How to optimise your website
So, you’ve built a website. It looks pretty good. But you’re not getting the traffic or conversions you hoped for. What could be wrong? In short, your website probably isn’t correctly optimised for SEO and if that’s the case, you’ll miss out on the benefits of getting organic traffic when people click through to your site from a list of search results. It might also be slow to load or be incompatible with mobile devices.
The good news is, there are many website optimisation techniques you can use to quickly improve your digital presence. Here are some top tips.
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Use Keywords Correctly
Google has the very complex task of deciding which content is relevant for a specific search. They’ve a reputation to uphold and only want to present the very best content on their search engine results pages. So, to be in with a chance of ranking for a certain topic or popular search term, it’s your job to use words and phrases that describe clearly what your content is about. And that’s where thorough keyword research comes into play.
When researching keywords, think about user intent. What would you search for to find your content? Brainstorm these words. You can then find related terms using tools such as LSIGraph. You can also use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to find out how people already get to your site. Other places to identify keywords include blog or social media comments. What are people talking about and what hashtags are being used?
When you have your keyword list, you can start to optimise your content. Keywords should appear in:
- Titles and headers
- Website URL
- Meta description
- Links within the content
- Throughout the body content (around 2% of the total copy)
Top Tip: Avoid content stuffing. This is considered a Black Hat SEO technique and could actually damage your SEO efforts.
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Use Short and Long-Tail Keywords
When it comes to website optimisation, using a mix of short and long-tail keywords is a good idea. While short keywords cover popular terms which highlight the relevancy of your content for a certain topic, long-tail keywords are more specific and usually longer. They get less search traffic, but usually have a higher conversion value.
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Think About Images
Website images can improve the look of your website and keep consumers interested. They can also enhance the meaning of your written content. But, if you’re going to use photos, infographics and the like, they must be optimised. Essentially, you don’t want to add a bowling ball of weight to your site, so make sure you reduce the size of any images without compromising image quality. You can do this by compressing images and sticking to a JPEG or PNG format. Remember, slow sites can lead to a high bounce rate which has a negative effect on SEO.
Your images must also be fully optimised to avoid wasting a valuable SEO asset. Firstly, Google prioritises the user experience, so using original photos and not stock images like thousands of other websites can work in your favour. Secondly, always create keyword rich file names to alert Google to the subject matter associated with your image. Write SEO-friendly ALT text as these descriptions can help your image appear for a user query.
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Consider Mobile SEO
According to a report from Hitwise, nearly 60% of all online searches are now carried out on a mobile device, with some sectors including Food and Beverage, reaching 72%. Therefore, it’s well worth your time to optimise your website for mobile. There’s a lot of techy parts to this but from a content perspective you can.
- Make your content scrollable rather than making people click through to lots of different pages.
- Closely crop images to maximise detail.
- Use short, punchy paragraphs for people on-the-go and plenty of keyword rich titles and subheadings for skimmers.
- Think of user intent. What do they want when they’re on your page? Make this content easy to find.
Seek professional help for your SEO
For a reliable Kent SEO agency, contact Whitefish Marketing today for all your SEO and website optimisation needs, on 01303 720 288. Our friendly team will walk you through a brief audit of your site and explain the options available to you.
