SEO is a marketing discipline focused on optimising your content, so it shows up regularly in search results, and if executed correctly can increase website traffic, leading to more conversions, improving lead generation, and boosting sales.

Here are 9 tips to help you improve your site’s SEO for the year ahead…

1. Choose the right keywords

Before you can start to use keywords on your site, you need to research what keywords people are searching for in relation to your business. A great way to do this is using the keyword finder in Google AdWords.

Once you have identified the right keywords for your site you can use them in you in your headings, website copy and blog posts to help you rank higher in search engines results.

2. Optimise your page titles and meta descriptions

A title tag is what search engines use to display your page in search results, and these tags tell search bots and users what the page is about. Generally, Google will only display around 55 characters in their title tags, so it’s imperative that you keep your descriptions short and always ensure that you are including relevant keywords and page topics at the start of the description.

3. Avoid keyword stuffing

This is a technique used by marketers to manipulate their site’s search ranking for a particular keyword by repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural. This is now seen as a ‘black hat’ technique by Google and will more than likely do more harm than good for your SEO rankings.

4. Check for broken links

You will only frustrate your website visitors if you disrupt their user experience with a dead link. So, ensure you regularly check your website for broken pages and links to avoid this. If you encounter any broken or dead links remove them or redirect them to another relevant page on your site.

5. Ensure your site is optimised for all devices

Think about how many times a day you use your phone to search for something on Google, and compare it to how many times you use a computer or laptop to do the same thing. The mobile trumps, right? This is the case for many people nowadays, so having a site optimised for all mobile devices is crucial to ensure you’re capturing as many site visitors as possible. Another advantage is Google also ranks you higher for doing so!

6. Keep your site up to speed

We have all experienced the frustration of a slow loading site. You can regularly check your site’s page speed by using a tool such as Google’s PageSpeed Tool.

The best ways to tackle slow site speed are:

• Switch off plugins that you do not use
• Use a caching service
• Compress and optimise your images

7. Optimise your images

Use relevant keywords in image name as well as image alt-tag. Image alt-tag is a text designated to an image on a website, which appears if the image fails to load for some reason.

8. Customise your 404 page

A 404 page is what a user sees when they try to reach a non-existent page on your site either because they’ve clicked on a broken link, the page has been deleted or they’ve mistyped a URL. And, unfortunately, 404 pages are inevitable.

However, you can make the best of a bad situation by customising your 404 pages and adding humour. Don’t forget to incorporate relevant internal links so you don’t lose your visitor!

9. Target long-tail keywords

When deciding on keywords, look for popular phrases of at least two or more words that people search for regularly that is relevant to your business or the industry. This will give you a much better chance of showing up on in search engine results and by being more specific, you are likely to get more qualified customers visiting your site.