Why do we make a website? The obvious answer would be to help people find you. Many times, your website is the first thing prospects notice about your business.
It is, therefore, extremely important to have an SEO-friendly website.
The question is, most people do not know how to make an SEO-friendly website, let alone knowing what SEO is in the first place. In this post, we’ll share tips for you to create an SEO-friendly website design.
So, let’s get started-
Create kickass responsive website design
What first impression does your website give? It is an amalgamation of website design, content, and images. There has to be a clear balance between the three; if there are too many images or text, people may get confused or disinterested.
Remember, your website is the first thing people notice about your business- the first impression is the last impression. Your website should contain a balance between highlighted text, interactive images and videos, design, and easy navigation.
This is just half the requirement- your website should be responsive and adaptable.
What does this mean?
It should load and adjust to the screen size of all websites- be it mobile, laptop, tablet, or desktop. No one has the patience to scroll sideways or zoom in/out to view the desktop version of your website on mobile.
In fact, this would give people a negative first impression of your business. An unresponsive website also downgrades your SERP (Search Engine Result Page) ranking.
One way to upgrade your SERP ranking is to integrate responsive website design that attracts and gives people a reason to stay a little longer on your website.
Create website content that intrigues
What brings people to your website? They want to know more, they want to interact with your website, some want to eventually buy a product or service.
What motivates them to do so?
One word: CONTENT
We aren’t talking about paragraphs and paragraphs of content describing your company, no one has the time to read all of that.
Most people will just skim through the home page and go to pages that interest them.
Here is where you have to think strategically.
To achieve a better SERP ranking, you will need to use keywords that people use to find your business. These keywords have to be integrated into the content, in such a way that it does not look forced or explicit.
For example, if you own a bakery in Queens, NY, your main keywords would be ‘bakery near Queens’ or ‘cakes in Queens’. You will need to integrate these keywords into your content to rank better in the SERPs.
For this, you will need to check which keywords to integrate with keyword research. How to get this done? There are many free tools for this- Google Ads is one of the most prominent.
You need to go after long-tail keywords. These are those terms that have lesser competition but greater chances of getting ranked higher in the SERPs. Coming to the bakery example, a long-tail keyword you could go after could be-
- Chocolate cake in Queens
- New York Cheesecake in Queens
- and so on.
Once you have identified your keywords, you can then create website content, infographics, videos, blogs, and other content on your website.
Also read: What is The Need for a Digital Marketing Company?
Optimize headers to help Google index your pages
Headers are the title of the page. As said before, most people are only going to skim through your web page. That’s why it is incredibly important to make your header tags summarize the content of your page. For example, if you are writing a post on how to make a cake, the headers could be
- How to bake a cake for beginners
- What you’ll need
- Preparing the dough
- How to make the icing
- How to use your oven
- How to decorate it
This breaks down the whole process of making the cake. Most will skim through this- those who genuinely want your advice would then read it in detail. Google’s SEO guidelines suggest websites have these header tags, also called H1, H2, H3 tags, and so on.
Link pages internally
For Google and your website visitors to find each page of your website, you will need to link them internally so that each web page gets visitors. You could do this by posting internal links in your anchor text that are relevant and informative.
Remember, you need to get your people to visit pages that could help them buy. It is not recommended to just randomly post links in your content just for SEO.
Improve page load time
The time it takes for your website to load can mean the difference between a lost prospect and one that you can convert. You need to make sure your website images are compressed to make sure the website loads faster. There are many other technical aspects of SEO. Though you could do the above yourself, it is always recommended to hire an SEO friendly website design company to get your website made according to the latest SEO guidelines.
Remember, SEO takes time. The more traffic you get, the more chances you have at conversions. SEO is a big investment that can deliver handsome returns in the future. You will need at least 3-6 months to see results for your SEO investments.
