Ways to Speed Up Website Loading Times Website loading times have a huge impact on your ranking in search. So, it’s one of the most important issues to address for SEO. There are quite a few quick wins that will make your website faster. And a lot of them are free or incredibly cheap to implement. We’ll discuss ways to speed up website loading times including: Using image compression to reduce file sizes. Employing lazy loading to reduce the bandwidth burden. Applying minify to streamline code on your website. Using browser caching to make repeat visits faster. Image Compression Images are some of the most bandwidth-heavy elements on any website. So, you’ll gain a lot of benefit from making these files as small as you can without losing detail. WordPress has a host of free or cheap image compression options available. You simply install and activate the plugin, then chose the level of compression and let it run. Remember that the number of pictures you have makes a difference too, so try to group images together if you can for fewer requests. That way, it is trying to load only one large image instead of 6 small images. Lazy Loading Lazy loading does what it says on the tin. When you install a lazy loader, your images and text will only appear for the viewable screen. That means, if someone hasn’t started scrolling down the page, the content isn’t being retrieved. Because nothing is loading unless it’s needed, site speed goes way up. Enabling lazy load is easy for WordPress and most other platforms since it’s core to modern design. If you have an older website, it’s a great idea to check that it’s activated for better load times. Your website administrator can help you with this. Minify When you minify code, what you’re actually doing is getting rid of any unnecessary comments, punctuation or pointless characters within the script. Similar to lazy load and image compression, some WordPress plugins offer this with an all-in-one tool. You’ll need to minify all the code on your site including Java, CSS and HTML to see the most benefit. Once the erroneous characters are removed, your site will perform better and load faster. That’s because it’s not having to read as much data to deliver the page. In this case, less is more. Caching Caching is like memory. Your visitor’s browser can store all the info it needs about your website and save it for later. That way, on repeat visits, they don’t need to load everything from scratch. You can set the limits on how long you want the data stored. And best practice suggests a year is a great refresh period. If you need more info about how to implement caching, check out Google’s advice. As we said before, page loading times are extremely important to your search engine ranking, so improving it is critical. We hope these tips helped and if you need more, check out our previous article on SEO.
What you might not know about SEO There are countless articles written about SEO every day. But most of them cover the same two topics: keywords and word count. However, there are some other key things to consider that have nearly just as much impact on your ranking. Here’s what you might not know about SEO: Use image alt attributes to let search engines understand what a picture is about. Write in an easy to understand way, just like you would talk. Set the heading types so search engines know how your page is structured. Configure the metadata to provide the most useful snipped of the page’s content. Alt Image Attributes Most people never bother to set up the alt text on their images. When you leave it blank, search engines don’t know what the image is, so they consider it a decorative item. This is a shame because you could be benefitting from valuable SEO juice by just setting an alt text. You need to describe what’s in the image, but that doesn’t mean it can’t contain your keywords. Think alt text like, “photo of a woman using our app to save money on car insurance.” If “save money on car insurance” is your longtail keyword, this is a great way to get more references in. Conversational Tone If you want to try for ‘position zero’ which usually gets read out by voice assistants and appears at the very top of google search results, you need to do a few things. One of the most important ones is to write in a conversational tone. That means, write as if you’re talking to someone. Answer the question (related to your longtail keyword) as naturally as possible in 40-60 words. And don’t keyword stuff, Google has software to recognise this now. Maybe you could add a few questions? Or start sentences in ‘grammatically-unconventional’ ways. Oh, and don’t use too many big words. Heading formats Another key to position zero is to use proper heading formats (especially with lists). Google needs to know how to display your content. So, only ever have one H1 heading as a first point. When you make an expanded list, put a one-sentence overview next to each point and set it as an H3 or H4. This tells Google that it can show those list headings to answer peoples questions, even if there is more information in between the points. Or you can provide an overview of what you’re going to talk about at the top of the article with your website editor’s in-built ‘list’ format like we’ve done here. Metadata Use Yoast or another plugin to quickly configure your page’s metadata. This helps search engines know what your page is about. It also provides a customised ‘overview’ snippet about the content. You’ll get a better click-through rate if you make it clear right away how you’ll answer a visitor’s question. Remember you should use a long-tail keyword in most instances. Your site can get dinged for having pages with duplicate ‘seeming’ content. So, longtails let you add that differentiation. That’s our list of what you might not know about SEO. Hopefully, that helped you with some tips you can use right away. Need more? Check out our previous article on SEO.
Yes! Keywords Matter for SEO Why Keywords Matter for SEO Search engines don’t actually speak human language. That’s probably something you already knew. But even knowing that, I doubt you’ve put much thought into your page keywords and metadata. The sad thing is, that’s what the search engine’s robots use to ‘read’ your website. It’s those words that determine your rank on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). That doesn’t mean you should pick one keyword and run with it. First off, your website plugins like Yoast SEO will flag you for days if you do that. Secondly, the crawlers will destroy your score for keyword stuffing or overuse. What you need to do is identify the keyword groups that are relevant to your page. Start with your main keyword and then use Google Keyword Planner to identify tangential keywords. Different Types of Keywords Short Tail – Less than three words, very basic and high traffic Long Tail – More than three words, very specific and low traffic. Why would you ever want low traffic keywords? Well, if you choose them right, they are high conversion words. If your site specialises in kids toys for toddlers, you don’t want to rank for all kids toys. You just want traffic for people interested in toddler toys. Longtail keywords can help you get the specific traffic you need. A keyword grouping of longtail keywords for this fake brand might be something like, “colourful toys for toddler boys” “girls playset toys for toddlers” “maths learning toys for toddlers” “cheap toy gifts for toddlers” and so on. Once again, using the keyword planner will help you, but you need to think about your customer. Think about what they are likely to buy from you. Tools to Help You Improve Your Keyword Usage First, it’s a great idea to scan your website and the websites of your competitors. You can use Ubersuggest to do this. This will tell you what they are ranking for versus what you are. If your website seems way off the mark, consider changing your keyword strategy. The tool will also tell you if any of your pages are broken and how fast it’s loading. It’s a pretty useful bookmark to have. Next, if you’re going to run ads, check out WordStream. They show you the volumes and CPC for keywords related to your site or a competitors site. And they’re pretty localised. This is pretty useful if you serve a regional area. Another great tool for locally operating companies is this one. The bulk keyword generator is also excellent at local keywords if that’s your niche. Lastly, check out Google Trends. We ran a search for kids toys to see what related topics and search terms are associated. And you get this info: Related Searches: top kids toys for christmas 2019, top toys for kids this christmas, kindi kids toys, best kids toys christmas 2019, top kids toys 2019 Related Topics: Irrigation sprinkler, Backyard, Climbing – Sport, Trampoline – Topic, Playground slide – Topic You can download these results to build into a workable list. Think about writing blogs on related topics and searches to encourage people to visit your page. Maybe they’ll shop around! Need help with any of this? Talk to our amazing team today.
How Hosting Impacts on SEO Bad hosting is killing your organic Most people overlook search engine optimization (SEO) when thinking about web hosting providers. That’s because the metrics web hosts are responsible for often fly under the radar. But hosting impacts on SEO in ways you might not realise. Ever done an SEO scrape of your website? Well, run one now! It only takes a few minutes and you’ll see one of the first stats that matter. Load Speed Now, website design has a huge impact on page load times, so you’ll want to make sure there are no rogue plug-ins or oversized images causing havoc. However, if you’ve done that and you’re still seeing poor load times across mobile and desktop, it’s time to talk to your host. Ask about their server load and cache system to see if performance can be improved. Not getting the response you want? Time to shop around! Already on the market? Well, make sure you know where their servers are located. Server Location Where the host servers are located really impacts your data transfer speed and – just as importantly – suggested results from search engines. When you type something into Google, ever noticed that your device location is tracked? Don’t believe us? Scroll to the very bottom of the page of results and you’ll see where you’re located. Even if it’s general, it still impacts what page results you see and in what order. Search engines use many factors to determine what to display and one of those is a location match between you and the website that’s suggested. And it goes without saying that the website has to be online more than it’s not. Uptime vs Downtime You want to ensure as close to 100% uptime as possible. That’s because there are more than just visitors trying to reach your website. Search engines are too. They’re crawling your website daily, looking for updates, and checking it’s working. This is another way hosting impacts on SEO, if your web host is down due to technical issues, that’s a black mark against you. And it doesn’t take much for search engines to start de-ranking your page if it starts to look unstable to the web crawlers. But it can be as stable as ever and still rank poorly if it’s unsecured. SSL Rankings have been impacted by their HTTPS status for years already, so put quite simply… don’t go with a web hosting service that offers anything less. SSL is required by a lot of data protection standards as well, so you’re doing yourself a favour on multiple fronts by starting off with a secure site. We offer free 256-bit SSL certificates as standard, so it’s not an ask for your web host to do the same. Many firewalls will prevent access to unsecured sites automatically, so this is a really critical element of web hosting that we can’t emphasise enough! As with any list, these factors aren’t exhaustive so it’s best to do your own research before committing to any long-term contracts. If you want to know what our packages include or have a question about one of these metrics, just reach out to one of our knowledgeable team members here.
SEO Plugins for WordPress – What to look out for in 2020 Gallery Getting traffic to your website is an ongoing battle faced by ever small and large Getting traffic to your website is an ongoing battle faced by every small and large business owner. SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – is a major tool in organically driving visitors to your website. But improving your SEO can be difficult when you’re not employing the expertise of dedicated SEO experts. However, SEO Plugins for WordPress can help! The value of SEO starts with search results, as without a decent SEO strategy it is highly unlikely that your website will ever appear as a recommended search result. Our first tip, and one that has inspired much of this blog’s content, is to invest in WordPress. WordPress is a blogging website hosting provider which allows a number of Plugins to make your life easier. All you have to do is determine which Plugin is the most compatible with your vision. So, as we strive towards 2020, we’ve pulled together a list of some of the best SEO Plugins for WordPress. Yoast Yoast SEO is one of the most valuable Plugins on the market, with over 5 million downloads on a global scale. Simply by looking at this one figure you should already be recognising the popularity of Yoast SEO – and for good reason. Yoast handles a wide range of aspects across your WordPress site’s SEO. This includes metadata for both homepage content and individual articles, a detailed sitemap that is automatically shared with different search engines, SEO and readability. And best of all, the basic Yoast SEO plugin is a free download for WordPress users. It has been built in a way that is perfectly user friendly for anyone – even complete beginners. Of course, there is a paid-for upgrade version as well which includes a few additional features, but the basic plugin does more than enough to help you see results. So, what are you waiting for? Schema Schema is what we call a rich snippet plugin. A rich snippet is an additional content that pops up as being immediately interactive, for example, user reviews. Generally, rich snippet content is visually presented and highly compelling, not only enticing potential customers but also enabling search engines to see exactly what your website is about. Of course, adding rich snippets is only one part of improving your online presence. In order for that additional content to be viewed, you still have to have a solid SEO strategy. But with Schema – All In One Rich Snippets, you have the freedom to create a number of different types of content. Including reviews, events and videos. Schema supports the creation and use of rich snippets and is a goldmine of great content once you’ve got your head around how to use it. Broken Link Checker Managing a frequent series of blog posts can throw up unprecedented problems with links. As your site grows, the number of links your site is managing grows. Including both internal and external links in line with all those SEO tips that advocate the use of external links within your blogs. Well, that’s all very well, but what happens when things start to go wrong? The Broken Link Checker Plugin does just that – it checks your content and flags up any broken links or missing images. It also tracks any broken comment boxes or edited URL’s that can damage your own links. Why is this important? Search engines can tell if your site is full of broken content and links, and this can impact on your SEO negatively. WordPress’s Broken Link Checker makes sure that doesn’t happen – so you can just sit back and enjoy creating content. Google Analytics Google Analytics for WordPress has millions of installations, with the Monster Insights version attracting the most popularity in recent years. This is because all of your Analytics content can be viewed from inside your WordPress dashboard. This makes the process very user friendly and streamlined – connecting the GA plugin with your WordPress site automatically. There is both a free and a premium option for the Google Analytics plugin, with the free version providing you with the bare minimum of data you may find useful. The paid option delves a lot deeper into your website activity and as a result, becomes a lot more valuable in tracking site visits. AMP AMP deals mainly with mobile optimisation and the problems that arose when sites began to create content, especially for mobile. Though mobile optimisation seemed like the most important thing at the time, by creating great visual content for mobile the site creators began to impact on their response time. The more content is on the mobile page, the longer it takes to load – and the bounce rate went through the roof. The answer? Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMP was created to optimise the loading of mobile pages, using specially created HTML code to make the page load faster. By downloading the AMP plugin for WordPress, you can rest assured that your website content will become quicker. And this makes it more user friendly for those visiting your site on a mobile device. And with its user-friendly interface designed for website owners as well, using the AMP plugin will improve the experience for you as well as your customers. EWWW Image Optimiser If your content relies on text, adding images and infographics is a must-do to liven it up. Not only do these reflect well on your SEO, but they also help your website to retain the attention of readers. The trick is to make sure that visually engaging content isn’t impacting on your web page load time. The EWWW Image Optimiser was designed to optimise images whenever you upload a new one. Ensuring it only takes up the amount of space it needs to across your site – with no limit on how many images it will upload. When you choose to download Image Optimiser, it will also give you the option to optimise all your existing images across your website. An added bonus that means you don’t have to go through and manually edit every image. Jetpack by WordPress This one was made by WordPress themselves. It’s a culmination of a number of other plugins you may have downloaded throughout your time as a WordPress user. Able to complete several tasks simultaneously, Jetpack covers SEO tools, analytics, site management and performance optimisation, image loading, site backup, security, and much more. It’s a bit like an umbrella that sits atop all the other plugin experiences. Jetpack updates itself on a regular basis to ensure you always have the up to date new features and bug fixes. All in One WP Security and Firewall Added security is something we recommend investing in wherever possible, and All in one WP is one of the best. By guiding you and sitting across everything from password strength to Google reCaptcha, this plugin gives you live updates on the security strength of your website. Plus, it takes ownership across a number of important areas that could otherwise be vulnerable. W3 Total Cache In 2020 users are growing increasingly busy, with little to no time to wait for your website to load. Google and other search engines are also evolving to recognise site speed. It is fast becoming the element of your site that you simply cannot ignore. W3 Total Cache serves as a page store for each individual user. It ensures each time they open a page, there is no need for the page to reload completely. For this reason, enabling page caching is probably the most important feature to note when you set up this plugin. In short, a cache is a form of memory that stores the pages visited. It ensures quick load time for all devices, delivers all the content to high quality, and is compatible with different types of hosting. Ultimate Nofollow For every link you include on your website, Google will backtrack to find out exactly where it came from and why you have linked it on your own site. And when you add in a link, selecting the Nofollow button will make clear to Google that your webpage ranking should not impact that of the link’s target. In short, you are telling Google that the link destination should not benefit from your site’s SEO. Doing this in WordPress is a little more challenging than on any other site as there is no automated option, but the Ultimate Nofollow plugin provides an extra checkbox to your profile when adding new links. Of course, all of the above Plugins cover very different areas of your WordPress site, and depending on your market and target audience, it is likely only a couple of these will be relevant to you. The thing to remember is that plugins actually can make your life a lot easier – and the millions who already use them serve as great advocates for their value. Trust the masses and start delving further into understanding your WordPress site and the options available to you. Need help with your WordPress site?? Talk to us.
Getting The Most Out Of Google My Business Operated by Google, Google My Business is a way for business owners to take control over exactly Operated by Google, Google My Business is a way for business owners to take control over exactly what their users and potential customers see in the search results listings. With a dedicated account that is solely used to influence Google search information, users can manipulate this data and supply information that their customers might need – including open hours, a contact number and photos of services or products. Of course, another important feature of this is your location. By setting your location, you’re enabling potential customers in your area to search for what they need – and what you can provide – and be directed straight to your door. So, how do you optimise this information to ensure that it is actually seen by the right users? Get your foot off the starting block The first step is, of course, to create your Google My Business listing, and fill in as much information as you possibly can. If your business doesn’t have a physical location or base, that doesn’t mean a Google Business account isn’t important – you can simply skip over the location and instead opt for a Service Area which allows users to see where you operate your services. Pick the right Category Picking the right category is how Google will narrow down searches towards or away from you. The categories already exist, so it is simply a case of selecting the one that most applies to you and your business – but don’t just pick the first one you see that seems relatively appropriate. The list of categories is large and quite specific, so make sure you pick the very best one for your business. The importance of imagery The world is shifting towards image-heavy social media platforms and videos, so ensuring you have some great visual content for potential customers is a sure-fire way to attract their attention. Using high-quality and professional photos where possible, your profile should show off your products or service results to any potential client who seeks more information. After all, first impressions are still the most important. Double-check your information If your business has a Google profile, an Instagram account and a Facebook page, it is imperative that you make sure the information aligns across them all. Consistency is key, not just for your customers who may be looking for vital information, but also for Google – who will penalise you for inconsistent detail; resulting in a negative impact on your SEO. Encourage Reviews Online reviews are a minefield. Businesses can shy away from reviews simply because they feel people will only comment on a negative experience. This is not the case since good reviews can seal the deal for one business over another in many cases. If a friend recommends a great restaurant, what are the chances you’ll visit that one over an unknown? Exactly. Think about your area – and area code If Google doesn’t think you’re a local business, they won’t recommend you to individuals searching in your local area. Using a local area code is one easy way to prove to Google that your location is correct. It will make Google more likely to recommend and suggest your business to users in the area searching for similar. Make sure you know what Google does and doesn’t like, and stick to it Google publishes guidelines for Business listings. Take the time to read it and familiarise yourself with what NOT to do. For example, adding keywords may be a good thing. And you may think you need them everywhere… but inserting them randomly into your business name can work against you. If it looks like you’re trying too hard, Google will suspect you’re not legitimate and you will be penalised. Another example is having a number of different listings all pointing towards the same business. You may think multiple listings means multiple chances of appearance, but all it means is that Google will punish you. Don’t take your eye off the SEO-ball SEO is still super important and ensuring your entire website works in line with your SEO strategy will go a long way towards giving both your website and your business listing the legitimacy that Google looks for. Make sure your keywords are relevant and present. Look to create content that focuses on your local area – as well as any wider offers.
Our Top 10 Key SEO Trends for 2020 The Winter months have well and truly set in, and with the end of 2019 fast approaching, it’s time to turn your attention to your 2020 strategy. Arm yourself with the most up-to-date info on SEO Trends for 2020. Keeping up with the constant developments is a never-ending job all of its own, and unfortunately the same goes for keeping up with the competition. The internet is an endless minefield of competitors all vying for attention from prospective customers and clients – and the best way to get this attention is via the global search engines. But as technology and content information matures, so does Google. It is no longer enough to just write a great blog – now it has to work alongside and in partnership with a specific set of rules implemented by organisations like Google. Without further ado, here are 10 ways you can use SEO to harness Google’s attention and make sure your website features in those all-important top search results. 1. Consider featured snippets When you Google something and wind up on a result page, generally the first thing on the screen is something called a Snippet. This literally does what it says on the tin, offering the searcher an extended preview of what they might find on that first site result – whether it’s instructions, tips or generic information. To gain a chance at being the featured Snippet for any given search term, ensure you are answering the most common questions in clear and concise language. The Snippets receive a high percentage of clicks so it is worth spending the time tailoring your content accordingly. 2. Voice recognition and voice-driven searches Our phones and smart devices are getting clever by the upgrade, with many now offering users a chance to search for anything they want – without having to tap a single button. While this has been attributed to accidental searches and even unintentional holiday bookings, it seems the powers of tech have honed and matured the technology to enable voice search to grow in popularity. To work in partnership with this trend, you need to think about how people are searching using their voice – rather than their keypad. In short, the searches will be more detailed and keywords will become more conversational. 3. The growth of Artificial Intelligence The majority of drivers may not be ready for driver-less cars yet, but artificial intelligence is on the rise and has recently become one of Googles most trusted advisors when it comes to user searches and search result algorithms. In short, the AI robots have learned what makes an article great; creating their own set of rules that we, as content creators, have to abide by if we want to continue to perform well online. Does anybody know what these sets of rules look like? It’s all trial and error. 4. Online security First GDPR and now this – if a user doesn’t feel that their information is safe when browsing your website, they won’t use it. It’s as simple as that. Increased user security is a trend which is only going to continue to grow, and SEO trends for 2020 are no different. 5. The power of the blue tick Blue ticks have never meant more than they do today. A sign of status and popularity in the online world, a blue tag tends to mean that someone is a verified influencer – usually with an extremely large following and valuable networks. Having one of these influencers endorse your brand is a priceless tool that enables your brand to be seen by networks and potential customers you couldn’t even dream of reaching before. Allow the social media trend to improve your website traffic and widen the reach of your content. 6. User experience Remember the days when everything took minutes to buffer? We used to sit in front of the screen and watch the buffering wheel for days on end – but not today. Today, users want everything instantly, and if it’s not instant on your website then they will simply head to a different website that is. It doesn’t matter if you have great content – if the user experience isn’t exactly what they expect, you will very quickly find yourself losing valuable visitors. Quick load times, an easy to navigate website, and optimised content for all devices – they’re all important! 7. Videos vs. Written content Facebook has launched a new video viewing page which takes you straight onto another related video once your first one finishes. This subtle but clever way to introducing you to new content highlights how important video is becoming in the world of online content, as users are now just as likely to watch a tutorial as they are to read one. Youtube advertising has never been so popular. As SEO trends for 2020 go, online videos will take over – pulling viewers away from their television screens. Make sure your videos are optimised in terms of SEO, to harness the power of this ever-growing trend. Great keywords and descriptions can mean the difference between a viral clip and a video that falls flat. 8. Quality Content A pretty simple one really. You can do all the SEO and tagging in the world. But without quality content, you will never be able to retain potential customers. Give them value, well-researched information and clear calls to action! In a fast-paced world, your content needs to prove itself as informative yet entertaining; useful but also high quality and approachable. 9. Dwell time will increase in prominence Time on site is about to become even more critical as one of the key SEO trends for 2020. If a user is spending lots of time on your website, that’s good. The search engine will know that the quality of your content and website is likely to be high. This is going to become even more of an influential factor as we enter 2020. 10. It’s not going to be just about Google Google pretty much owns the search engine world. The phrase “Google it” is used to answer most questions asked by millions of people every single day. However, this could be set to change, as other search engines rise in prominence. Likely, SEO requirements will differ particularly as different and new search engines work to attract users and gain support. We’ll have to watch this space to see what happens… Want to learn about web design trends for 2020? Check out this post!
Unpacking the value of SEO Unfortunately for those new to the game, SEO isn’t just a quick fix. It is in fact a series of tricks that work together to give your website the best possible ranking it can get in the eyes of Google. You may be thinking that the customer matters to you, not Google. But if you’re not ranked, you won’t appear for customers. That’s the value of SEO. Having said that, it’s not like the search engines offer a guide to good SEO. In fact, they tend to keep quiet about the best way to steer SEO in a favourable direction. This leaves us to figure out the algorithms and how to rank highly. So, without further ado, here are a few of our top tips on how you can improve your own SEO on your website without hiring in experts and content creators. Get to grips with Google analytics Before you can truly understand which avenue your SEO should be going down, first you need to get to grips with your website’s current performance. Analytics will give you some insight into how people are currently coming across your website and how they are interacting with it, so that you can understand your website traffic and determine which search terms are leading people to you. In essence, why are people coming across your website and what are they searching for to bring them to you? What’s the current value of SEO for you? Understand your keywords The next step is to identify what keywords link your service to the people who are visiting your website. Write down all the words that you think are key to your business proposition and what you offer, and then use keyword tools to figure out how valuable those terms are. Engaging tools such as Google’s free keyword planner are useful here as they give you some idea of how many searches each keyword has and how competitive the word is among other websites. It will also then provide you with some suggestions around keywords relevant to your site, to help you build out your list and bid on the words best suited in both yours and Google’s opinion. Trust us, this will all help your website to rank better among its competitors, leading to increased website traffic and subsequently more business. Optimise your website according to your SEO strategy Once the keywords are established, your website needs to be brought up to speed. This involves implementing the chosen words into as many aspects as you can – NATURALLY. This is key. Making sure the sentences flow smoothly and that the keywords are well integrated is critical to ensuring a good ranking. If Google thinks it’s nonsense, you could be worse off than you were before you started. Key areas to focus on include the web page URL, heading tags, image names and alt tags, title tags and your web page meta descriptions. A lot of this will be happening in the back end of your website and won’t even be something that is obvious from a visitor point of view. But Google is always watching… Make sure you don’t lose sight of your content Keeping the content relevant and up to date is vital for SEO. Not only do new news stories and blog posts give you increased opportunity to integrate those keywords to your site, but they signal to Google that your website is active and relevant in its field. Create high-quality content that will interest your audience, and they’ll stick around to read it. If you start letting the content drop, you’ll swiftly see a corresponding drop in your website traffic. Out with the old Likewise, old content is pointless. Update your old content where necessary, and if it’s no longer relevant then simply scrap it. Internal links Google is a big fan of internal linking and proof that every area of your website is relevant to the overall industry you’re providing a service in. Optimisation In a world where most browsing is done on the go, ensuring your website is optimised for mobile usage is absolutely crucial – not only for your users but for your Google ranking. Mobile matters and Google have recently revealed that the status of your website optimisation is a factor in ranking your site among its competitors. So, don’t let it fall by the wayside! Site Speed Much like the above, site speed is another thing that you think is out of your control but impacts SEO a lot. People care about how long it takes for a web page to load. Improving your site speed is something that can make a big difference in overall website satisfaction. There are things you can do externally too. Promote your content in other places. Think social media, through guest posts on other related sites and even in directories. If you’re an expert, play on this and ensure that everything you do online links back to your own website. This is a strategy known as backlinking and is another way of showing Google how relevant you are – by having other relevant websites link to your site. It’s like a recommendation without direct endorsement. But for Google, it is enough to show that your content is valuable. This means your website deserves to be up there with the other strong contenders. Keen to learn about trends in SEO for 2020? Click here.
Unpicking SEO: How to boost your SEO rankings SEO is one of those buzz-words that floats around the online world, without much understanding behind it. Individuals claiming to be SEO experts will constantly inundate your inbox with offers to optimise your SEO and perform SEO checks – but what does it all mean? They all want to boost your SEO rankings and often at great cost. The purpose of SEO is to make sure your website stands out for the powers of a search engine. Often what the search engine is looking for doesn’t even make complete sense to us, but we do it because it leads to good “SEO”. This guide to unpicking SEO is designed to simply help your website rank a little higher and perform a little better, without the need for outsourced experts and lengthy reviews. Pick your Keywords and stick to them When using WordPress, there are special plugins and accessories that have been created just to make your SEO life easier – use them. Yoast SEO is one of the best; rating your posts according to how well they have been written in light of your SEO targets. Yoast is a content creaters dream, engaging one simple tool that will change the way you write. It allows you to pick a keyword and it makes sure you stick to it. By telling Yoast what the focus of your post is, in one word, the plugin will make sure everything you create is working to your advantage – from the post heading to the content body and image captions. Good SEO means tying everything together to one common focus, and Yoast makes absolutely sure that is what you do. Customise the web address How many times have you clicked through to a blog and wanted to send it to someone else, only to see that the link is a random string of numbers and characters that takes up half a text message? It’s annoying, unprofessional and renders your article potentially unshareable for the likes of LinkedIn and other social media. Editing the web address is easy in WordPress, and by making sure that focus keyword we discussed is also in the web URL, your SEO will be even better – not to mention it will look better and allow readers to understand exactly what the post is about before they start to read it. Divide your content into different categories The best bloggers out there know how to divide their work into sub-divisions and categories; not only to make navigation easier for their readers, but also to improve SEO for your site. Search engines trawl through your content to assign an SEO rating – why not make it easy for them by dividing the content up and doing half the work for them? Get rid of the junk Bin any old, poor or duplicate content right away. If you don’t want to permanently delete it, then at least set the page to ‘no-index’ so that they cannot be found by the search engines, as these pages are likely harming your SEO and making search engines think your website is full of junk. Make the images smaller Large pictures can completely dwarf a great website, no matter how spectacular the content is. They damage your load time. A slow load time means a badly ranked site in the eyes of a search engine. They will subsequently be unlikely to position your site high up in their options for visitors. By reducing the size of your images, you will see a drastic change in the load time for your site. This will translate into better SEO ranking and more website visitors. These changes are quick and easy fixes to help your SEO perform better and boost your SEO rankings. Everything you create no longer simply needs to satisfy your end reader. Search engines are your biggest judge, and if you don’t cater to their requirements, your website won’t even be found. Give yourself the best possible start by engaging these tips from the word go. Then sit back and watch the visitors flock to your website. Want more tips? Click here.
How to come first in WordPress site speed The online world can sometimes feel a bit like the Olympics; jumping through hoops to please the search engines with excellent SEO, while racing to get the next blog post up quickly and overcoming the obstacles that are your competitor’s deals. But what about your WordPress site speed? With all the content and coding requirements we work to meet, it can be easy to forget that an increase in content means an increase in load time. And nothing is more likely to put your visitors off than an unreliable and slow website. And it’s not just your visitors who will be unimpressed. Google has fast been increasing the emphasis it puts on site speed as a ranking factor, meaning that if your site isn’t up to scratch, you can rest assured Google won’t be recommending it in a hurry. Here we unpick the best ways to rectify the situation before it does real damage to your website reputation in the online world… The geography of your data centre is crucial Your server is what pushes your site out to clients and potential website visitors, so making sure it is located close to that target market is crucial. It’s easy to find out the speed at which your site is being pushed out to Google at, from within your (webmaster tools) search console. Ideally this should be running to just a few hundred milliseconds at a maximum – any slower and Google will start to disregard your site. Dynamic Caching Dynamic caching is one of those terms thrown around by online experts – but what does it really mean? Essentially dynamic caching deals with the problem created by page generation load time, as by default WordPress will load each page afresh every time a new visitor comes to your site. This obviously adds a delay to the load time of each page, which can cause a major problem for your overall site speed. Dynamic caching deals with this delay by saving a copy of each page and then simply regenerating the copy to each visitor – rather than loading each page from scratch every time. This creates a more streamlined load time across your whole site by allowing the server to push content out to more individuals at once – more quickly! In order to implement dynamic caching, users tend to opt for a plugin or by enabling it on the server itself via a user such as Hostgator. The latter option is easy for WordPress users who have optimised hosting as it is as simple as switching the feature on. For those who don’t, the plugin option is just as good and will perform the job to the same effect. A Content Distribution Network (CDN) A CDN allows your website server to find out the IP address of each visitor to your site, and deliver to them the recurrent content from a server nearest to them. By recurrent content we mean the things that never change – your images, backend coding and CSS to name a few. Engaging the use of the CDN through your hosting network means than users all over the world will receive content quickly and effectively, without long load times for those who live farthest away. Simply enable the CDN setting in the backend of your WordPress site and watch the visitors roll in – from all over the globe. Understand Javascript and how to use it to your advantage Javascript is great, and almost all the websites we can think of use it in some capacity. It enables your website to respond to the device it is being viewed on, resizing images and other content to maximise enjoyment. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and it adds to page load time if you don’t optimise it to work in your favour. Essentially what you want to do is tell Javascript to start loading only after the page has loaded and is fully visible to the website visitor – and this requires help. A plugin such as Autoptimize will enable you to aggregate Javascript. Then it only loads once your website visitor is enjoying the content. This means that by the time they get as far as the table of information you’ve included, it will have resized appropriately – without impacting on WordPress site speed. The beauty of CSS The point of CSS is to make your WordPress site look great. Loading CSS files take a while. In an ideal world, they would be delayed until after the page has loaded. But doing this would cause your webpage to look unstyled and unattractive. That’s why we turn to Inlining for CSS. It isolates the CSS rules that apply to the visible elements of your web page. Then applies them to every page of the website so that they load instantly. This is a complicated one, but luckily online tools are available to help. Simply enter your URL into an online resource such as ‘SiteLocity.’ It will automatically generate the CSS for you. Copy the rules it presents to you and paste it into the Settings area of Autoptimize. (It’s something you should already have if you followed our tips for a successful Javascript!) And voila! Beautiful web pages that load at the drop of a hat. Images We get it, images are vital to your website. Whether it’s photos of your work or images to supplement your content, you need them. But they’re also impacting WordPress site speed. They’re draining the web loading capacity and adding to your site speed. That’s why we turn to lazy loading. By enabling this, images won’t be loaded until the visitor has scrolled down far enough to see them. This ensures that only viewed images are actually loaded. If the visitor leaves the page before they reach an image, no harm done as it didn’t load anyway! Enable lazy loading from the settings inside your WordPress site. The images now appear by magic – as and when they’re needed. Do you really need that smiley face emoji? Emoji add a whole load of useless code to your website. These load fresh with every view. So your WordPress site speed takes a hit. Yet again we turn to Autoptimize to help us here. Simply selecting the option that removes WordPress’ core emojis from your CSS helps. And subsequently cleaning up your backend coding so that only the really vital information is being loaded. Put this all together and you’re sure to place in the site speed race rankings. Don’t get lost in the world of site speed and allow your content to suffer. Online is all about balance and Google expects you to excel in all the relevant areas – not just one. Need help? Talk to us.
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