Is your website an isolated marketing technique separate to SEO? Well you could be wasting your time and efforts if that is the case. Your SEO ranking relies heavily upon your website and it being optimized correctly.
Sure keywords matter but Google and their algorithm look at more than that. It is a mixture of elements that gives your website its ranking. Seeing them as a collective rather than individual pieces will help you understand the broader picture.
What Google looks for
While we don’t 100% know what the algorithm looks for (thanks to Google’s confidentiality agreements), over the years we have a pretty good understanding of what it takes into consideration. Here are some things that you can change immediately to help with your websites SEO.
Title tags
The title snippet from your Google preview or the line at the top of the browser tab is the title tag. Creating a unique title tag for your content helps distinguish what each page is about. It makes it easier for users and the algorithm to get a sense of what the website is about.
Think of the algorithm as a user experience. If you go onto a website and you don’t know what it’s about, the algorithm will probably have the same thought. That’s why it’s important to make it clear what you’re all about.
Subheadings (H1, H2, H3)
Heading tags or subheadings are also important for SEO. They give readers a glimpse of what the page or post is about and what each section covers.
Search engines use these tags as a context indicator for what you’re talking about and how it might relate to a user’s search.
This function is easy to implement especially if your website is run by WordPress. You simply just have to change the titles to headings from the menu.
Meta descriptions
You know that little synopsis under each result on Google’s results page? That’s the meta description. While it doesn’t necessarily correlate an increase in ranking it indirectly affects your ranking.
To break it down, your ranking also takes into consideration the bounce rate of your website, meaning that if people don’t go through with a sale it can hinder your ranking. If your meta description is relevant and informative it will increase your click through rate and therefore your ranking.
The website layout
The design and layout of your website also contributes to your SEO efforts. A logical flowing webpage that is easy to access is great for both user experiences and for any algorithms trying to crawl your website. Think of it as a hierarchy where you have your home page and sub categories underneath.
Now if that’s all messed up and some pages are harder to get to the algorithm and a visitor might just miss it completely. This just leaves you with wasted time and resources.
The page speed of your webpage is also very important. Google has mentioned that the page speed of your website impacts your ranking. Page speed refers to the time a visitor has to wait until the page has loaded. It’s just common sense in this aspect, if your visitors are leaving because it takes to long for your website to load, your ranking will be affected.
Common things that can lower your page speed are;
- Your website host is bad
- Featured images are too large
- External media that is embedded takes too long to load
- Too many ads
- Your theme is too complex
- Your browser, plugins and apps are not optimized.
All these techniques are simple ways to help your website become SEO friendly. SEO is a commitment that takes time and understanding to utilize effectively. If you are completely unsure about what SEO or if you’ve tried all of this and you still have had no luck consider consulting a SEO agency.
These businesses specialize in SEO and have the experience and knowledge to help take your website to the next stage.