Having an optimized website can mean the difference between your website being ranked on page one of Google or being ranked so far down that it’s not even worth the effort. Since over 85% of people start their search engines with Google, optimizing your website with Google’s best practices in mind can get you more traffic and convert that traffic into leads and sales.
So what are those best practices? And how do you implement them? Let’s take a look at what an SEO friendly website is and why it is so important to create one.
What does SEO Friendly mean?
In short, an SEO-friendly site is one that has been created with keywords in mind from start to finish. The content of your site should be targeted toward a specific audience with a clear understanding of what search terms they’re typing into Google when looking for information about your niche. It also means that you have optimized every page on your site so that search engines can easily crawl through them and identify which words are most relevant to each page.
Why is an SEO Friendly Website Important?
If you’re new to running a business online, there are a lot of things you might not understand about how your site works. One area that is highly overlooked is creating an SEO-friendly website. Having an SEO-friendly website helps with getting found by potential customers through search engines such as Google. Here are three reasons why having an SEO-friendly website is important:
- It makes your content more accessible
- It increases traffic
- It gives you more credibility in front of other businesses.
An SEO-friendly website allows users to easily find your information, whether they are searching for it on a computer or mobile device. Search engine crawlers read certain code when they look at websites and determine what keywords they should use when showing them to people who perform searches on their services. You want these keywords—called metadata—to be placed throughout your site’s code in order to make sure you show up prominently in search results.
Key Elements That Make a Website Search Engine Friendly
Your site has to be user-friendly for your potential customers, but search engines are looking for more than just easy navigation. Search engines want a site that offers up relevant content, loads quickly, displays properly on all devices, and ranks higher in search results. Users want a site that’s fun to visit; search engines want one that drives traffic—it’s best for everyone if you can meet both goals at once.
Here are some elements of a search engine–friendly site:
Include keywords in your title tags and URLs: You don’t have to go overboard with keywords (and you shouldn’t), but they should definitely be part of your URL structure. Use them naturally throughout your page titles, too—if possible, include them within any subheadings or bullet points as well. If you can use a keyword more than once without being spammy, do it! It may not seem like much now, but when search engines start ranking pages based on their relevancy to specific queries, each time a keyword appears on a page increases its chances of appearing in relevant results.
If you want to take things even further, consider using a long-tail keyword strategy that includes three or four related terms instead of one broad term. For example, if your site is about photography, rather than just including photography in your title tag and URL structure, try including digital photography or photography tips for beginners. This will help you rank higher for more specific searches as well as bring in traffic from people who are looking for more information on a topic they already know something about.
When it comes to keywords, don’t forget meta descriptions!
Tips for Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines
There are several ways to do keyword research for your content. One of my favourite tools for doing keyword research is Google’s own Keyword Planner. Just enter a few terms you might be interested in optimizing for, select Get search volume data, and hit enter. The most essential part of your online marketing plan is a well-optimized website. Search engines are now more popular than ever, with 94% of consumers turning to search engines for product information, according to Statistic Brain.
The way you structure your content and code your site determines how likely it will appear at or near the top of a list when someone performs a search related to your business’s niche or products.
Ensure that your title tags are compelling and use relevant keywords and keep them under 70 characters; otherwise, they won’t display properly on many devices.
Use H1 tags sparingly; if you can get away with using H2 tags throughout your content instead, go for it! They tend to show up higher in SERPs than H1 tags do.
Make sure your meta description tag contains a brief summary of what your page is about. Don’t stuff keywords into it, though—Google has been penalizing sites for overuse of keyword stuffing for years. Instead, think about what people would type into Google to find out more about what you offer and write accordingly. If you have multiple pages that point to one another, make sure each uses unique anchor text (the clickable text in a hyperlink). This ensures that all of your pages rank for their target keywords.
Test Your Website for SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a fast-growing field that has web designers trying to be at their best with site design. If you want your site to rank high in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, then following some basic steps can help you achieve that goal. The good news is there are ways to test if your site meets these criteria before you even launch it live on the Internet.
Here are three tips for testing if your site is SEO friendly
- Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool: This tool provides suggestions on how to improve your site’s speed based on its performance against several metrics. It also provides insights into how well your page will perform in search results.
- Test Your Site With WebPagetest: This tool allows you to input a URL and run tests from multiple locations around the world, which gives you insight into how quickly users can access your content globally.
- Check Your Website Against Google’s Mobile Friendly Test: This tool checks whether your site is mobile friendly. In April 2015, Google announced that starting in July 2015 they would use mobile friendliness as a ranking signal. So make sure you check to see if your site passes!
Conclusion
There are many types of websites to choose from, but they all have one thing in common: Search Engine Optimization. It’s a field that helps webmasters understand how search engines work, which in turn will give their websites more exposure. By making sure your website is search engine friendly you can make it easier for people to find you online, thus boosting your traffic numbers. While there is no quick fix when it comes to SEO, there are ways to increase your ranking without having to spend much time or money. This guide should help those who want to learn about what makes a website SEO friendly and how you can use these techniques on your own site.
