I've got three easy ways for you to increase your Google search ranking that don't require an advanced master's degree in search engine optimization! I recommend reviewing your website and taking a block of time to update each of the following: your page titles, internal links, and alt text image tags. You'll be amazed how much more traffic Google will send to your blog by optimizing these three things!
USE MORE DESCRIPTIVE PAGE TITLES
Adding more descriptive words to your page titles is a super simple way to attract more organic traffic. I suggest keeping your slugs (URLs) concise (for example, yoururl.com/about) but adding more descriptive keywords to your page titles. Many website page titles are short, like:
About
Appointments
Courses
You're missing out on easy optimization if you aren't going into each page of your website and adding more keywords. Of course, you want to keep them relatively concise, but you want them to include keywords that will help direct specific search results to you. So instead of the above one-word page titles, try the following:
Page title BEFORE:
About
Appointments
Courses
page title after:
About the Web Designer
Book a Dog Grooming Appointment
Video Strategy Courses
ADD INTERNAL LINKS THROUGHOUT YOUR SITE AND BLOG
An internal link is any link from one page on your website to another page on your website. Yoast.com (arguably the most reputable SEO source) best explains why you need more internal links on your site:
There are several types of internal links. In addition to links on your homepage, menu, post feed, etc., you can also add links within your content. We call those contextual links. Contextual links point your users to interesting and related content. Moreover, they allow search engines to find out what content on your site is related and to determine the value of that content. The more links an important page receives, the more important it will seem to search engines. Therefore, good internal links are crucial to your SEO.
The beauty of internal linking is it's something that you, the website owner, can control. With the proper creation of content and implementation of internal links, you’ll guide your visitors and Google to the most important pages of your website.
ADD ALT TEXT TAGS TO ALL YOUR IMAGES
Always give every image you use on your website and blog a keyword-rich alt-text tag. Alt text tags allow search engine spiders to find your content. The best way I've heard it explained is that Google can't "read" images but can read the photos with alt text assigned to them.
Each of your images should include an alt text tag. Not only to boost your Google ranking but also because it helps blind and visually impaired people understand information about the photo.
Not sure how or where to add an alt text tag to your image? Go into your media library and open an image. Look for the alt text field. See the red box below; this is where you should add your alt text information.
Tips for writing STRONG alt text
According to Harvard University, here's how to write good alt text:
- Add alt text to all non-decorative images.
- Keep it short and descriptive, like a tweet.
- Don’t include “image of” or “photo of.”
- Leave alt text blank if the image is purely decorative
- It's not necessary to add text in the Title field.
And here's how Yoast suggests selecting your on alt text tags:
When choosing alt text, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and is in context of the content of the page. Avoid filling alt attributes with keywords (keyword stuffing) as it results in a negative user experience and may cause your site to be seen as spam.
Stay diligent with these three simple SEO strategies, and you'll significantly boost your Google ranking.
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