I’ve written before about the importance of keeping up with the ever-changing demands of SEO if you want your website to perform well. But just because you know that it’s important doesn’t mean you know how to do it.

Well, good news. I was recently able to listen to a panel of SEO industry experts give some solid tips for keeping on top of your website’s SEO. Here’s a few excellent suggestions that you can apply quite easily:

1. Get technical with mobile
   • It’s not enough just to have a mobile website; you also need to make sure it’s optimized. Smaller pictures load faster than large, for example. A big, central phone number is extremely helpful. Remember: every 1 second of load time means a 7% drop in conversions.
   • Google PageSpeed Insights or Google Search Console are two helpful, free tools to tell you what’s wrong with both mobile and desktop pages. And remember: most browsers have mobile emulators built in, so you should always be able to see how your mobile site looks on different sized devices. 
   • If you’re making a new site or re-designing your old one, build the mobile version first—over 50% of traffic is from mobile devices these days.
2. Try out click-to-call ads
   • Mobile ads currently cost much less than desktop ads, and statistically they reach more people. Ads that lead straight to a phone call (click-to-call) can lead to a high conversion rate, especially if you have a call center at your disposal.
   • Narrow your focus; rather than putting money into ads on hundreds of different keywords, focus on making high-quality ads around the five to ten most important keywords.
   • Make your landing page consistent with your ads—make sure your text, design, and information match the ad. This leads to higher conversion rates!
3. Get ready for Apple’s Spotlight
   • Apple is getting into the search engine market! While it’s hard to say what, exactly, their impact on the field will be, you can be sure it will be important. They’ll be pulling data straight from their wide array of apps to use in search results—so make sure that your business info is in Apple Maps and apps like Trulia and Zillow, and is up to date. Include images, reviews, ratings—index everything! When Apple goes looking for you, you want them to find you.
4. Prepare for filters
   • Search engines are evolving to give people greater ability to filter results to their liking. So make sure all of your information is up-to-date and accurate, so that you’re being found by the people who want to find what you’re offering.
   • Politely encourage people to review your property on sites like Yelp—well-rated businesses will show up better in filtered results. Don’t be afraid to encourage reviews; there will be occasional negative reviews, but most tend to be positive.
5. Keep on top of social media
   • Google + may be gone, but Google still pulls mountains of data from Google Reviews and Google My Business; you can’t afford for your data there to be out of date.
   • Google and Twitter are also working together these days to index people’s tweets—which means that your business’s tweets can show up in Google search results. That’s why it’s important to maintain a healthy presence on Twitter.
   • To top it all off, Facebook is stepping up its game with Facebook Business pages. Businesses that respond quickly to Facebook commentators, questions, and complaints (within five minutes, usually) will be recognized and highlighted.
6. Security, security, security
   • Google prefers to recommend secure sites; a site with https will almost always be chosen over a similarly-ranked site that only has http.
   • Keep your SSLs renewed at all times. Triple-check everything on your site, from images to links, to ensure that everything is secure.

In our day, a solid online presence is invaluable. These tips will help you make the most of your website, social media, and other internet endeavors.

By: Christopher Baxter