10 Tips to Build an SEO-Friendly Website
Most business owners know that having a website is a must, even if you have only a brick-and-mortar business. However, having a website that looks good is only a small part of having an online presence.
You also need to ensure that your website is also optimized for search performance. By following these essential tips, you can create a website that not only looks fantastic but performs well in search engines, increasing organic traffic and leading to higher conversions.
Tip 1: Optimize Your Website For Mobile
Did you know that, as of February 2024, according to All Connect the global market share of cell-phone users was 59.92% whereas the desktop market share was only 37.87%?
With much of the world using a cell phone to search the internet, your website must be optimized for mobile search. At the top of the list of mobile optimizations is a responsive design.
Your font sizes, navigation, and buttons must be responsive so that a customer can view them on the web in a way that makes sense rather than keeping the same as the design on the desktop.
Tip 2: Improve Page Loading Speed
Similarly, you need to also ensure that your site loads fast otherwise you may lose visitors who do not want to wait for a page load.
One easy way to increase performance without sacrificing quality is to compress photos to minimize file sizes. Additionally, load times can be greatly lowered by lowering code by shrinking HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Browser caching can be enabled to store static files on users' devices, which will speed up future visits to your website.
Tip 3: Use An Organized Site Structure
Information hierarchy, or how information is organized and arranged, is essential for your website. The first step is to include SEO-friendly URLs that will help both search engines and users understand what your page is about.
Next, you should concentrate on how pages are organized on your website. You should strive to make each page findable by no more than five clicks. For instance, if you have a product A then your user may go to Products > All Products > Product A, or they could go to Products > Sub Type > Product A. In both cases, the user only needs two clicks.
Finally, all of your textual and media information should be displayed in a way that is impactful but is not confusing.
Tip 4: Conduct Keyword Research
Implementing keywords into your website is a fundamental practice to ensure search visibility. This refers to the search queries that users type in to find the results they are looking for on a search engine. The more relevant keywords you have on your website, weaved in naturally, the better your website will meet these queries.
Having a basic understanding of keyword research can help you determine what words and phrases you should include in your website copy. There are many different keyword research tools you can use. We recommend starting with Google Keyword Planner which is a free service through Google Ads.
Tip 5: Utilize On-Page SEO
Mastering on-page SEO is essential to ensure your site is indexed by search engines. That is because these on-page elements can indicate to a search engine what your website is about and what keywords might be most relevant.
On-page includes original title tags, strong meta descriptions, and other content attributes such as header tags (H1, H2, and H3).
Tip 6: Create High-Quality Content
Having a strong content strategy is a huge part of SEO, as well as for user engagement. Too often, webmasters and business owners alike use content to fill in a gap or create it only to implement keywords.
While keywords, as mentioned, are important, you should strive to make your content compelling and engaging. That is because search engines, now more than ever, are favoring content that is fresh, relevant, and timely.
Tip 7: Use Internal and External Linking
Both SEO and site navigation are enhanced by internal and external linking. Internal linking refers to the links that pull from pages of your website and external links refer to links from outside the website.
These links can help with your site navigation, making it easier for users to traverse your website. However, they can also help search engines understand the nature of your site.
Tip 8: Optimize Your Website Media
Did you know that accessibility greatly impacts how your website will be viewed by search engines? In addition, you can also leverage accessibility measures with images and media to both improve accessibility and provide search engines with context.
To do so you can add descriptive alt text that will explain what the image or media is about. This helps the visually impaired but also makes your content more discoverable.
Tip 9: Secure Your Website
This is more for the development of your website, but you must ensure that it is encrypted with HTTPS. This ensures your site uses the right protocol signals to let search engines know that your site is secure and thus, no user risk is present.
To get an HTTPS website, be sure to install an SSL certificate to encrypt data for users. Many websites, such as Wix or Squarespace already include this feature.
Tip 10: Monitor And Analyze Website Performance
Once you implement these steps it is time to look to continuous improvement. You should regularly audit your website by looking at your website traffic and users before. For example, you can see what pages the highest bounce rates have, what pages have the most entries, etc.
Analyzing the data will allow you a foundation from which you can optimize, improving what is working and changing what isn’t.
Building A Future-Proof SEO-Friendly Website
Creating an SEO-friendly website is imperative if you want to outrank your competitors. By following the above ten tips, you can increase your website performance, improve your search rankings, and engage more users.
We recommend you keep up with the latest web design and SEO trends when optimizing your website. You can also partner with us. We can build you a website from the ground up or optimize an existing one for search.