DIY SEO Diagnosis

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical step to getting your business’s website in front of your target audiences. Check out our DIY SEO diagnosis checklist to understand where your website has room for improvement. Implement these tips to boost your organic ranking and bring in more high-quality traffic that generates conversions.

Meta Data

• Write optimized meta titles for your landing pages between 50 and 60 characters long. Include your most relevant keywords and geo-tags for each page.
• Avoid auto-populated meta titles and descriptions. They don’t often adhere to character count best practices and tend to have sentences that don’t fit into the available space on a search engine results page.
• Implement schema markup to optimize how search engines categorize and index your website in search engine results pages by adding structured data tags to your HTML. We typically implement LocalBusiness schema, which includes name, phone, address, department info, hours, and more. Using schema definitions provided by schema.org provides context for the content on your site and improves the ability of search engines to feature your content. There are also different schema for page types such as articles, how-to’s, and FAQs. 

Content

• Check your website copy for original content by copying and pasting it into a search engine. Some website providers have set copy they apply to all of their client’s sites. This duplicate copy confuses search engines when trying to rank multiple pages with the same copy.
• Create quality, unique content for your website. Fitting in as many keywords as possible doesn’t help your search engine rankings — prioritizing content that speaks to your customer does.
• Align landing page keywords with your ideal search queries. Think about the queries your target audience is searching for, making sure that the keywords are covered across your landing pages.
• Mention local terms and keywords like relevant city, county or regional names and events or traditions so that your website ranks well in your local market.
• Build strong internal linking among your web pages. Make sure the anchor text that you choose to hyperlink is intuitive to lead you to the internally linked page.

UX

• Make your site easy to navigate with an organized hierarchy of content. The quality of your user experience (UX) affects how search engine algorithms rank your site. Start with a clear and concise menu on the homepage, then add a limited number of categories for individual pages and posts to fall under. For a larger site consider adding additional subcategories.
• Optimize your website for use on mobile devices. Check that your layout and page elements render well in a mobile format. Mobile users are less patient about waiting for pages to load, so don’t waste bandwidth on unnecessary videos or images for every landing page. Only use images when necessary, like on inventory pages, and optimize the image files to the smallest size possible without losing quality.

Local SEO

• Keep your Google Business Profile updated. Your Google Business Profile is what most users see first when conducting a relevant search for your business. Check that your profile accurately reflects your business and includes the keywords that best represent it, even if you use other keywords to help with organic search ranking.
• Feature your business in local directories. Aggregation platforms like Yelp share information about your business with the platform’s users and help your business establish a reliable reputation online. See where your company is listed and how managing these listings can improve your local presence.

Next Steps

Do you need a hand with your site’s SEO? These tips are an excellent place to start, but if SEO feels like a complicated to-do, consider a digital provider who understands on- and off-site optimization tactics. Learn more about working with Adpearance with a free digital analysis to see how your business’s website stacks up against the competition.

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