SEO outsourcing is no longer needed for most small businesses. Here Peter Hanley tells you how to save money by doing SEO in-house. Times have changed.
SEO Outsource not needed
I was paying $600 a month for 10 keywords to try and rank on page one.
The site might have made it a few times but most of all they asked for more time and another month of money. I thought Yellow pagers people were robbers but these guys take the cake.
Still to this day I regularly get offers to take my money but now manage my own SEO.
Writing content to win
First of all how many words go into a blog that is acceptable to SEO.
The jury varies on this except that 300 is considered a minimum and that around 1500 optimal. The content value, however, overrides everything else.
Your Headings should be from largest to smallest going down and paragraphs not too long. Sentences short and too the point without waffling on.
Google does not read words but senses structure and grammar.
Spelling and grammar mistakes are easy to pick ( spell check) up as are length and style.
Pictures in a Blog
The Pictures are an asset provided they can be associated with the writing.
although good looking people usually get a look in.
You must fill in the Alt image box describing the picture. Houston we have a dilemma. Do you place the Keyword in the Alt Image or an actual description of the picture? Again there are two trains of thought. I always place the Keyword in the Alt box and don’t get marked down on it
Lists, Links, and videos to complete the blog
To
You need both in and out links to complete the party and as many as you can gather. Link to other pages or even on the page as well as outside authorities websites.
Categories, Tags and excerpts
Categories are the most important of the three because Uncategorized is not a good look nor good for your Seo so make sure you fill these out.
In your settings and reading fix your
You can learn more about this at Wealthy Affiliate in the University training which is a free course
Comments and reply’s
Interaction on your site is always positive for several reasons.
- Feedback is good and recognized by Google
- Time on the site is an important Matrix
- Other users stay longer reading comments
Key phrase and its use
This is probably the most important issue we will discuss because it is the start and end of the journey.
We have talked about Keywords and how they apply to your business now we will discuss placing them on your page.
In the olden days but a year or so past Keyword stuffing was all the rage. This has done a three-sixty and is now considered bad format.
Certainly in your domain name is great for your main page but in a blog or post the target keyword in your heading.
Then in the first paragraph and one in a H# title
The Meta description is vital that you have the keyword included as well the associated slug.
Yoast tells me Keyword density is a minimum of 0.5% with a maximum of 2.5%
so use them cleverly and mix them in the writing.
If you use keywords correctly the SEO
Check your site ranking
There is a very easy way to check your site ranking at this free site ranker
I have discussed at length in a post on check your site rank where
there is a section on checking your whole page for errors and corrections.
This is particularly helpful as errors and problems subtract from your SEO
Social Media
Social media impacts your results with linking and sending traffic and as the search engines like Facebook and Instagram among others because of the link juice they provide.
Warning though your updates on Social media need to be current with good quality material
Blog posting
Consistent and regular blog posting is required to keep your site in front of mind and Google penalizes lack of attention. Make sure you link your posts through to Social media and link to High profile sites for extra value
Outsource some of the work
Posting to Social media and Blog posting can be a hassle so maybe give a staff member some authority to do this on a regular basis.
I recommend Scheduling your posts for a week in advance so you take the one-time slot to do this. I regularly adopt this method to keep up to date
Do some extra training
We recommend you use Wealthy Affiliate for all your training on everything website and SEO and because it is free you can slot your staff in as well.
Conclusion
It may seem like a lot of work but with a bit of organisation and thought you can make this quite easy. your managers can outsource internally or externally for much of the work. Go to places like Fivver .comWhere you can get anything done for a low price particularly blog writing.
