While some websites on the internet represent large firms and businesses – and with that, large budgets – most of us manage small-scale websites and blogs that earn little to no income and require a hands-on approach from one or two people in order to remain functional. As a result, there are not many examples of the common website that have ample amounts of cash on hand to invest in search engine optimization strategies and marketing tweaks that will result in explosive growth. Since most people are on a budget, it makes sense to find as many low-cost or free tweaks that can be performed and will enhance your website’s SEO potential. Below, we will discuss some of these strategies that you can use without the need for expensive consultants, add-ons or licenses.

Eliminate Duplicity

Any website with loads of information is bound to have some rehash here and there. The issue with duplicate content is that search engines tend to frown upon it when pinging your blog or website on a periodic basis. Some webmasters will repost content as filler months after it was initially published on their site – if you do this, then you need to ask yourself if the deletion of the original article from your blog is worth it. Your SERPs will continue to be penalized in the meantime if you have multiple instances of duplicate content on your site, even if the duplicate content is an honest mistake or a viable rehash of previously published content.

Interlink Your Best Pages

Internal links are a crucial part of proper SEO strategy, but many web masters fail to create enough links in between relevant and well-performing content to take advantage of this approach. When multiple pages of relevance are linked together, it increases your site’s chances of being featured in select SERPs. The best way to determine which pages are already associated with one another is to perform a keyword search via Google on your site. This means that you can type out your keyword – followed by your site’s main URL – to see which pages are featured prominently in said results. This will alert you to which pages need to be linked to one another in order to boost SERP exposure.

Learn Your Competitors’ Backlink Strategies

A good way to determine how to better perform in select search results is to monitor your competition’s movements and see how they have made it to the top. While this only is a good idea for competitors who currently perform better in SERPs than you, the benefits from a backlink checker program like SpyGlass can be very much worth the effort. As you spot the backlinks for your competitors, you may also find prospective link building venues for your own site (particularly true if it is the same niche).

Conclusion

There are ways to start pinging your blog with traffic that do not require ample (or any) investment. Most start-ups and small websites have to fend for themselves: this is why strategies such as competition backlink inspection, internal links and the elimination of duplicate content can all go a long way toward the augmentation of your website in select SERPs.