SEO Basics: 5 Tips & Best Practices
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a critical component of driving traffic to your website. Without it, even the most well-crafted content can be buried in the depths of the internet. But with SEO done right, your site can attract more visitors and get better ratings on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Here are five tips & best practices to help you get started with SEO.
Do initial keyword research and target primary and secondary keywords and phrases
The first step to successful SEO is to do initial keyword research. This process involves figuring out what keywords and phrases are most likely to bring people to your website when they search for a particular topic. Once you’ve identified these target keywords, you can create content that incorporates them in an organic, natural way. This allows you to optimize content so it’s more likely to show up in search engine results when someone searches for your target keywords.
Optimize page titles, descriptions and meta tags
Another important step in SEO is optimizing page titles, descriptions and meta tags. These are all pieces of code that help search engines find and display your website’s content accurately. It’s important to make sure they accurately describe your content, include relevant keywords and are properly formatted for search engine crawlers to read. This will help ensure that your website is easily found by the right kind of people. It’s important to make sure these elements are concise and descriptive so they can be quickly scanned by users who are trying to decide whether or not to click on a link.
Make sure your content is original, unique and high quality
Search engines want to provide their users with the most accurate and helpful information available, so it’s important that your content is original, unique and of high quality. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving to assess the quality of websites, so make sure your content is up-to-date and relevant to its topic. If you can regularly update your content with new, relevant information, you’ll be more likely to get better rankings. Make sure your content is easy to read and engaging for readers. You want people to stick around on your website once they’ve landed there, so it’s important to provide them with interesting, well-written content that will keep their attention.
Conduct regular site audits to check for technical updates and needs
A regular site audit is a great way to ensure your website is running smoothly and meeting all of the technical requirements for SEO. This process involves checking for broken links, coding errors, slow loading times and other potential issues that could prevent your website from ranking high in search engine results. Regular audits can also be used to identify and address any potential security vulnerabilities. It’s important to keep up with the latest search engine algorithms as they change over time so you can make sure your website is always optimized for the best possible performance. By regularly auditing your site, you’ll be able to stay on top of all technical updates and needs for SEO.
Generate backlinks from other high authority sites
Finally, a great way to boost your SEO is to generate backlinks from other high authority sites. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours and help build its reputation in the eyes of search engines. It’s important to be strategic when generating backlinks as you don’t want too many of them coming from low-quality sites. Aim to get links from websites with a good domain authority as this will signal to search engines that your website is reliable and trustworthy.
These five tips & best practices are just a starting point for optimizing your website’s SEO. There are many more steps and strategies that you can employ to get the most out of search engine optimization and ensure your website is visible on the web. If you want to learn more about SEO, consider seeking help from professionals who specialize in the field. With their help, you can ensure your site is getting the attention it deserves.
Web Design Basics: 5 Tips & Best Practices
Your website is a digital snapshot of your business, and it should be high quality, easy to navigate, and provide users with all the resources and prompts necessary to help them get to that finish line, whatever the purpose of your website is. Here are five website improvements that you can utilize to make your site into an effective and powerful online platform!
Effective headers and footers optimize conversion rates
A conversion rate is the parameter used to measure the success of a website in directing users to a certain area or completing a certain task. Hubspot defines conversion rate optimization (CRO) as providing “highly-qualified leads, increased revenue, and lower acquisition costs.” More practically, it might be users booking an appointment, contacting the company, or completing a purchase. Including all necessary information in your headers and footers will make it less likely that users will navigate away from your site to find what they’re looking for, and thus optimize your conversion rate.
Headers should include all relevant navigation to your most important pages, search options (if applicable), clear labels, and brading with a logo or company name. Footers should include relevant CTAs (or calls-to-action), which can prompt users to contact you, fill out a form, review resources, or learn more about your business.
Ensure web content is mobile compatible
Web users are more and more likely to be scrolling the web on their mobile devices rather than using a computer. This means that websites need to be viewable on a variety of devices, not just a desktop. Before publishing, developers need to ensure that images, text, links, menus, headers, footers, and layout are all mobile compatible and aren’t all cut off, out of place, or have formatting errors. Pulling out your phone and checking each page looks good on both small and large screens before any publications or edits go live can help.
Keep consistent branding
Your website is a digital peek into your business, and it should be high quality, easy to navigate, and clearly yours. Visual branding goes beyond slapping your name or logo on everything, which can get repetitive and tacky, but your content should clearly indicate who you are and what you do. Colors, fonts, and visuals should be consistent and fit your vibe; bright colors to emulate creativity; serif fonts with strong geometry for cold-cut professionalism; earth tones and organic shapes for environment-focused projects.
Visual content is a place for you to show off your brand, so it can go in a number of different directions, but just ensure that it fits. A few good guiding principles are the logo and company name should be impossible to miss in your header, your branding colors should (generally) be the foundation of your palette, and lastly, keep it consistent. Creativity is valuable, but your users will be thrown off if you prioritize your abstract ideas over clarity and cohesion.
Clear navigation and clean URLs
Alongside proper headers, navigation should not be forgotten in your work to keep customers oriented on your site. These details make all the difference for your users in alleviating frustration and providing relevant information when they get lost, can help them find what they need, and tell them exactly where they are.
You should always have a page title, but a cherry on top is the cookie crumb headers — for example, headers that show Home > Resources > Blogs > SEO Basics can tell users both where they are and how they got there. Linking those previous pages in your header also makes it easy to turn around if they need to go back. URLs are also a great spot to clean up your navigation: short, clear URLs are easier to copy, paste, and share; they stand as intuitive location landmarks for your users; and honestly, that attention to detail to replace all the letters and numbers with an intuitive keyword just looks better. All of these can work to improve your website image and make you more trustworthy.
Filling empty spaces
When it comes to websites, empty space and gaping holes can hurt your credibility. No one wants to buy products with no images available, and people aren’t eager to trust a business as an authority if they see giant empty spaces you could have (and should have) filled with something. This is more than just adding things until the spaces are filled, but also be intentional and strategic with your layouts, content, and number of pages. It’s better to have a few solid pages of content than a slew of them with content and copy that’s spread to thin or overly repetitive.
There is a balance between adding irrelevant images and text to fill the space and leaving clearly blank areas. Free images of all kinds are available online for you to fill some space, and Chat GPT and other online resources can help you supplement your page copy. Even if you opt to reuse templates or layouts, your website pages should all be made with intention and never look blank or forgotten.
