10 Essential SEO Tasks You Need to Check Off Your List This Year
In addition to executing SEO campaigns, there are also other essential SEO tasks that you should be doing every year to make sure that your site stays relevant and performs well in search engine rankings. While many of these tasks are not time-consuming, they can become neglected if you don’t keep them on your radar throughout the year. To help you stay on top of your game this year, check off these 10 essential tasks below!
Choose your keywords carefully
The process of choosing the right keywords for your website can be daunting, but it's worth taking the time to do it right. Not all keywords are created equal, and you'll want to choose ones that are relevant to your business and have a good amount of search volume. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
1. Make a list of all the words and phrases that describe your business, products, or services.
2. Look at your website's analytics to see which keywords people are already using to find you.
3. Research which keywords are being used by your competitors.
4. Use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to find more ideas. 5. Write down up to 20 keywords from your list in order of importance, then narrow them down to 10 with high potential. 6. Put together a detailed plan on how you're going to use these keywords throughout your site content and marketing campaigns (both paid and organic).
7. Keep track of changes in trends so you can make adjustments as needed! It’s also important to keep track of your own work and identify what you’ve done well, where there are gaps, and what needs improvement. Don't forget to measure performance metrics along the way-it's the only way to know if your efforts are working. In addition, don't be afraid to experiment with new methods and approaches-sometimes changing things up can lead to big improvements!
8. Be proactive about staying on top of new developments: If there is one thing we know about online marketing is that it's constantly evolving. New tools come out every day, often offering better solutions than older ones did when they were first introduced. But this doesn't mean that everything should be replaced all at once. A gradual approach is usually best, because some updates will provide major benefits while others won't have any effect whatsoever. With this in mind, here are some other tasks you might want to take care of during your yearly audit:
1) Review old content and make edits as necessary: Old articles can contain outdated information that could hurt your rankings.
Don’t forget about social media
In today’s digital world, social media is an essential part of any business’s marketing strategy. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide a great way to connect with potential and current customers. But with so many platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here are 10 essential social media tasks you need to check off your list this yearyear 1) Decide on which social media platform best suits your needs: One of the first things you should do before jumping into any type of social media is figure out which platforms will work best for your business. Once you’ve decided on the types of messages you want to share (e.g., company updates, industry news), then think about which network will best serve that purpose. For example, if most people in your target audience have LinkedIn profiles or work in the professional industry, then that might be the best place for a company update post about new employees joining the team or changes in office hours due to seasonal events like Daylight Savings Time. The decision process doesn’t stop there; once you settle on one network, research how to use it effectively. We recommend that businesses set up accounts across as many networks as possible for broad reach and maximum exposure. It also helps make sure your content is fresh across all channels instead of only appearing at certain times on one channel. Social media offers a variety of creative ways to generate interest in your brand. With videos and infographics becoming increasingly popular, don’t forget about these formats either! Whatever content you decide to publish, make sure that it’s appropriate for the specific platform and audience - even down to the time of day when posts are published. Try adding some humor or friendly customer service interactions periodically to keep things interesting. Last but not least, don’t forget about customer reviews! By actively soliciting feedback through social media questions like what did you think? or would you recommend us?you can turn happy customers into brand advocates who will help spread the word far beyond their own circles. Be sure to follow up with them too - sometimes just a thank-you tweet or email goes a long way. 2) Keep your site updated: Most website builders offer routine maintenance options to ensure that your site stays secure and optimized. These often include scanning for malware, monitoring site performance and speed, checking browser compatibility, updating code libraries, etc. Some sites offer free monthly scans while others charge a monthly fee depending on the level of service you select. For larger websites, we recommend annual visits by professionals who will perform more in-depth analyses than automated services 3) Schedule regular cleanups: Websites accumulate over time because they’re never taken offline long enough for everything to get fixed –or worse yet, left abandoned altogether without anyone watching over them.
Be sure to analyze your site traffic
One of the most important aspects of SEO is understanding how your site is currently performing. You can do this by analyzing your site traffic. By looking at things like your bounce rate, time on site, and pages per visit, you can get a good idea of where your site needs improvement. Plus, analyzing your traffic can help you identify any potential areas of opportunity. For example, if you see that people are not staying on your website for very long, you might want to think about optimizing for mobile users. Or if people are bouncing from your site after viewing one page, then it's likely that they didn't find what they were looking for. In these cases, make sure that you're using appropriate keywords in your content so that visitors know exactly what they're getting when they land on your site. If your main goal is to provide information and resources, be sure to include an About Us page with links to all of your latest blog posts. Additionally, always remember to monitor your backlinks. Backlinks are essentially external sites linking back to yours, which means that they're essentially votes of confidence in your site. What's more, Google may choose to increase or decrease the ranking of a webpage based on whether or not it has backlinks pointing towards it. Make sure you have an established system for monitoring these backlinks so that you don't miss anything!
What tasks have we missed? Let us know! Comment below with the task that you think should be added to our list.
Do you need an ecommerce site?
If you're thinking about starting an online store, there are a few things you need to consider before taking the plunge. First, you need to decide what type of products you want to sell. Second, you need to determine whether you have the budget to build and maintain a professional-looking website. Third, you need to choose a reliable ecommerce platform. Fourth, you need to make sure your website is optimised for search engines. And fifth, you need to create a marketing plan. Let's go through these in more detail.
First, you need to decide what type of products you want to sell. Do you want to focus on digital goods? Clothing? Foods? Jewelry? The best way to do this is to conduct some research on product categories that are selling well on sites like Amazon or Etsy, then identify gaps in those markets that you could fill with your own unique inventory. Next, you need to determine whether you have the budget to build and maintain a professional-looking website. There are many DIY tools out there that will let you design your own site for free if all you want is something simple, but if you want a custom design or built-in features like robust shopping cart software or social media integration, expect to pay upwards of $2000-$5000.
Third, you need to choose a reliable ecommerce platform. Shopify has emerged as one of the most popular platforms, because it’s relatively easy to use and comes with powerful features including mobile-optimized storefronts, multiple currencies, integrated payments gateways and fraud protection. Fourth, you need to make sure your website is optimized for search engines. Simply submitting your site to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools should be enough, though you may also want to hire someone experienced with SEO to audit your site for any lingering issues. Fifth, you need to create a marketing plan. In other words, figure out how you’re going to tell people about your new business! One way is by using Facebook advertising—you can target specific audiences based on location or demographics (or both), which helps ensure that only relevant users see your ads.
Add new content regularly
One of the most important things you can do for your website’s SEO is to regularly add new content. This keeps your site fresh and relevant, and it gives you something new to promote on social media and in other outreach efforts. Plus, search engines love fresh content! Try to add at least one new blog post or page per week. When you create a new piece of content, make sure that it includes keywords that align with what people are searching for in your industry. If there are ever any broken links or missing images on your site, go ahead and fix them immediately. And lastly, if you want to build up a following of potential customers online (who might also be potential sources), start tweeting interesting pieces of information every day—but make sure they have a call-to-action so they lead people back to your website! As we’ve seen, SEO maintenance doesn’t need to be a stressful endeavor. It just requires diligence, planning, and focus on the little details. For example: ensuring that the right keywords are included in each blog post; keeping your title tags up-to-date; writing compelling meta descriptions; making sure that all external links work properly; checking which sites you link out to from time to time for relevance; and staying consistent with other tasks like generating RSS feeds. The best way to stay organized about these tasks is by creating an editorial calendar (which can also include deadlines) before doing anything else when building a new website or refreshing an old one. There are plenty of free tools available to help you plan out your posts for the coming weeks and months. Just remember: as long as you maintain some semblance of regularity, it will be easier than ever to keep your website updated with fresh content that is well suited for visitors in terms of relevancy and popularity.
Are you publishing original and unique content?
Yes, you need to be publishing original content, but that's not the only criterion for good SEO. Your content also needs to be unique in order to rank well in search engines. That means that you can't just copy and paste someone else's work and expect to rank higher than them. You need to put your own spin on things and offer something fresh and new. Are you looking for other ways to grow your audience?: If so, we recommend reaching out to bloggers or journalists in your niche who are likely to share their posts with their audience. A little flattery will go a long way!
Are you giving back by contributing to online communities?: Contributing back is an excellent way of getting a positive reputation and establishing yourself as an expert within a particular niche. Giving back is a win-win situation because not only do you help others with their queries but they'll also help promote your expertise. Join discussions, post thoughtful comments, and ask questions related to your industry - these are all great ways to get involved. Also make sure you have a compelling website URL: this is crucial when it comes to ranking high in Google. Short, clear URLs generally perform better than longer ones which are difficult for both humans and robots alike to remember. Plus people like shorter URLs better too - don't forget that more people nowadays end up typing URLs into their browser instead of following links from social media sites or blogs.
Use Google Analytics frequently
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you track your website’s traffic and performance. By understanding how your site is being used, you can make informed decisions about where to focus your time and resources. Here are 10 essential tasks you should be doing with Google Analytics on a regular basisbasis - Make sure your page titles accurately reflect the content of the page: When someone searches for a topic related to your content, they might not remember the specific words from your title tag. When this happens, they often see results from other websites competing for their attention. The result? A lower click-through rate on your site and less visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). To prevent this from happening, ensure all of the pages you create have an accurate page title so it matches what people are searching for when they come across it in search engines. It’s also important to include keywords that are most relevant to your industry and target audience. If you don’t know which keywords to use, tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool can give you ideas based on popularity or global searches.
For example, if we look at the keyword buy cheap flowers online using the aforementioned tool, we will see that these three keywords rank highest: flowers delivery, cheap flowers delivery, best flowers delivery service.
Update your meta tags often
As a best practice, you should update your meta tags regularly - at least a few times a year. Not only will this keep your site's content fresh, but it will also ensure that your keywords are relevant and up-to-date. Here's a quick checklist of essential meta tags to update:
1. Title tags
2. Meta descriptions
3. H1 tags
4. Alt text
5. Canonical tags
6. 301 redirects
7. XML sitemapssitemapssitemapssitemaps
8. Robots.txt file
9. Social media profiles for links and mentions
10. Featured images
Enhance your inbound links as necessary
Inbound links are one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. Make sure your website is linking to high-quality websites, and that those websites are linking back to you. Also, keep an eye on your link profile to make sure you're not acquiring any spammy or low-quality links. If you are, disavow them immediately.
Check your website's speed and performance (four sentences): Website speed is a key ranking factor for SEO. If your website is slow, potential customers will likely leave before they even have a chance to see what you have to offer. To avoid this, there are many things you can do. First, optimize images so they don't take up too much space. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to test your site's performance and receive recommendations on how to improve it. Consider using a CDN if it doesn't come with your hosting package because this could also help with page load time issues. Pay attention to how many plugins you're using as well; if there are too many on one page, it may overload the server or cause other problems that can affect speed as well. Review any out-of-date content: Having outdated content on your website means that search engines might be missing out on important information about your business. Be aware of changes in the industry and review old blog posts, FAQs, articles, etc., to ensure that the information is still relevant and accurate. Update them accordingly or delete anything that no longer applies. Take advantage of structured data markup: Structured data markup is something you should be utilizing in order to provide more detail about each piece of content on your site. It has been proven to significantly increase rankings in Google search results pages – a win for both humans and machines!
Promote through social media channels regularly
Social media should be an essential part of any business's marketing strategy. By promoting your content through social media channels, you can reach a wider audience and drive traffic back to your website. Plus, regular promotion will help keep your content relevant and top-of-mind for your audience. Here are 10 essential tasks to check off your list this yearyear 1) Review site architecture and improve if necessary: Take the time to review your site architecture and make adjustments as needed so that it best supports search engine crawlers indexing all of the pages on your site. 2) Create fresh blog posts: With the rate at which Google updates its algorithm, it is important to post new blog posts regularly or risk being outranked by competitors with more recent content. The rule of thumb is one new blog post per week or about every other day. A recent study by HubSpot found that nearly two-thirds (65%) of businesses say they publish three or more blog posts per month on average; that’s nine times more than what we recommended in 2012! 3) Optimize images with alt text and captions: Adding alt text and captions to images not only helps visually impaired people understand what's happening in the image, but also provides additional keyword opportunities for Google when crawling your site. Use alt text and captions consistently throughout your site, including in video slideshows. 4) Check page speed: It is important to ensure that the loading speed of each page on your website is fast enough to satisfy users browsing from different connection speeds. Pagespeed insights offers a great tool for checking how quickly webpages load on desktop and mobile devices. 5) Update plugins: Make sure to update plugins often and always delete old versions before installing new ones.
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