Dix Conseils pour Améliorer Votre Sur-page SEO

In this day and age, let’s be honest, websites are an absolute must for brands who want to build serious awareness. What is the first thing you do when you want to know more about a brand, or even just want to check that it actually exists? Here at Lime, we use our little fingertips and Google the hell out of it and we are pretty sure this is what you do too. So, websites have definitely become a must-have for any brand communication pack. With this in mind, it has become clear that brands should not only have a website, but also ensure that it is well ranked in Search Engines as internautes usually don’t go past the 2nd page of search results. And how do we do that? The first step and essential foundation is to ensure that your website follows the simple rules of On-Page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which ensures that everything is set-up for search engines to properly crunch your website and bring it up when users insert the corresponding seach term in their google finder.

To help you on this path, taking the example of a scuba diving website, we have put together 10 commandments (or tips) to follow while you are building your website or updating it to ensure that you are set-up for success. 

01 – Have a friendly URL

Forget never-ending URLs, focus on the essential and make it easy for users to understand it. This means that your URLs should be based on content and clearly outline what it is about… not be a random bunch of numbers. 

Recommended: domain-name.com/scuba-diving-certification
Not recommended: domain-name.com/page-728-l1-certification-scuba

02 – Page Title and Description

Identify the keywords that speak to your audience and make sure you weave them in all your website content. Follow the rules of page title and description to make your website and links attractive to users. 

Page Title: 50 – 60 characters. Start with targeted keywords.
Description: Technically not SEO related, but it is your commercial message to invite users to click.

Example:
Scuba Diving Certification by Flipper
Searching for fun and affordable Scuba Diving Certification? Our program is the best way to begin your life-long adventure as a certified scuba diver.

03 – Structure your content with the proper heading tags

The back-end is important to search engine and your coding must be flawless to make sure that search engine do not classify you as an unsafe website. This means that you need to categorise your headings and make sure you apply those rules consistently throughout your website. Think of it as a tidy workplace. What’s more? It will ensure users see a neat, well-organised website which will enhance their user experience. 

<h1> refers to Header 1 as the main header of your page.
<h2> and <h3> are secondary headers on your page.

04 – Write quality content

Content, content, content – but RELEVANT! To bring up a website, search engines evaluate if the content in it is relevant to the search terms. So, the more QUALITY and RELEVANT content you input, the more relevant you become. This is why it is important to understand what kind of content might be interesting to your audience, understand your keywords and write content that will bring value to your audience. 

Recommended: Between 500 – 700 words, do not copy paste existing content.
Recommended: Try to insert targeted keywords on the top of the page, the earlier in the paragraph the better.

Eg. For Scuba Diving, some keywords are: Diving Certification, Diving Levels.

05 – Try to get quality inbound links from popular websites

Having external websites sending back to your own website is one more proof that your website is relevant and endorsed by peers. This will play a big role for search engines as it give them validation that THEY themselves are bringing relevant sites up to their users. This is where your public relations strategy can play a big role, get quoted, make sure your content is relevant and can be used by others… but most importantly work towards RELEVANT links, quality over quantity is always best. 

Recommended: Create inbound links to other popular websites related to your content.
Recommended: Prefer anchor links in paragraphs linking to one of your specific page, instead of a basic link at the bottom of the page linking to your home page.

06 – Youtube Videos

Video content is on the rise, and having/ featuring videos on your website that are relevant to your industry/ objective is always a plus.

Recommended: Insert or link youtube videos and try to get quality inbound links from popular websites.

07 – Add structured data to stand out

Structured data essentially refers to testimonials, when the testimonials you feature or you organically receive contain relevant keywords (Eg. Fuss-Free Scuba Dives…) it is the confirmation for search engine that you are endorsed by “real” people for the services/ products you claim to be selling. When you think about it, it always goes back to proving to search engine that you are actually genuine. 

Recommended: This can help you differentiate and stand out in the search ending results page.

08 – Optimise Image File Names

Remember when we were talking about clean work station? That’s another commandment to follow. Search engines like CLEAN websites, well-organised, classified and endorsed – and this also comes with optimising your image file names. They don’t want any images, they want relevant images that will further explain/ demonstrate/ confirm the services or products you sell. Bonus points if they contain relevant keywords. 

Recommended: Dive with turtles after scuba diving certification with Flipper.jpg
Not recommended: kids-scuba-diving-certfication.jpg

09 – Optimise website loading speed

It’s all about user experience, and what happens when a website takes too long to load? The user closes the tab and moves on with a different website. And what does this mean for search engine? It means your website is not bringing a good user experience to their client, so they push you down. You might want to make it fancy – but if it means your website takes more than 10 seconds to load… it really defeats the purpose. Choose the right server, optimise your content and make sure your website loads fast!

Format: Jpg is lighter.
Compression: Finding the right balance between quality and lightness
Dimension: Upload images in the correct width and height they are supposed to display.

10 – Enable content sharing

We already talked about peer endorsement, right? Well this is in the same line. Make your content sharable so you can show to search engine that your content is relevant, not only to you, but actually endorsed by your community!

Recommended: Use social sharing buttons for people to share your content.
Recommended: Add your social media links at the bottom of your page to avoid a decline in the bounce rate.

 

This informative guide is recommended by our website partner – Eneko, WordPress Specialist Focusing on SEO & Speed Optimisation.

And if you are still fuzzy on some things, don’t forget to contact us!