Don’t buy a slow website on a slow server and then wonder why you get no trafficThis is the number one question on everyone’s lips, and it seems like you need experts doing every step, but in reality, you can do a lot yourself.
First thing you need is a website that has its SEO (search engine optimisation) in order, because if your site sucks in the eyes of the search engines, let’s face facts, it probably sucks to visitors as well.
Google and other search engines consider the user experience. Your site needs to be fast, responsive (good on all devices), interesting, unique, popular and technically good. Below is my highly simplified advice on improving the position of your website on search engines.
Fast
This is pretty easy, if your site when measured from a local server takes more than three seconds to fully load, particularly on a PC, you are in strife. You can have an amazing site, with amazing offers, but if it is slow, you don’t rank, it is that simple. Message here, pay a little extra and get a Australian server that is not overcrowded and is zippy and loads your site quickly, and make sure your site is well coded so it doesn’t bog down the server.
Check your site speed here (select closest server to you). –
Responsive
Ever been to a website on your mobile and it doesn’t look right, the text is small, or large, the images are spread too wide and it is painful to look at, compare that to a responsive site that checks your device screen size and creates a site that fits perfectly. Make sure your website is mobile ready as over 50% of searches are done by mobile.
Check your site on different screen sizes here. – http://quirktools.com/screenfly/
Interesting
A bounce rate is how the search engines measure if people arrive on your site and leave immediately, a high bounce rate is not good for your site, the other metrics are average session duration which needs to be over 2 minutes.
The exit rate is if people leave your site quickly, it must be boring and you will be penalised. The other area here is to stay relevant, meaning you should marry exactly up to what you advertise, remember Google wants to deliver relevant content, stay pure and relevant if you want a good rank.
You should also have a good percentage of your keywords in the first few paragraphs, h1 headings and page title, but don’t over do it, it must sound natural to read.
Unique
Ever heard the phrase duplicate content, it is a big no no on the web now, copying images and text will be immediately detected and you will not rank. Always write your own material or pay someone, take your own picks or get them from a site like www.pexels.com that shares images.
Popular & Blogs
This is where social media comes in, have a blog or write cool articles and share them, and if you are lucky and have something interesting, people will share it and share some more, once the search engines see large shares, they will mark you as popular and raise your rank.
I cannot state enough about writing blogs from your page and sharing them, this is a key strategy you should follow. Write about one per fortnight and make them really helpful for people.
You should also have lots of quality sites linking to you if possible. This is a complex subject that could take a long time to explain, but basically if you have an interesting, helpful, popular site, you will be rewarded.
Make sure your BING Business, Yelp and Google business places are live and up to date with the correct categories matching your services.
Back links
Back linking is without doubt the fastest was you can drive up your Google ranks. Back links are other websites that link to yours. This is an area that takes time, and you should try your hardest to ensure the links are from quality sites, not junk spam sites. A link from a spam site will drag you down, and a link from a high value site will push you up.
Technically good
Last but not least, make sure your website gets an A mark on the popular SEO testing sites like the below link. Many times you will need help with this area, however it is critical for success and well worth the effort.
Summary
If you want a site that is always on the search engines front page, it takes time and a good strategy, make sure you keep all of the above areas well managed and you will reap the rewards of a popular, interesting, quality site.
