10 SEO Tips You Can Implement Today

If you follow digital marketing trends, something you may have read was that SEO is dead. Most of our clients need construction marketing material built around niche, highly technical information. As such, our work is often content led. We help them to create resources which become the foundation of effective communication strategies. We aren’t anti-SEO; we use it as a tool to refine what we publish in digital spaces. This put us in a good position for optimising for AI, as this focuses on user intent and behaviour. In this blog, we’re going back to basics to help you understand why SEO is still important and what quick wins you can get started on today.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is tailoring content for the target audience. This helps to raise organic visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) for platforms such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Ecosia. SEO has been around since the early beginnings of the internet. Danny Star notes in the Forbes article ‘An Abbreviated History of SEO and What It Tells Us About SEO’s Future Role’ that it dates back to 1997 (approaching three decades, at the time of writing this!). How we use it may have changed significantly in that time, but it still helps us shape how we communicate.

As the Semrush blog linked above outlines, the common areas to focus on for SEO are:

• Keyword research – learning about how people search for products, services, or a brand.
• Content creation – that it’s accurate, to a high standard, and meets expectations.
• Link building – having dofollow backlinks from other reputable websites. These may include placements in the media or guest blogs on websites with a good domain authority (DA). This can help to build ‘link equity’.
• Technical SEO – refining the user experience (UX) of the website by making sure pages load quickly and navigation is easy.

Why is SEO important?

Improving SEO helps content appear higher up in search. This can, in turn, boost the performance of marketing communications against key metrics. These metrics should be relevant to the marketing strategy and informed by the business objectives. Examples of common key performance indicators (KPIs) we see in many of our campaigns include brand awareness, website traffic (especially to specific landing pages), sales conversions, enquiries, engagement, and reach/impressions.

So, does this mean we can attract traffic by adding a bunch of keywords throughout our content? In a word: no. We wouldn’t recommend ‘keyword stuffing’ though it’s common to see. What’s likely to happen is users see your content in a search but bounce off the website when they realise it’s not what they’re looking for or they don’t enjoy the reading experience. Search engines can also be sensitive to anything that appears to be spam. Especially if keywords are excessive, irrelevant, or negatively impact the UX (which is how a high bounce rate is likely to be interpreted). But, when you’ve done your research on which relevant keywords or phrases are best to reach your target audience, your content (eg. landing pages, blogs, social posts) should see much better results.

To rank higher than competition, the search engine must also have evidence that your use of the search term is a closer match to what the user is looking for (search intent). It will also help you if you’ve built up authority through experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). By doing so, the algorithm will learn to trust that what you supply will be of value to the user. This is why we prioritise writing content on questions that are being asked by the audience or focus on subjects that they need to know more about. Once this is drafted, then we can look at how to improve SEO.

What is AI SEO?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) SEO focuses on visibility in search engine overviews and in AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini. AI SEO builds on the principles of traditional SEO but it’s primarily about understanding user intent. Better understanding machine learning and natural language processing models (NLP) can help you answer questions directly. It can also increase the likelihood of being served in the top results with links back to your website. Categorising web pages also ensures AI can effectively scan, understand, and then deliver your content to the relevant people.

What are the ‘quick wins’?

SEO can be a time-consuming task but, once you understand the basics, it can be easy to make some progress. Even if you don’t consider yourself ‘tech savvy’. Below is a quick checklist of how you can improve your SEO today.

1. Optimise existing content

• Do you have old blog posts? Now’s a good time to go through and pull down anything that’s out of date. You will need to check that those remaining have current statistics, that internal and external links aren’t broken, and add in any recent developments or new research. You may also find that, if you wrote something a long time ago, that you now have lots of new insights to share or a new take. If you’ve updated your branding or are formatting things differently, give it a refresh! It’s always worth making these tweaks to help improve the UX.

• Check and update meta titles, descriptions, and ALT text to help improve click through rate (CTR) and accessibility.
• Do you have a business, product(s), or service(s) that people often ask questions about? Update your frequently asked questions (FAQ) section! This can be generated from queries you’ve received, your sales team, or your own research. You can also use Google’s ‘People also ask’ (PAA) to find related queries you may want to optimise for.

2. Improve readability

Attracting readers is one thing, but ensuring they stay and find your content engaging is another. We’d recommend running some basic checks, such as grammar, spelling, and readability to help avoid common mistakes. Try:

• Using Hemingway App, Grammarly, or your SEO plugin to help you simplify sentences.
• Add short paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points to enhance readability for better UX.

3. Understand search intent

You will need to understand what your target audience wants to know. What questions are they asking and are you answering those questions clearly? You can do this by:

• Analysing top-ranking pages to understand what users are looking for and how best to answer those questions on the page.

• With AI search engines becoming popular, it’s also essential to consider how people use language. For example, ensuring you have Q&As in mind as you edit your material to increase the likelihood of it being pulled up in AI summaries.

4. Identify keyword variants and synonyms

• Use tools like the Google Search Console or Semrush to check the search volumes for related keywords your content already ranks for to identify potential opportunities.
• The same approach can be applied for relevant long-tail keyword variations.
• Have you identified a keyword gap? This research may also help when considering what to focus on in future blogs and articles to ensure you’re reaching the right people.

5. Add internal links

• You’ve likely spent a lot of time writing blogs, articles, and guides to help your target audience. Don’t forget to link to these resources when you publish other relevant blog posts using descriptive anchor text.
• If you have lots of resources, especially if you create material on different topics/issues, consider creating a content hub to help users find related material easier under these content pillars.

6. Optimise images

Don’t forget to optimise your images, both for new posts as well as older content following a site audit!

• Help to reduce page load times by making sure that images aren’t too large (resize and compress).
• Make sure they are in the right format (eg. SVG, WebP, JPEG, PNG, GIF).
• Add descriptive ALT text. Whilst this is often aimed at text-to-speech tools, it is also relevant for search engines as this helps them understand the image too.
• Add file names to improve accessibility and SEO.
• Ensure that the website is designed so that it has ‘responsive image scaling’ to help improve load times and ensure a better UX.

7. Resolve technical errors

• Doing site audits with tools like Semrush, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs will help you to find broken links or missing meta tags.
• Ensure each page has only one H1 tag and proper heading hierarchy.

8. Act on Google Search Console insights

If you have pages with high impressions but low CTR, you’re showing in search results, but users aren’t clicking on the link. Consider:

• Rewriting titles and meta descriptions to be more compelling.
• Check your content matches the keywords/that it’s relevant to the audience you’re targeting.
• Has it been updated recently?
• Does it contain information that would add value/be helpful to the reader?
• Also check technical aspects, such as page load times and if it’s mobile-optimised.
• It may also be worth searching the same topic and seeing if your competitor’s rank higher and assessing why.

9. Add a Table of Contents (TOC)

• Helps users navigate longer content.
• TOCs can generate sitelinks in search results.

10. Implement Schema Markup

Many articles focus on the more technical aspects of website maintenance, such as adjusting the coding. It’s possible though to make quick tweaks to help you rank in AI search engines. We’d recommend:

• Installing an SEO plugin on your website, such as Yoast. This offers quick tips on how to improve SEO in-platform when you upload your content. It analyses keyword distribution, headings, length, image tags, meta descriptions, and SEO titles.
• Yoast also has a Schema tab which allows you to categorise your page so AI search engines know what it’s about.
• If you’re more advanced and want to work with structured data tools, try implementing further markups with Schema generators or Google’s Developer Tools.

Conclusion

SEO might seem like an ever-changing, sometimes overwhelming part of digital marketing—but it doesn’t have to be. At its core, good SEO is simply about creating useful, relevant, high-quality content that meets the needs of your audience. Whether you’re refreshing old blogs, adding ALT text to images, or refining your keyword strategy, even small steps can make a noticeable difference. As AI-driven search continues to evolve, focusing on user intent, clarity, and experience will become even more essential. The good news? If you’re already creating thoughtful, audience-focused content, you’re well on your way. Use these top 10 tips as a checklist to strengthen what you’ve already built. And remember: SEO isn’t dead—it’s just smarter.

If you would like to learn more about some of the work Smith Goodfellow does, see the projects and what we do page. If you’re interested in working with us, come for a brew!