Search engine optimisation is an important part of any Surrey business website. Whether you’re located in Kingston, Wimbledon, Epsom or Chessington, local search traffic can lead to a big growth in customer numbers. Search is a long-term strategy, but there are SEO quick wins to speed up the process and get your website in order.
1: Google my business
A local SEO quick win is to get your company on Google My Business. Easy to set up and update, the process gets your firm on Google maps so customers can find you. What’s more you could feature in Google’s local search pack, which features above the first organic results.
You can improve your chances of subsequently appearing here by doing two things. Firstly, being active on Google My Business by posting, receiving reviews and responding to them. Secondly, by ensuring your name, address and phone number (NAP) are included and also consistent wherever they appear on the Internet.
2: Optimise existing pages
Rather than focussing on new content, SEO quick wins can be gained by ensuring existing pages are properly optimised. Check to see that each page has correctly configured Title Tags and Meta descriptions for your keywords.
3: Configure image ALT tags
ALT tags are used to describe what an image represents. The tag is used as a text alternative for search engines as well as for screen readers and those who surf with images turned off. Applying ALT tags correctly is another quick SEO win to drive a rapid rankings improvement.
Ensuring every image has an appropriately descriptive ALT tag, which contains the target keywords, consequently helps SEO. Combined with Title and Meta tags, search engines can subsequently understand what keywords you are trying to rank your Surrey business website for.
4: Optimise Images
Images don’t just need ALT tags; they also need to be optimised as well.
Bloated image files are one of the biggest causes of slow website pages. A typical picture taken on a mobile phone can be 3-4 megabytes. However, properly optimised images are merely kilobytes and thus 1/20 the size. Smaller image files can thus be served quicker. What’s more they are readily downloaded over mobile connections where data can be slower.
Search engines favour mobile friendly websites and so a quick SEO win for a rapid rankings improvement is to optimise images.
5: Be mobile friendly
SEO quick wins can be gained by ensuring that your website is mobile friendly. Search engines are increasingly favouring sites that are optimised for the small screen.
To check your Surrey business website, use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.
6: Speed up your website
Website speed is a crucial ranking factor in SEO. Search engines like fast loading pages, and so do your customers. What’s more, if your competitors have faster loading websites, chances are they will rank higher.
Tools such as Google Page Speed Insights can give you an instant snapshot of what needs doing. Furthermore, Pingdom and GT Metrix website speed test can equally tell you were your site is in need of a tune up.
7: Ditch the cheap web hosting
A major cause of website lag is the server that it is hosted on. Another quick SEO win can be to switch your website hosting.
The speed and responsiveness of website hosting has a major affect on SEO. Cheap hosting can often be overseas, which sees a lag in response times due to the distance between customer and server. Noisy neighbouring websites can also be a problem, as the hosting is often on an unbalanced shared server.
Therefore, ensure that your website hosting package is on a UK based server so it is in close proximity to the visitor. What’s more, opt for a host that load balances and protects your website’s resources from those noisy ones around you.
8: Generate an xml sitemap
An xml sitemap is a major SEO quick win as it’s a blueprint of an entire website. Search engines are instantly told how the website is structured. What’s more, the xml sitemap also contains links to all of the pages and posts.
If your using a WordPress web design then the Yoast SEO plugin can generate an xml sitemap at the click of a button. An easy SEO quick win to drive a rapid rankings improvement.
9: Fix broken links
Links are an important ranking factor in Google. Both internal and external links are vital to good SEO scores. Quick SEO wins are therefore gained by ensuring that all links are functioning well.
Google Search Console is a great tool for checking broken internal and external links. Reroute any with a 301 redirect to tell search engines the new location.
10: Optimise internal anchor text
Instead of using vague terms such as “click here” for anchors, make the text relevant for search engines. Therefore, be descriptive in your SEO copywriting whenever linking to another page. What’s more, search engines equally like descriptive button text as well, for example, sign up, open account or view images.
SEO quick wins conclusion
Optimising your Surrey business website design to benefit from search is a long-term game. However, these SEO quick wins can help structure your website for a rapid rankings improvement and create good habits going forward. What’s more, have a look at a recent case study on mobile phone repair SEO to see some quick wins in practice.