This Means Your Web Pages Are Your Products...
Make every page of content worthy of your business.
The great majority of your website's pages are important because each page of your site has an opportunity to be indexed by the search engines. This means Google in the UK, because it has roughly a 90% hold on search activity. In the States it's 61%. You may increase the possibility of a page being indexed if you can show Google that you've put some thought and rigour into your page content. What this means is publishing a page that is providing plenty of unique and engaging content. If a page on your web site isn't indexed, you have been unable to impress Google enough for it to consider your page worthy of being included in their index. Essentially, they don't think its up to scratch enough to be seen by their users.
Learn From Your Competitors
You can learn a great deal about what might be lacking with your web site page by taking a look at your competition. The general standard of the pages that you visit will tell you about the standard you need to attain and exceed, if your budget and time allows.
Your Message
A clear message delivered adequately is infinitely better than a bad message delivered well! Looking at your competition will assist you in deciding how well you will need to deliver your message. Make sure you are clear about what you will be saying and what you will be asking your visitors to do. Think carefully about what words, images and even video would compel a potential customer buy from you instead of one of your competitors. When you are clear about your message only then can you produce the content.
Your Page Is Your Display Product
Even if you are a services business you still have to treat every single page of your website as if you're going to put it on a shelf for potential customers to look at. If the product you put on a shelf looks uncared for nobody will buy it. If the product does not give enough information it's a similar thing.
The Factors That Are Crucial To Google
There aren't any mysteries to what Google pays attention to and uses. If you ignore these elements the prospects of your page being indexed are virtually nil. If your page isn't indexed it will NEVER be served up on a search engine results page (SERP). The list below contains all of the on-page SEO elements that make up a web page. Some are not seen by the human eye but they are checked by the search engine crawlers and therefore are extremely important.
- URL
- Page Title
- Meta Description
- H1 Tag
- Image file names & attributes
- Word count
URL - The Address Of Your Web Page
It is beneficial if the URL contains words that mean something. If it does it will have meaning to a search engine crawler. This is a useful page address 'www.wd4t.com/blog/managing-your-online-reputation-easy' because it gives a good idea about what the subject of the destination page is about. 'www.wd4t.com/node/88' isn't useful yet it's the same page address as the one above, however it's the raw page address. If you have control over your page addressing you need to ensure the address makes sense to a human and that it directly reflects what a human and a crawler will find when they visit the page.
Page Title - Times Have Changed
Like the URL the Page Title is vital and it is definitely a factor that influences how highly a page will rank. The Page Title appears in the tab of your browser. What you want to include in your page title are words that you would like your page to be known for but at the very same time you do not want to use the same sequence of words on multiple pages. It is crucial you avoid duplicate page titles. Google excludes pages from its index if it feels multiple pages of a site are the same.
H1 Tag - Regard It As Heading 1
H1 implies to a search engine the main title of the content they are crawling. To the human visitor it's the main heading. It should give the reader of the page a very clear idea of what the content of the page is all about.
Meta Description - Your Advert
This is unquestionably one of the most neglected elements and yet it's one of the most vital. It is what Google will serve up if it decides your content is worthy of showing in search results. It needs to be written with a call to action. If you do not write a Meta Description Google will choose for you what it will show and this is usually not advisable.
Image File Names And Attributes
Search engines are unable to interpret what an image is about, they only know that there is an image in place. The file name you give to an image assists a search engine work out what the image is about. In addition to this the search engines inspect the alt tag and the title tag fields that can be associated with pictures. These fields provide further opportunities to tell a search engine what they ought to index a page for.
Word Count - Less Is Not More
There is a fine line between having too many words and having too few words. Visitors are often put off by having to read a lot , however , they are going to leave your page if they can not find enough detail. What is clear is that Google doesn't like pages that are light on words. It is vitally important to organise the words in a way that keeps the reader engaged and satisfies Google in terms of word count.
Conclusion - Make It Good, Make It Count
In summary, as a site owner you must regard your site pages like you would products you are putting on view. If your products look unappealing you can't expect people to be interested in them. The same applies for the search engines.
If you want your site pages to be indexed you have got to make sure you give the search engines with what they're looking for from content. If you want your site pages to be respected by visitors you have to make sure they can see that you've put some effort into producing valuable content.
Make every page of content worthy of your business.
The great majority of your website's pages are important because each page of your site has an opportunity to be indexed by the search engines. This means Google in the UK, because it has roughly a 90% hold on search activity. In the States it's 61%. You may increase the possibility of a page being indexed if you can show Google that you've put some thought and rigour into your page content. What this means is publishing a page that is providing plenty of unique and engaging content. If a page on your web site isn't indexed, you have been unable to impress Google enough for it to consider your page worthy of being included in their index. Essentially, they don't think its up to scratch enough to be seen by their users.
Learn From Your Competitors
You can learn a great deal about what might be lacking with your web site page by taking a look at your competition. The general standard of the pages that you visit will tell you about the standard you need to attain and exceed, if your budget and time allows.
Your Message
A clear message delivered adequately is infinitely better than a bad message delivered well! Looking at your competition will assist you in deciding how well you will need to deliver your message. Make sure you are clear about what you will be saying and what you will be asking your visitors to do. Think carefully about what words, images and even video would compel a potential customer buy from you instead of one of your competitors. When you are clear about your message only then can you produce the content.
Your Page Is Your Display Product
Even if you are a services business you still have to treat every single page of your website as if you're going to put it on a shelf for potential customers to look at. If the product you put on a shelf looks uncared for nobody will buy it. If the product does not give enough information it's a similar thing.
The Factors That Are Crucial To Google
There aren't any mysteries to what Google pays attention to and uses. If you ignore these elements the prospects of your page being indexed are virtually nil. If your page isn't indexed it will NEVER be served up on a search engine results page (SERP). The list below contains all of the on-page SEO elements that make up a web page. Some are not seen by the human eye but they are checked by the search engine crawlers and therefore are extremely important.
- URL
- Page Title
- Meta Description
- H1 Tag
- Image file names & attributes
- Word count
URL - The Address Of Your Web Page
It is beneficial if the URL contains words that mean something. If it does it will have meaning to a search engine crawler. This is a useful page address 'www.wd4t.com/blog/managing-your-online-reputation-easy' because it gives a good idea about what the subject of the destination page is about. 'www.wd4t.com/node/88' isn't useful yet it's the same page address as the one above, however it's the raw page address. If you have control over your page addressing you need to ensure the address makes sense to a human and that it directly reflects what a human and a crawler will find when they visit the page.
Page Title - Times Have Changed
Like the URL the Page Title is vital and it is definitely a factor that influences how highly a page will rank. The Page Title appears in the tab of your browser. What you want to include in your page title are words that you would like your page to be known for but at the very same time you do not want to use the same sequence of words on multiple pages. It is crucial you avoid duplicate page titles. Google excludes pages from its index if it feels multiple pages of a site are the same.
H1 Tag - Regard It As Heading 1
H1 implies to a search engine the main title of the content they are crawling. To the human visitor it's the main heading. It should give the reader of the page a very clear idea of what the content of the page is all about.
Meta Description - Your Advert
This is unquestionably one of the most neglected elements and yet it's one of the most vital. It is what Google will serve up if it decides your content is worthy of showing in search results. It needs to be written with a call to action. If you do not write a Meta Description Google will choose for you what it will show and this is usually not advisable.
Image File Names And Attributes
Search engines are unable to interpret what an image is about, they only know that there is an image in place. The file name you give to an image assists a search engine work out what the image is about. In addition to this the search engines inspect the alt tag and the title tag fields that can be associated with pictures. These fields provide further opportunities to tell a search engine what they ought to index a page for.
Word Count - Less Is Not More
There is a fine line between having too many words and having too few words. Visitors are often put off by having to read a lot , however , they are going to leave your page if they can not find enough detail. What is clear is that Google doesn't like pages that are light on words. It is vitally important to organise the words in a way that keeps the reader engaged and satisfies Google in terms of word count.
Conclusion - Make It Good, Make It Count
In summary, as a site owner you must regard your site pages like you would products you are putting on view. If your products look unappealing you can't expect people to be interested in them. The same applies for the search engines.
If you want your site pages to be indexed you have got to make sure you give the search engines with what they're looking for from content. If you want your site pages to be respected by visitors you have to make sure they can see that you've put some effort into producing valuable content.
About the Author:
Mark Byers is the Managing Director of WD4T. Mark has had an involvement with the web for more than 20 years and specializes in optimizing websites to gain more visitors and convert those visitors into clients. As well as for WD4T and it's clients, he also provides consultancy services to a variety of digital agencies. Mark has published many articles on strategy and planning, website design and optimization.
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