After setting up your general environment, it’s time to go a step further! When it comes to SEO, always keep in mind that Google and other search engines have the goal to provide their users with the best possible answers to their search queries. This basically means – if your users like your website, Google likes it too! Hence, it always should be your goal to maximize user experience in every possible way. We show you how!
Configure Permalinks / SEO Friendly URLs
Wait, what exactly are pretty permalinks? Just as the name implies, any URL ( Uniform resource locator) should indicate what the respective page is all about, ideally in a descriptive and easy-to-understand way! But it’s always better to show than tell so here’s a little experiment:
Without knowing the definition, can you identify which URL is the prettier one?
- https://seobuddy.com/?aspx=456032304
- https://seobuddy.com/welcome-to-the-club/
Easy, right?
You might now say, well this is nice to look at but, at the end of the day, isn’t it most important that my user is directed to the right page rather than what the link looks like? Well, purely looking at it from a functional perspective you are correct. However, from a UX perspective, pretty permalinks show what a page is all about at a glance – even before checking out the page. At the end of the day, it is a nice and easy way to increase your UI. On top, SEO-wise, URLs are a very important ranking factor. Hence, optimizing your URLs is also crucial for your SEO efforts.
With WordPress for example, this is very easy to implement. Simply Go to Settings > Permalinks > Post Name > Save. Done!
Check if your Website is optimized for mobile usage (Mobile Friendly)
Once you have a Google Analytics account you can see how many people access your website from a desktop versus from a mobile device. And in most cases, the mobile access rate is significantly higher than the one from a real computer! On average over 60% of visitors use a mobile device to see your website. Therefore you want to make sure there are no overlaps and everything is readable in the first step. (Don’t be fooled, just because your site looks good on a desktop does NOT automatically mean it looks good on a mobile device). On top of that, nowadays a website that is loading slowly is an absolute no-go and makes people flee from it faster than you can look. Hence, you want to make sure that your website’s performance is high – and also mobile-friendly.
Some website providers specifically allow you to optimize the interface in a separate design menu. The easiest way to see how your website on a phone is to actually just access it yourself! On top, there are tools out there that let you test your website, such as the Google Mobile-Friendly Test: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Tip: You can use the Chrome console (F12) and toggle the device toolbar to understand how the site appears on different mobile devices. Page
Check your website loading time and make sure your website loads fast
Speed is an SEO ranking factor! Let’s say there are two identical pages on two distinct websites. As Google always tries to provide the best possible result for the searcher it will favor the one that loads faster over the one with the lower performance.
But how fast is fast? Here are a few fun facts for you, giving you an idea about how important speed is (Source: Trinity):
- Only 15% of Websites Operate at an Acceptable Page Speed
- 37% of Visitors Bounce When Your Site Takes Five Seconds to Load
- A One-Second Delay Results in a 7% Drop in Conversions
- Three of the Top Four SEO UX Signals are Page Speed Dependent
Impressive right? You see that speed is a VERY important factor that you should not overlook. So what’s the ideal speed you might ask now. To be honest, it depends. However, as a rule of thumb, all your pages should load in under 3 seconds.
Tools to measure the speed of your website:
Keep URLs Short
Apart from being descriptive and self-explanatory (see above), a URL should always be short and concise.
According to Matt Cutts, Administrator at U.S. Digital Service, you summarize the core of your content with three to five words (try not to use more than 60 characters):
“If you can make your title four- or five words long – and it is pretty natural. If you have got three, four, or five words in your URL, that can be perfectly normal. As it gets a little longer, then it starts to look a little worse. Now, our algorithms typically will just weigh those words less and not give you as much credit.”
Check and Optimize Your 404 Page
Have you ever seen your own 404 Page? No? Well, let’s do it! Head over to your site and add a “/404” to your URL. This will trigger the 404 pages.
So now think about your users – they are not triggering the page on purpose but end up on it when they can’t find what they are looking for. In return this means they will most likely bounce off your site, increasing your overall bounce rate. And a high bounce rate is bad for your SEO!
You might now ask, how you can stop people from ever experiencing a 404 error? Well, you can’t. But what you can do is make the 404 pages an experience for your user!
An example: If you work with WordPress, you can simply install the following plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/404page/ – it allows you to basically make ANY page your 404 pages. In return, this implies you can create a new page – make sure it looks great and set that like your 404 pages. Now you have a 404 page that has some value for your user which will reduce your bounce rate.
Why not take a shortcut and simply refer to an already existing page, such as your start page?
I wouldn’t recommend it for one reason: A 404 error means that something is missing! Users that can’t find what they are looking for most likely turn into lost leads. However, if you provide them with interesting information where they would least expect it, this is your chance to convert them into prospects.
Make it easy to share your content (“shareable” content)
We all know that a personal referral or recommendation is one of the most powerful lead generators. If someone you trust gives away their name for a product or service it is highly likely that you believe them and gives it a shot! The former “word-of-mouth” can nowadays also be found on social media: If your real users share YOUR content on THEIR personal accounts, this is one of the best marketing effects you can have!
But how do you get people to share your content?
Make it interesting, fun, and easy to share!
What exactly does that mean? A couple of tips to keep in mind:
- Have a “social media sharing solution” on your website by simply integrating Social Media buttons on your page (Classics include Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter & Instagram). Your website providers likely provide an easy way to do so in the template you are using. You can even improve this experience by adding a custom sharing solution, for example by respective adding plug-ins. For WordPress, one great plug-in is Social Snap : It has great features and is on top performance-friendly. However, there are many other solutions out there: For an overview check out this list by WpRocket which ranks the plug-ins according to their performance.
- Make it easy for social networks to grab your data from a technical standpoint. Are your tags set up properly? Tools such as Yoast or Rank Math do this automatically and you can on top manually customize or change the tags on a page-by-page basis.
Claim your Brand on Multiple Social Networks
Let’s try something: Search your own brand by typing it into Google. Hit the search button – what do you see? Probably you’ll find yourself in one of three possible scenarios:
- A compilation of links to your website or social networks
- Only a few links to your website and social networks, mixed with unrelated websites
- No links to your own brand and only links to other people’s brands
The idea behind it is very simple: Your goal should be to have ALL results on the first page directed to your brand or content. Why is this important? If you look at it from a user perspective – the more information you can find about someone, the more trustworthy they appear in your eyes. And trust is the primary precondition for someone wanting to work with you!
A rather easy way to do this is by claiming your brand’s online properties. These include:
- Your website homepage
- Other pages on your website
- Facebook Page
- YouTube
Or other important niche-specific directory listings.
Record User Sessions & Heatmaps to understand your UX
So-called “Heatmaps” are a great way to understand your user’s behaviour on your website. Heatmaps show you..
- how far users scroll
- where users click
- what users interact with on the page
- how the website looks like from a user perspective
By understanding what content users interact with and how they navigate through your pages can give you important feedback on how to improve your online presence and user experience!
Some great heatmap tools are: