9 Steps to Creating a Google-Friendly Website
1. Start With Crawl-Able Pages
Search engines discover new pages on your site when they crawl your content and index your pages by following links. Therefore, pages need to be easy for search bots to find and read. If not, they won't be able to index your content nor will your site be able to show up in search results.
2. Write High-Quality, Original Content
Search engines can easily detect copied and duplicate content, so you'll need to ensure your content is high-quality and fresh. Instead of telling search engines what you want them to see, create content with human readers in mind. They need to find value in your page to find it worthy of a search result.
3. Optimize for Relevant Keywords
Keywords still play a key part in ranking in search results. They help to tell search engines what your page is about. However, only use keywords that are semantically relevant to your content. Using unrelated keywords in an attempt to manipulate search results will hurt your SEO in the long run.
4. Don’t Overdo SEO Tactics
You may be tempted to use all the SEO tactics you can find, but more is not always better. Search engines do not favor sites that take advantage of their rules, so think of SEO as a marathon, not a sprint. Using tactics such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and link schemes will eventually lead to your site being penalized.
5. Create the Right Information Architecture
The layout of your site's pages should be clear, concise, and easy to navigate. Search engines rely on signals from your site as to which pages are the most important, and they do so by crawling the hyperlinks. By creating a site with a clear hierarchy, you're making it easier for search bots to discover your most important pages.
6. Use Proper Heading Tags
By using proper heading tags, not only are you improving the reading experience for human visitors, you are also helping search engine crawlers gain a better understanding of the organization and context of your content. Use heading tags in descending order, from most important to least, and only use one H1 tag per page.
7. Reduce Load Time
Users do not stick around for slow sites, and search engines do not want to send their users to them. So, if your pages take more than a few seconds to load, optimize your site to improve its speed. Often times, large, unoptimized images can be the cause of slow load times, and to fix that, compress your images and use lazy-loading.
8. Use Social Media
While social media signals do not directly affect search rankings, social media can be used as an important tool to improve your SEO efforts. By leveraging social media, you can connect with your audience, build relationships, and create opportunities for your content to be shared. When people share on social media, you're earning high-quality backlinks pointing to your website, and when that happens, search engines take notice.
9. Use Google Analytics for Data
Google Analytics can be an SEO's best friend, or at the very least his trusty sidekick, because it gives you important insights into how users interact with your site. Analytics data can be used to identify areas for improvement, fix broken links, find new opportunities, and discover your best-performing content. By utilizing the data provided by Google Analytics, you can make informed decisions that will help you improve your site's overall performance.
