It’s common for many business owners and marketers to focus their time and attention on the web design when starting out. While an aesthetically appealing site created by a renowned user experience firm can impress your visitors, it will have no bearing on your site’s traffic and ranking in the search engines.
If you want to generate as much organic traffic as possible when starting, search engine optimization (SEO) must be a key priority. If you’re set to build a brand-new website, here are four essential SEO boxes to check.
- The Domain Name
Believe it or not, the domain name you choose can considerably impact your SEO campaign. Many business owners make the mistake of attempting to rank for a keyword by using it in their domain name. However, thanks to Google’s EMD update in 2012, this is no longer a sure-fire way to rank for a primary keyword.
To increase your presence in the search engines, focus on incorporating your brand into your domain name, such as Google.com or Amazon.com. After all, it will be much easier for your target audience to remember and it will make it easier for Google to connect your site with any brand mentions.
- Page Speed
Web pages with a slow loading speed tend to have a higher bounce rate, which can impact your site’s ranking in the search engines. Google has also suggested that page speed is a primary ranking factor in its algorithm.
If you want to rank highly in Google, you must focus on developing a fast website to avoid frustrating your visitors.
For example, you should:
- Minimize JavaScript
- Avoid using heavy amounts of code
- Load web elements externally
- Allow caching
- Enable file compression
- Reduce redirects
- A Mobile Friendly Website
It might be surprising to learn that 57% of search traffic comes from mobile, which is why Google favors sites with a mobile-friendly design. If you fail to optimize your site for both desktop and mobile, don’t be surprised if you find it a difficult feat to rank in the search engines.
To do so, you will need to:
- Create a responsive web design (a layout will be arranged by the size of a user’s screen)
- Avoid Flash (it’s not available on Android and iOS)
- Incorporate a viewport meta tag (control how your site appears on a mobile device)
- Feature large CTA buttons to suit mobile
- Compress images and CSS for a fast load time
- Content Marketing
If you want to dominate the search engines, you need to master content marketing like a pro. That’s because it’s an effective way to boost your ranking in Google and generate a significant amount of traffic.
To earn a first-page ranking in the search engines, you’ll need to incorporate keywords into your high-quality content naturally.
Before you press the live button on your website, develop a stockpile of well-written, insightful articles that naturally incorporate your sought-after keywords.
Not only could it help you to skyrocket up the search engines, but your web visitors will be more likely to trust in your brand once they arrive on your website, as you have taken the time to write valuable, interesting articles.
