Most SEOs realize that keeping sites optimized and running at their best isn’t a small task, but rather a never-ending project that requires thorough upkeep and monitoring. There’s no magic-bullet theory here. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, major search engines (I’m looking at you, Google) will throw a curve ball and update their algorithms…leaving many SEOs scrambling to pick up the pieces and reclaim their online visibility.
But there’s hope! Luckily, if you dedicate some time each day to doing the right things, you’ll not only fair much better in overall performance, but you’ll be prepared for and less effected by major updates when they strike. Results don’t happen overnight, but rather over time with quality content, a smart strategy, and authentic execution (sorry, the days of keyword stuffing and tagging are well gone).
Here are some easy tips for daily SEO upkeep that keep your workdays manageable and search engines happy.
At SmartAcre we like Moz and Raventools, but Google Webmaster Tools is free, and a necessity. Tools like these help crawl your site for errors, ranging from simple issues like long URLs to more severe errors like 404s. Check on a regular basis to make sure these tools are running properly, and educate yourself on what the crawl errors mean. If your tool allows, set a weekly report to be sent to your inbox – you’ll have an up-to-date list of fixable problems and will be able to quickly identify any severe errors that need handling.
If you have a crawl report in hand, it’s easy to get started. If not, there are a handful of items you can audit and fix. To fit this into your daily routine, choose one page to review. Not sure where to start? Consider a high authority page, a recently published page or article, or a page that is resulting in a good amount of conversions that you’d like to increase traffic to.
Now that you’ve picked a page, conduct a quick audit. Does it:
There’s lots of talk on the effects of social media on SEO, by both those who believe it’s a necessity to SEO and those who don’t. Whether or not “social signals” are cold hard facts, social media marketing in itself is inheritably helpful to SEOs – you’re connecting your brand with a wider audience, allowing you to engage with an audience that can help share your content while inheriting more real estate on your branded search that is controlled by YOU.
Even if you are aren’t concerned with bringing in local traffic, it is important to own and optimize your listings across the Web. It’s important to establish brand authority with accurate information and links about your business. The longer you avoid correcting all of those minuscule address or phone errors on local listing sites, the harder it will be in the long run to correct them. Listing sites are always grabbing information from each other, so that one site that has your old site’s URL may be crawled and share that data with others…and before you know it your company is listed on Google or Bing with a bad link.
If you feel that you’ve run out of optimizing juice with the above tips, spend some time building a network of contacts who can help spread the word, and links, about your brand in a more traditional way. As time progresses, search engines are getting smarter. They are learning which content is valuable to users, and which content is junk. The sheer number of links you gain will no longer guarantee you high ranks or authority. Creating content that is informative, interesting and useful to your audience can help you obtain high quality external links and will encourage social sharing. Having a strong network of industry thought leaders or advocates provides you with messengers to reference your latest piece of content and give it legs.
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