Search engine optimization encompasses dozens of unique technical and aesthetic considerations. Many newcomers to the world of SEO have big dreams of dominating select search engine results pages, expecting rapid results for their brands. Unfortunately, most SEO tactics require persistent effort and can take months to deliver noticeable results.

Despite this general rule, there are some solutions and tweaks that bloggers, webmasters and other brand managers can make to their web presences that begin delivering powerful results almost immediately. If you are wondering how to best optimize SEO performance early on – or simply want to make sure you’re extracting optimal value right now – then keep reading to find out about a few easy fixes that can improve SEO outcomes quickly.

Opt for Fast Hosting and Loading Times

The speed of a website and its pages has a direct impact on how well you can expect to do in various search engine results pages (SERPs). Pages that take more than two seconds to load generally see reductions in SEO performance: if this is a site-wide issue, then expect to be pinging search engines with negative indicators.

Ultimately, enlisting the services of a qualified, fast hosting provider while optimizing pages for efficient speed can have a meaningful impact on your SEO outcomes. While changing hosting providers can – depending on the method – temporarily ding your rankings, the medium-to-long-term gains make it worth the effort.

Focus on Security Aspects

Site security is more important than ever to Google and other search engines. Without a guaranteed safe environment for users, search engines are likely to penalize your visibility directly or indirectly. Sites that have recently been compromised can see major drops in search traffic if the resulting intrusion created negative SEO indicators.

As such, make sure that your website has strong passwords, up-to-date software (such as WordPress) that can’t be exploited, and HTTPS protocols in place.

Optimize Your Visual Elements

How images, videos and other visual elements are rendered on your website has a major impact on SEO outcomes. Fortunately, optimizing these elements doesn’t take much time and can begin delivering major results in the short-term.

The use of alt tags for images and videos helps maximize search engine understanding of these elements, while also improving rankings in image and video-based search results. Vivid descriptions of visual elements in other ways can also improve SEO performance. Additionally, reducing image size to improve loading times can have a supplemental effect on SEO improvement.

Ensure Navigational Integrity

The last thing any website wants to be doing is pinging search engines with poorly-formatted or broken links. Navigational structure matters in website design and SEO: if visitors can properly navigate your website, the resulting bounce rates can impact rankings. Likewise, search engines carefully assess each link on a website to determine whether or not it is both valid and trustworthy; broken links can substantially reduce overall clout with regard to SEO, so do some link analysis to ensure your website’s links are functioning 100%.

These simple fixes may not transform your performance overnight, but they will provide immediate benefits that can enhance broader SEO outcomes. Be sure to invest a bit of time in verifying that all of these strategies have been adopted before fretting over your SEO performance!