Make Google Love Your Website This Valentines Day

Keep It Fresh

Make sure that your content doesn’t become outdated, as Google will rank regularly updated websites highly. Google doesn’t like stagnant websites, so keep your content relevant and fresh. You could include a blog or social media feed on your site, to ensure that your site is kept updated, and that users are more engaged. It might be that you create some blogs that answer frequently asked questions - as Google favours content that adds value to the internet.

Content Is King

Still as relevant today as it was in 1996. Google likes good content, so make sure you regularly update your site with informative case studies, news updates, stories, or ‘how to’s. If you have great quality content on your site, then this could be a good way to rank higher than your competitors. High ranking content will be fairly long, and definitely informative; it should include plenty of images and video as both your viewers and Google will love these; it should also be well researched with references and citations included. Finally, a low bounce rate (people visiting more than one page on your site) will always flatter Google.

Mobile First

With a large proportion of search traffic coming from mobile, it is crucial that your website is mobile responsive. We all know how frustrating it is when a mobile site just doesn’t do what you want it to - and you have to pinch and move the screen… don’t let this be you! Google will always rank websites that are mobile responsive higher than sites that aren’t.

Lightning Fast

Did you know that 40% of people will abandon a site if it takes over 3 seconds to load? Reducing the time it takes for your pages to load can definitely make Google give your website some more love. We have a handy little tool for testing your own website’s page speed quickly and easily, why not give it a go and see if people regularly abandon your site?


https://www.testmywebsitepagespeed.com/


(Statistic Source - https://neilpatel.com/blog/loading-time/)

Better Meta Descriptions

Your Meta information is one of the most basic elements of SEO. While there is debate whether or not they factor in to how Google ranks pages, they’re still important to your SEO. Their purpose is to describe your page content to search engines and visitors. They tell the search engines what the page is about and they are the first impression and point and point of contact for all search engines.

Users won’t be able to actually see meta information outside of the search engine results pages (SERPs), but they should still contain a unique, concise description of your page that includes your chosen keyword if possible and below 155 characters. The most important thing to remember: write for your users, not the search engines.

‘Bob The Link Builder’

Link building is one of the most effective tactics used is SEO. Links are a signal to search engines that your site is a quality source of information worthy of citation. Therefore, websites with more, higher quality backlinks tend to earn higher search rankings.

Not all links are created equal though; a link from an authoritative website such as The Financial Times will have a greater impact on your rankings that a link from a smaller, newer website. There are a few best practices to obtain organic, natural links that will benefit the viability of your website in the long-term:

  • Content creation and promotion - Create great content that people will naturally want to share or reference to. Tell people about it - you need to spread the word before you can expect people to find your content.
  • Reviews - Put your product or service in front of influencers in your industry and get them to review it.
  • Links from friends & partners - Ask people you know and work with to link to your website. Remember the importance of relevance; links from sites that are of the same industry or niche as your own will provide much better links than those from random, unrelated sources.

It can be a time consuming process, but patience is key. Don’t be tempted to take shortcuts like purchasing links - this is against Google’s guidelines and can have devastating effects on your SEO.

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