The SEO Naughty or Nice List
You want to rank high when it comes to search engine results but doing that requires being on the SEO (search engine optimization) Nice List all year round! It also means limiting the amount of time you spend on the Naughty List (I know, I know, we’re asking a lot).
So how do you keep your web content on one list and off the other? Let’s talk about which SEO practices to keep and which ones to avoid as we move into the holiday season.
The SEO Nice List
1. Keeping the Customer Journey at the Forefront
When building out your web content, it should be designed with your target audience in mind. What are they searching for? What stage of the marketing process are they at? What keywords or phrases are they using? Your content should be accessible to customers who are at different points of their buying journey.
Having a solid understanding of your customer’s thought process will help you build content that reflects their needs. The information you provide should help direct them towards feeling confident and secure in your product and/or service. This will keep them on your page, increase internal clicks, and enhance the likelihood of them making a purchase – all of which boost SEO.
Remember: to have content that pops up in popular search engines, your content must line up with your audience’s intent. Google also looks for consistency in posting, so if you are using blogs or inner pages as an SEO booster, make sure you plan ahead with a consistent schedule to upload new content!
2. Optimizing Images and Page Speed
Maybe this goes without saying but we’re going to say it anyways… people are impatient. On average, you have about 5 seconds to catch your user’s attention before they begin to consider clicking elsewhere… so make sure that 5 seconds isn’t wasted!
Page and image loading speed is a SEO ranking factor for Google, meaning that those that load quickly will help get you to the forefront of search results.
Large, unoptimized images increase load times and up customer bounce rates, both of which negatively impact your SEO. The same goes for page loading speed – the longer your user must wait, the more likely they are to exit.
To maximize SEO and user experience, ensure your images are the appropriate size and format for your website. We suggest using a tool such as Page Speed Insights to help you figure out where you can improve your pages speed performance.
3. Using Internal Links
From the POV of a search engine, the more internal links a page on your website has, the more valuable that page likely is to your site. When it recognizes this, it increases that page’s search engine rank. This is why it’s so important to developing an internal linking structure on your site!
For example, your homepage should likely have the most internal links on your website, allowing customers to branch out into different areas of your site such as your services, contact pages, about us, etc. Internal linking creates a pathway to relevant information so that your customer’s don’t have to spend time searching for it.
If you’re not sure where your internal links should go, consider using a plugin tool like Yoast SEO Premium which provides internal link suggestions and linking blocks.
4. Intuitive Design and User Friendliness
Last but not least, nothing makes a site ‘Nicer’ than a stunning user experience. It should be intuitive to use, simple to navigate, and your customers should be able to get where they need to be with 1-2 clicks at the most. Make the most important and relevant information, such as your services and your contact information, are easy to find!
These things help to keep your bounce rate low and your conversion rates high, which goes a long way in securing those top spots on the search result list!
5. Backlinks
Backlinks are simpler than they might first seem. A backlink is simply a blog post or article that includes a link to your site. This tells Google that you are a source of authority that other sites refer to for information. Great, right? Well, of course, there are right and wrong ways to get back links – see the naughty list below!
As for the right way, there are three methods for getting great backlinks that you can easily do yourself. First, find blogs and online magazines looking for guest contributors. You’ll likely get credit via a byline. Next, sign up for HARO to get notifications when news outlets need expert sources. If you’re mentioned, there will often be a link to your site. Third, sign up for business profiles on various directory websites. Pro tip: Make sure your contact information is in identical formats for best results.
The SEO Naughty List
1. Using Paid Links
This is a big Naughty List no-no as it violates Google’s policies and will result in a huge drop in ranking, reduced traffic to your site, and being de-indexed altogether.
Once upon a time ago, the practice of buying links was used to artificially boost a business’s ranking instead of taking the route of creating quality content.
However, Google’s penguin update has closed this loophole, severely penalizing any business that tries to buy links in order to artificially bolster their SEO ranking.
2. Excessive and/or Invisible Keywords
Also known as ‘keyword stuffing’, using excessive keywords in your website’s content was once thought to boost your SEO ranking. Spoiler… it doesn’t.
What it does do is negatively impact your user’s experience, which ends up tanking conversion rates and causing bounce rates to climb sky-high. After all, what customer wants to spend their time rooting through material that isn’t relevant or tailored to them?
Using Invisible text, where keywords are put on a page in a font color that matches the background, is another sneaky way that some businesses try to bolster their SEO ranking.
While not as disruptive to the user experience as excessive keywording, it is recognized by many search engines as being a very unethical practice. Google’s algorithm, for example, has been developed to catch invisible keywords and penalize sites accordingly by reducing both their ranking and traffic.
3. Having Identical Content on Multiple Pages
Nothing will get you on digital Santa’s naughty list faster than duplicate content.
The reason? Well, for a search engine, duplicate content is extremely confusing. When numerous pages on your site contain identical material, it doesn’t know which to prioritize. Search engines do not want to show multiple versions of the same content and, as a result, both pages will end up suffering.
Remember: if your pages perplex a search engine, it’s not going to promote your content.
Need Some Help Getting on the Nice List?
If you’re feeling the festive frazzle and need a hand getting your content out before the holidays, we’re happy to help!
Reach out for a complimentary brainstorm, check out our offered services, or contact us here.