Update Your Website Content With These Simple Steps

SEO, SEO, SEO - We talk about it all the time because it’s one of the most important things when building a website. Without a strong attention to SEO within your site, none of your well-written content will be seen. For a refresher, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the techniques used to make your website organically rank higher on a list of search engine results. Simply put, you show up higher when someone Googles something.

There are numerous best practices that website developers should adopt from the back-end when designing a website, but did you know that there are things you can include within the content itself? Here’s how:

Utilize keywords - but don’t overdo it.

A keyword is a word or phrase that sums up the contents of your web page. Search engines use keywords to identify when to display your site as a search result. Select the keyword most relevant to your topic and build your page around it. Be sure to use your main keyword as well as long-tail keywords naturally throughout your page. But make sure not to overuse or fluff your content with said keywords, or else you’ll be penalized for being too spammy. You can also utilize keyword density tools to ensure you've used the right amount.

Content, content, content.

We’ve mentioned before that content is king. It’s still true here. Your audience won’t stay on your page or be compelled to share it if they aren’t intrigued by the content or if it’s not easy to read. Google typically rewards shorter sentences and paragraphs with higher rankings, so keep that in mind.

Link it up.

Always link to other pages within your site naturally, whether it’s to a blog, contact or services page to drive internal traffic. It’s better to create a link within your copy as opposed to saying something like, “click on this link.” Also, link to credible outside sources when possible to create a more valuable user experience (UX).

What’s in a name?

Page titles are always important. This is what appears at the top of a user’s browser when viewing a page, in the page URL and as the title on a search engine result. When optimizing for search engines, if you can use your keyword at the beginning, then you’re golden. Keep your title short (under 60 characters, including spaces) and compelling. If you can include a number, then do it. According to ConversionXL, titles containing a number result in a 30% higher conversion rate than those without one.

Pictures don’t speak for themselves.

To the naked eye, a picture on a page is just a picture. But to Google, it sees something called “alt text,” a description of what the picture is. Be sure to edit your alt text so that it doesn’t say something like “image 503.” Changing the alt text of an image is as easy as changing its title in your web page builder. Make it short and descriptive, and it never hurts to include your keyword for an extra SEO boost.

Now we’ve given you the tools. So let your developer (or if you need one, contact ours) handle all of the coding and make sure to do your part on the content end.