A website that has been built from the ground up with search engine optimisation in mind is like a child born to wealthy parents. To use the old metaphor, you could say that it was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. There are significant parts of the SEO process that happen in the backend of a site, back when it is being built and designed, and any good web developer should know about these and plan accordingly. But sadly, there are plenty of part-time coders and ‘web developers’ who don’t really know what they are doing and who won’t do the job properly. If you are unfortunate enough to have had your site done by one of these people, does it mean that you are destined to fail at generating search traffic? No, it doesn’t mean that. Yes, you are starting on the back foot, but the good news is that there is always scope, to undo the damage. Here is how.
Find an expert
If you made the initial mistake of trying to do things on the cheap, or with a partner who lacked the appropriate credentials then don’t make that mistake again as you look to remedy the situation. Some of the best SEO providers and strategists are based in Australia and are easily contactable and more than likely, eager to work with you. Do your research and get some referrals, ask them to supply you with some case studies or examples of partners that they have worked with, and then get cracking. They should do a complete SEO audit for you and based on that develop a full strategy for you. Budget depending you can then decide on a course of action – perhaps you need to try and implement the strategy yourself, but ideally you will partner with them for the best results. They are the experts after all.
Build a referral network
No matter how dodgy your set up is in the back end, you can go about building a referral network. Speak to other sites that align nicely with yours and negotiate link swaps. Post links to your site on message boards. Set up a Wikipedia page. Do whatever you can to get your sites name and content out into the world. The search engines look to see who is linking to your site and that is factored into the results that they return. Remember that their goal is to supply searchers with a list of the best and most appropriate sites matching their search. If other sites are linking to yours it suggests that you are popular and credible, and the search engines like that.
Make content
A regular supply of fresh and engaging content is very important. If you don’t have regular updates on your site, then it looks dead and starts to appear irrelevant to the search engines. It also means that there is nothing new getting shared on social media. So, produce original and compelling content and publish it on a regular basis. This is something that you can do easily and regularly. It will benefit you noticeably and it will work regardless of how lousy your site is from a technical perspective.
