites like Google Search Central Blog (The main blog where Google releases information on its updates) are very useful because you are getting information about updates to Google’s practice and algorithm straight from Google. Sites like Search Engine Journal are useful for explaining what the Google updates mean, and are also good if you need tips and advice on things to do to improve your website or marketing strategy. Keeping up to date with the latest information and updates on SEO can help you to make sure you aren’t wasting your time (and money if you eventually step into something like PPC) on marketing that doesn’t produce results.
Hopefully these tips help you to start making your way into the world of SEO. Beginning your own digital marketing can help you establish your online presence and potentially bring in a new stream of revenue. If you are having struggles with this, and you are willing to spend money on your marketing, a digital marketing agency may help. There are good companies that will support you in your digital marketing strategy, like Q-Online, for example. Whether or not you choose to pay for online marketing services, hopefully these tips will help you know where to start.
To learn more about digital marketing, read more of our articles.