In today’s world, having an online website for your business does not translate to true online visibility. It is something that makes your offerings more discoverable to your target audiences on search engines. The more people will learn about your brand, the more they will be inclined to explore. One of the key elements of a successful online presence is having a website optimized with search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is a process of improving the visibility of your business on search engine result pages. This can drive organic traffic to your website with an opportunity to win the trust and conversion. If you are curious to know about the ways by which you can build an SEO-friendly website, follow this guide till the end.
20 SEO-friendly Practices To Follow
For building websites that are SEO-friendly, follow the 20 tips mentioned below:
Understand your audience:
Before you optimize your website, it is critical to know about your target audience. Conduct thorough research to find out the preferences, behaviour, and needs of your customers. Use the data obtained to create content that resonates and provides value to your target searchers. By understanding your audience, you can lay the correct foundation for a successful SEO strategy.
Keyword research:
Keyword research is arguably the most important aspect of planning an SEO strategy for new project. The main idea of keyword research is to collect phrases or words that your target audience uses to search for products or services similar to yours.
For example, suppose you have a local sports shoe store in Canada. Here to research the keywords, you can put your primary keyword, “Sports Shoe,” on the Google search bar and hit enter. You will then be directed to Google’s SERP, where you can consider the “People Also Ask or Related Searches” section to collect the keywords. This is a free method to do keyword research. You can also use paid tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Or Google Keyword Planner to do the research more efficiently with search volume and competition.
On-Page SEO:
On-Page SEO refers to the optimization of web pages on your website to offer value to the customers and match search engine algorithms. This is done to rank better on the SERP, which increases the visibility of your brand among hundreds of thousands of your customers. In this type of SEO, title tags, meta descriptions, and headers are optimized with the target keywords. Ensure your web page URL is SEO-friendly and descriptive. Link the inter-related web pages on your website to offer smooth and easy navigation the visitors. On-page SEO helps Google or other search engines understand your content and can improve your website’s visibility in search results.
High-Quality Content:
Creating content that is capable of answering users’ queries is another important task of building an SEO-friendly website. Research the common questions your target searchers might look at when searching for offerings related to your brand. Try to answer those queries in your website content to satisfy the search intent of your website’s visitors. Once you have written the content, make sure to update it regularly. Did you know high-quality content not only improves a website’s visibility but also makes your website a trusted and credible source of information in your niche?
Mobile-friendliness:
Today users prefer to surf or browse the World Wide Web through their mobile devices. This change in user behaviour has made it mandatory for digital businesses to optimize their website for mobile use. For this, you need to optimize your website with a responsive design. In this approach the content and layout of your website adjust as per the unique screen size of the device used. You can use Google’s mobile-friendly test or other tools to check your website’s mobile compatibility. Websites that are built with responsive design not only perform well on search engines but also provide a better user experience to your website’s visitors.
Page Speed Optimization:
Page speed is another crucial factor in building an SEO-friendly website. A slow-loading website is doomed to lose as many users as possible. Nobody wants to explore a website that is non-responsive and takes a lot of time to open, especially when there are a lot of options available. You can use Google Page Speed Insights to analyze and improve your website’s loading speed. Some of the steps that you can take to improve the loading speed of the websites are as follows:
- Decrease the size of the images and media on your website.
- Keep the browning cache enabled on your browser.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN)
Secure website (HTTPS)
Switching to HTTP is crucial for SEO and user trust. HTTPS ensures that data communicated between the server and the browser is encrypted. This ensures your sensitive information is safe and secure from third-party attacks. On top of all did you know Google considers HTTPS as a ranking factor? These are the reasons why it becomes important for you to secure your website with an SSL certification. A safe website is capable of instilling a sense of trust in the minds of your customers, which encourages them to take action.
Internal linking:
Internal linking is an approach wherein related web pages are linked with each other. This is done to pass the authority of old web pages to the newer ones. Another important aspect of internal linking is to make the journey of the users from one web page to another easy. A simple hyperlink is added to the content clicking, which can direct users to the other related web page. Search engines such as Google discover new web pages on your website through this linking which helps to rank your website better at the SERP.
User experience optimization (UX):
Optimizing your website for user experience is crucial for SEO. Design your website in a way that makes ease of use and natural navigation possible. Ensure your ideal searchers can get the information with a few simple clicks. A good user experience not only boosts SEO but also assists in user engagement and satisfaction. Also, the more time a user spends on your website ( the sign of a good website), the more likely your website will rank higher.
Schema Markup:
Implementing schema markup can help you rank higher on search engine result pages. Schema markup provides search engines with extra information about your website’s content, such as reviews, time taken, ratings, and product information. This, in turn, allows Google or other search engines to comprehend your content better and feature your content with related users’ search queries. This can help your website perform well and attract more clicks from the target searchers.
Social media integration:
Integrating social media sharing buttons on your website can help boost content’s visibility and reach. You should make it easy for your website’s visitors to share the content within their network to pull in more traffic and clicks. Also, talk with your target audiences on social media to build a strong online presence. Posting on social media can also make your content visible to like-minded audiences for better reach and results. For example, you can put the links of your landing pages an blogs to educate the customers about your services.
Regularly update your website:
Update your website with fresh content and offerings to signal search engines that the website is active and up to date. This can improve your website’s ranking on the SERP and attract more organic traffic. Regular updates also keep your audiences engaged and encourage them to keep coming back for more information and oppo.
Use SEO-friendly URLs:
Use short, descriptive URLs that contain relevant keywords. Always avoid using numbers or random characters in your URLs. An SEO-friendly URL not only ranks better on the SERP but also makes it easier for the users to remember and share. When you optimize your web pages URL in this way search engines understand the content of your pages and can improve visibility on the SERP.
Optimize images:
Optimizing images is crucial for SEO. Use descriptive file names and alt images to help search engines better understand the content of your images. Compress the size of the images for improved web page loading speed. By optimizing the images on your website the SEO way you enjoy the chance of ranking high on search results. Also, people who are visually disabled can take advantage of the alt tag using screen readers.
Monitor and analyze performance:
You can use tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to keep a watch on your website’s performance. Analyze the data you get from these tools to figure out the areas of improvement and track the progress over time. This data can help you make smart decisions in regard to your SEO strategy and improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Create a sitemap:
Creating a sitemap can help search engines such as Google index your website more efficiently. Submit your sitemap to the search engines to ensure your every webpage is successfully crawled and indexed. By doing so, the ranking of your website improves and your target customer can find your content more easily.
Build high-quality backlinks:
Backlinks are hyperlinks that direct a user from one website to another. Earning backlinks from a quality website is critical for the success of the SEO strategy. This practice improves your website’s authority and visibility in search results. Also, avoid getting backlinks from spammy or low-authority websites, as this can harm your SEO efforts.
Final Words!
To sum up, building an SEO-friendly website requires a combination of technical expertise, content creation, and user experience optimization. By following the practices discussed in this blog, you can improve the online visibility of your website and attract organic traffic. Implement these strategies today to start building an SEO-friendly website that ranks high on the search engine result pages.