Cost Effective SEO: 7 Best Strategies
These days, impactful SEO does not have to come with a hefty cost. Let’s take a look at some of the best cost-effective SEO strategies below to help build your online brand into a long-term success!
What Are The Best Cost-Effective SEO Strategies?
Whether you are simply an individual with a blog or you’re starting a small business, the strategies outlined below can give you the online results you desire without a massive marketing budget. Check out 7 of the best cost-effective SEO strategies and how to properly implement them into your website.
1. Improve/Update Existing Content
One of the easiest cost-effective ways to improve your SEO is by improving and updating the content your site already has. It’s always a good start to update and optimize existing landing pages and blog posts to make them more search-engine friendly.
Improve your existing content to make it more relevant to your target audience. You can begin updating all the content on your site before attempting to create brand new content.
How to improve your existing content:
| Identify any underperforming pages. | Check for things like weak meta descriptions and outdated content. |
| Add more internal links. | Increase your internal linking to encourage your audience to find more helpful information within your site. |
| Update old content. | Update your site’s information and create more engaging content for your audience. |
2. Optimize For Local SEO
If your business is targeting a specific geographic area, it’s wise to optimize for local SEO. This can result in a significant impact on your visibility without the need for a huge SEO budget.
Local SEO methods can help you outrank your competition. Target searches related to your area, and you could see a steady flow of traffic courtesy of nearby customers.
How to optimize for local SEO:
| Claim and optimize your Google My Business profile. | Make sure all your business details are accurate and up to date. |
| Use local keywords in your content. | Local keywords should be placed in your site’s content, meta descriptions, and title tags to help search engines understand your services. |
| Ask for reviews. | Always encourage satisfied customers to leave online reviews as you strive to build trust in your community. |
3. Acquire Backlinks
Time and time again, backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. You may be able to purchase a bundle of high-quality links, but thankfully there is another way to build backlinks without spending money.
You can either acquire these valuable backlinks through quality content, or you can reach out to relevant websites to offer content in exchange for links.
How to build your backlinks:
| Identify websites that relate to your industry. | Reach out to these sites and offer to contribute content in exchange for links. |
| Create valuable original content. | Useful content, such as how-to guides, can entice other sites to link to your site. |
4. Utilize Social Media For Organic Traffic
Social signals, such as likes and shares, may not directly impact your rankings, but social media can certainly play a role in driving much wanted organic traffic to your site.
Sharing your original content on various social media platforms can help you engage with an audience. This can result in building brand awareness without ever paying for ads.
How to use social media to bring in traffic:
| Share your content. | Regularly post your content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more online exposure. |
| Encourage your audience to share your content. | This can increase both your visibility and traffic. |
| Be responsive. | Always respond to comments and start conversations that is relevant to your audience. |
5. Prioritize User Experience
The number one priority for Google is to provide users with the information they are searching for. If someone does a search and clicks on the first link to find the appropriate information, that helps build trust in Google and its overall rankings.
When a user clicks on a link and stays on the same website for a good amount of time, this signals to Google that the site is very helpful. While Google has never said outright that user time on a page is a ranking factor, it’s no secret keeping users on your site for as long as possible is a great thing.
A user that clicks on your post and finds helpful information is more likely to stick around and search throughout your site. Longer blog posts tend to rank the highest nowadays, with the average first-page result post on Google totaling almost 2,000 words long each.
When an audience reads a blog post that they enjoy, they’re more likely to share it, which can drive your website’s traffic up.
When you get lots of traffic and repeat customers, this shows Google that people like your site and will ultimately raise your authority level within their algorithm. This is great from an SEO perspective, but it’s even better for the overall success of your website.
How to focus on user experience:
| Ensure easy navigation. | Make your website easy to use with simple buttons, menus, and calls-to-action. |
| Prioritize mobile users. | Make sure your site is responsive and performs well for all device types. |
| Focus on organization. | Your site’s layout should be clean and organized, making life easier for your audience. |
6. Target Long-Tail Keywords
Most people that begin their SEO journey will target specific keywords related to their industry or business. For example, if you own an auto repair shop you might target terms like “auto repair” or “car ac repair”. While this is a wise idea, it might take you a long time to reach the top spot unless you own the largest auto shop in the country.
The SEO world is super competitive, but there is one technique new bloggers can approach for an advantage. The best bet for newer brands is to target longer, more specific keywords. These are keywords your target audience is searching for, directly related to your business offerings.
These are called long-tail keywords and they are a crucial tool for new bloggers to use. They are the ideal terms to target in a blog post. Instead of “auto repair”, you could create a post called, “what is the average labor rate for auto repair”.
While these keywords will not pull in as much traffic to your site as shorter keywords, you could still end up with a larger audience for one single long-tail blog than several others.
How to target long-tail keywords:
| Find industry-related keywords. | Identify and target long-tail keywords that have less competition. |
| Create content around these keywords. | Your target audience has questions; it’s your job to provide in-depth solutions. |
7. Optimize Technical SEO
You know on-page and off-page SEO, but what is technical SEO? Technical SEO is all about ensuring search engines have no problem crawling, indexing, and understanding your site.
It’s no secret good technical SEO can get quite complex, but thankfully there are several cost-effective ways to improve your site without a large budget.
How to optimize your site’s technical SEO:
| Ensure quick load time. | Optimize image sizes and eliminate unnecessary scripts. |
| Check if your site is mobile-friendly. | You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how your site performs. |
| Simplify the URL structure. | Short and descriptive URLs tend to rank higher in search results. |
Conclusion
The cost-effective SEO strategies detailed above can ultimately help your site rank higher, attract traffic, and build a loyal audience without spending a fortune. Update your site, optimize for local SEO needs, use social media, and watch as you boost your presence online.
SEO is a long-term investment, and even a small budget that puts the right strategies in place, can yield meaningful results. For more tips, contact the experienced SEO experts at WebTechs today!
Are You Looking For Cost-Effective SEO Services?
For a Free SEO consultation in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tempe, or Mesa, Arizona areas, contact WebTechs.Net today.