The internet is the place to be – for discussions, commerce and everything else under the sun. Making your website visible on the internet is important, because how else will people (who are almost always on the web) get to access your services, products or content? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the primary way by which you can attract more traffic to your website. By using SEO to increase your website’s search engine result ranking, you can make sure that more people choose to visit it.

Many companies nowadays hire the services of SEO Consultancy Agencies to properly apply SEO techniques to their website. SEO ‘professionals’ analyze your website and determine the methods that it needs to have a traffic and business boost. But these services can cost you up to $200 an hour. This is not affordable for most start-up companies or moderately earning companies. The end cost might end up costing you more than the profits you have earned.

And the bottom line is that you don’t need an SEO Consultancy Service to grasp your head around search engine optimization. Putting in an effort is important, but you can come up with your own affordable SEO strategy. Do your homework, and boost your website’s ranking using SEO methods on your own. No need to spend any money!

Affordable SEO Strategies for Your Website

1. Keep track of your website’s search engine page ranking: If you know where your website stands on the search engine result page, you can make real attempts to improve it. Check your traffic conversion rates as well (how many people visit your page and end up buying your product or choosing your service). In the beginning, regularly track these few areas related to your website. Once the results of SEO start kicking in, you can cut it down to twice a month or so. Remember, your website is a reflection of your company. Its online ranking determines your company’s position in that field of business!
2. Decide on the individual steps you will take to apply SEO: Do you have a specific target in mind? Like reaching a particular number of customers? Or do you just want your website to grow in general? You need to discuss these goals with your marketing and web designing team and then systematically use SEO techniques to achieve them. Make sure you know what you are doing, and for this, you need to have done enough research about SEO. Have goals for each aspect of your business and website, such as traffic conversion rates and search engine page ranking. Jot down the kind of content or pictures you will be uploading. These things shouldn’t be random – a lot of thought should go into what is put up on a website.
3. Keywords, keywords, keywords: Keywords are the most important aspect of SEO. Keywords are what highlight your content and services and make it accessible. Ask your customers what words they used to find your website. Make sure your keywords match the actual content of the website. Do not do keyword stuffing – it is considered as spam! Using ethical SEO methods is the best way to go. Look at how other (high ranking) sites are using keywords. Also, check how difficult specific keywords are when it comes to ranking. Use keyword(s) in your website’s name if possible and also include them in headings and options across the site. Moderation and clever usage is the key to cracking the keyword code.
4. Look at your content: Content is what highlights the purpose and relevance of your website. Do you have a long form or short form content on your website? What kind would work best considering your target audience? Make sure all the information put up is accurate and easy to read. Use keywords in the titles – this makes it search friendly. Your content shouldn’t forcefully employ the use of keywords – this should be natural and seamless. Regularly update the content on your website. Use meta description tags to influence the click-through Connect your website to social media, and update whenever there is new content. You can even put excerpts of your site’s content across social media handles. Use hashtags, links, images, and captions to enhance your website’s social media persona. This will allow more people to notice it as well as access it.
5. The design of your website: Your website must be easy to access and use. It shouldn’t be too complicated – keep everything user-friendly! Keep in mind that most people surf the web using their phones. The website should be mobile friendly. You can even have a mobile version of the website for faster loading. The design and layout of the website often predict whether or not people will choose to further explore the site. Websites should be attractive, but should also serve the purpose. Your aim is to make sure that people use your service or buy the product – everything on the website should be designed catering to this. Text, pictures, easy links, call for action buttons….you can incorporate them all. Make sure the images you use are easy to load. Most people desert a website if it doesn’t load within the first four seconds!
6. Sitemaps are useful: Create sitemaps for your website, as they make it easier for search engines to index your website. Have an HTML version as well as an XML version. Sitemaps can be created for search engines like Google and can be submitted using their webmaster tool.
7. Focus on links: Links to and from your website are important in garnering traffic. If a few high-quality websites feature your link, the visitors will know that your site and content can be relied upon. Earning backlinks is a good way of SEO. Links will allow people visiting other websites to visit yours if they find the content or name interesting. Linking to all social media handles is also an important aspect of SEO. Make sure you keep updating your website, and also information about it on social media.

Also Read: Web Security Guide for SEO