I learned how to design a website in a weekend.
I used iWeb, a website creation tool developed by Apple. It came preloaded along side GarageBand and iPhoto on my computer in the summer of 2006. A client was hosting a big music festival in Atlanta, and asked me to design a website to promote and share event details. I said yes! and in a crazy weekend of crash course how-to learning and web design, I built him a website!
A lot has changed in nearly 20 years of website design, but Search Engine Optimization best practices have remained almost the same. Adding detailed page titles, image descriptions and keyword rich content to your web files could be the guaranteed way to increase your website’s visibility and search engine ranking. A website design client recently asked me, "What are the 10 best SEO practices I can preform to enhance my website’s visibility and ranking?" Here's what I found:
1. Quality Content
Produce high-quality, relevant, and valuable content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, videos, images, and other types of content.
2. Keyword Research and Optimization
Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the terms and phrases your audience is searching for. Use these keywords strategically in your content, including titles, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the body text, while ensuring it sounds natural and not forced.
3. Optimize On-Page Elements
Ensure that your website’s on-page elements, such as titles, meta descriptions, headings (H1, H2, etc.), image alt text, and URLs, are optimized with relevant keywords and provide clear descriptions of your content.
4. Mobile-Friendliness and Page Speed
Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on all devices. Google considers mobile-friendliness and page speed as important ranking factors.
5. Improve User Experience (UX)
Create a seamless and intuitive user experience on your website, including easy navigation, clear calls-to-action, and engaging multimedia elements. A positive user experience can lead to longer dwell times and lower bounce rates, which are favorable for SEO.
6. Earn Quality Backlinks
Build a diverse and natural backlink profile by earning links from reputable and relevant websites in your industry. Focus on creating valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks rather than engaging in manipulative link-building practices.
7. Optimize for Local SEO
If your business serves a specific geographic area, optimize your website for local search by claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing, including your business address, phone number, and hours of operation, and by creating locally focused content.
8. Optimize for Featured Snippets and Rich Snippets
Create content that is optimized to appear in featured snippets or rich snippets, such as FAQs, how-to guides, and structured data markup, to enhance your visibility in search results.
9. Regularly Update and Maintain Your Website
Keep your website updated with fresh content, ensure that it is technically sound, and fix any broken links or errors. Regular updates signal to search engines that your website is active and relevant.
10. Monitor and Analyze Performance
Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance, track key metrics such as traffic, rankings, and conversions, and identify areas for improvement.