Adjusting your website to align with search engine requirements can help your domain authority and page rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) often takes time and a dedicated strategy. However, there are some things you can fix right now to boost your SEO instantly. Here are our top tips for site adjustments to improve SEO.
Speed Up Your Site
Slow loading times are penalized by Google. You can check your page load speed to find out whether you meet the criteria or need to improve your pages. Simply choose your pages and plug them into the checker to see how your performance ranks for mobile and desktop users. The Google page checker will even help you understand where you have opportunities to improve the page by resizing images or adjusting your CSS to be more efficient.
Fix Your Layout
In 2021, Google announced it would penalize sites that had a large layout shift as the page is loading. These shifts occur as some elements, typically images, take longer to load than others. You can minimize layout shift by setting fixed heights in your layout to give elements time to load. This means that when your visitor comes to your site, things won’t be moving around within those first few seconds.
Users get frustrated when they try to click on something (like a navigation button or menu) and end up clicking something else because elements are moving as the site loads. Navigating a sluggish site is an irritating experience that can cause visitors to bounce and hurt your SEO.
Use Mobile-Friendly Design
If you aren’t already using a responsive design that adapts to mobile, laptop and desktop screens, then it is high time to switch. More and more people are conducting initial searches from their smartphones. Globally, more than half of all web traffic (56.89%) is done on smartphones.
This means you are missing out on more than half of your audience if your site doesn’t adjust for smaller screen sizes. Without a mobile-friendly site, half of your audience will have to do a lot of pinching and sliding just to navigate your site. Since 2015, Google has been rewarding sites that adjusted to support mobile users.
Check for Broken Links
Broken links send your visitors to an embarrassing 404 error page. Google views broken links as navigational problems that hurt domain authority. It’s a great idea to check your pages and blog posts for broken links regularly.
Improving your outbound links can boost SEO. Links help Google determine content value based on your anchor text and navigational options. Provide visitors with relevant and helpful resources to naturally improve your SEO.
Update Old Content
Older pages are a good thing for your site authority—but only if they are kept updated and relevant. Most people don’t trust pages that are more than two or three years old.
In order to improve your SEO quickly, try refreshing some of your oldest content. Keep the content on the same post, but include a note about when the content was last updated and adjust all information.
- Check all links and update any broken ones
- Consider adding additional content to shorter pieces
- Replace older stats with more recent ones
- Include relevant inbound and outbound links
- Adjust your title and headers to be more catchy
- Include a powerful CTA (call-to-action)
Earn More Backlinks
Backlinks exist on other websites and link to a page or article on your site. These external links help bring new visitors to your site. Backlinks also help show Google that other sites consider your content valuable and relevant to their audience. So, backlinks from the right sites will help improve your domain authority and SEO.
It’s important not to buy your backlinks, since link farming is a black hat practice that can end up in penalties from Google. However, seeking out organic backlinks from reputable sites will quickly help boost your site authority. Guest posting is one of the easiest ways to increase the number of backlinks you have.
Use SEO Experts
SEO can be a complex task that takes time and energy to get right. You don’t want to waste time or money trying to learn SEO on the fly. Use an experienced team of SEO experts to help speed up the process and avoid costly mistakes.
Are you looking for a team to help you boost SEO quickly? We can help! Reach out today and schedule a consultation with our team.