Geeky Behind-the-Scenes Bits
There are many things about your website that search engines read that may not be obvious up front. Some of them can have an enormous, direct impact on your SEO.
We love to get geeky about this technical stuff. If any of it is overwhelming to you we would love to help.
Keywords
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
What do you want to be found for? “World’s biggest ball of twine”? “Best place to stay in California”?
Figure out what you’d like, see if anyone’s actually searching those terms, and then start weaving that phrase naturally into your website pages.
Don’t overdo it though, otherwise you’ll slip into Keyword Stuffing. (See SEO Mistakes.)
Sometimes blogs or articles are the best solution to talk about a specific keyword and get found.
“Keywords” are often phrases rather than single words. Confusing? Yes, we know.
How do you find out if people are searching for the terms you think you should rank for? Use Google’s keyword tool or other free tools to do keyword research.
Often, what you think your prospects are searching for is not as common, or is too broad. You want to find keywords that directly match your offering in order to compete.
Server Speed
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
Sitemap
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
(Did we say “bots”? Yes, Google sends fact-finding tiny bots to “crawl” and read all the web pages on the internet.)
Your sitemap will tell them which pages of your website to crawl, how often you want them crawled, and the order of importance. It’ll make life easier for the bots, and they’re more likely to be your friend.
Robots.txt
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
If you don’t want Google’s bots to crawl a page, it’ll need to be added to the Robots.txt file. Think of it as a “Do Not Disturb” sign.
Page Speed
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
If you sit and do nothing, counting 5 seconds, you can imagine how even that is too long to wait for a website to load.
Check out Google’s page speed tool to see how quick your website is.
If the Google tool mentions “Optimize images,” then check out our help guides on how to fix this using Photoshop or using a free alternative called GIMP.
Search Engine Friendly URLs
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
It doesn’t tell you much, right?
How about www.YourCompanyName.com/things-we-sell?
A bit better.
This is what SEF (Search Engine Friendly) URLs are all about. Subtle details like this can make a big difference in your trust factor and the experience people have with you on the web.
Don’t just change URLs willy-nilly. See below for how to do it without hurting your SEO in the process.
Redirecting Old Website Pages
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
But hang on, changing your URL leaves an old one hanging out there in the web-verse with no page attached, causing “404 Page Not Found” errors. Those old URLs were already crawled by Google and were getting visitors. They need redirected to keep their momentum.
Meta Tags
Indirect
On-Page
Off-Page
UX
Optimising these is a crucial part of getting ranked in the search engines. They’re also a prime place for keywords.
Make sure to keep within the character limit so that your whole title or description fits in the search result. You can test the length of your title here.
Now we’ve covered the technical things that matter for the search engines.
Continue on to learn the big bad SEO mistakes to avoid.
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