SEO is a mysterious world. There are a lot of things you can do wrong. And there are even more things that Google doesn’t tell you about. Search engines aren’t around to stumble on your site one day and decide whether or not it’s worthy of a listing. Rather, they’re programmed to interpret the code that you’ve provided, along with hundreds (if not thousands) of others crawling the web at any given time. The best way to ensure that your site is reaching maximum exposure is to make sure that it meets their requirements. And with this checklist of items, you should be well on your way.

13 QUICK SEO FIXES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Meta titles

You can add, edit, or replace your page titles by hovering over the page title and clicking Edit in the dropdown menu. Your new title should be between 50 and 60 characters long. You should also make sure it is unique and descriptive of the content on this page, including a targeted keyword, if appropriate.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are the brief summary paragraphs that appear directly under a search result. Not including meta descriptions on all your website pages is a mistake, because they’re what searchers read to determine if they want to click through and look at your site. If you don’t have a meta description, Google will pull text from elsewhere on your page (sometimes not from the part of the page that’s most relevant), and this can lead to less-than-ideal results.

The best way to optimise for meta descriptions is simple. Add them to every single page. Include a call-to-action in each one (“get a free strategy call!” or “work with us!”). Be sure each one is unique; otherwise, search engines will penalise you for keyword stuffing (filling your text with keywords). Finally, be sure not to exceed 160 characters in length, or else Google will cut off your description mid-sentence.

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is a tactic that involves cramming hundreds or thousands of words onto one page, to the point where it’s stuffed with keywords. This practice was once ubiquitous and effective, but since Google’s Panda update in 2011, it no longer works as a ranking signal. Keywords should appear naturally within the text. This way, they can be used as an informational and user-friendly aid. The Panda algorithm targets pages that are excessively keyword-stuffed, so you must avoid this practice if you want your site to rank highly.

The best way to improve your SEO is to place your long tail keywords strategically throughout your content and link them to other relevant pages on your site. So which keywords should you use? Start by identifying the terms for which you want a better ranking. These are often search terms that generate low traffic volume, and therefore less competition. If these aren’t available from an existing resource like Google Analytics, then consider creating a survey or poll online to gather data from web users who have already visited your website or others like yours (Twitter, or YouTube community tab for example) to ask about the specific topics they would want you to cover.

Link juice dilution

Link juice dilution is when a link pointing to any page of your website can be reached from another page. It’s a major SEO error and one that needs fixing because it prevents the passing of link juice, which dilutes its value. Link juice dilution stops you from promoting products on your homepage or linking back to your homepage from product pages. The only way to avoid this SEO error is by ensuring there is a clear internal linking structure between your website’s pages.

Duplicate content

Duplicate content occurs when a piece of content appears on more than one URL. This is often unintentional, but Google penalises it because it hurts the user experience.

Duplicate content hurts your SEO efforts because it creates confusion for search engines about which page to display in search results. It can also hurt your traffic because users might not click through if two pages offer similar experiences at two different URLs.

There are two ways to address duplicate content: canonical tags and 301 redirects. Check any redirects you have for proper functioning. Even one improperly configured redirect can affect your ability to rank in search engines. 

Rel=nofollow on internal links

If you’re using a nofollow tag to block search engines from following a link, it should only be used on links that are untrustworthy or paid. For example, if you have an affiliate link, or are linking to a page you didn’t create that doesn’t quite fit the context of your content (like an out-of-place Wikipedia link), then use the nofollow tag. Check your robots.txt file for any “noindex” or “nofollow” tags that might be affecting your ability to rank in search engines. You can find more information on how to edit this file at Moz.

Not having a sitemap.xml file

Once you’ve resolved any issues with your robots.txt, it’s time to check your sitemaps.xml file. If you don’t have a sitemap yet, you can use this tool to create one for your site (this is for Google, but other search engines also read sitemaps). You’ll want to submit this file in the Search Console at Google – Sitemaps and Webmaster Tools – Sitemap & Ping Services respectively.

Internal link structure

• Make sure to include links to all your pages.
• Keep links short and descriptive.
• Make sure the links are not broken.
• Use internal links to link to related content and use breadcrumbs to help users navigate your site.

Page Speed

If you want to improve your site’s Google search engine rankings and conversion rates, it’s important to first understand what page speed is and why it matters. Page speed is the measurement of how fast the content on your page loads. You can look at it from three perspectives:

• Site Speed (or “page speed”), which measures how quickly a sample of page views on your site load,
• First Contentful Paint, which measures how long it takes for content to appear on a user’s screen when they land on a page, and
• DOM Content Loaded Event, which measures how long it takes before your HTML document has been completely loaded and parsed (without waiting for stylesheets, images, or subframes to finish loading).

These three aspects of page speed are all important because Google considers them when ranking pages in search results. According to Google, if all else is equal between two competing pages, then a faster one will rank better. Besides, Moz reported that slower sites have higher bounce rates than faster ones. The takeaway? Sites with higher bounce rates aren’t as successful in attracting quality leads or gaining search engine rankings as their lower-bounce-rate counterparts.

SSL certificate

Ensure that you have a valid SSL certificate. If you don’t, you can get one for free at [SSLs.com](https://www.ssls.com/)

Broken links

Run a crawl test with Screaming Frog (or another tool) to check for issues on your site—like broken links that Googlebot can’t follow or images without alt text—and fix them.

Optimise for mobiles

Use Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools to see how optimised your site is for mobile devices and make sure it’s loading quickly enough for visitors’ liking.

Bonus tips

Add a transcript to videos, images to text and alt attributes to images. Focus on creating better content than your competitors. Update out of date pages with new information. 

CONCLUSION

By resolving your SEO errors, you can dramatically boost your traffic, improve your rankings, and even help your website’s search engine results pages (SERPs) look better for users. By taking the time to address these problems now, you’ll have more traffic and happier visitors and users in no time at all. Heck, you’ll even get a head start on next year’s SEO campaigns!

To wrap up, keep in mind that the most effective SEO strategy will depend on your website and your target audience. For example, a new eCommerce store selling products online may want to focus heavily on search engine optimisation. Meanwhile, a local business might want to take advantage of social media, earned media outlets and other avenues to reach out to potential customers. With so many variables present at play you should work with each website separately. But if you’re looking for a general rule of thumb, it’s best to start with the basics: keyword research and then consistent on-page optimisation across your site. Make sure your site has a solid foundation first so that you can continue building from there!