By now, you most likely have heard over and over about how important SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is to having a high-functioning website. But we also always hear how complex and time-consuming it can be, and who has the time to research all that? Don’t worry, we are breaking down the top 5 easiest ways to implement SEO strategies so your website ranks higher in search engines and your customers can actually find you and your amazing biz!

Keywords

It is a good idea to make a list of keywords that best describe your business, services, products, etc., as these are a vital part of SEO that can be utilized in the other strategies we will go over here. For example, with our website, some good keywords would be Squarespace, website, templates, web design, website templates. You get the idea! It is also a great idea to place these keywords everywhere you can, like page titles, image descriptions, and URLs.

2. Adding alt text to your images

Alt-text is a short description added to an image's HTML code to describe its content. One of the main functions for this is accessibility. It is the wording that will appear for those using screen readers so that users with vision impairment can still utilize the images presented on a website. It also helps search engines understand the image content on your website. In Squarespace, it is super easy to add alt-text. Simply click the image, pencil icon, and scroll down in the pop-up until you see the alt-text field. Enter the words you’d like describe the image (try to include your keywords without “keyword stuffing”). Be descriptive with the image, but concise, as possible. For example, let’s say you have a yoga website and there is an image of a yoga instructor. Try, “yoga teacher guiding class through mindfulness class”, instead of “yoga class”.

3. Image Size

Did you know the size of your website images are probably slowing your website down by….a lot? If you have never gone in and intentionally resized your images, chances are they will be huge when you go to look. Search engines will automatically rank websites a lot lower that are slow to load. And large images? Think of them as really big rocks weighing your website down. So, how do you resize? There are multiple methods, including using Photoshop, but if you do not have that program, you can use the preview tool on your computer. Open the image you want to shrink, and, assuming you are automatically in Preview, go to Tools, and then Adjust Size. For the average photo, try to stay under 1000px. When you adjust the first number, the second will automatically change too, so just adjust the top one. If you have full width banner photos, you can aim for 2000px or under.

4. Responsive Design

You want to be sure when designing your website that it not only looks good on the device you made it, but also…..every single other one too. Feeling overwhelmed? We get it. But using tools like Squarespace make responsive design so much easier. You can toggle between desktop and mobile and make sure both sizes look good. You can also check breakpoints by adjusting the size of your window when you are previewing your website. If things seem off at a certain breakpoint, go into your website editor and make some tweaks until it looks good.

5. Keep URLs Keyword-Rich

Go take a look at one of your pages from your website. What is the end of the URL? Does it look like a mess, or gibberish? You will be wanting to change that, as search engines want to see keywords to help you rank higher.

For example, our blog post URL for Pinterest marketing tips, is

https://www.salt87creative.com/blog/how-to-use-pinterest-for-your-business

Very descriptive, instead of “blogpost1”. It is another great opportunity to use your keywords.

We hope these 5 tips give you the courage to tackle the basics of SEO. While there is a lot more you can do with it, these are great places to start and you should see a big improvement to your website’s traffic after implementing these strategies.