Does Google Love Your Website? 3 Crucial Details for Great SEO
Follow these steps to improve the quality of your website, and earn yourself a thumbs-up from Google in the process! Get started now with these 3 fundamentals:
Give each page a name!
DO: Create unique and accurate page titles
A title tag tells your potential visitors (and search engines) what a page on your website is about. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site, making title specific to it’s page. Think of these like titles to a chapter in a book; be brief, but descriptive.
DO: Remember- Page titles are displayed in search results!
The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information (business location or short tag-line).
DON’T: Leave a title blank, or use something generic (like Page 1 or New Page)
DON’T: Choose a title that could be misleading about the page- accuracy is key!
Make use of Descriptions!
DO: Give them a quick pitch.
Give potential customers a reason to come to your site by properly describing it. Use the “description” meta tag to elaborate on your page title, describing the page in 1-2 sentences.
DO: Make each page description unique.
Avoid the lazy route of copying one page description for each page on your website- you’ll feel the wrath from Google, as duplicate content is huge no-no.
DON’T: Fill up a description with just keywords; write in sentence form, adding accurate keywords in naturally.
DON’T: Make it a novel. Google wants a quick and accurate description to show your potential visitors, not a short story.
Keep your URL’s clean!
DO: Use the ol’ K.I.S.S. system. Simple and accurate are the name of the game (see a pattern here?).
Each page on your website should have the most concise and clear address possible. Which of the following 2 pages looks more trustworthy and relevant (not to mention, professional)?
www.example.com/page_details.aspx?ID=0b88c
- or – www.example.com/learn-more
DO: Check your links after making changes!
Let’s say you change your “About” page URL from:
www.example.com/about_us_page_1
- to – www.example.com/about
This is great- but your work isn’t done. Comb through your website menus, side-bars, footer, and pages to make sure EVERY link to that “About” page goes to the NEW page URL, not the old one (which would be a broken link- another big no-no.)
DON’T: Forget to use dashes/hyphens (-) to separate words in your URL’s. Google prefers hyphens over underscores, and you should NEVER place words together with no separating punctuation.
DON’T: Use capitalization, numbers, or punctuation marks other than hyphens. Keep. It. Simple.
Helpful pages to learn more:
- The anatomy of a search result
- Diagram of a Google search results
- Improving descriptions
- Clean URL’s
If you haven’t already, you can (and should) view or download the complete Google SEO Starter Guide HERE
Need a hand with your website SEO, or want to delegate these tasks? Contact us for a complimentary SEO review and consultation, and we’ll take the weight off your shoulders!