Jan
11
4 Essential Steps To Improve Site Performance
If you’re like most B2B businesses, I’m sure you’re constantly looking for ways to boost website performance. But how to go about doing this can be so confusing because there are tons of ways to improve site performance according to all of the articles we read online. Let’s face it, selecting the right SEO tactics and resources can be extremely time-consuming and challenging if you don’t live and breathe this stuff daily.
So what exactly are search engines looking for? How can you build your website to please your prospects AND search engines? How can search engine optimization help your online presence become more profitable?
The goal is to create an enjoyable and seamless user experience and effectively communicate your content to the search engines so they can recommend your website for relevant searches. Content, website speed and architecture, domain authority and user experience all play a significant role to improve site performance overall. To get you on the right track, here are 4 SEO tactics your business should focus on for improved site performance.
Website Crawlability and User Experience
The way a website is designed and its content laid out is appreciated by search engines. Your website infrastructure needs to provide the information they are looking for when crawling your website. A good user experience must be presented to your prospects and customers as well.
How your website provides information when search engines index pages is critical to overall site performance. Details such as providing a content sitemap (usually an XML file) so they understand what content needs to be indexed, making sure there are no broken links, alerting search engines when new content has been added/updated, making sure call-to-actions are located above the fold, quick site speed time, and connecting your website to Google and Bing webmaster tools MUST be implemented, set up and monitored. You can utilize our Broken Links Finder tool regardless of whether your website contains broken links. If your website does not have the proper technical infrastructure set up to be analyzed by search engines, all efforts in producing and creating compelling content will be hindered because they won’t be able to properly index your website. A badly indexed website will dramatically impact rankings in search engine results.
Write Quality Content that People Want to Read
Don’t just write ok content… write AWESOME quality content that your prospects and customers will want to read and establish your business as a thought leader in your industry. Prospects and customers should see you as a leader and expert who knows about its business inside and out. Websites that provide unique, relevant and fresh content that engages users will always be preferred to others on search engines. As you become a trusted resource for information, users will be more likely to buy your services. The content of a website is essential for search engine indexing and rankings. The more quality content pages you have, the more links search engines have to reference.
Ever wonder why news media sites like Mashable and blogs such as The Moz Blog have become so popular and successful on the web? Even a smaller and more niche website like MINDBODY Online does a great job at producing quality content. MINDBODY Online’s website content is very easy to read and gives viewers the option of reading content by industry or specific product features. They offer a free MINDBODY Connect app for their clients and also have a resource section with white papers, webinars, videos and case studies that is helpful “Free Advice for Business Owners” in the health and wellness industry.
Links
The number of websites that link back to yours is an important metric that tells search engines your site is a resource to others. All websites indexed by Google have a domain authority score, and this score is influenced by how many links refer back to your website. What’s most important is the quality of these websites. A site with a very high domain authority linking back to your website can have much more weight than two hundred websites with lower domain authorities linking to your site.
Social Sharing and Engagement
Social media is an important tool that must be used in today’s business world in order to get more website traffic and generate business leads. Sharing content within your social profiles creates links back to your website. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and You Tube all have very high domain authorities. Once an audience is built on your social profiles, it creates an easy channel to distribute your content to people who may link to your website.
