We don’t want to blow our own trumpets, but we know our stuff when it comes to digital marketing and we know how to master the fun world of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). We’re geeky and we love it.

Basically, if you’ve got a website of any sort, you really need to take a look at your SEO. This is all the juicy stuff that helps you rank better on Google, thus helping prospective clients or customers find you easier online. Think of it as your digital front door. The end-goal is to make your way to that coveted front page, beating all your competitors and becoming the top dog, but first things first, you need to make sure you cover the basics. So, we pulled together a list of five basic SEO checks for you to go through… think of us as your Google Gurus.

1) Do you have Google Search Console set up?

Google Search Console is the Holy Grail of SEO tools: it lets you analyse, monitor and resolve any issues or errors on your site to optimise your search results on Google. It’s a treasure trove of SEO goodies! You can check which sites link to you, view your traffic data and see if Google can actually find your site and any errors. The best part? It’s free! So, if you don’t have it set up yet, get on it.

2) How about a good SEO plugin to handle the basics?

If you’re using WordPress then there are a bunch of plugins out there that you can install to help you optimise your pages and posts for SEO. We use Yoast because it’s easy to use and does a lot of the hard work for you. You can install a free version or upgrade to premium, which we totally recommend.

3) Are your page titles and descriptions completed?

Page titles and descriptions are hugely important because this is what shows up in Google search results. As a general rule, your page title should be 60 characters and your description should be up to 160 characters: make sure they’re relevant but also interesting, as you want people to pick your page!

4) Have you researched some basic keywords for your site?

Relevant keywords are what’s going to bump you up the search results, so you want to make sure that you’re targeting the right search terms. Uber Suggest is a great free tool that takes you through keyword research and shows you which keywords are relevant to the search term you’re after, as well as the difficulty level (the lower the difficulty level the easier it’ll be to rank for that term). The best practice for keyword research is to find the main keyword you want to rank for, look for some secondary keywords and then be sure to put them in your content – but don’t keyword stuff.

5) Is your “Google My Business” listing completed?

Again, this is another freebie that you should be making use of. Google My Business is a way to showcase your business as its own listing on Google (aka a local SEO tool), with opening times, photos, phone numbers, maps and business info to help people find you easier. It’s basically a mini-hub where customers can leave/find reviews, and you can add and track campaigns. Google My Business helps you capture people who are searching for businesses near them, meaning if you can harness this traffic you’re on to a winner, and Google will like you even more!

So there you have it, your five-point checklist for basic SEO. Get this sorted and you could become Google’s next BFF. Well, as long as you don’t mind sharing them with a million other people…

If you’re looking for an SEO marketing agency you can rely on, contact our team today!