Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral part of web design that should be given all the attention, effort, and resources it needs. Because there are countless websites on the internet, simply having your own website is not enough.
You will need to work your way to the top of the search engine result page (SERP) to make it big in the realms of the World Wide Web. The further down you appear in SERP’s, the less likely visitors will get to see you, which is why you’ll need to take SEO seriously.
To help you achieve the level of SEO that can help you rank high, here are 10 tips from us that can guide you in the right direction:
Keyword Research
Back in the early days of the internet, there was a time that SEO was about flooding your web page with a keyword that is unnaturally repeated throughout your content. The more your keyword is repeated, the more likely that your page would be found and appear on a search results page for that keyword.
Nowadays, keywords are no longer needed to be repeated over and over again. A single mention of it will do, but all the elements of your content should be related to that keyword. Your keyword is still what users will use to find you and related pages, but the harmony of all your sites elements is what will make you searchable.
Because you’ll only need to use your keyword once, you will need to be very critical of your choice. Your keyword has to be representative of your entire content, and must be something that your prospective audience will really type should they be looking for a site like yours. For example, to find Local SEO Search Inc., not all users would key in the company name. Your keyword is better off as SEO expert in Toronto. Users who are in need of an SEO service provider, and one that is in Toronto at that, would be led to your page.
Fast Page Load Time
User experience is what drives SEO now. Your site’s elements should work hand-in-hand to be able to provide your visitors with the best user experience. This is what would make you reach the top of the results page.
One of the facets of user experience is your site’s load time. If your site loads too slowly, then you are risking losing them. With this, we recommend that you remove unnecessary objects such as a heavy Javascript, large images, and videos.
Easy Navigation
Navigation is also one avenue of your website design that you should consider. Aim to provide an organized navigation scheme so that users would be able to run through your site with ease.
Your menus play a large role in your site’s navigation. There’s a number of the layout of menus that you can try such as single bar navigation, double-bar navigation, and drop-down navigation. Each of these three has its own ups and downs. Make sure that you choose the most appropriate navigation scheme for your site. Always remember that for this, the fewer clicks, the better.
Responsive Web Design
As more and more people are using mobile devices to browse the internet, your web design should be able to work on various devices as well. With a huge portion of the population spending more time on their phones, the importance of mobile responsiveness has never been this immense.
There are sites that are not designed to be compatible with mobile devices, and this is going to ruin their chances with mobile users. In order to appeal to all kinds of users, your site must be responsive and compatible with desktops and handheld devices.
With this in mind, your site’s URL should be able to provide the most compatible version of your site to the specific device being used.
SEO-Friendly URL
Speaking of URL, your site’s URL should be optimized as well. Your URL should be able to represent your business. It should be catchy and easy to remember. You should also ensure that your content management system has the capacity to provide you with optimized URLs instead of URLs with automatically-generated codes made up of random numbers.
Creating Sitemaps
If your site is made up of, or has the potential to have, thousands of pages, then having a sitemap can be very helpful. Search engines will have a hard time crawling into your site without a sitemap. With the use of an XML sitemap, crawling onto all your sites’ pages would be easier.
Meta Data Variations
Each page of your site should have unique page titles, descriptions, and other metadata. Some web designers forget to do this, making it difficult for web crawlers to read your site. Multiple pages would have the same meta information despite having different content. Certain pages would be difficult to find because they are not carrying the right information
It is recommended that you spend the effort in changing the metadata to reflect what specific page is all about, helping search engines read your pages better, and help you, in return, to rank high.
Search functionality
Another way to improve customer experience by means of improving site navigation is by providing navigation by searching. Searching defeats the need to click on various menus in search for a specific page among countless possible pages. Search opens the ability to just key in what exactly a visitor is looking for. This is especially helpful for your customers if you really do have lots of pages.
Optimized images
It should be emphasized that images form part of your content and are not mere accessories to it. That is why optimizing images is as important as optimizing text.
Optimizing images, however, has a different approach. The very basic of it is that you should be using relevant images. Also remember that the images that you will be using should be of high quality, but must not be heavy in file size as this would affect the loading time of your page.
In addition, ensure that you would be using your keyword for the ALT text for your images, and this goes for graphics, logos, and header images, too.
Social Media Integration
At this age, social media has also plays an important role in your SEO efforts. Integrating social media to your site is seen by search engines as an additional value to users, which help you earn points to rank high. It is therefore essential to incorporate social media into your site’s design.
It also helps you market your company or product because you can drive users to all your digital platforms – your site, your various social media accounts, as well as customer touch points. This will be great in increasing your user base.
Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words
It cannot be denied that search engine optimization has become more complicated over the years. However, the effects are very much worth it. SEO has helped set standards as to what a website should be – one that provides the best user experience. This is the direction that search engines want web designers to take, and one that you should take as well.
It will take some time, and a lot of work before you would be able to perfect your SEO initiatives and you must persevere until then. The fruits of your labor would show up in the end. With our tips above, achieving this will be easier.
