5 Super Simple SEO Tips (Gain More Traffic With Google)
*Updated Google SEO Tips 2021.
Google accounts for a majority of my traffic. In fact, it is one of my most sustainable and profitable sources. Best of all, the process of gaining Google traffic, through SEO - isn’t nearly as challenging as people make it out to be.
It use to be mind blowing for me, considering I was never really targeting Google in the beginning - and all of sudden it started showing up - tons of traffic. This was traffic I wasn’t expecting.
However, I now realize it wasn’t some complicated process. Instead, it was the small, simple things that I put effort into that helped me rank. I didn’t need a bunch of backlinks, or fancy coding, I just needed to do the simple things over and over again.
THE POWER OF GOOGLE SEO
So why is this so important?
Because of two very big reasons:
1) Boosting Your Website’s Trust (More Sales, Authority, and Returning Audience)
2) Providing Sustainable Traffic
People trust Google. If you rank on the first page of Google, people will likely trust you. This leads to more people returning to your site, buying what you are selling, and to developing a sustainable traffic source. If you can keep in favor with the Google algorithm, you will get traffic over and over again.. and this traffic will convert.
Of course, understanding SEO isn’t easy. In fact, it’s incredibly complicated, chock-full of theories and endlessly changing.
However, there are a few simple (tried and true) strategies you can do right now that will make a difference. By focusing on these things you can establish content that will eventually rank - no matter how much the algorithm is changing.
These are the five simple things I did that boosted my search traffic (on both this site, and others including my Nicole Stone Outdoors website.):
Compressed My Photos (Keep Your Webpage FAST!)
Embedded Long-Tail Keywords Appropriately
Adding Quality Photos Where Needed w/Alt. Text
Pushed My Content on Multiple Social Media Platforms
Lengthened My Articles
I breakdown each of these 5 tips in detail, below.
5 SIMPLE TIPS TO BOOST YOUR GOOGLE TRAFFIC (SEO HACKS)
COMPRESS PHOTOS (REDUCE FILE SIZE)
One of the first things you can do to improve your rank on Google is to compress your photos.
This is because it heavily affects your website speed, and website speed is a huge factor in Google SEO success. It affects your audience’s experience, and influences the Google crawler (who runs your page for functionality). That’s why I highly recommend investing some time into analyzing your site speed and improving it.
Site speed depends on multiple factors, including your host, internet connections, amount of plugins, and website cache. However, one of the most important (and simple) things you can do right now is to reduce the file size of your photos.
You can reduce file size in numerous ways, including:
Using the JPEG format (if you aren’t already) - all you need to do is “export” your file as a jpeg.
Reduce file size with a website compressor such as:
Compressjpeg.com, Tinyjpeg, etc…
Directly on your computer with the built in apple or windows photo editor
There really isn’t a “right size” to compress it to. Instead it depends on the properties of each photo. When possible I try to convert all png images to jpg. Jpg’s are smaller in size than png files.
As for a general standard, I try to reduce my files below 500 KB (kilobytes) whenever possible. If I can, I will even go below 100, as long as I avoid the image quality being overly compromised.
Use your best judgement.
For more information, I also recommend you check out:
2. EMBED KEYWORDS IN HEADINGS, URL, CAPTIONS, & TITLE
Keyword research can make a huge difference in Google traffic success.
As overwhelming as keyword research can seem to be, it’s actually quite simple. All you need to do is familiarize yourself with one of the keyword tools here: The 5 BEST SEO Keyword Tools For Free!
These tools will help you determine which words you can rank for (use my guide here if you are new to it) and then write a blog topic on it. If you already have the content written, determine what your subject keyword is, and find out which keyword phrases fit. For example, if you write an article about Instagram - then find keyword phrases with Instagram long-tail phrase.
Keep in mind, a well written blog piece should only require a few tweaks to optimize it.
Once you know which long-tail keyword phrases to use, then embed them in a few key places. These include:
Headings
URL
Title
Alt. Text
and within a few paragraphs.
When doing this, make sure it sounds natural and “flows”. Don’t just throw it in there for the sake of it… write quality content and embed the keywords where they should go.
I have a list of my 5 favorite keyword tools that you can use below.
3. ADD ALT TEXT TO PHOTOS (WITH KEYWORDS)
As you can tell, photos can go a long ways in SEO. One of the most important things you can do with photos is add alt text (alternative text) to the photos that are embedded with keywords.
What is alt text?
Alt text is really just a description of a photo. Search engines use this description to identify the content of the photo. That’s why photo alt text are crucial for ranking on Google. You are literally telling Google what your photos are about (and also telling people who can’t load images what that image is suppose to be about). Now days, photo search results provide as much as a return as text search. Take time and be sure to keyword your photos.
How to add alt text
Adding alt text to an image is soo easy. In Wordpress, all you have to do is click on a photo in the media library (where you grab photos for your website) and then edit the alt text section as shown below.
4. PUSH CONTENT ON MULTIPLE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Social media is a must for any blogging marketing strategy. It’s not just there for brand awareness, but to help drive traffic to your blog.
Social media benefits blogs in numerous ways, however a few very distinct things it does includes:
Allowing More People To Know About Your Blog (and when it updates): Having people on your site is crucial in Google learning how good your site is (and where it should rank).
Adding Social Cues: After a long debate (and back and forth spars between Google and platforms such as Twitter), Hootsuite did a study to see if social media cues by themselves help SEO rankings. Turns out they do.
Develops Leads to More Backlinks (which then leads to higher SEO ranking). The more quality backlinks the better. Social media often generates the audience that allows for natural backlinks. No more writing to companies and begging.
Allows for a Better Return Rate: Often times, people who follow you on social media are personally invested in you and more likely to return to your website on a frequent basis.
If you don’t have already have a social media strategy, invest time and energy in one.
Related:
10 Social Media Hacks EVERY Marketer, Blogger, and Business NEEDS to Know
Grow Your Social Media EFFORTLESSLY With This One Simple Tool
My FAVORITE tool to expedite my Pinterest traffic is Tailwind (and Instagram too). Grab 30 days free here!
5. IMPROVE THE LENGTH & QUALITY OF YOUR POST
Sometimes the BEST thing you can do is simply go over old content and improve it. A few things you can do to a post to improve it (and see better SEO results) include:
Making it 1,000 words or more
Embedding a video to improve time spent on page
Fix grammatical and spelling errors
Improve paragraph spacing and headlines
Interlink additional posts
Add high quality photos (make sure they are compressed)
Long, in-depth content is generally favored by Google as long as it’s done well. Provide information that helps people, improve the readability of your post, and add media to help keep people on your page for longer. All of these things can make a tremendous difference when improving your blog ranking on Google.
GOOGLE LIKES LONG, QUALITY CONTENT
For most people, quality will go a lot farther than quantity. It doesn’t matter how many posts you write if no one reads them. That’s why a productive content strategy should include promoting your content, measuring the results and making adjustments. In fact, creating the content is the very beginning of what needs to be done to build up your traffic and rank on Google.
That’s why it’s important to focus on simple, easy to implement details that will boost your results.
Recommended online resource to boost your traffic (my absolute favorite):
More FREE Information to Help You Conquer Your Online Goals:
