I operate a website which has been inactive for over a year. It has been functioning for about four years, primarily focusing on wedding-related content, with a catalog boasting more than 600 wedding performers. However, the website receives very little traffic, only averaging 25-40 visitors daily.



The site was built from scratch, with no attention given to SEO. Due to the lack of profitability and financial resources, development on the portal ceased. There is now a strong aspiration to revive the website and drive traffic to it. Identifying and rectifying any SEO-related issues is the first step, but unfortunately, there are no funds available for a professional audit.
Are there any reliable, free services that could lend a hand in this matter?

One of the most widely used free SEO tools is Google Search Console. By verifying your website, you can access valuable insights into how Google views your site, including indexing status, search queries that lead to your site, and any issues with crawling and indexing. It also provides suggestions for improving your site's SEO.

Another essential free tool is Google Analytics, which provides detailed traffic data, user behavior, and other valuable insights. By understanding how users interact with your site, you can identify areas for improvement and optimize your content accordingly.

For keyword research, tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest can help you discover relevant keywords for your wedding-related content that have high search volumes and low competition. This will enable you to create content that resonates with your target audience and improves your site's visibility in search results.

In addition, free website crawlers such as Screaming Frog and SEO Site Checkup can help uncover technical SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags. Addressing these issues can significantly improve your site's search engine rankings.

Furthermore, creating and optimizing your website's sitemap is crucial for search engines to crawl and index your content effectively. You can use free online tools to generate and validate your sitemap to ensure it meets the standards set by search engines.

Here are some detailed steps and free tools that can help you identify and rectify SEO-related issues on your wedding-related website:

1. Google Search Console: This free tool from Google provides essential insights into your website's presence in Google search results. By verifying your website, you can access data on indexing status, search queries, and any issues that Google encounters while crawling and indexing your site. It also offers recommendations to improve your site's SEO performance.

2. Google Analytics: Implementing Google Analytics on your website provides valuable data on user behavior, traffic sources, and other key metrics. Understanding how users interact with your site can help you identify popular content, high-exit pages, and other optimization opportunities, all of which can contribute to improving your SEO.

3. Keyword Research Tools: Utilize free keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to discover relevant keywords for your wedding-related content. These tools can help you identify high-volume keywords with low competition, enabling you to create targeted content that resonates with your audience and improves search visibility.

4. Free Website Crawlers: Tools like Screaming Frog and SEO Site Checkup can be used to conduct a comprehensive audit of your website's technical SEO aspects. These tools can help identify issues such as broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and other factors that could impact your site's performance in search results.

5. Sitemap Generation and Validation: Creating and optimizing your website's sitemap is crucial for search engines to crawl and index your content effectively. Free online tools can assist in generating and validating your sitemap to ensure that it meets the standards set by search engines, thereby improving the overall accessibility of your website for search engine crawlers.

6. Community Resources and Blogs: Engage with free SEO blogs, forums, and online communities to gain insights and best practices for improving your website's SEO. These resources often provide valuable tips, case studies, and discussions that can help you address specific SEO issues and enhance your overall strategy.

Here's the issue: while everyone can utilize these services, the role of an SEO specialist is highly valued. Generally speaking, the most prudent decision for site promotion is to bring them on as a permanent team member, or at the very least, as a freelancer. Regardless, SEO is a long-term investment and continual optimization is crucial. Only then will you see tangible results.

P.S. It's inevitable that you'll end up reviewing multiple services, becoming confused or misunderstanding them, making mistakes, and subsequently needing to spend even more time rectifying them. Ultimately, you'll end up wasting both time and effort.

It strikes me as more of a business-related challenge than a personal one for some reason.
So, they might conduct an audit on your website, possibly even for free. But what happens next?
You'll be given a list of actions that need to be carried out on the site, which will require investments: time, effort, money, knowledge, and skills. Are you prepared to make these investments?

In essence, the question is how much you're willing to invest in the website. Do you have the available time for this? What kind of returns are you expecting, and by when? We should sit down and calculate calmly. Sometimes, it might be easier to sell the website at a market price because there's a lot of work ahead, and the return will come when...
I respond in this manner because I've found myself in such situations many times before.

Google Algorithm Changes.
Generative AI Tools and Increased Competition.
Zero-Click Searches and SGE.
SEO Growth That's Slow to Materialize.
Having Too Many SEO Tools.
Keyword Cannibalization and Duplicate Content.
Decaying Content Creates SEO Challenges.
Limited Resources.