Learn how to improve your website’s ranking in search results and attract more visitors with this 5 day SEO challenge. Get tips on fixing technical errors, finding keywords, writing content, building links, and tracking your progress.
Having a good product or service is not enough to rank well in Google. You need to optimize your website for search engines with SEO.
This 5 day SEO challenge will help you improve your website rankings:
Day 1: Fix common errors
Before you start optimizing your website for search engines, you need to make sure it’s technically sound and ready for Google (and humans!) to find.
One of the most common SEO errors is slow page loading speed.
Test your website speed with a tool like Pingdom, and aim for a loading speed of under 2 seconds. Check the waterfall chart to identify any bottlenecks. Slow loading times are often caused by large images or external plugins. To speed up your website, compress images and consider removing unnecessary plugins.
Another reason your website might not be found by search engines is that it’s not mobile-friendly.
More than 50% of web page views are now on mobile phones, so Google prefers mobile-friendly websites. Type your website into your own phone to see how it looks. If it’s not mobile-friendly, hire a developer to create a mobile version for you.
Day 2: Finding Keywords
Today we’re going to talk about finding keywords related to the services/products that your business sells for this 5 day SEO challenge.
First step: Brainstorm a list of keywords
Start by brainstorming a list of all the keywords that you want to rank for and that potential customers might use to find businesses like yours.
Second step: Use a keyword research tool
Once you have a list of keywords, use a keyword research tool to determine similar keywords, monthly search volume, and competition level. A great free tool to use is Ubersuggest.
Third step: Create a spreadsheet
End up with a large spreadsheet containing all the keywords you found, with their estimated volume and competition level.
Day 3: Writing Content for Keywords
We hope you’re enjoying the 5 day SEO challenge so far!
To recap, we’ve talked about cleaning up your website errors and finding the keywords that potential customers use to find your products/services.
Now, let’s talk about how to convert a keyword into a piece of content to publish on your website.
Step 1: Check Google results for the keyword
To know what to write about, check your keyword in Google to see what kind of content is already ranking. This will give you a good idea of what content you should be writing.
Step 2: Analyze the top 10 results
When looking at the top 10 results, look at each one’s:
- Meta title
- Meta description
- Header 1
- Headers 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.
- Images (check filename and alt text)
- Word count
Step 3: Write better content than your competitors
To make your content rank well, you need to include all of the elements listed above, but you also need to write better content than your competitors.
This means writing content that is:
- More informative
- More engaging
- More up-to-date
- More relevant to your target audience
Day 4: SEO Link Building
Creating good content for your website is only part of the deal. The next step in increasing your ranking is to increase your digital presence by getting links from other websites.
External links make your website look more reputable. The more links you have from relevant, high-quality websites, the better it makes you look!
Here are a few tips for getting links from other websites:
- Create a Google My Business page. This will give you a link to your website from Google itself and help your rankings in Google Map listings.
- Add your website URL to the profile of all your social media accounts.
- List your business in top Australian business directories (Yellow Pages, True Local, etc.).
- Ask your suppliers to list your business on their site.
By taking these steps, you should be able to easily get your first 20 links to your website. Then, start leveraging existing relationships you have in your industry to gain your next set of links.
Day 5: Tracking Your SEO Progress
With all the hard work you’ve put in over the past 4 days for the 5 day SEO challenge, you’re probably wondering how to know if it’s paying off.
This is where reporting comes in!
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that you can connect to your website to get data from Google about:
- Each keyword you rank for
- How many times your site was shown (impressions)
- How many clicks you got
- What position you are in the search results
Once you’ve set up GSC, sort your data by ranking position and look for attractive keywords that are ranking between 10-20 in search results. These keywords are on page two of Google and with a little content tweaking, they can provide you with the quickest ranking gains going forward.
You should also use GSC to check how well newly published content is ranking for the keywords you’re tracking!
We hope you enjoyed the 5 day SEO challenge!
Conclusion
SEO can be a complex topic, but it’s essential for any business that wants to be found online. By following the tips in this 5 day SEO challenge, you can improve your website’s ranking in search results and attract more visitors.
Here are a few key takeaways from the challenge:
- Make sure your website is technically sound and free of errors.
- Find the keywords that potential customers use to find businesses like yours.
- Write high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience and optimized for your keywords.
- Build links to your website from other high-quality websites.
- Track your SEO progress and make adjustments as needed.
SEO is an ongoing process, but it’s worth the effort. By investing in SEO, you can improve your website’s visibility, attract more visitors, and generate more leads and sales.
FAQs
Q: What is SEO?
A: SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Q: Why is SEO important?
A: SEO is important because it helps businesses to be found online by potential customers. When a website ranks high in SERPs, it is more likely to be seen by people who are searching for the products or services that the business offers.
Q: How do I improve my website’s ranking in SERPs?
A: There are many things that you can do to improve your website’s ranking in SERPs, including:
- Making sure that your website is technically sound and free of errors.
- Finding the keywords that potential customers use to find businesses like yours.
- Writing high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience and optimized for your keywords.
- Building links to your website from other high-quality websites.
Q: How long does it take to see results from SEO?
A: The time it takes to see results from SEO varies depending on a number of factors, including the competitiveness of your industry and the quality of your SEO efforts. However, you can generally expect to start seeing results within a few months.
Q: How much does SEO cost?
A: The cost of SEO varies depending on the scope of your work and the experience of the SEO agency or consultant that you hire. However, there are a number of affordable SEO options available, even for small businesses.
