10 Easy SEO Tips and Tricks You Can Use Right Away

May 3, 2023 / Karen Finn, PhD

Man standing at his computer thinking about how to implement SEO tips and tricks.

If you’ve got a website or blog for your practice, you probably already know that search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for attracting traffic and getting found online. If you’re like most of the health and wellness professionals we work with, you’d probably prefer to be working with your clients or patients instead of keeping up with the latest trends and strategies to improve your search rankings. And that’s where these 10 easy SEO tips and tricks come in.

These tips and tricks are designed to help you optimize your content and improve your search rankings without requiring extensive technical expertise or a lot of time.

1. Revisit old, underperforming content

If you’ve had a website for a while, you’ve probably got a lot of content on it. But just because you’ve got content, that doesn’t mean it’s all providing value to your ideal clients. So, you need to periodically perform an audit of your website’s content.

A content audit means you examine each page and post of your website to determine its relevance and usefulness to your audience. You’ll find some content is fine just as it is. Yet, you’ll also find others that need to be deleted or updated or even combined with other stronger pieces.

When you take the time to improve the quality of your website’s content, you can improve your site’s overall quality and relevance which can boost your search rankings. This is because Google prefers sites that have up-to-date and high-quality content.

2. Refurbish your existing posts

One of my favorite SEO tips and tricks for gaining traction with existing content is to reoptimize content for other keywords after you see the keywords Google associates with the post.

For example, let’s say you wrote a blog post about “Why Medical Advisory Boards Need to Change with the Times” which has the keyword “medical advisory boards”. A month after you posted the article, you check how it’s performing in SEMRush or another tool and see that you’ve got traction for the keyword “physician insights” and that’s a great keyword for your website.

What you would do then is optimize the blog post for the keyword “physician insights” too. So, you’d see if you could add “physician insights” into the meta description and use it appropriately throughout the blog post. When you do this, you signal to Google that your post deserves to climb in SERP ranking.

You can also use the next tip to help reinforce the additional keyword when you refurbish a post.

3. Avoid orphaned content

A piece of content is considered to be an orphan when there are no internal links to it. Internal linking is the practice of linking to other pages or posts on your website. It’s a powerful strategy that can improve your site’s structure, user experience, and search rankings. Internal links can help search engines understand the hierarchy and context of your content, as well as guide your visitors to other relevant pages on your site.

It’s also a great practice to use the keyword of the post you’re linking to as the anchor text for your internal link.

For example, if you have a blog post about “10 Easy SEO Tips and Tricks,” you can link to other related posts on your site, such as “5 Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid” or “How to Optimize Your Website for Local Search.”

4. Be mobile conscious

Google prioritizes the mobile experience when it considers what to display on its results pages. So you’ll want to make sure that when someone views your website on their phone, that it’s easy to use.

Some things to consider are:

ease of navigation
remove pop-ups or other annoying interstitials
short paragraphs
fast load times

And if you’d like to geek out more with this particular SEO tip, here’s Google’s explanation of how to be more mobile-conscious when it comes to your website.

5. Disassociate from spammy backlinks

Backlinks are one of the essential factors for determining your site’s authority and credibility. However, not all backlinks are created equal. Spammy or low-quality backlinks can hurt your search rankings and even result in a penalty from Google. Disavowing these backlinks is the best way to avoid negative consequences.

You can use Google’s Disavow Links tool to tell Google which links you want to disavow. Be careful not to disavow high-quality backlinks that are helping your search rankings. For more specifics on when and how to disavow backlinks, you’ll want to check out this information from Google.

6. Use external links

If you do any kind of research, this SEO tip and trick will be almost a no-brainer to implement.

One of the easiest ways to build your website’s authority is to link to other sites that are authoritative and have high-quality content. However, it’s important not to undermine your website’s authority by having too many external links. Here’s a simple rule of thumb: use 2-4 external links per 1000 words.

And, you don’t want to use just any other site to try to build authority, you’ll want to make sure each and every external link you use is relevant to the topic of your post and comes from an authoritative source.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post about the benefits of yoga, it would make sense to include a link to a study or article about the health benefits of yoga from a reputable source like Harvard Health Publishing or the National Institutes of Health.

7. Build backlinks by being a podcast guest

Backlinks are another one of my recommended SEO tips and tricks. And being a podcast guest can be a really simple and effective way to build them. When you’re interviewed on a podcast, you can include a link to your website in the show notes or bio. This can help drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine rankings.

Here are a couple of ideas for finding relevant podcasts to be a guest on. First, search for podcasts in your niche or industry. Second, search for podcasts one of your competitors has been on.

Regardless of how you create your podcast list, when you reach out to the hosts, make sure to have a clear value proposition and a few topics you can talk about so they’ll want to have you on their show.

8. Consistently create content

As I’ve said before, content marketing and SEO are incredible together. This is true because creating high-quality, valuable content on a consistent basis is crucial for SEO. All the search engines, not just Google, favor websites that publish fresh, relevant content regularly. So, by consistently creating content, you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build a loyal audience.

When creating content, make sure to use keywords naturally and in a way that enhances the readability of your post. Remember, you’re writing for the readers, not for the web crawlers. So, don’t stuff your content with keywords. And for goodness sake, aim to provide value to your readers with every post. Oh! Don’t forget to promote your content on social media and other relevant platforms to reach a wider audience (and maybe get a backlink or two).

9. Use keywords appropriately

Implementing any kind of SEO strategy requires keywords. You’ve got to pepper the right keywords throughout your content. But you need to use them appropriately because keyword stuffing or using too many keywords can really hurt your rankings.

To use keywords appropriately, research and identify the relevant keywords for your topic and use them naturally in your content. Use keywords in your title, meta description, and throughout the body of your content. Use variations of your keyword to make your content more readable and engaging. Remember, you’re writing for the readers, not the web crawlers. (I know I said this before, but it bears repeating.)

10. Write for your reader first

Yup, it bears so much repeating that I’m including it here as the final SEO tip and trick.

The most important thing to remember when optimizing your content for SEO is to write for your reader first and search engines second. Your content must provide value to your readers and help them solve a problem or answer a question.

By focusing on creating high-quality, valuable content that resonates with your audience, you’ll naturally incorporate other relevant keywords. Don’t try to game the system by stuffing your content with keywords or using other shady tactics. Instead, focus on creating engaging, informative, and helpful content for your readers.

Look, at the end of the day, I truly know that optimizing your content for SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but by focusing on this last tip first, you’ll know when you’re ready to start implementing the other tips and tricks to drive more traffic to your website. And when you do, you’ll be able to establish your website as an authoritative source in your industry and attract more organic traffic to your site.