SEO Web Design Tricks to Help You Rank on Google
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a continual process that modern businesses need to prioritize in order to remain relevant on popular search engines. Why is this important? Well, because prospective clients start their research on search engines, like Google. It is there that they are exposed to businesses, but only if they appear on the first page. That is why you need to optimize your site to ensure you appear high on the results page.
Here are five web design tricks to help your site rank high on Google:
Create Relevant Content
The number one organic traffic driver is quality content. What is quality content? Well it can be an article or video saturated with relevant keywords that is crafted carefully for your target user. Content that matches your target audience’s intent, is written well, and is optimized, gives your site authority and relevance for online searches. This means that your content appears high on the results page for specific keywords and phrases.
To start creating quality content, curate a list of keywords and phrases relevant to your business, products, and services. For example, if you are a dentist you can make a list of different dental procedures, illnesses, and common questions your patients have. However, it is important to keep in mind that one piece of content will only likely rank for one keyword or phrase, unless the phrases are extremely similar. Therefore, you should center each piece of content around a specific keyword.
Once you have curated a list of keywords, try to place them in as many places as possible, including:
- URL
- Article title
- Article subtitle
- Image titles
- Headings/subheadings
Try to repeat the keyword or phrase as many times as you can throughout the article until it becomes too redundant. The more your keyword is mentioned throughout the article, the more authority it gains on search engines.
Update Content Regularly
Once you create a piece of quality content, it can sit on your site for a little while until it gains traction. However, you don’t want the information to become outdated or else your site loses relevance. Therefore, you should create a strict schedule where you review your content and make necessary updates. Updates can either entail ensuring the data is still accurate or even adding another section detailing newer information.
You should also consider using the pillar/supporting article scheme when filling out your blog. This strategy entails writing a long-form article as the pillar and shorter articles that cover surrounding topics. For example, a doctor can write a pillar article covering why patients should visit their primary care physician and how often. Then they could write multiple supporting articles, each covering common procedures. This pyramid-like scheme increases the authority of the original pillar article.
Prioritize Metadata
Metadata is often overlooked simply because it is short-form information. Metadata is concise data inserted on the backend of a website that describes a piece of content, such as the title, headings, image description, etc. Let’s go over the three main types of metadata:
Title Metadata
Title metadata determines page titles at the top of the browser and the headline that appears in search engines. Because of this reason alone, title metadata is the most important metadata on a website.
Description Metadata
Description metadata is exactly what it sounds like, it is the text that describes what is on a webpage. This description often appears under the title data on the search engine results page, but not always. It needs to accurately describe the page while also enticing users to click the webpage in just two sentences.
Keyword Metadata
Keyword metadata falls at the end of the list when prioritizing SEO, only because it is rarely used for determining your search engine rankings. However, at this point you should have already curated a list of keywords, so it doesn’t hurt to add them to your site. Make sure to add a variety of keywords, keeping around 3-7 phrases each containing 1-4 keywords.
Back-link
In order to have a link-worthy site, you need other authoritative sites linking to your content. This will come naturally as you continue to create quality content and create a user-friendly site. As your search engine ranking improves, other sites will want to reference you, which in return will skyrocket your SEO!
So where do you start? Well, start by adding relevant links throughout your content. Make sure not to hyperlink the text “click here” as this is overused and not valued anymore by search engines. Instead, hyperlink keywords that add value to your article and accurately describe the destination URL.
Use Alt-Tags
Lastly, if you are showcasing an image or video, be sure to include plenty of alt-tags, also known as alternative text descriptions. This enables search engines to accurately rank your page even on text-only browsers.
SEO best practices are always changing, which is exactly why you must actively monitor your site and determine where you can improve it, both for the user-experience and ranking.
