Boost your SEO in 30 minutes
We’re often taught to think that SEO is all about keywords, content and links.
Well, that stuff is all cool.
But whether you have a four page holding site that you don’t do much with; or your website’s success is the make-or-break part of your business, here’s the thing.
Pretty much everyone can boost their SEO in just 30 minutes - without a back link or keyword in sight.
So let’s get started. Set your timer for 29 minutes (you’ll see why!)... and LET’S GO.
1) Know what you’re looking for
Search engines care about how easy it is to use your site.
That means your beloved pages need to be quick to download (so no massive file sizes for photos and videos).
Your site should be easy to read (so that means clear headings).
It should be straightforward for a search engine to analyse (so you need to go ‘behind the scenes’ and get meta descriptions etc right).
If any of that sounds daunting... keep reading.
2) Don’t be afraid of the jargon
Let’s make this clear.
DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE JARGON.
Does it scare you that you don’t know your H1 headings from your 403 errors? In all honesty, this is probably THE biggest barrier when it comes to giving your SEO a boost.
I absolutely, pinkie promise you: the jargon doesn’t matter.
If you come across something that makes no sense? Well, in all honesty, if it’s that important, then it’s easy to find out with a quick google search.
Still not sure?
Drop me a line. Seriously. There is not a business owner out there who needs to be scared of basic SEO; and if a quick email exchange gets you over the barrier, then I’ll go to sleep tonight a happy gal.
3) Type your website URL into an SEO analysis tool
There are plenty of free ones (or free trials) out there, in return for your email address. For this exercise I’m recommending SEMRush.
However, if you’re really daunted by SEO, or convinced that you’re not in the slightest bit ‘techie’ then you may prefer Neil Patel’s SEO Analyser, which is a bit more simple and user friendly.
If you’re feeling super-ambitious then it’s worth doing both - most of the results will be the same but occasionally they do throw up a couple of differences.
For the purposes of this exercise, you don’t need to do any upgrades or free trials - everything you need is there in front of you.
(These are not affiliate links. You can find out why I don’t use affiliate links here.)
4) Let’s get fixing
Spend the rest of your 29 minutes fixing as many of the issues as you can.
Start with the ‘worst’ issues (Neil Patel calls them ‘critical; on SEMRush they are ‘errors’).
5) When your alarm goes off
AAAAND you’ve done it! Simply by making a few little tweaks, you’ve already improved your website. But we’re not quite finished...
Spend your last minute deciding your best way forward.
If you had a lot of critical errors - well just by being aware of them and starting to work on them, you’ve already made your site better. Most importantly - don’t worry, it’s all fixable. I would recommend putting aside some time to fix those errors.
If you felt this was simply a one-off exercise - and your errors weren’t too bad - then close down and unsubscribe.
However, with no obligation SEMRush will keep crawling your site every couple of weeks and email you the latest results. I really like the SEMRush dashboard, which has a ‘site health’ score: it’s pretty satisfying to see that improve.
The one caveat is that it does get quite techie, and it is designed to encourage you to feel the need to sign up for more. If you’re the kind of person who ends up going down rabbit holes then I’d avoid it!
To conclude
Hopefully, you’re a little bit clearer in your mind about the health of your site and your next steps.
And maybe, who knows - SEO is a little less daunting then it was half an hour ago.
Do let me know what you found and where your thinking is at!