Therefore Your Web Pages Are Your Products…
Make every page of content worthy of your business.
The majority of your site’s pages are significant because each page of your site has an opportunity to be indexed by the search engines. This is Google in the UK, because it has about a 90% hold on search activity. In the US it’s 61%. You may maximise the possibility of a page being indexed if you can prove to Google that you have put some thought and attention into your page content. What this actually means is publishing a page that is providing a sufficient amount of unique and engaging content. If a page on your website is not indexed, you have failed to satisfy Google sufficiently for it to consider your page worthy of being included in their index. Basically, they do not think its good enough to be seen by their customers.
Learn From Your Competitors
You can learn a great deal about what could be deficient with your website page by having a quick look at your competitor’s sites. The general standard of the pages that you visit will tell you about the standards you need to attain and surpass, if your budget and time permits.
Your Message
A clear message delivered adequately is much better than a bad message delivered with bells and whistles! Taking a look at your competitor’s sites will assist you in deciding how well you will need to deliver your message. Make sure you are clear on what you are going to be saying and what you’ll be asking your visitors to do. Think carefully about what words, pictures and even video would compel a potential customer purchase from you rather than one of your competitors. When you’re clear about your message only then can you develop the content.
Your Page Is Your Display Product
Even if you’re a services business you still need to treat every single page of your web site as if you’re going to put it on on show for possible customers to view. If the product you put on a shelf looks uncared for nobody will purchase it. If the product does not provide enough information it’s a similar thing.
The Factors That Matter To Google
There aren’t any mysteries to what Google pays attention to and uses. If you do not pay attention to these elements the probabilities of your page being indexed are almost zero. If your page is not indexed it’ll NEVER be served up on a search engine results page (SERP). This list contains all of the on-page SEO elements which make up a web page. Some are not seen by the human eye but they’re checked by the search engine crawlers and are therefore critical.
- URL
- Page Title
- Meta Description
- H1 Tag
- Image file names & attributes
- Word count
URL – The Address Of Your Web Page
It is useful if the URL contains words that have meaning. If it does it will mean something to a search engine crawler. This is a helpful page address ‘www.wd4t.com/blog/managing-your-online-reputation-easy’ as it gives a good idea about what the topic of the destination page is about. ‘www.wd4t.com/node/88′ isn’t useful yet it is the same page address as the one above, however it is the raw page address. If you have control over your page addressing you should make sure the address makes sense to a human and that it reflects what a human being and a crawler will find when they visit the page.
Page Title – Times Have Changed
Like the URL the Page Title is vital and it’s definitely a factor that influences how well a page will rank. The Page Title appears in the tab of the browser. What you need to include in your page title are words you need your page to be known for but at the same time you don’t want to utilize the same sequence of words on multiple pages. It is vital you avoid duplicate page titles. Google excludes pages from its index if it thinks multiple pages of a website are too similar.
H1 Tag – Think Of It As Heading 1
H1 denotes to a search engine the main title of the content they are crawling. To the human visitor it is the main heading. It should provide the reader of the page a very clear idea of what the content of the page is all about.
Meta Description – Your Advert
This is unquestionably one of the most overlooked elements and yet it is one of the most important. It is what Google will serve up if it thinks your content is worthy of showing in search results. It must be produced with a call to action. If you do not write a Meta Description Google will choose for you what it’ll show and this is generally not advisable.
Image File Names And Attributes
Search engines can’t translate what an image is about, they only know that there is an image in place. The file name you give to an image helps a search engine figure out what the image is about. In addition to this the search engines check the alt tag and the title tag fields that can be associated with images. These fields provide further chances to tell a search engine what they should index a page for.
Word Count – Less Is Not More
It’s a fine line between having too many words and having too few. Visitors are often put off by having to read too much , however , they’ll leave a page if they can’t find enough detail. What’s clear is that Google does not like pages that are light on words. It’s vital to organize the words in a fashion that both keeps the reader engaged and satisfies Google in terms of word count.
Conclusion – Make It Good, Make It Count
In conclusion as a site owner you should regard your web site pages like you would products you are putting on show. If your products look unappealing you cannot expect people to have any interest in them. The same applies for the search engines.
If you’d like your site pages to be indexed you have to ensure you give the search engines with what they are looking for from content. If you would like your site pages to be recognized by visitors you have to make sure they can see that you’ve put some effort into producing quality content.
Mark Byers is the M. D of WD4T. Mark has been involved with the web for over 20 years and specialises in optimizing sites to gain more visitors and convert those visitors into clients. In addition to WD4T and it’s clients, he also provides consultancy services to a range of digital agencies. Mark has published many articles on strategy and planning, web design and optimization.