119: Time for an SEO Refresh? Here's How.

Podcast Summary:

In this episode, Meredith's husband discusses how website owners can perform an SEO refresh after neglecting SEO for some time. He offers a five-step guide, emphasizing the importance of tools like Google Search Console and SEMrush to identify site performance, fix technical issues, and improve blog content. These strategies help website owners reoptimize their sites, strengthen existing content, and boost search engine visibility, even if SEO hasn’t been a consistent priority.

Blog Post: How to Refresh Your SEO Strategy in Five Simple Steps

If you've let your SEO efforts slip over the past few months or even years, don't worry. You can give your website a much-needed SEO refresh to boost visibility and traffic. While it's ideal to maintain ongoing SEO, life happens, and it's common to fall out of a routine. A well-planned SEO refresh can get your site back on track, and here’s a simple guide to help you get started.

1. Leverage Google Search Console

Your first step in any SEO refresh is to take a close look at Google Search Console. This free tool provides insight into your website's performance in Google search results. Use it to review which keywords and pages are getting impressions and clicks. One trick is to filter out brand-specific keywords to focus on generic terms that indicate broader audience searches.

Google Search Console allows you to:

• Identify high-performing pages and keywords.

• Spot trends or any unusual drops in visibility.

• Exclude brand-related queries to focus on broader keyword searches.

By understanding what's already working, you can optimize existing content to build on those successes.

2. Check Your Sitemap and Indexing

Next, check if Google has indexed all your main pages. In the Sitemap section of Google Search Console, review the number of pages indexed versus those not indexed. If important pages like blog posts or service pages aren’t being indexed, you'll want to fix that immediately. Additionally, check for old or irrelevant subdomains that might still be listed. Clean up outdated pages to prevent them from harming your site’s SEO.

Key tasks include:

• Ensuring your sitemap is submitted to Google.

• Confirming that all key pages are indexed.

• Identifying and removing old or unused subdomains.

3. Run a SEMrush Audit

SEMrush is another powerful tool to identify technical issues on your site. Use the site audit feature to check for common SEO problems such as missing or duplicate title tags, long meta descriptions, and other errors. SEMrush provides detailed reports on over 100 potential issues, which allows you to fix critical errors that might be hurting your rankings.

Some common errors include:

• Duplicate or missing title tags.

• Meta descriptions that are too long or missing.

• Pages with unnecessary redirects that slow down your site.

4. Improve High-Performing Blogs

One of the easiest ways to boost your SEO is by enhancing content that’s already performing well. Identify the blogs that are driving traffic and look for ways to improve them. This could involve adding new information, refreshing outdated sections, or adding internal links to your service pages.

Consider these strategies:

• Add links to your service pages from high-performing blogs.

• Refresh the content to keep it relevant and accurate.

• Look for opportunities to expand on popular blog topics with related posts.

5. Test and Refresh Your Call to Action (CTA)

Finally, revisit your call-to-action buttons. Small changes in CTA text can have a significant impact on conversions. A/B test different versions of your CTA over a few weeks or months to see which performs better. Even subtle tweaks like changing the wording or color of your button can lead to higher conversion rates.

Some ideas to test:

• Experiment with different CTA button text.

• Adjust the placement of CTAs for better visibility.

• Track the performance of CTAs over time to find the best options.

Resources:

Meredith’s husband has mentioned a link to past episodes about using Google Search Console and SEMrush for SEO audits. You can find these helpful resources in the "Resources" section below the episode.