How to Improve SEO

Have you tried to search yourself on Google, but can’t find yourself in the search results? Truth is, you have poor SEO or maybe even no SEO at all. But don’t worry, I’ve got you! I’m here to teach you all about how to improve SEO and rank higher on Google.

SEO which stands for search engine optimisation, drives traffic to your website and improves the quality and quantity of leads- it’s basically free advertising!

Your health and wellness website must be optimised for search engines so that Google can find you. Because if Google can’t find you, neither can your dream clients.

SEO is a long-term strategy and is definitely not a quick fix . However, here are a few things you can implement in your business today to help improve SEO and rank higher on Google.

On page and technical SEO:

1. Research and choose your keywords

The first thing you’ll need to choose are your keywords. Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. They are the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines, also called “search queries”.

But why are keywords important?

Let’s say you’ve started a business called Inhale Yoga Studio. When you’re first starting out, no-one is going to be searching Inhale Yoga Studio into Google without hearing about you first. So, with targeted keywords you can show up in your dream client’s search results without them even knowing about you first.

To come up with your keywords, start with the topics you want to be known for and go deeper from there. Think about what your dream client’s would be searching in Google. You don’t want to have keywords just like ‘Yoga Studio’ or ‘Yoga Classes’. This is because if you use common keywords the competition for these keywords will be high, and your website, because its new, will be ranked low compared to well established businesses. Instead, you want keywords like “Yoga classes to become more flexible” or “How to start practicing yoga”. Remember, people are not looking for services, they are looking for solutions to their problems.

To research if your keyword is strong or not, you can use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs. It will show you monthly search volume vs how hard it is to rank for that keyword. A strong keyword will have a decent amount of search volume but low competition. Focus on only one keyword or phrase per page.

2. Heading tags

Heading tags add hierarchy to a webpage which is important as it easily guides the reader through your page and ensures they can find the information they’re looking for.

The heading tags can be applied in the settings of your website builder and below is a breakdown of how you should apply them:

H1: Mainly used for the page title. Only use one H1 tag per page.

H2: Use these for the next headings using similar keywords to your H1 headings.

H3: Use these for subcategories to further break up content.

For example:

3. Title tags

Title tags are used to specify the title of a webpage. They’re important as they’re shown on Google before a visitor is on your site and you can use this title tag to entice them to click on your listing. Make sure your title tag includes your main keyword.

4. Add meta descriptions to every page

A meta description is the description that shows below your website’s link on Google. This meta description is important as it can make you stand out from all of the other websites that show up in a search result and entice people to click on your listing. Meta descriptions are more important now than ever before as they recently started showing up on social media when you share or post a link to your website.

When writing your meta description, make sure you’re including your keywords, be informative and show the benefits of your service. Provide value, answers to the searcher’s question and explain why they should click on your website. It is also important to make sure your meta description is between 155-160 characters so that you are providing the most value. If you go over 160 characters, your meta description will get cut off.

5. Add alt text to your images

Adding alt text to your images gives search engines more information about the content on your page which makes it easier for them to rank your image or page properly in a search result. They also display when your image does not load due to internet speed. It’s important to be as descriptive as possible and should contain keywords.

6. Optimise your website for mobile

According to Oberlo, 54% of the world’s traffic now comes through mobile which makes it so crucial for your website to be optimised for these devices. If your website is not optimised on mobile then you could be losing over half of the revenue you would if it were optimised.

This is why we build our websites using Showit. Your mobile website is designed separate from your desktop website and they are so easy to customise.

You can test how well your website is optimised by using the Google mobile friendly test.

7. Compress your images to increase the website speed

One way to improve SEO on your website is to improve the page speed and one way of doing this is to compress your images.

A slow website results in an increase in your websites ‘bounce rate’. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. According to Google, a load time of up to 3 seconds increases the probability of someone leaving your site by 32%, 5 seconds by 90% and 10 seconds by 123%!

To increase your websites speed you can compress your images using Photoshop or a free tool such as Squoosh.

Best practice is to resize the photo as close as possible to the size it will be on your website but make sure the quality still looks good, so play around with the size and quality of the photo so that the photo still looks clear but aim for the photo to be under 100MB.

Make sure to do this on both mobile and desktop.

Below is an example of before and after we compressed the images on our own site. You can compare the site speed before and after compressing images here.

8. Write descriptive link and button text

Website users are more likely to click on a button or link that stands out and tells them exactly where they’re going. For your call to action buttons, make sure you’re telling the user where they are going whilst keeping it short and concise. For example, instead of “Let’s Go” try using “Download the Guide”.

9. Always put the user first

No matter what you do, always put the user first. Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for, otherwise they will simply leave.

It’s important to find a balance between site performance and user experience. For example, lowering the quality of images may increase your website speed, but lowering too much will decrease the user experience.

Although something may look unique in the design, it’s best practice to stick to certain rules when building a website. For example, menu at the top, privacy policy in the footer etc. Whilst it’s important for the website to look great, it’s even more important for the user to find what they’re looking for and easily navigate your website.

Long term SEO strategies

1. Create a blog and post your keywords regularly

Blogging gives you so much opportunity to add more keywords to your site.

Blogging relevant, high quality content can boost your ranking in search engine results.

Linking and referencing your blogs to other high-quality websites to show the information is coming from a trustworthy source also helps boost SEO as it shows your authority.

Without a blog, your website and keywords are stagnant and are missing out on getting more users to your site.

2. Create outbound links

Linking to websites that have high-quality content shows that the information you are providing is legit. This shows your content is trustworthy and can improve your website’s authority. If the information on your website is valuable then other websites may create links to your website as well.

3. Create inbound links

Having other websites link back to your website is an amazing way to not only improve SEO for your health and wellness business, but it’s a great way to get more exposure and traffic from other websites.

Some ways to get links back to your own website can include things such as being a guest blogger, hosting a webinar with someone working within the same niche or podcast interviews etc.

Again, SEO is not a quick fix but would be so beneficial to your health and wellness business if you created an SEO strategy. This will ensure you’re building a strong, authoritative website that shows up on Google search results, gets more clicks and ultimately more bookings.

If you’re overwhelmed by SEO, don’t worry! We offer on page and technical SEO as an add-on with our Website Design Package. Just simply click the link below, send us an enquiry and we will handle the rest!