Hidden SEO part 1

The hidden SEO issues are usually quite easy to fix and fairly low effort compared to something like chasing high quality backlinks.

The majority of customers we talk to want to fix their site speed to improve their SEO, makes sense right? Who doesn’t want to get more traffic for free!

So in this email I want to talk to you about something we call “hidden seo” – simple fundamentals, commonly overlooked that can potentially make a huge difference to traffic.

These hidden SEO issues almost always show up on our technical SEO audits and site speed reviews even when there’s an SEO agency looking after the site. They’re also usually quite easy to fix and fairly low effort compared to something like chasing high quality backlinks….almost like free money!

How to check your site…

Checking to see if you’re missing this particular hidden SEO element should take you maybe 3 minutes tops, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Goto https://opengraph.xyz
2. Enter your web address and click Generate
3. This will now show you how your homepage looks when shared on the socials (Facebook, Twitter etc) as well as how it appears in messenger apps AND sometimes even the image that displays for the site in the search results (more likely on a mobile search)
4. How does it look? Good? Bad? Nothing showing at all?

The image that shows here is called an Open Graph image and it’s whats used when a preview of the site shows up on any platform where links are shared. If you don’t have an open graph image specifically set for a page, a random image from the page will be used and often won’t look great. Often this field is just set to the company logo which is a missed opportunity.

CTR improvements=free traffic

Where your site gets a lot of social traffic or where you’re in a competitive SEO space, a well designed open graph image can significantly boost CTR (click through rate). CTR improvements are fantastic because they typically cost very little and are near invisible to your competitors so are less likely to be copied.

This image is almost like a free Facebook ad so you ideally want a mix of image and text that entice someone to click AND you ideally want a custom open graph image for each important page on your site.

Here’s a few great examples of open graph images done well: (click to open a preview in the opengraph.xyz tool)

https://www.opengraph.xyz/url/https%3A%2F%2Fcontentsnare.com/

https://www.opengraph.xyz/url/https%3A%2F%2Fbentonow.com/

https://www.opengraph.xyz/url/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.didgeridoobreath.com/

*If opengraph.xyz throws an error for your site, try Facebook’s open graph debugger which is a little more technical and can help debug issues with opengraph images/code https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/

How to leverage open graph images:

Here’s a few simple steps to leverage this SEO tactic:

*If you have a big site or want to automate this process https://placid.app or https://www.bannerbear.com/ can autogenerate these for you and are well worth a look. Even if you don’t use these tools there’s some good examples if you poke around their sites.

1. You’re going to need an image – if you have a designer or someone managing Facebook ads they’ll be able to easily create one for you. If you’re DIYing the image, Canva.com is a great tool for this
2. Set the image on the homepage which you can usually do this on the social tab on the SEO box on your homepage
3. Set a sitewide default image (**THIS IS THE BIT MANY PEOPLE MISS!) -> both Yoast and Rankmath SEO plugins can display a default image if one isn’t set at the page level. This is an easy way to implement this site-wide, you set this in the plugin settings.
4. Repeat this process for your key pages
5. Update your page publishing process or checklist to include this check before pages go live

Want SEO help?

If you’re looking to be more aggressive with your SEO we might be able help with our SEO Audit & Action Plan service.

With this service we do a detailed technical audit and analysis of your site in conjunction with your SEO goals and then provide a detailed action plan to move you forward towards those goals.

Many sites we see are sitting on a goldmine of technical and onpage SEO opportunities and don’t even know it – the goal of this service is to create a structured approach for identifying and leveraging these tactics and opportunities as well as identifying any gaps in your existing SEO strategy.

We have two options for this service. One where we can do the audit and action plan only and your team can take the action plan and implement, or alternatively, we can do the implementation for you typically over a 3 month SEO sprint.

This service is not suitable for all types of sites but if you’re interested in learning more, hit reply on this email, include your web address and some brief notes about what you’re looking to achieve and we’ll take a quick look at your site and confirm whether you’re a good fit.

Let me know what you think of this email and whether you’d like more stuff like this, we have maybe half a dozen of these sneaky SEO tactics we can share – hit reply and let me know.

Brendan Tully
Principal Consultant – WPSpeedfix.com
brendan@wpspeedfix.com Don’t want to get emails like this? Manage subscription preferences . Robotmedia Pty Ltd – Suite 2, Level 3/2 Boston Ct, Varsity Lakes QLD 4227, Australia