With 2021 well under way, it is important to ensure that you have given your business and website the best possible chance to rank successfully online. Knowing where to start and where to allocate your budget can be daunting.With this in mind, we have created the following list highlighting some main areas that should be addressed to ensure the maximum return on investment for your online budget.

• Get your website a SSL certificate. Securing your website with a valid SSL certificate can assist in your organic rankings according to Google. Not having one can result in an auto generated warning from Google stating that "This website is not secure" on the SERP's(Search engine results page) page which can adversely affect your websites click through rate and client confidence.
• Check, check, check your site load speed. With almost 55% of all online search queries now coming from mobile devices, a slow loading site can cause high bounce rates (the rate at which visitors come onto your site and "bounce off" without any interaction.) and can damage your online ranking.
• Content is King..and Queen. Google can only rank what is on your website. Google's search engine works on the key principle that once someone searches for something, they return what is in their opinion, the best answer for the users search query. This is where content comes into play. Ensure that all of your content is well written, contains all of your required keywords, is well optimised from a heading point of view and where possible, have available a FAQ section which always ranks well online.
• Test your website yourself. Broken links, missing pages, scripts not loading or email delivery problems can really damage a business. Routinely checking your website and testing it as a potential client will also help you understand the visitor flow, click patterns and broken links.

SEO strategies for businesses can be daunting. With so much SEO information out there, it is important to ensure that your budget ends up where it will do the most good. By addressing the above, you will be well on the way to improving your current rankings and give your business and website the best chance of performing well online and connecting with new clients for 2021 and well beyond.