These SIMPLE SEO FIXES increase rankings
(shoes squeaking) – Let's be honest, SEO can sometimes feel
like a long, hard slog, but we're not gonna be talking about the slog part of SEO today, right, Luna? (baby babbling) We're gonna be showing
you some five minute fixes that you can start implementing
on your site immediately to start getting some results. (Tim chittering) Our first fix, title tags,
also called page titles, are still word for word
one of the most important SEO elements on each page of your site. They're a little hidden piece of code on every page of your site that shows up in the browser
tab at the top of the window, and also in the Google search results. Now, not only does Google
look at the content of your title tags to
understand which phrases your pages should be ranking for, but also if you've got great title tags showing up in the search, people are more likely
to click on your site, which is gonna get you more
traffic and more conversions, which is what we're all here for.
Now, we don't talk about title tags too much at Exposure Ninja these days, because truth be told, there's
such a basic SEO thing. But, take a look at this. The title tag of one of
the most popular news sites in the world, home. In fact, the BBC's main
title tag is BBC dash home. (Tim imitating explosion) If you search for accountants, you might see this site
in the search results, welcome to ICAEW.com dash
ICAEW, what does it mean? Well, it turns out it means the Institute of Chartered Accountants
in England and Wales, but you'd never guess
that from the title tag. (Tim crying) She's devastated. Why is this mad? Well, title tags are
really important for SEO. BBC is not trying to
rank for the word home.
ICAEW is not trying to
rank for the phrase ICAEW, that's their domain. They would rank for that anyway. So a good page title
includes the target keywords that you want that page to rank for. So for example, if we search
for accounting software, we see the page titles of
the sites that are ranking are things like accounting software, do beautiful business, Xero UK. Online accounting software
for small business, the best small business
accounting software for 2022, best accounting software UK, accounting software for small business. What do you notice? They all use the target
keyword accounting software, to do anything else is utter madness. Quick tip here, if you want to check out some great page titles to get something which people are gonna click through on, one place to analyse is not just your organic ranking competitors, i.e.
The other sites that
are ranking for this keyword, but also take a look at
the ads that are running, because with the ads that are running, whilst these aren't page titles, these are advertising headlines, advertisers will often
be split testing these to work out what gets the most clicks, and they'll get this data much faster than people testing their page titles. So, for example, in two of
these ads that are showing up, we can see that these software
companies are targeting the type of business that they want to sell their accounting software to, namely small businesses and small or medium sized businesses. So I might include small
businesses in my page title knowing that small
business accounting people are gonna be more likely
to click through on that, because it's clearly relevant to them. Smart. Okay, tip number two is meta descriptions. Now meta descriptions are kind of like the slightly less famous
celebrity sibling, but they don't get as much
attention as page titles, they don't have much effect but they're still kind of useful, and they can still be a quick
way to blow up the traffic.
Here's why. So the meta description
is usually the text that shows in the search results. For example, this stuff here. Now, either you set your
own meta description, or Google just pulls
some copy from your page, and shows that instead, but usually that doesn't
work out too well. For example, look at
this meta description, we just have a list of different banks. It doesn't really mean anything.
It's not particularly compelling, and I might be less likely to click on it because of the meta description. Now, they've actually got
a pretty decent page title, so I might still click
on this search result, but it's unlikely to be because
of the meta description. Now by contrast, this
meta description says find and compare the best
business bank account in the UK for your company. Compare rates, features, and pros and cons of the top providers. That's compelling, it tells me exactly what I'm going to get. Now, whilst Google doesn't
look at the content of your meta description to decide ranking or relevance to certain keywords, what will happen is if someone searches for a particular keyword, they see your website listed
with your meta description, and then they click on your result, well, that's gonna show Google that you're relevant for that search term.
So by having a great
compelling meta description and getting those clicks, you're likely to improve
your ranking over time. Some other great meta description tips, you can use meta descriptions
to peak people's curiosity. For example, let's say that I've searched for InfusionSoft alternatives. I can think of no… InfusionSoft's great, but let's be honest, everyone who's using it is
looking for an alternative. Here we have a fantastic page title, the five best Infusionsoft alternatives, I'll never use Keap again, Keap, it being another
name for Infusionsoft, and a great meta description. In my opinion, all of these
are better than Infusionsoft, they offer better
flexibility with pricing. I am tantalised, I'm gonna click on that because it is really compelling
and interesting to me. Another thing you can do
in your meta descriptions is give people your call to action, i.e. tell them what
they're going to be able to do on the page.
This does two things, firstly, it attracts people that are
most likely to take that action, i.e, usually those that have
the most commercial intent, those that are ready to take a next step. But the second thing it does
is it pre converts people so that when I get on that page, I already know the goal of that page, and I'm looking for that
thing subconsciously.
For example, let's say that you search for teeth straightening, and you find the Smile
Direct Club site here. You see the message description
says take impressions, order your clear aligners online now, and get straight teeth in months. See if you're a candidate for our affordable braces alternative now. So, what am I gonna get
when I land on that page? Well, I'm gonna be able
to see if I'm a candidate. Okay, five minute fix number
three is content headings. Geez, if I had a care bear for every time I saw terrible, underoptimized
content headings, I'd be sending mountains
of care bears to landfill. Now, if we stick with the
teeth straightening example, what is wrong with this page? I mean, sure, apart from the page title, the lack of content, the absence of any sort of introduction to this business whatsoever, the lack of instructions
about what to do next. Apart from all of that,
what's wrong with this page? (crickets chirping) (record scratching) This heading, Overbite, it gives absolutely no
context to new visitors. Not only is this unlikely to rank, because Google would look
at this page and say, what should it rank for? Maybe the phrase overbite.
If it did rank for that phrase, nobody is going to
spend time on this page, because there is no context. The heading does nothing to set the scene for the new visitor
that's landed on the page. Now, what this page probably
really wants to target is a phrase like how to fix overbite. That's a problem phrase
that this business solves, so that should be the page title, and it should be the content heading here.
Now, this is quite a common problem, and what happens is when
people design a website, they design the subpages of that site to sort of act as a next
step from the homepage, and what they don't think about is making those subpages
rank in their own right. If this subpage was designed
to rank in its own right, it would therefore need
to accept cold traffic, i.e.
People that had no context, they hadn't already been on the homepage, and if it was going to
do that, for example, targeting a phrase like
how to fix overbite, that would need to be
the topic of the page, and then Invisalign would be presented as the solution to that problem. Now, they could quite easily do this, but not what a heading like that. (baby cooing) Here's another example,
going back to accountants. We can see in their page title, the phrase they want to
target is payroll services, but the trouble is when
we get on the page, the heading is just payroll. Well, this page is not about payroll. This page is about payroll services. This is an accountancy firm
that provides payroll services, so whilst this seems like a small thing, actually this intent gap is massive. If this page was actually about payroll, and it was about the
ins and outs of payroll, and how payroll worked, and what it was, and how long payroll have
been in existence, then fine, but it's not, and that intent
gap is really important.
And by the way, if you're
enjoying this video so far, over to Luna for a short ad break. No? Okay. Well, if you want some free
help with the digital marketing, the team here at Exposure Ninja has a free website and marketing review, which can help you get some clarity on what you need to prioritise with your SEO content
marketing, pay per click, and your web development. Head over to ExposureNinja.com, fill out a short questionnaire. We'll show you where
to focus your attention over the next 6 or 12 months
to generate more sales and leads from your website.
The service is completely free, so go to exposureninja.com to request your free website
and marketing review today. Okay, tip number four. This might take you a little
longer than five minutes, but it's gonna save you a tonne of time, so I'm still gonna include it today, and that is rewriting old posts. Rather than writing a whole new article for your site each week or month, sometimes it's much
faster and more effective to go back and rewrite old posts instead, and now we do this all
the time for clients. So let's say, for example, that we've got our client
in accountancy software, and we're trying to rank
for an informational phrase like how to automate payroll, because we know that people
who are searching for that could be interested in
buying accountancy software. Now, let's say that they've
got an old post on their site, which is doing okay, but it's
a little bit out of date.
It's not very detailed, and we think it could be
spruced up a little bit. Now, we can fix this
up by making it longer, adding more detail,
bringing it up to date, maybe adding some graphics,
much quicker than we can writing a whole new post from scratch. And because this old post
might have links, ranking, and traffic already, we'll tend
to see results much faster. Boom, tip number five is
supplier testimonials.
This is killer. Here's the strategy in 20 seconds. Go give you all of your
supplies a great testimonial. When they add it to their website, they'll include a link back to your site, particularly if the testimonial you've given them is fantastic, they'll really want to show it off. And there you have it. Of course, in order to get
the best from your SEO work, you're going to need software, where they'll rank tracking,
competitive analysis, audit software, monitoring software. There's so much SEO software out there. How do you know what's
good and what isn't? Well, we've used a whole bunch of SEO software at Exposure
Ninja, and in this video, we ranked the best and worst SEO software. Go and check it out now..
