Episode 5 - SEO Espresso The Podcast
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[00:00:07] . Welcome to SEO Espresso, the podcast with
[00:00:10] me, your host, Natalie of Natalie Faith Web Designs. This podcast is your short and fast hit to learning SEO dedicated to breaking down the complexity of SEO so you can create a memorable online brand that attracts clicks, leads, and sales to your website. Learn SEO in easy to consume shots of knowledge that will allow your business to grow all while sipping your morning coffee. If this is what you've been looking for to get your business noticed in more places than just social media, you are in the right place. You're gonna love what comes next. Let's go.
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[00:00:46] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of SEO Espresso . Over the next three episodes, I'll be covering the three pillars of SEO, which are on page, off page and technical sEO. They might sound a little [00:01:00] bit daunting, but just a way of categorizing each element so it's digestible and easier to action.
[00:01:07] I know some of my clients feel more confident with on page SEO and off page SEO and they tend to leave some more technical stuff to me, which is totally fine.
[00:01:16] I'll give you tips and strategies along the way, so hopefully it's a little bit easier.
[00:01:22] Let's jump into today's topic. I'll be covering on page SEO.
[00:01:26] So on page SEO is everything on your website from your website layout, the media and visuals, the alt text and metadata, the text or copy on each page, how long your audience are on your website for, and how often you keep your website up to date. To improve this SEO, understand how your audience are using your website and knowing how to strategically keep them on there for a longer period of time. There are many interesting and different ways to increase your on-page SEO, and today I'm gonna share with you 11 different ways you can do [00:02:00] this.
[00:02:01] So the first one is page names.
[00:02:04] This is your homepage, your about page, your services and your contact page. And if we just use about services and contact, it be a little bit and, boring although still highly searchable pages. Instead try something along the lines of this. So instead of services for myself, I could use website design services or SEO strategy services because it adds that key word of SEO strategy or website design in front of services and then makes it a little bit easier for people to find me In search engines.
[00:02:40] It's more specific and it allows people to, find exactly what they're looking for. And then when it comes to the about page, you could do something like about the website designer, or if it's my name, my personal brand that's known the most. It could be about Natalie Faith Ralphs, and so you can get a little bit more creative [00:03:00] about how you name your of your website .
[00:03:02] But let keyword do the SEO magic for each webpage.
[00:03:07] Number two is page headings. So this is your H one, H two, and H three tags. You might not realize this, but every single page heading These are showing Google the hierarchical structure of your webpage. So it's really important to have, about, services, contact me, you decide to label them as your H one heading at the very top of the page. The first thing people see, it shows them that they're on the right page, and then they keep scrolling because they've come to the page that they've been looking for.
[00:03:41] And then as we go down, we use H2's and H3's as different levels and different layers. to that H1 tag. So then if you have, for example, about the website designer and then the H two could be meet Natalie Ralphs because I'm the website [00:04:00] designer, so I go that layer underneath the H1 then perhaps under there it could be see Natalie's designs as the H three, because this is all related to each layer.
[00:04:12] Can go down to a H six. So it'll be a H 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5. And sixes tend to be more of dot points and things like that. And the reason that it is set up like this is for accessibility reasons.
[00:04:26] So it'll read out H one first, then H twos, then h threes. And if you're not using them correctly, someone with vision impairments might be very confused when they come to your website.
[00:04:38] I have a blog post called Four Incredibly Easy Strategies that will increase your SEO on your website that discusses page headings so you know how to optimize them properly. I'll leave a little link in the show notes. It also discusses a few other topics I'll be covering. In a moment as well.
[00:04:54] number three is page descriptions. So the first 20 to 25 [00:05:00] words at the top of your website is displayed in search engines as your meta description. Unless you've customized this specifically for your audience, It's by creating meta descriptions of each web pages that will entice people off of search results and onto your pages.
[00:05:18] So then they can learn, book and buy, your core offering. These top 20 to 25 words, it's really important for you to be using more sales copy enticing people learn more to scroll further down the webpage.
[00:05:32] So it not only is on the webpage, but it can also be seen in search engines.
[00:05:37] Number four is page copy and word count, because when it comes to text on your website, nothing is more important than being easy to read by your audience.
[00:05:49] If you aim for the 600 words per page, so that's for your homepage, your about page, your contact page, then about 800 words per blog post. Then you can [00:06:00] always go back and add more when you have the time, when you have like the expertise because you might wanna hire someone. Or over time adding more to those pages because you now know what to say and share with your audience.
[00:06:14] Number five is page URLs. These need to contain the page keyword and relevant to content on the webpage or blog post.
[00:06:24] Have a little look at your URLs and make sure that, between each word, there's a little dash that connects all the words together.
[00:06:31] And then if any words have combined and there's not a dash in between them, just go in there and adjust it, and then make sure you add a redirect to that new URL that you've created. I know it sounds a little bit complicated, me saying out of redirecting, that kind of stuff, but by doing these different steps, it really will be beneficial for your website and for your SEO
[00:06:54] Number six is internal and external links, link from keywords to relevant web [00:07:00] pages so google associates that word with that page it's linked to, because this is really important for not only internal linking, so then people stay on your website for a longer period of time.
[00:07:12] But also getting Google to know what your business specialties are and showing them exactly where to take people. If they are searching for this keyword, take them to this page. And then also by adding external links to your different pages and to your different blog posts, it then associates you with those other sites.
[00:07:32] So an external link is for example, if you are on your About Me page and you've done your internal links to your different services and your contact and all that good stuff, then at the bottom you say, come join me on social media, and you link Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or whatever your social media platform is, with a hyperlink that then takes them directly to your profile.
[00:07:57] That is an external link, and then you're being [00:08:00] associated with that link now, so it knows, this website is related to that social media page. For blog posts, if you are writing more of like a research paper if you imagine it like at university and you've gotta add your references you have your different sites that you've gone to as part of your research paper, An external link would be like referencing those different websites that got your information from to research this particular blog post, and that's why this blog post should be trusted. This is why this blog post is really informative and is helpful for your audience.
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[00:08:46] Number seven is your website layout and usability. This is important for your client and customer experience because the longer they stay on your website, the more Google will see your website as providing value to [00:09:00] people searching for the same keywords that the searcher used and therefore show others using that keyword your website.
[00:09:07] The layout should be easy to use, easy to click through to different pages. It shouldn't be clunky or too many popups, it should feel very smooth and flowing and take people to different pages without them really looking or trying to find it.
[00:09:24] A really important thing to look at as well is how to make your website accessible to those who, do use screen readers or are vision impaired, then they have an enjoyable experience on your website and therefore you're not excluding certain part of your audience.
[00:09:42] I do have another blog post on this one as well that I'll leave in the show notes, called How to Make Your Website accessibility Friendly. And I also share some really helpful links in there and how you can check your website and see how you can improve it as well.
[00:09:57] Number eight is keyword [00:10:00] research. Now, I've probably been banging on about this one for quite a while now. I think it's, such an important topic because your website is not aligned with who Who you want to attract and where you are based and what you actually provide your audience.
[00:10:15] It's gonna make it really tricky for them to find you in search results and so we want to make sure that website is aligned with our audience and what they're searching for. So then we always appear in search results. And do have a guide for this as well. I obviously have my keyword creator guide.
[00:10:32] Again, I'll link it in the show notes. But that one, covers everything. The who, what, where, why, it does everything. entirely free, so just, if you're interested.
[00:10:42] Number nine, the media and visuals. When you post images online, please rename them to something relevant to the image itself or to the page it will be shown on, because then search engines can see the relevance of image being on this [00:11:00] page, this image is about. You can choose one or the other, but never name an image the exact same thing. It always has to be unique. It always has to be different. Just make sure it uses a different variation of a keyword within the name. And then please format your images to a JPEG or a Web P image.
[00:11:19] So then they're a really nice small size and they load quickly on the page. This will create a great client experience on your website, and this is what we want to achieve.
[00:11:30] Number ten, metadata. It's the code, the description, the alt text, the titles and slogans. best practice to keep your website up to date and aligned with your strategy for optimum performance, so look for your SEO descriptions your image alt texts and make sure that you've used keywords related to those web pages and optimizing them.
[00:11:56] So then when people read this description or [00:12:00] this alt text title or slogan, it's relevant and attracts them to those pages.
[00:12:05] number 11. How often you keep your website up to date? I tell my clients just to schedule in a date each week or months whatever's achievable for them.
[00:12:16] Just to check your website and make sure that it is up to date with, the services you currently offer, the pricing. Has anything changed in your business? Are you still offering all of those services? Do you need to make any tweaks or edits like what I was talking about before about word count.
[00:12:34] Add a little bit more text to that blog post or you've had achieved an award or you might even see a spelling error, you know, things like that. Just scheduling a time just to have a good scan of your website. Because Google knows that your website been updated or when it's when the last update was, and it can see if you're providing more value for your audience.
[00:12:57] If you chip away at it each week, you'll do [00:13:00] great things to your SEO.
[00:13:01] I think I'll leave it here for today.
[00:13:03] If you've enjoyed this podcast and you know someone who wants to learn more about SEO, please share this episode with a friend. Until next time, see you then. Bye.
[00:13:13] This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation who've cared for this land for over 60,000 years. I pay respect to their elders, past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
