There are nearly endless tips to improve your SEO that can be found online, however the best place to start with SEO optimization is by building your pages in the proper manner.
When a website’s landing page isn’t properly designed and set up, it will not matter how well the content has been SEO optimized, as the site itself will negate any of the positive results. Unfortunately, there is no all inclusive guide to what makes a site number one in Google’s SEO ranking and what doesn’t; however, there are a number of tested ways that can be implemented in order to improve your site’s SEO ranking from the design of the landing page itself.
The first big mistake many bloggers and eCommerce entrepreneurs make with their website is not properly formatting the URL to SEO friendly standards:
- The URL should be SEO keyword friendly. The URL should include relevant keywords that do play a major role in how Google ranks results for each search.
- URL’s should include only real words, and should be readable by the audience. There is no need to include special symbols in URLs, and the URLs should make some sense to the reader.
- URL’s should also be shorter than 60 characters, otherwise they become far too long, and as a result or less readable by visitors.
Not only are URL’s important to a website’s ranking in Google’s SEO search results, but the title of the landing page should be relevant, and full of keywords that will improve its SEO ranking. The title tag is one of the most important elements of any page with regard to SEO, making it very important that the title of the landing page be relevant and full of keywords in order to top Google’s search results.
- The title of the landing page should include keywords in its very beginning, as this emphasizes their importance to Google when it is being ranked as a search result.
- In addition, the titles of landing pages should not be too long, and character savers such as the ampersand can be very useful in saving precious title space.
- One of the best approaches to creating an effective and catchy title is to treat it as an advertisement. Include something about the site that will catch the attention of the reader, and give them a sense of urgency to click your link as opposed to others.
While not directly related to Google’s SEO ranking system, schema markup can be used as an effective method of increasing traffic, and standing out against other results on the Google search page.
Schemas utilize different plugins in order to create media-rich Google search results that feature much more than simple text on the search page. This can include an image, ratings, reviews, and nearly limitless other information that may not typically be included in a more commonly seen snippet.
Navigation is key for any website’s success, particularly for online stores. Why? Because people do not want to shop at a store they cannot navigate easily. It will be difficult to find anything quickly, and will drive customers away as a result.
One of the best ways to improve navigation is through what are called “breadcrumbs.” When a customer is on one page that has be lead up to by other pages, those pages will be listed somewhere on the page, showing where the customer came from to get where they currently are. This helps to deter confusion, and keep customers focused.
Similarly, internal site searches are an absolute must. If a customer is having an issue finding a product on a site, they will want to search for it. Because of this, it’s absolutely necessary that stores and blogs have internal search bars, in order to make the experience convenient for the customer.
The very structure of a page determines its display in search engine results, and a large part of this is due to the HTML heading tags. When a lot of heading tags are used, search engines can more effectively determine which articles are relevant, which will push your landing page to the front page if done correctly.
In addition, a landing page must have a proper selection of keywords in order to be relevant in search engine results. Articles without keywords will have no advantage in Google’s algorithm in order to beat out competitors for the top ranked spot, which will lead to little exposure. Use keywords often, and use synonyms as well, in order to cover a broader range of searches.
The composition of the text itself will play an important role in how well it ranks by search engines, and the numbers show that articles of 2000 words or more typically perform better than those shorter than 2000 words. Content should also be positioned in an “above-the-fold” manner to encourage readers to continue on with the article.
In addition, content should contain multimedia, as this is a proven way to increase readership and improve SEO ranking. Most multimedia should be embedded, however it’s good practice to include external links to some multimedia, and it’s especially important to post links to external resources.
Linking to external resources gives the article and the writer integrity, showing transparency in the work they do. This is important, as it builds customer trust, and is preferred by Google’s algorithms.
Another way to build trustworthiness is through having a strong social media presence. Be sure to have share buttons on all of your articles in order to encourage readers to share. When they share the article to their personal social media accounts, it will now be visible to a new audience, and can continue to grow from there.
Finally, it’s important that a landing page be responsive on both desktops and mobile devices. Companies without a stellar mobile design have a hard time surviving in today’s well-designed blogging world, making it absolutely necessary that a website be responsive, well-designed, and fast.
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