How To Get Better At SEO Without Breaking The Bank

SEO is a tricky beast. If you are doing SEO for your own business, the stress can be overwhelming and lead to some bad decisions. 

You need to figure out how to get better at SEO without breaking the bank, because if not you will lose your savings or your best employees. In this blog post, we’ll show you how!

Key Takeaways
Focus on cost-effective strategies for improving SEO.
Optimize your website’s performance and load times.
Create high-quality, relevant content for your target audience.
Utilize long-tail keywords to target specific search queries.
Leverage local SEO tactics to attract nearby customers.
Engage with your audience on social media platforms.
Monitor and analyze your website’s performance regularly.

1. Start With Keyword Research

Keyword research is a cornerstone of SEO, and it’s something you should never stop doing. A good keyword strategy will help you:

• Find the right keywords for your business
• Get more traffic to your site from people looking for products or services like yours (which means more leads)
• Improve the quality of visitors who come to your site (i.e., people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer)

Mastering SEO doesn’t have to be expensive. Discover practical ways to enhance your website’s visibility without straining your budget. Explore our guide on getting better at SEO without breaking the bank and watch your online presence grow.

2. Make Sure Your Site Is Optimized for Mobile

The second most important thing to do is make sure your site is optimized for mobile. This can be as simple as making sure that it’s easy to navigate, read, and use using a touchscreen or mouse. 

You can also try adding things like carousels and sliders these give users something else to look at while they’re waiting for the page to load (and might even increase engagement).

If you want to get technical about this, then try integrating a few different performance testing tools into your workflow. 

There are many great ones out there like GTMetrix or WebPageTest that will give you helpful information about how people are interacting with your website and how quickly it loads on various devices.

A common problem with SEO experts is that they don’t take care of their clients’ websites after they leave them alone with an SEO strategy in place; however, if done right (and consistently), these strategies will work toward making sure that businesses stay competitive online!

3. Do The Basic On-Page Stuff Correctly

On-page SEO is the foundation of your SEO. It’s what Google uses to determine how relevant your content is, which in turn helps them figure out whether or not your site should show up in search results.

You must get this part right so that when people search for keywords related to what you’re offering, they’ll find you instead of other people who are less qualified or experienced with the topic at hand. This includes:

• Using the right keywords in page titles, descriptions, and body text
• Using the right keyword phrases as file names (for images)
• Make sure all URLs are optimized with targeted keywords

Navigate the complex world of search engine optimization with ease. Our complete beginner’s guide to SEO offers step-by-step insights, ensuring you’re well-equipped to boost your website’s search rankings.

4. Build Some Links With Guest Posts

You can build links with guest posts.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Guest posting isn’t a “new” strategy, but it’s still one of the most effective ways to build backlinks and rank higher on Google. 

When done right, it also keeps your site relevant and updated with fresh content that will keep visitors coming back again and again.

There are many different ways to do this:

You can guest post on someone else’s website (i.e., their blog) by writing an article or other form of content for them on topics related to yours.

You can also guest post on your site by writing an article or other form of content for yourself about topics related to yours (i.e., for no one but yourself). 

This works especially well when you’re trying to promote something specific like a product launch or sale just create some content about how great it is!

5. Create Pillar Content

Pillar content is the textual equivalent of a call-to-action. It’s a piece of writing that gets people to take action, like registering for your email newsletter or taking specific action on your website.

Here are some examples of pillar content:

• An ebook about how to do something. For example, “How To Solve Your Email Marketing challenges.”
• A blog post with a title like “How To Solve Your Email Marketing challenges.”
• A piece of software that solves a problem related to the topic you cover in the above two examples (i.e., an email marketing automation tool).

New to SEO? Uncover the essential steps to conquer search engine results pages. Check out our guide on SEO for beginners and learn how to secure a spot on Google’s coveted first page.

6. Switch Up Your “H1” Heading Tags

You’ve probably seen the H1 heading tag on a page and thought it was something that you could ignore, but this is not the case! 

The purpose of an H1 header tag is to give your page an informational hierarchy, so it’s important to use them effectively. These headings play a huge role in how Google views your site.

An H1 header should be used for the main heading on every page, but after that, you can get creative with how you structure your content and still use them effectively. 

For example, if you have a section called “Our Process” and then break down each step with subheadings like “Our Process Step 1: Researching Your Business” or “Our Process Step 2: Creating A Strategy To Improve Your Brand Presence”…you can use more than one H1 per page!

The best way to utilize these headers is by making sure that every single one starts by saying what it’s about right off the bat (what’s happening? why should I care?). 

For example: “What Is An Effective Landing Page?” Or “Why You Should Use Our Team Of Experts To Grow Your Business.”

7. Check Your Site Speed And Fix Any Issues

Site speed is another important ranking factor, and it’s one that you can control. Google has said site speed is now a ranking factor for mobile pages in search results. It’s also an important signal for desktop searches as well.

When someone visits your page, they want to see information quickly. If your page takes too long to load, they will likely move on to another website that loads faster and provides what they need more efficiently.

To check the speed of your website on desktop:

• Go to “Speed Test” by [http://www.webpagetest.org](http://www.webpagetest.org) and enter your URL in the box below “Enter URL To Test:” or just paste it into the box if you already have it copied there…

Crafting compelling content that ranks high requires a strategic approach. Elevate your copywriting skills with our top 15 SEO copywriting tips, and witness the power of words in driving organic traffic to your website.

8. Improve Your Click-Through Rate (CTR) In Google Search

The Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of visitors who click on a link. It’s an important metric because it’s a signal of relevance, but it’s also one that many people don’t think much about when they optimize their site.

To improve your CTR and therefore increase your chances of ranking for relevant keywords, make sure that:

• Your website has a clear call to action (i.e., “Buy now!” or “Learn more”)
• You have compelling content that users want to read/watch/listen to

9. Rank For Your Brand Name

Another great way to get your business ranking high in search is by using your brand name. If you are trying to optimize for terms like “best restaurant” or “best Mexican food”, it can be tricky because there are likely other businesses with similar names that rank well for those searches.

You can combat this by making sure that your website shows up in the search results when someone searches for “[your brand] best [location].” 

This ensures that people looking specifically for your type of business will find it immediately and know exactly what kind of service they’re going to get from you because they’re already familiar with the name.

It’s always best to use the exact spelling of the term on Google (and other engines). 

For example: if someone is searching for a Starbucks coffee shop near me…it won’t help them if their first result doesn’t have “Starbucks” in their title tag – even if it has coffee (which may also help boost rankings due to semantic match).

10. Use A Combination Of “Hard” Links And “Soft” Links

The importance of backlinks is indisputable, but not all backlinks are created equal. There are two types of backlinks:

• Hard links – the ones that come from a website or domain that is already indexed by Google
• Soft links – the ones that come from a website or domain that is not indexed by Google (and therefore doesn’t help you rank)

Most webmasters focus on getting hard links to their site, but if you want to get better at SEO without breaking the bank, it’s important to also focus on getting soft links as well.

11. Add Schema Markup To Your Website To Improve CTR From SERPs

Schema markup is code that you add to your website to help search engines better understand the type of content on your site. Adding schema markup can help with both organic and paid results, whether it’s in the form of a product listing or an image gallery.

Schema markup helps with CTR from SERPs by helping users better understand what they’re looking at.

For example, if you have a page with an image gallery, adding schema markup will tell search engines that this page contains images and provide more information about them (such as what they are). 

This gives you more control over how these images appear in SERPs, allowing you to showcase different images depending on how relevant they are to the user’s query.

12. Make Sure That SEO Is Done Consistently

The best way to get better at SEO without breaking the bank is to make sure that your SEO is done consistently. The more often you do it, the better off your site will be in terms of getting noticed by Google and other search engines.

There are several things you can do to increase consistency with your website:

Make sure that your content is being published regularly. This means publishing new posts at least once a week, if not more often than that depending on how competitive your field is.

Make sure that you’re doing the basics right. These include making sure that all of your pages have title tags, meta descriptions, and H1 tags; using keywords appropriately throughout each page’s content; 

And including relevant links throughout each post for readers who want more information about a particular topic or service offered by their business (you can use anchor text like “click here” but don’t overdo it or else Google might penalize).

Create compelling images for those posts they’ll help bring people back again and again!

Harness the potential of local search to connect with your target audience. Dive into our guide on optimizing your website for local search and ensure that your business stands out in your local community.

13. Optimize Your Images

Alt tags can be used to describe an image and should not be repeated in the main body text.

Image file names should be unique and relevant to your content. For example, if you have an image of a sunset with clouds and flowers, name it something like “sunsets-and-flowers.” 

Or “sunset_with_clouds_and_flowers” as opposed to “sunset.jpg” or just “foo.jpg” (this is especially important when uploading multiple images or entering them into WordPress).

Image file extensions are what tell search engines what type of files they are looking at; therefore, using the most common extension for each type of file is recommended (such as PNG for photos). 

The exception here is JPEG files because they are commonly used by people who want smaller file sizes but still retain quality but if there’s no reason why anyone would ever need to save it in another format (like JPEG), then go ahead and use PNG instead!

14. Implement A Content Marketing Strategy On Your Site

Since you’re reading this, chances are you’re a marketer. If that’s the case, you’ve likely heard of content marketing before. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build your brand and drive traffic to your site. 

Of course, content marketing isn’t as easy as just creating a blog post every once in a while and publishing it on your site you need to have a strategy in place that includes:

• Creating an editorial calendar
• Defining what types of content will be created (e.g., video vs text)
• Determining where each piece of content will live on your website (e.g., homepage vs sidebar)

15. Make Sure That You Are Publishing Regularly!

Make sure that you are publishing regularly! The more content you publish on your website, the better it will be.

Make sure that your content is optimized for SEO! If possible, try to include a targeted keyword in every piece of content that you publish.

Make sure that you are optimizing your content for mobile users! This will make things easier for them when browsing through different websites or apps. 

You can do this by using responsive design techniques or making sure all images are no larger than 200KB each so they load quickly and do not cause slowdowns on slower connections like 3G or 4G LTE services offered by cellular providers such as Verizon Wireless & Sprint Corporation (aka “Sprint”).

Make sure that you are optimizing your content for social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as well since these sites have billions of monthly active users who visit them daily to look at what their friends have posted about their lives lately.

Whether it’s just posting pictures from last night’s party or asking for advice about life choices like buying a new car.

Instead of sticking with what’s familiar after all these years of driving around town looking over shoulders all day long wondering why traffic jams happen every day when there aren’t any accidents happening nearby . . .

Conclusion

I hope we have done an excellent job of showing you how to do better SEO on a shoestring budget. We understand that if you are just starting, it can be hard to invest in an expensive SEO plan, but there are plenty of resources you can use for free! 

Remember that the best way to get more traffic is by making sure your website shows up at the top of search results when people type in relevant keywords. 

For example, if someone types “how to improve my blog” into Google and they see your blog post listed first, there is a good chance they will click on your link instead of anyone else’s. 

This brings more visitors back so it’s worth taking the time now because eventually these new visitors may become paying customers later down the road – but only if they find what they were looking for when visiting your site!

Further Reading

Optimizing Local SEO on a Budget Short Description: Learn practical strategies to enhance your local SEO without overspending, ensuring your business gets noticed in your community.

Making the Most of Limited SEO Budget Short Description: Discover effective techniques to maximize your SEO efforts even with budget constraints, improving your online visibility.

Website SEO: Best Practices Short Description: Get insights into website SEO best practices, helping you optimize your online presence and improve search engine rankings.

FAQs

How can I optimize my local SEO without spending too much?

Enhancing your local SEO doesn’t have to break the bank. Focus on optimizing your Google My Business listing, getting local backlinks, and engaging with the local community through social media.

Is SEO possible with a limited budget?

Absolutely. Prioritize on-page optimization, quality content creation, and targeted keyword research to make the most of your limited SEO budget.

What are some cost-effective SEO strategies for small businesses?

Small businesses can benefit from optimizing their website structure, targeting long-tail keywords, and leveraging local directories to improve their SEO without significant costs.

Are there free tools available for SEO?

Yes, there are several free SEO tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ubersuggest that can provide valuable insights and help you improve your SEO strategy.

Can I learn SEO basics on my own?

Yes, there are numerous online resources, tutorials, and guides available that can help you grasp the basics of SEO and get started with optimizing your website for search engines.