FREE SEO TIPS
For DIY SEO help, the following are 100% free, good, SEO tips without signing up to a spammy email list.
Following is a summary of some search engine optimisation ( SEO ) tips that spring to mind. The SEO tips are not a comprehensive detailed list of tips. For brevity, the tips and advice include some SEO jargon for which I apologise. These are SEO tips from an experienced SEO expert. There are more SEO tips for improving organic search engine ranking on my very old page at 4webmarketing.biz/tips.htm
KEYWORD RESEARCH
- It’s the ESSENTIAL first step before developing a business plan or buying a domain name. It’s priced at only a very worthwhile investment of ony $100. Example:
- Buy short exact-match domain names.
- Share your research with stakeholders such as site owners, copywriters, web designers, SEO staff, graphic designers, IP managers, etc.
- Another tip: Did you know you can use wildcards * in the Google Trends keyword research tool? Example:
Google Trends keyword research using a wildcard.
WEB DESIGN TIPS FOR GOOD SEO.
- Have your web designer in Perth create fast-loading web pages. Use a popular content management system such as WordPress or build your pages with html editing if you have the skills. My very old PerthPerth.com site is still popular and built with an old html WYSIWYG editor.
- The fewer columns the better. The recommendation web page design image below is from Google’s website.
- Build pages based on keyword research and KEEP focused. (long-tail SEO).
- Copywriting for SEO means a minimum of 300 words per page.
- Create interesting content.
- Develop a good site structure.
- Use h tags.
- Use optimised images.
- Use image alt tags.
- Post Vs web page.
OFF PAGE SEO – LINK BUILDING
- Get high-quality dofollow backlinks related to your site. For example, if your site is about something in Perth then a link from the home page of perthperth.com is worthwhile and free for my Perth clients. If you’re an exporter go here austrade.gov.au to list with a dofollow link. If you consider hiring a link-building campaign, be careful to manage link building properly.
- Search engines can detect an unnatural sudden increase in backlinks from irrelevant sites. Also, keep in mind, that social sites only provide nofollow backlinks which are good for peer-to-peer marketing but useless for search engines.
- Identify and link to cornerstone pages from within your website and from other websites.
- HOW TO GET BACKLINKS.
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Formerly Google Places, then renamed Google My Business GMB
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a BIG free marketing kick from Google.
- Find your GBP by typing your GBP name in the Google search box. If you still can’t find it, add your town or suburb name with your GBF name.
- If you’re logged into YOUR GBP you can work on it.
- For good review marketing, encourage happy clients to provide 5-star Google reviews. To make it easy for reviewers send them a DIRECT link.
- GMB help Perth.
HISTORY OF GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
Google My Business was given the new name of Google Business Profile in 2022. GMB evolved from the first incarnation Google Places.
HOW TO GET A LINK TO GOOGLE REVIEWS
Ask your happy clients for a 5-star Google review by sending them a link that takes them directly to where they can easily click 5 stars, write a review and add their photos of your business.
- Find your GMB by typing your GMB name and location into the Google search engine. (Alternatively be logged in to a Google profile, eg Primary owner, or owner, or communications manager and go to https://google.com/business. There you’ll see a list of GMBs you are a user of.)
- GMB users should see GMB information that others will not see in the SERP.
- Click “Promote”
How to get a link for Google reviews. - Click “Ask for reviews”.
How to ask for Google reviews. - Copy the link.
- Send the link to your happy, satisfied clients.
- For good review marketing, encourage happy clients to provide 5-star reviews on not only Google but other review websites. For example there are plenty of restaurant review websites. To make it easy for reviewers send them a DIRECT link.
- More GMB help.
GOOD WEB HOSTING FOR SEO
- Use RELIABLE (>99.7% reliable web hosting.
- Use web hosting near where your target marketing is. In Perth Australia, I recommend Hostaway in Malaga. If your target market is a bigger area than Australia, use a CDN.
- If you collect personal information, use an SSL.
- Use a web hosting service provider which is easy to contact. Hostaway excel at that. No ticket system and having to press multiple phone options after listening to long prerecorded phone messages.
- Use an affordable web hosting service provider. Again: Hostaway.
- Use a secure web hosting service provider like Hostaway.
- Free support like the friendly staff at Hostaway is great.
- http/2 is good. If your URL has an SSL test http/2
SERVERSIDE SEO
- Hosting your site on a fast dedicated server is good but more expensive. Good because your IP address will be different. Even more so if hosted on a different web hosting service provider than your other websites. In addition you’d expect your web pages to be faster without sharing your site on the same server as a bunch of other websites. If you’re starting out I don’t recommend the expensive price of a dedicated server.
- Update:
- PHP
- CMS, eg WordPress
- Themes
- Databases
- Plugins
- Try file compression. If it doesn’t break your website, good.
ON PAGE SEO
- Build webpages for batches of similar keywords. Do your keyword research first. Do NOT build pages and as an afterthought think about SEO.
- Page titles are THE most important on-page SEO factor. Use your keyword research to figure out the best page titles.
- Don’t forget keywords in your meta tags.
- Focus (long-tail-SEO) is important. Don’t think copying every word in the dictionary is going to make you a winner for every word unless you live/combine it with a VERY small town name. luxury lawn bowling equipment Mukinbudin. (Yay! This site is on page one of Google because there’s no competition for this phrase.)
- This 2021 client had an ugly, pointless slider at the top of his home page. Getting rid of it gave a big boost in page load speed. The lesson to be learned is to avoid Java scripts (js). If you use js, load js asynchronously.
- Page load speed is an important search engine ranking signal. Things like javascript can slow page load if not loaded asynchronously. If you don’t know how to do that, then avoid things like js-driven slide shows. You won’t see them on professional SEO websites.
- Updating
- WordPress
- PHP databases
- WordPress themes and child themes
- Plugins
- not only improves functionality and site security but also greatly improves page load speed.
If you want fast loading web pages like this, phone me on +61 418 958 799 for a free SEO consultation.
Prefer to get help improving your page load speed and SEO?
We do the technical stuff so you don’t have to.
Google’s Core Web Vitals
In 2021 pages that deliver good visitor experiences will rank better in search. Your website might need me to help pass the following 3 tests:
1. Page load speed
The time it takes for a page’s content to load. Referred to as “Largest Contentful Paint”. A good LCP is 2.5 seconds or faster.
2. Visual stability
How annoying is it when you go to click a link/button on a page that is loading and just at the moment you click, it’s shunted aside and you click the wrong link? “Cumulative Layout Shift” issues impact user experience (UX). Try for less than 0.1 of CLS. 
3. Responsive web pages
The time it takes for a web page to become interactive. Referred to as “First Input Delay“ – less than 100 ms is good.
Get a free page load speed report.
You supply your page’s URL, well give you a score, fix tips and resources.