SQRD
A smartphone displaying search results.
A sample search about Google analytics

Bootstrap your SEO

Dear Friend,

You have just launched a website and you are thinking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We would like to give you a head start about it.

With SEO, you will not directly see the effects of your work. Tough, assessing your improvements matter. So the first part of this post is about seeing the changes. Then you will discover how to get started on those improvements.

Setup the tools for your SEO

The search consoles

Register your website with Google Search Console formerly Google Webmaster Tools.

With Google Search Console you can visualize the number of search and the top queries that lead to your website.

The same kinds of tools can be found for Bing, Microsoft search engine at Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools and for Yandex.

Within all those consoles / tools where you’ve registered, submit your sitemap. Your sitemap is a technical file, usually found at the address www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Search engines are using that technical file.

Getting statistics

If not done yet, it is now a good time to setup some statistics for your website. With statistics, you can check that your enhancements are pertinent.

Google provides Google Analytics that is free. You might consider some alternatives.

Auditing

You could hire a consultant about your SEO; we think that on a first round of SEO enhancement you should do the audit on your own.

You are learning the language around those concepts, you will improve your website and you might decide to further improve with professional help.

Now, if you have received this link from us, we included a file reporting about this SEO.

Otherwise you should try ahrefs. 100 USD / month is worth it. You might decide to only

Considering also auditing other site in your fields. You can then assess their SEO quality and sometime discover new ways of positioning your content and services.

Do the work

Title, description and URL

Using the audit, we usually start by checking four things on a page:

  1. the page (meta) title,
  2. the page (meta) description,
  3. the h1 title in the page and,
  4. the page URL.
Sample search result featuring URL, title and description

The page meta title is what the text that get displayed on the tab at the top of your browser. It is also what is presented a blue link on search results.

The meta description is displayed below the blue link in search engine results. It provides more context and should provide incentives on why you would want to click that link.

The page URL is used by search engines to weight the importance of the words about your page. The URL should be short and easy to type, you should drop the common words. If you change an URL ensure to setup a proper redirection from the old location to the new one.

Inside the page there should be only one <h1> tag. The h1 title should be related to the _meta title while not being a verbatim copy of it.

You have now reviewed and enhanced all titles, descriptions and URLs. The search engine will better present your website.

Now let’s focus at your site navigation. We mean the navigation bar, the link inside the page and the footer of each page.

Your aim to avoid bounces on the website as much as possible. What’s a bounce? When someone clicks a search engine results and roll back quickly.

You can find information about bounces on the search console and in your analytics console.

About each link:

  • Is is obvious you can click on it?
  • Is it hidden behind a rolling menu?
  • How is your navigation bar doing on a smartphone?
  • Does the link hints the action i.e. register for our seminar vs please click hear the latter is not that good.

Where to go from there

With setting up the tools, enhancing the titles, descriptions and URLs and paying attention to your site navigation you’ve already enhanced your site SEO.

Still SEO is not a one time thing, it is a process and you should include it in your weekly or monthly endeavours.

Please find more ideas on how to improve your SEO.

Is your business at some point local? Please register on Google Maps.

SEO has shifted is and is now much focused on the quality of the content you will provide. Take some time to brush your texts and improve the flow of reading.

Do write about new themes, find your voice and don’t be shy about promoting your content. Try new way to promote your content (using one social media, sending it, engaging with people linking or discussing about your content or related content.

Resources

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