3 Important Aspects of Your Website That Contribute to SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving aspects of your site that search engines, such as Google, use to assess whether or not  your website should be ranked in the top results for a given search query.

SEO consists of two main prongs: on-page and off-page, with each resonating with Google in a different way. Here, we will focus on on-page SEO, which deals with optimizing your website’s content, images, and navigation. By providing an exceptional experience for your visitors, it will indicate to Google that your site has value, and it will in turn boost your chances of ranking better.

Let’s dive into the 3 Important aspects of your website that contribute to SEO:

 1. Written Content

According to Google, “compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors” when it comes to SEO, so this is as good a place as any for us to start. After doing your keyword research, you will need to find ways to incorporate them onto your page in a way that is both easy for Google to read and useful for your website visitors.

As you may have suspected, this means writing content specific to each page that you are looking to have appear in search results. Before we start looking for shortcuts (it’s okay, we all do it), I would heavily advise against “keyword stuffing,” which is exactly what it sounds like: repeating keywords over and over again without proper context.

In the early days of search engines, this may have worked to some extent, but those days are long gone. Google and its competitors have caught onto this sneaky strategy and have incorporated it into their algorithms. The best way to incorporate these keywords onto your site is by threading them into sections containing information that is actually relevant – and helpful – to your audience.

For more detailed tips on writing with SEO in mind, checkout this guide.

 2. URLs

When we cruise the web, we don’t often pay attention to a site’s URL(s) – we are more focused on what is going on the page itself. While Google’s primary focus is also on the page’s content, it reads a bit more into the URL than you or I probably would.

The URL, which is the destination of a given page, should tell search engines (and users) what a page is all about. Let’s take a look at one of TechWyse.com’s URLs.

If I may be so bold, this is a great example of SEO-friendly URL structure. The /slashes indicate to Google which folder we are in (/services/SEO tells Google that we are on the SEO page within the parent “services” folder). This hierarchy is easy for Google and other search engines to interpret, which will increase the likelihood of the page being selected for a relevant search.

If a page has multiple words that need to appear in the URL, simply add a dash between them! Google will know that these words apply to the same page. However, using /slashes and folder structure to indicate the pathway that has been taken is essential for making sure that Google not only understands what a page is about, but also how it relates to other pages and sections of the website.

Summary on How to Optimize URLs for SEO:

• Include Relevant Keywords
  • These can be separated by dashes if they pertain to the same page

• Use a clear folder hierarchy structure
  • /slashes separating previous pages from the current page

  3. Media (Images and Videos)

While written content may be king, image and video content can also be optimized for SEO to increase its likelihood of appearing in the image or video sections of search engines. It can also contribute to your site’s ranking as a whole.

How to optimize images for SEO:

• Use proper URL structure (even for images)
  • Make sure that the image’s URL describes what it is about
• Set descriptive alt attributes
  • You will not usually see the alt attributes unless using an image fails to load or if you are using a browser that describes the page to you via a screen reader (this is most often used by people with some degree of visual impairment)
    • Search engines use these alt attributes to understand what the image is about

How to optimize videos for SEO:

• Make sure that videos are indexed
  • Only indexed pages and content can be found by search engines
• Create a dedicated page for videos (i.e. a media section)
• Create a video sitemap 
• Continue to use URL best practices!

In summary, image and video media are both great for SEO and are ever better when you take a few extra steps to help Google understand what the media is about.

Recap

We’ve discussed three big on-page factors that influence SEO:

• Written Content (with relevant search keywords)
• URL structure (with, you guessed, relevant keywords)
• Media (Images and Videos)

For more tips and tricks, flip through some of our other blogs! If you’d prefer to leave it to the professionals, check out our services! Lastly, if you’re eager to join the TechWyse team, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and apply now!

The post 3 Important Aspects of Your Website That Contribute to SEO first appeared on The TechWyse ‘Rise to the Top’ Internet Marketing Blog.