1. Meta Content
Title & Description – Provide intriguing descriptions of your content! This will not only help your rankings in search engines but will additionally help increase click through from the search engine results pages.
2. Optimized URLs
Don’t use URLS that look like this: website.com?p=123 (as an example). We are looking for URLs that look like this:
website.com/product-name
website.com/category-name/product-name
This is easier for your visitors to read and will help search engines identify what your content is really about.
3. No Duplicate Content
Try and customize whatever framework you are using as much as possible whether it is WordPress, Joomla or any of the other many standard frameworks. You can usually get away with merely customizing the theme that you are using in conjunction with the framework. It is a lot of work to create unique content, but it is absolutely worth it in the long term. Duplicate content is quickly figured out and penalized leading to short-term results that won’t endure the test of time. Duplicate content “can” rank, but it is not a good strategy because it doesn’t tend to last long. This is speculation based on a number of case studies that I have performed and observed.
4. Content on Pages
Add lots of content – as much as possible wherever you can. Google and search engines love long content and it gives them more to work with. You can think of it this way: the more content you have on your page, the more keywords Google (and others) can associate your content with. Simply put you will show up for more long-tail searches.
Unique content – don’t copy and paste from other sources of the product if your reselling (i.e. Amazon). It’s easy to do but will not give you good results. I already mentioned this but I cannot emphasize it enough.
5. Use Rich Snippets
Learn more about implementing them in wherever you can. The code aspect of these is out of the scope of this article, but there are numerous guides online that you can look at. If you still haven’t found a theme, try and find one that supports these by default. Google is weighing these factors more all of the time.
Rich snippets include
- Reviews – (1-5 stars)
- Pictures
- Video thumbnails
6. Allow Visitors to Leave Comments
If you have a comment section on your posts or website make sure it is active. This will add fresh content on your page & add to your keyword content. If you have to, break the ice start the discussion yourself by posting the first comment. ** Don’t want to allow comments? Add a reviews section!
7. Try to Improve Website Performance
Use plugins to help page caching will reduce the load on your server & quicken up the wait times for visitors.
Modify your sites CSS by consolidating it into one file. There are usually plugins that can help you with this, depending on your framework.
Shrink and compress your images as much as possible. Try not to lower the quality too much but be aware that images are using most of your bandwidth on your server and are usually the main reason for a slow site.
Remove any unnecessary javascript libraries. Java-heavy sites can be difficult for search engines to read and can create a slow experience for visitors who aren’t using a fast connection or are using a slow computer. I’m not saying don’t use java, just use it in moderation. Getting addicted to java is like being addicted to heroin you won’t be able to function without it.
I’ve heard that page speed helps rank your websites better in search engines, I’m not 100% sure if it actually does but slow websites suck for the user. If your site is slow look for a decrease in conversions and visitor confidence. Human or Bolt it’s pretty universal nobody likes a slow website.
8. Create Sitemaps for Your Website
Sitemaps (often in XML format) help search engines crawl your website. You can submit your sitemap to Google through Webmaster Tools – sign up if you haven’t already, it takes 5 minutes. There are many plugins that will automatically generate a sitemap for you every time you update your content. For example, WordPress has a great free plugin called “Yoast SEO Plugin” that will make this process automated. Be sure to include pictures and videos in the sitemap.
9. Add Products or Services and/or Categories on the Homepage
This will help your site share authority with product/service pages. It will trickle down the authority of your homepage to your other pages, this really applies to e-commerce sites. Now you should be linking to your other posts/pages/products/services from your homepage already regardless of how you are using your website.
10. Interlink pages
Put related content on posts and pages. Recommended products, newest content, etc. This lets you share the “link juice” on your site, and it will also help keep visitors on your site.
11. Add Breadcrumbs
Add Breadcrumbs to your pages Breadcrumbs provide a user an easily/user friendly way to navigate your website. If a user lands on an internal page from another source having breadcrumbs will allow the visitor to see exactly where they stand within the sites hierarchy. The most common and instinctual placement for breadcrumbs is within the top of a page’s content either before or after the page’s main header. This allows users to find the breadcrumbs very easily.
12. Call to action
It is in my opinion that a website visitor should always have a way to contact you on every page of your site. Providing a contact number, email, or even better a short contact form gives the visitor an easy accessible way of communication with you.