Luckily, understanding how Google discovers, indexes, and ranks websites can help you speed up this process significantly.

In this article, you’ll learn practical steps to optimize your website’s foundation, boost its visibility and authority, and ensure it offers an excellent user experience. Finally, get noticed on Google.

Index

• How to Make Your Website Visible on Google Search
• Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Showing Up on Google
• Google Search Console: Speed up your website indexing
• Connecting website to Google Search Console
• FAQ

How to Make Your Website Visible on Google Search

Did you know that a huge portion of websites on the Internet are never seen by anyone? According to a study by Ahrefs, 96.55% of content gets no traffic from Google.

You may face the issue of your new website or updated content not appearing in Google search results. This can understandably cause concern. 

It’s important to know that search engines require time to explore websites and then display them in search results. Be patient, but in the meantime, there are several things you can do (and some things you should avoid) to speed up the process.

Optimize Your Website’s Foundation for Google

Before Google can show your website in search results, it needs to understand how your site is built. This means making sure the structure of your website is clear and easy to follow.

If Google can’t easily read your site, it might skip it altogether. Taking care of these basics sets a strong foundation for everything else in SEO.

Here’s what you can do:

• Submit Your Website to Google: A sitemap acts as a roadmap for Google, listing all the important pages on your website. Submitting your website’s sitemap through Google Search Console directly informs Google about your site’s structure and helps them crawl it more efficiently.

Submitting your sitemap to the Google Search Console

• Create High-Quality, Original, and Updated Content: Google prioritizes websites that offer valuable and unique information to users. Regularly creating fresh content and updating existing pages signals to Google that your website is active and relevant. Make sure your content is well-written, informative, and caters to the needs of your target audience.
• Implement Strategic Keyword Usage: Understand what your potential visitors are searching for. Research relevant keywords and naturally incorporate them into your page titles, headings (including H1 and H2), body text, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. This helps Google understand the topic of your content and match it with relevant searches.

Enhance Your Website’s Visibility and Authority

Your site needs to be trusted and easy to find to show up higher in Google searches. You can do this by linking your pages well and getting other trusted websites to link to yours.

Google sees these links like votes of confidence. The more quality links you have, the more likely Google is to see your site as useful and trustworthy.

• Build a Relevant Internal Linking Structure: Link your pages together in a way that makes sense for your users and helps Google understand the hierarchy and relationships between your content. Use descriptive anchor text where appropriate.

A smart internal linking structure improves SEO and helps Google understand your website.

• Earn High-Quality Backlinks from Reputable Websites: Backlinks from other authoritative websites act as endorsements, telling Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Focus on creating excellent content that others will naturally want to link to. You can also explore guest blogging or other outreach strategies to earn backlinks.

Want Google to notice your website faster? Purchase a Premium Webnode plan and submit your website’s sitemap through Google Search Console.

Ensure a Positive User Experience and Technical SEO Health

Now, focus on making your website user-friendly and technically sound for search engines, both of which are important ranking factors of Google.

Google wants to show responsive websites that are easy to use and work well on all devices. A fast, mobile-friendly site with good technical setup helps both your visitors and your search rankings.

If people have a hard time using your site, they’ll leave quickly — and Google notices that. A smooth experience keeps visitors happy and helps your SEO too.

• Optimize for Mobile Devices: A significant portion of internet users browse on mobile devices. Having a mobile-optimized website with a responsive design is crucial for ranking well in Google’s search results. Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, meaning they primarily use the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking.
• Optimize URLs and Meta Tags: Use clear, concise, and keyword-rich URLs that accurately reflect the content of the page. Write compelling meta titles and descriptions that encourage users to click on your link in the search results. These elements also help Google understand the context of your pages.

Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Showing Up on Google

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of timing, but other times, there are technical or content issues holding your site back. Understanding the cause is the first step to fixing it.

There are several reasons why a website might not appear in Google search results. Here are the most common ones:

New website or content

It takes time for Google to crawl and index a new website or fresh content. This usually takes 2-3 weeks, but sometimes it can even take a month.

Google needs to discover your site and understand what it’s about before it can show it in search results. Be patient, and make sure you’re giving it all the signals it needs.

No internal links or backlinks

Links are crucial for Google to discover and index your website. A common reason why pages aren’t indexed is simply that Google can’t find them. 

This often happens when there are no internal links connecting your pages, making it hard for Googlebot to navigate your site. Similarly, a lack of backlinks from other websites can also hinder Google’s ability to discover and assess the value of your content.

Duplicate content issues

Google generally doesn’t want to rank pages with duplicate content because it takes up unnecessary space in its index. If the same content appears on multiple pages of your website, it can cause problems.

Try to keep each page unique and useful. Repeating content can confuse Google and hurt your chances of ranking well.

Low Domain Rating

New websites without links or established credibility initially have a lower domain rating, which can affect their search position.

Google tends to trust websites that have been around longer and are mentioned or linked to by other trusted sources. Over time, as your site gains more quality content and links, your domain rating can improve.

Google Search Console: Speed up your website indexing

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free and highly valuable tool from Google that helps you monitor and maintain your website’s presence in Google search results.

GSC is an essential tool for speeding up the indexing of your website and increasing its visibility on Google. It helps you identify and fix issues, as well as provides insights into your website’s search performance.

Benefits of GSC

• It helps make your website Google-friendly.
• You can see if there are any pages with errors that need to be fixed or pages that, for some reason, can’t be crawled by Google robots.
• You can ask Google to inspect a specific URL to see if it was already indexed, crawled, or if the page is mobile-friendly. Use this “URL inspection tool” whenever you create a new page to make sure it will be noticed, but not before you’re sure it’s full of great content. You don’t want Google to form a poor opinion about the new page.
• If Google suspects that there is something shady happening with your website, which might cause harm to others (such as malware, phishing attempts, hacked website), you will see a notification about it in the Search Console.

Connecting website to Google Search Console

Connecting your website directly to Google through Google Search Console is the most effective way to inform them about its existence.

How to Connect Your Website to Google Search Console

You can add Google Search Console to your website in only four simple steps:

1. Sign up to Search Console and create a property for your website.
2. Log in to Webnode website builder and add the HTML code from Search Console to the header of your homepage. (This feature is only available with the Standard, Profi, or Business premium plans. Learn more about website pricing.)
3. Verify the connection in the Search Console.
4. Add your sitemap to Search Console to simplify the indexing of future pages.

Once your website is successfully connected to Google Search Console, you’ll unlock a wealth of data and tools to help you improve its performance in search results.

Adding the HTML verification code to your Webnode editor – available from the Standard plan.

FAQ

How do I get Google to crawl my site?

Google’s robots automatically crawl the internet, but you can speed up the process by submitting your sitemap in Google Search Console. You can also further influence how Google crawls your site by adjusting your SEO settings in Webnode.

How long does it take for Google to index a new website?

This depends on several factors, but it usually takes 2-3 weeks, sometimes even up to a month.

How to get on the first page of Google?

Getting to the first page of Google requires a comprehensive SEO (search engine optimization) strategy that includes creating high-quality content, using relevant keywords, link building, and technical SEO optimization. To learn more, here’s a detailed guide on how to do SEO for your website.

Conclusion

Getting your website to show up on Google takes a bit of time and effort. Be patient, and focus on doing the right things — like making your site easy for Google to understand, building trust with good links, and making sure your site works well for visitors.

Don’t forget to submit your sitemap to Google, regularly update your content, and most importantly, connect your website to Google Search Console. This free tool not only helps speed up indexing but also provides valuable insights into your website’s performance, helping you continuously improve and achieve better search rankings.

Purchase a Premium Plan to connect your website with Google Search Console and get found faster

The post How to Get Your Website to Show Up on Google appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

In this article, we will explain why you should pay close attention to getting website data from specific sources and what types of tools and metrics are important. We’ll also recommend the top website analytics tools for you.

What is website analytics and why is it important?

Website analytics gathers data about the user’s experience on a particular website. This data is crucial for understanding and enhancing the user experience (UX).

Nowadays, website data is categorized into two main types: traditional quantitative data and qualitative data.

Traditional quantitative analytics collects metrics like traffic sources and pageviews. However, to understand what motivates consumers, why they behave in certain ways, and what leads them to the checkout, we need a more comprehensive set of tools. 

Qualitative tools like heatmaps or session recordings allow you to visualize how users interact with your site, revealing pain points such as confusing navigation or areas where users consistently abandon their carts.

For instance, if a heatmap shows that users rarely click on a prominently placed button, it could indicate that the design or wording isn’t intuitive. This insight allows you to make actionable changes to improve conversions.

Types of website analytics tools and metrics

Any kind of website analytics technology that monitors data on the usage of your business’ website is referred to as “on-site analytics”. This kind of site analytics covers every facet of your website traffic, including unique visitor count, and web traffic source. On-site analytics can help you understand the audience you’re currently attracting. 

Off-site analytics are any online analytics that originates from sources other than your website. Off-site analytics can provide you with a more complete view of the market you could target.

Based on the information they offer about your visitors, we have categorized the top web analytics tools into six groups.

1. User behavior analytics tools

User behavior analytics tools combine tools like funnel analysis and event monitoring, which track and measure what users do on your website, with heat maps and session recordings that offer deeper insights into the causes of user actions and their true intentions. These tools help you thoroughly understand and monitor the user experience on your website.

Funnel analysis and Heatmaps

• Funnel analysis: This technique is used for visualizing, quantifying, and comprehending important user actions across the consumer journey. You must be able to quickly track any changes in client behavior and trends. To keep consumers on their route to conversion, funnel analysis lets you know when something isn’t right.

• Heatmaps: These are graphical representations of data that use color to show information about variable values. By emphasizing trends, patterns, and correlations between variables, this visualization method enables users to rapidly understand complicated datasets.

Smartlook is a user behavior analytics tool that provides actionable insights into user actions on websites and mobile apps. By combining session recordings, heatmaps, funnel analysis, and event tracking, Smartlook helps businesses understand the “why” behind user behavior. Additionally, it prioritizes data privacy by minimizing the collection of sensitive or personal information.

Main features: heatmaps, event tracking, funnel analysis, and session recordings

Other behavior analytics tools: Hotjar, Crazy Egg, Matomo 

2. Customer analytics tools

An example of a customer analytics tool is Adobe Analytics, which is a traditional tool and very similar to Google Analytics. It gathers and analyzes data from a variety of sources and creates customer segmentation, which makes it possible to dive deep into the reasons behind their actions and learn about their differences. It also uses machine learning to forecast and simulate consumer behavior.

Main features: predictive analytics, specialized reports, and customer journey analysis

Other customer analytics tools: Mixpanel, Woopra

3. Usability testing tools

Usability testing helps designers identify problems that everyday users face when interacting with a new product. But what does usability testing aim to achieve? The concept isn’t new—many businesses have long sought customer feedback through trials, introductory offers, and even focus groups conducted after a purchase.

How is usability testing different from user testing? 

User testing primarily focuses on the marketing and sales aspects of a product or service, while usability testing ensures that the product functions seamlessly, providing new users with the best possible experience.

Usability testing allows designers to identify and resolve bugs, navigation challenges, or implementation issues. Its ultimate goal is to improve the product and enhance user satisfaction.

A popular usability testing tool, Maze, offers all-in-one testing capabilities, integrating with design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, InVision, and Sketch. It also provides a wide range of UX research methods suitable for every stage of product development

Main features: quick prototyping, usability testing, A/B tests, surveys

Other usability testing tools:  Lookback and Optimal workshop

4. SEO analytics tools

A popular platform for search engine marketing is SEMrush. Its main goal is to assist you in increasing organic traffic through search engine optimization (SEO). In addition, Semrush offers tools for content marketing, market research, social media management, and PPC campaign analysis.

Main features: competition statistics, domain and backlink analytics, on-page SEO research, and keyword tracking (both organic and PPC)

Other SEO analytics tools: Ahrefs, Similarweb, Moz

5. Website traffic analysis

Google Analytics is still the most widely used online analytics software, offering comprehensive insights into website performance. As a conventional quantitative tool, it tracks metrics such as web page views, sessions, time on the page, referral sources, conversions, and much more, as it is a conventional quantitative instrument.

Its free version is a fantastic option for small website owners who only want an accessible way to understand their traffic trends.

With the transition to GA4, Google Analytics now provides enhanced features, such as event-based tracking, cross-device measurement, and improved reporting, making it more adaptable to modern analytics needs. For instance, it makes it effortless for users to connect their websites with Google Analytics.

Tip: You can also connect your Webnode website to GA4 and track key performance metrics. Just make sure you have the Standard or Profi Premium plan activated so you can use Google Analytics for your website.

Main features: segmentation, pre-made audience reports, marketing campaign attribution, and custom reports

Other Website traffic analysis tools are: Matomo, Clicky

6. Competitor analysis tools

Competitor analysis is an important aspect of business strategy, helping organizations understand industry trends, identify gaps in the market, and stay ahead of competitors. By analyzing what works for others, businesses can refine their content strategies, optimize marketing campaigns, and even discover new opportunities to better serve their target audience. 

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolkit designed to enhance websites and increase search engine traffic. With tools like the Organic Competitors Report, Ahrefs helps you identify which websites are competing for your target keywords, analyze their backlink strategies, and uncover content opportunities. This makes it an excellent tool for understanding and outpacing your competitors in search rankings.

Main features: Keyword rankings, Backlink profiles, Content gaps, Traffic estimates

Other competitor analysis tools are: BuzzSumo, Similarweb

Source: https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer

Top 10 Website Analytics Tools

Let’s have a look at the top 10 analytics tools, with their main features, advantages, and price points.

Conclusion

Website analytics tools are necessary to understand your audience, and user behavior, optimize your website, or monitor your competitors.

By leveraging the right combination of tools—ranging from user behavior analytics and SEO platforms to usability testing and competitor analysis—you can make data-driven decisions that drive growth and improve conversions.

Connect your website to an analytics tools, discover hidden opportunities, and achieve your dream results.

Get started and unlock the full potential of your website with Webnode

The post What Website Analytics Tools to Use for your Website appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

Learn how to implement SEO and attract the attention of your market. This article will provide SEO strategies with the highest impact to help you with ecommerce website optimization.

What is Ecommerce Website Optimization?

E-commerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing an online store to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This involves optimizing product pages, category pages, the homepage, blog content, and technical elements of a website to drive organic (non-paid) traffic.

The goal is to make it easier for potential customers to find your products through search engines. Ecommerce SEO organically attracts and converts customers. It provides a long-term, sustainable way to grow your business and improve brand awareness.

How to Do SEO for an Ecommerce Website

SEO for an e-commerce website involves a combination of strategies to optimize your site for search engines, improve user experience, and drive targeted traffic.

1. Optimize Product Pages

Customers will spend most of their time on product pages. As a business looking to attract customers, you should optimize these pages to be searchable, informative, and descriptive. Here are some ways you can achieve ecommerce website optimization on your product pages:

• Meta Titles and Descriptions: Think of meta titles and descriptions as your opportunity to make a first impression. They’re what your customers see even before they click on the link. Keep them short and interesting. Integrate your keywords naturally to achieve higher rankings while telling your customers exactly what they’ll find on your page.

• Product Descriptions: Your customers need to know what they’re buying and whether it’s worth their hard-earned money. This is where the product detail page matters. To optimize your descriptions for SEO value, write a description detailing what your product is, how it differs from competitors, and how your customers can benefit. Also, use primary and long-tail SEO keywords, but don’t overcompensate.

• Image Optimization: Product images show your customers what they’re buying and allow you to increase your search engine ranking. You can use keyword-optimized titles and file names. You can also use ALT tags that tell the search engine what your image is.

• Internal Links: You can keep your customers’s attention on your website and brand by using internal links to promote related products or posts. These links keep your customers on your page. They also tell search engines how your pages are related and structured, allowing them to recommend high-value pages on your site.

2. Leverage User-Generated Content

User-generated content, like customer reviews and testimonials, proves to search engines and other potential customers that your business can be trusted. Here’s how you can invite your customers or users to create content for you:

• Customer Reviews: When a customer publishes feedback on your product page, they improve your site’s SEO. They introduce new keywords, address common potential customer questions, and improve rankings. You can ask customers to leave a review on your product page to generate this content.

• Social Proof Widgets: Publishing testimonials and photos of your customer’s experience with your product makes your page more optimized for conversions and rankings. Beyond new keywords, this type of content also inspires trust. It also makes Google and other search engines more likely to recommend your page.

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Answering common customer questions through a dedicated FAQ section on your page allows you to use long-tail keywords. Though customers might not be specifically looking for a product, a search engine can still recommend your e-commerce site because it answers a question.

3. Utilize Long-Tail and Voice Search Keywords

According to Google’s statistics on marketing strategies, 20% of searches are conducted through voice. Long-tail and voice search keywords target these types of searches, and integrating them into your e-commerce website can increase your traffic and conversion. Here’s how you can maximize this trend:

• Research Long-Tail Keywords: Platforms like Google Keyword Planner can help you discover long-tail keywords relevant to your products and services. You can sort through the results by relevance or competition to identify the most applicable long-tail keywords that you can use in your blog posts, product pages, and other content.

• Voice Search Optimization: Using everyday, conversational language for your content makes it more likely to be recommended by search engines for voice-based queries. You can use long-tail or question keywords, though questions may be more likely to improve your rankings. Your answers should be clear and straight to the point.

• Featured Snippets & Answer Boxes: Utilizing featured snippets and answer boxes signals search engines that your page has the answer to question keywords. It’s more likely to be recommended to users.

4. Do Technical SEO for E-Commerce

Ecommerce website optimization involves more than using SEO keywords in your content. It also includes all the work that goes into ensuring an excellent customer experience, from browsing to checking out. Here are some technical strategies:

• Mobile Optimization: Most adults today own a smartphone. As a result, Google and other search engines rank websites optimized for mobile higher than their counterparts. Ensure your customers can navigate your e-commerce site through their smartphones.

• SSL Certification: Search engines consider an SSL certification, or an HTTPS, as part of their algorithm when choosing which pages to recommend to users. They prioritize their users’ safety and secure connection. Get an SSL certification for your online store.

• Site Speed & Performance: If your page loads slowly, your customers will likely look elsewhere for the information they need. Search engines, too, may overlook your pages because of your site’s performance. You can improve this by compressing your images, using browser caches, and minimizing JavaScript.

• Crawlability & Indexation: Search engines need to understand your website structure to recommend pages to their users. Creating an XML sitemap and submitting it to the Google Search Console ensures the search engine can crawl your site and provide visibility for all your essential pages.

5. Build High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are an SEO element that establishes your authority on related topics, products, or services. Search engines will increase your rankings if credible websites mention your e-commerce page as a source.

Many of the top ecommerce platforms offer built-in tools to help streamline backlink strategies and ensure your content reaches the right audiences. Here are tips to get relevant backlinks for your online store.

• Outreach Strategies: Identify your niche and determine the websites likely to use your backlinks to support their content. If your online store sells car parts, reputable online vehicle magazines can use your backlinks. Have valuable content like research and statistics on your website.

• Partnering with Influencers: You can reach out to influencers within your niche. You can request content featuring your products or services to create promotions and backlink usage opportunities. Consider your brand and choose influencers who align with your identity.

• Guest Posts and Content Contributions: Some reputable and high-authority websites can accept content you write. Check their guidelines for submission, as well as domain and page authority scores, and incorporate your links into the content to lead users to your online store.

6. Create SEO-Optimized Content

You should have SEO-optimized content outside your product pages. Examples of content you can use to improve your rankings and reach a wider audience include blog posts, guides, and videos. Here are some tips for each type of content:

• Blog Posts & Buying Guides: Launching a blog where you can post relevant content and buying guides offers space to introduce your own keywords and internal links. Post regularly and promote your content to drive organic website traffic. Buying guides are particularly attractive to your target audience as an e-commerce business.

• Product Comparisons and How-To Guides: Well-written, long-form content keeps your readers on your site longer, increasing your page’s engagement metrics. Comparisons and how-to guides allow you to delve deeper into related topics and use various keywords, including long-tail, question, and competitive keywords. Be engaging and use images and visualizations to break up your content.

• Videos: Product demos, walkthroughs, and user interviews may be better presented through videos. Optimizing this content for SEO involves using keywords in video titles, links in descriptions, and publishing transcriptions.

7. Implement Structured Data

Structured data gives search engines extra information about your products and content. It’s a type of code that enables search engines to include details like pricing, availability, and star ratings when your products appear on the results page. Here’s how you can use it for your ecommerce website:

• Structured Data Platforms: You can use structured data platforms to submit this code to search engines. E-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce provide plugins that automate lifting and adding structured data from your product pages. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper generates the code for your product pages.

• Relevant Information: Beyond pricing, availability, and ratings, you can include product images. Google supports image carousels, allowing potential customers to browse your product on the results page. You can also include structured data on where your product is on your site to enable your customers to see if clicking on the link will lead to similar products or categories.

• Monitoring: Check how your rich snippet compares to competitors on the results page. See if you can display more competitive pricing to increase click-through rates (CTR). Choose the best review to display on your snippet to make your product a more attractive choice. Update your structured data as necessary.

8. Let AI SEO tools help you

With more than 330 million e-commerce users expected by 2029, you should put your best foot ahead of the competition. Considering all the SEO strategies you can implement, you may need to explore AI and automation tools to streamline the process and reduce errors. Here are some that may apply to you:

• AI SEO Tools: There are tools available today that streamline keyword research. Platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs provide keywords you can use, competitive analysis data, and suggestions for your content. These tools use machine learning to provide accurate and actionable results.

• SEO Audits: To ensure your e-commerce website’s optimization at all times, conduct regular audits to check technical SEO strategies, especially crawlability and indexation. Leveraging reliable website optimization tools like Sitebulb can help you save time and effort during these essential audits.

• AI Chatbots: Despite your FAQ and long-form content, you could miss out on customer engagement because you haven’t explored specific topics. Implementing a chatbot on your online store resolves this issue by addressing customer queries and allowing you to mine content ideas from customer interactions.

9. Use SEO for New Product Launches

Starting an online store means launching new products and implementing SEO strategies for your pages. Planning how you’ll achieve this can ensure success before, during, and after launch. Here are some tips you can implement at every stage of your new product launch:

• Pre-Launch: Inspire customer interest by publishing content related to your new product. You could create blog posts that address topics related to your new product. You could also publish teaser posts on your page or create landing pages to countdown your launch.

• During Launch: Collect customer feedback as they come in and choose the snippets and testimonials you can add to your page and structured data. You can also monitor questions and conversations to get content ideas and possible keywords.

• Post-Launch: Maintain momentum by publishing SEO content based on the results of your research during launch. Address customer questions through long-form content and publish tutorials for any pain points that come up. Keep promoting customer testimonials and engaging with your customers through social posts.

• Seasonal Planning: E-commerce businesses can leverage seasons and holidays for competitive pricing, discounts, and events. Understand your target audience by knowing when your products are most relevant.

Conclusion

Ecommerce website optimization enhances visibility, engages customers, and drives sales. It’s an ongoing process that requires you to combine technical skills and creative thinking. Adapt to the new requirements of search engine algorithms and SEO trends, and pay attention to the quality of your content.

Apply SEO strategies from product page optimization to technical SEO and backlink building to help you attract more customers and increase rankings.

Want to make the most of SEO? Learn about advanced SEO strategies

The post Ecommerce Website Optimization: Strategies to Drive Sales appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

According to a report by Yagura, approximately 71% of consumers prefer voice queries over typing. As the use of voice search increases, it is important to optimize websites to enhance online visibility.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss voice search optimization and the best ways you can use to optimize your website to improve voice search rankings. 

What is Voice Search Optimization?

Voice search optimization refers to the process of optimizing your webpages in such a way that they appear in the top results for voice search queries. It ensures your content is readily available when users perform a voice search. 

Voice Search vs. Text Search

The basic difference between voice search and text search lies in how we phrase our queries.

In text search, users type short keyword-based queries, while in voice search they ask long and conversational questions.

For instance, if you are searching for pizza places in New York City, the text search maybe “best pizza NYC”. Your voice search query can be like: “What is the best pizza place in New York City?”

Best Practices for Optimizing Your Website for Voice Search 

Now that you’ve understood the importance of voice search optimization,  let’s discuss the best practices you must follow to optimize your websites for voice search. 

1. Optimize your content for conversational queries

Voice searches vary in context, intent, and query length. Since they are conversational in nature, you need to optimize your content with a conversational tone to answer their queries. 

Avoid using formal or technical language and include conversational words such as “How do I…”, “Where can I find…”, and “What’s the best way to…”. Write in a casual style as if you’re speaking directly to your audience, including valuable information. 

Pro-tip: Think of the questions that your audience might ask for a specific topic. For example, if people were searching for gardening tips, they might ask: 

• How do I start a garden?
• What are the best plants for beginners?
• What tools do I need for gardening?

There are some questions you’ll want to consider and optimize in your search strategy. You can also check the People Also Ask section to find related queries. 

2. Identify related keywords

Identify and target specific keywords for voice search to ensure they appear in the search results. You can use long-tail keywords, question keywords, and conversational keywords to optimize your content.

Use keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner to find good keywords for voice search.

Enter the primary keyword (a specific topic), select country, and click Search. The tool will display a list of related keywords along with their monthly search volume, SEO difficulty, and content ideas. You can export these keywords in .CSV and .XLSX format and include them in the content. 

3. Conduct a content audit and optimize

Before you begin optimizing the website for voice search, conduct a content audit to determine how you can optimize your existing content for specific keywords that you want to include in voice search. Analyze and evaluate the content carefully to determine how you can optimize it.

For example, if you have a blog post on “How to optimize email marketing”, you can optimize it for related keywords such as “ways to optimize email marketing,” “email marketing optimization tips,” or “optimize email campaigns.”

You can use tools such as SEOptimer, Ahrefs, and SE Ranking to conduct a content audit. You’ll get information about the current content performance including traffic, keywords and other insights.

What are the best ways to optimize content?

• Write concise and clear answers to increase the chances of appearing in the search engine page results.
• Create a FAQ section at the bottom of the page where you can use voice search keywords to answer commonly asked questions by people.
• Include voice search keywords in the headers and body in a natural way; avoid stuffing.
• Write in a natural language, increasing the chances of your content being shared by voice assistants.
• Add schema markup, which is structured data that enables search engines understand your website better. This provides more context and increases the chances of appearing in the top search engine page results for voice.

4. Implement local SEO

Local SEO improves the visibility of local businesses in the search engine page results. Optimizing local SEO helps businesses target potential customers in the neighborhood and surrounding areas. 

When someone uses voice search to find a nearby pharmacy shop on his phone, you can improve local SEO by creating and maintaining a Google Business Profile. GBP is a tool that helps businesses maintain their online presence and appear on Google Maps and Search. It is available free of cost and highlights all the important information (phone number, hours, address, etc.) about your business.

Here’s an example of how a business appears in local search results. 

So, when you search for a coffee place near you using voice search, Google Business profile extracts information from these profiles. This maintains an accurate listing increases the chances of your business ranking for local voice searches. 

5. Optimize technical SEO of your website 

Technical SEO refers to optimizing to ensure it is easily crawled and indexed by search engines, thereby increasing its online visibility and traffic. 

Improving the technical SEO of your website enhances user experience and there are more chances of your content to be read aloud by voice assistants. Here are some of the best ways you can implement: 

• Page load speed determines how quickly a webpage loads. Faster loading web pages have a high chance of ranking in the top results. You can compress images, reduce HTTP requests, and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve the page load speed.
• Design mobile-friendly websites. You can include legible fonts, use meta viewport tags, and put appropriate spacing around buttons. 
• Design responsive websites such that they render seamlessly across different devices offering a great user experience. 
• Create SEO-friendly website architecture to ensure website crawlers can locate your website easily. 

Source 

6. Get Google featured snippets

Featured snippets include brief content that is displayed as a paragraph or bulleted list on search engine page results of Google. They are extracted from high-ranking web page for a specific query and boost significant traffic. 

This is important for voice search because if a featured snippet is available for a search query, a virtual assistant will likely read it as an answer. Therefore, you must make efforts to get a featured snippet:

• Focus on question-based queries.
• Include step-by-step solutions when relevant.
• Don’t emphasize backlinks. 
• Structure your pages with relevant headings and paragraph tags.
• Update your content regularly to ensure its relevance. 
• Target long-tail keywords and phrases that are used in voice search. 

What is the future of voice search optimization for digital marketers?

“The human voice is the most perfect instrument of all”. – Arvo Part

With increasing advancements in AI and technology, voice search holds a bright future. It will make our lives easy by offering quick, relevant, and personalized answers to our queries. 

As voice search integrates into customer behaviour, businesses need to figure out ways to adapt to digital interaction and communication. Digital marketers need to compare voice searches with text searches and understand their construction and composition.

This will help them create content that is valuable and resonates with readers, improving visibility in the SERPs. They need to modify their SEO strategies to cope up with the conversational tone of voice search and stay relevant in the age of voice search. 

Conclusion

As voice search becomes more common, businesses must understand how people use this technology to remain competitive. By implementing voice search optimization, you increase the chances that your website will appear more often in search results. Use this opportunity to get a head start.

Learn about other effective SEO strategies

The post Voice Search Optimization: What It Is and the Best Practices appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

Our fast-paced world requires having a fast, responsive, and efficient mobile version of a website. The quality of your website’s mobile version can determine whether a user turns into a loyal customer or turns to your competitors’ websites. 

In this article, we are diving into the realm of mobile optimization to show you how important it is for businesses and what tips you can implement to make sure your website is efficient and fully operational on mobile phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. 

What is Mobile Optimization? 

Mobile optimization refers to making adjustments to your website so that users on mobile devices can easily and smoothly view and interact with your content. In other words, if you want to optimize your website for mobile devices, you need to make it fully operational and visually appealing on any mobile device. 

Statistics indicate that over half of the website traffic originates from mobile devices.  

Mobile optimization should be based on responsive design. Responsive design refers to adapting a website’s screen to the size of the device screen. 

It is important to differentiate mobile optimization from mobile-friendliness. They are closely related concepts but have certain differences. For example, a mobile-friendly website makes your website appear smoothly on smaller screens.

Mobile optimization goes a step further. It not only helps your website properly display on smaller screens but also makes the website easier to navigate by formatting content, displaying larger buttons, etc. 

Why Is Mobile Optimization Important? 

Any business needs to have a mobile-optimized website as an essential part of its online presence.  

Here are some key factors that point out the importance of mobile optimization. 

• Provides a Better User Experience 

A mobile-optimized website loads faster, is easy to navigate and provides smooth experiences on small screens. It is optimized for smaller screens and is simple to use with a touchscreen. This leads to low website bounce rates and better user experience. 

• Improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Rankings 

Mobile optimization helps to increase your website traffic. Google and other search engines index mobile-optimized websites over desktops. Any not properly optimized website may lose traffic because of low visibility.  

• Boosts Conversions and Sales 

A study by Convertica has shown that customers are 37% more likely to buy from a website that is optimized for mobile devices. A seamless and easy mobile experience naturally leads to high conversions and sales. To boost conversion rates through mobile optimization you need to perform loading speed optimization, responsive design implementation, navigation simplification, etc.  

How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile? 

Optimizing your website for mobile opens up a ton of opportunities for your business growth. Here we share some of the most important tips to consider when performing mobile optimization. 

Simplify the Navigation

Mobile users are impatient. They seek a simple and fast experience. Simplification of the navigation of your website will not only provide the users with an easy experience but will also reduce the load time of your website.  

Craft Responsive Design 

According to the 37.1% of web designers, the major reason why visitors abandon a website is unresponsive design. 

If you are wondering how to start mobile optimization for your website, begin by creating a fully responsive mobile design. It considers adapting the website screen for different mobile devices while keeping the quality high. 

 A good trick in keeping your website design responsive is to apply the so-called “breakpoint”. Breakpoint is the point at which the responsive design shifts from one resolution to another. 

Perform Image and Media Optimization 

If you want your website to load faster, think small. The smaller the images the better website loading and performance. 

Avoid uploading images that are larger than 1MB.  

• Keep the image dimension between 1000-2000px. 
• Never rely on the browser for resizing the images. Use image resizing tools instead. 
• Don’t resize images one by one. It’s inefficient and time-consuming. 
• Use image formats that load fast. For example, JPG, PNG, etc.  
• Add a CDN for a large repository of images. It serves as a second server. You can use tools like CDN Planet. 

Use Mobile-Friendly Forms 

Forms are a core element of any website. To gain more leads and have more sales, you should correctly optimize your forms for mobile.  

Don’t use a lot of fields if you don’t want to make your forms complex. 

• Don’t use a lot of fields if you don’t want to make your forms complex. 
• When possible apply drop-down lists. 
• Make submission buttons visible and easy to touch. 
• Track and monitor the forms to ensure they work well and load fast. You can use tools like Formstory to prevent form errors. 

Reduce the Number of Pop-Ups 

Pop-ups are often annoying for website visitors on mobile. They cover the entire screen and make it impossible to navigate it. So, it is better to reduce the number of pop-ups or not use them at all. 

However, if you need to have pop-ups, make sure to make them close easily and take up a small amount of the screen. 

Use Readable and Mobile-Friendly Fonts 

Choose text fonts that are readable on small screens. A good choice is using fonts like Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, Montserrat, and others. 

Compress Website Files 

 It is important to compress all the files on your website to save space and reduce the page load time. Avoid using many plugins. You can also minify the pages on your website with the help of a professional developer.  

Optimize For Voice Search 

Numbers say that over 50% of the world’s adult population uses voice search daily.  

Optimizing for voice search is no longer a nice-to-have but a must strategy. 

Most people use Siti or Alexa to find the information they are interested in through search engines. To optimize your website for voice search: 

• Rely on natural language. 
• Use long-tail keywords. 
• Provide clear answers to the questions. 

Test Your Website  

Don’t forget about testing your website on various mobile devices (Android, IOS). This will let you detect and remove issues before the users encounter them.  

Another key step is following all the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure that your website is accessible to people with disabilities who rely on screen readers and other assistive technology. 

This way you can ensure that the mobile version of your website is accessible for everyone. 

To make your website thrive in the mobile-first world, you should keep up with all the latest trends in mobile optimization. For example, keep an eye on technologies like Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), progressive web apps (PWA), or Hyvä PWA.  

Collect User Feedback 

Another critical aspect is to consider the user feedback. Your users are the guide to enhancing the functionality of your website. Feedback is direct input from the users about their experience with your website.  

Always listen to what your users say about your website, and optimize it to meet their requests to deliver exceptional services.  

Conclusion 

Today most people rely on mobile phones for daily activities, including shopping, checking the news, playing games, etc. This highlights the importance of mobile optimization. Chances are you may lose potential customers, conversions, and income if your website is not fully optimized for mobile devices of all types. 

The post The Importance of Mobile Optimization: Impact on SEO, UX and Conversions appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

Index:

1. Semantic SEO
2. AI-Driven Content Generation
3. Visual Search Optimization
4. Voice Search Optimization
5. Mobile-First Indexing
6. AR and VR
7. Local SEO

About SEO

The main purpose of SEO is to improve the visibility of your site. It can help you drive more organic traffic. This, in order, can give you a competitive edge. Moreover, if your page is at the top of search results, people see it as reliable and trustworthy. The well-known and basic SEO strategies include:

• Relevance and quality content
• Keyword optimization
• Link building
• User experience
• Technical SEO
• Brand signals
• Social signals

But it’s time to talk about the SEO advanced strategies and discover SEO trends for 2025.

1. Semantic SEO

It is one of the central SEO strategies for 2025. The purpose of semantic SEO is to improve how browsers comprehend the context and intent. It acknowledges that people often phrase their searches in natural language. You have to ensure that search engines understand the nuances of language to deliver more accurate results.

The traditional approach emphasizes specific keywords. This one incorporates related terms and synonyms. That way browsers can understand a broader context. Also, we want to mention that now search engines are equipped with NLP. So, they can comprehend the meaning behind phrases and questions. For a page on SEO for SaaS, use a keyword phrase like “optimization for software as a service”. Semantic SEO can help you create content that mirrors how people naturally speak.

Improved Relevance

As we’ve already mentioned, semantic SEO understands the context of requests. This improves the relevance of results. It can lead to more accurate matches between user intent and the site’s content.

Voice Search Optimization

Now people often employ conversational language through voice searches. Semantic SEO is a must for this approach. Your pages are more likely to surface in voice search results when you optimize them for natural language.

Featured Snippets

Browsers aim to provide people with direct and concise answers to their questions. This method gives you many opportunities. Your materials can be featured in rich snippets with semantic SEO. It can help you establish your site as an authoritative source.

Dwell time

Visitors are more likely to engage with your material for a longer duration when it aligns with their intent. Semantic SEO leads to increased dwell time. This can potentially improve your site’s rankings. Another highly effective way to increase dwell time is using an advanced text summarizer to easily formulate an interesting long-form content summary. Publishing such a summary will help users understand that the content aligns well with their search intent and assist crawlers in analyzing the relevance of the web page.

2. AI-Driven Content Generation

The next popular approach we want to mention is content generation with the help of AI. Which features does it offer?

Personalization

This technology analyzes points, like 

• Behavior;
• Preferences; 
• Historical data, etc.

These algorithms can help you tailor content to individual users. This personalization makes their experience more relevant. It can also help you boost SEO by raising engagement metrics.

Traditional creation processes often involve time-consuming tasks. It can be pretty hard to keep up with the changing trends. The AI-driven alternative allows you to adapt in real time. Algorithms can analyze:

• Current events;
• Industry trends;
• Interactions, and more.

Better keyword optimization

This advancement can analyze vast amounts of data. It can identify and optimize for relevant keywords. So, you can stay ahead of shifting search patterns. As a result, your content will remain discoverable by your target audience.

However, after writing content with an AI tool, check it for plagiarism with the help of a plagiarism checker online tool. It will detect all duplicate segments, allow you to ensure originality, and prevent the destructive repercussions of plagiarism.

Multimedia Integration

This type of creation is not limited to text. Advanced algorithms can generate multimedia content. For example, they can include images and videos. This diversity can help you improve user engagement and your appeal.

Variability

These generators can create multiple variations of materials for A/B testing. This gives you an opportunity to experiment with different headlines and structures. That way you can identify the most effective elements. 

Efficiency

This advancement automates repetitive tasks. It can free up your human resources to focus on more strategic aspects. It allows you to produce a large volume of high-quality content.

Predictive Analytics 

AI gives the possibility for predictive analytics. It allows you to anticipate future trends and adapt your strategies accordingly. It can guide you toward topics and formats that are likely to gain traction.

One of the things that can boost your marketing and SEO is technology consulting. This increases traffic to your site and will help optimize your site.

3. Visual Search Optimization

Visual search involves using images or visuals as queries instead of text. We believe that this method will be a trend this year. For example, people can upload an image or use a snapshot to look for similar items or information. This technology relies on image recognition to interpret the visual context.

Structured Data Markup 

You need to implement structured data markup, such as Schema.org. This will give additional information about your pictures to browsers. This markup helps them interpret the content. That way you can accurately categorize and display your visuals.

Image Sitemaps

We also recommend developing image sitemaps. It aids search engines in discovering and indexing your visuals. You have to provide a comprehensive list of images along with relevant metadata. It will help you facilitate proper crawling and indexing.

Mobile Optimization

Most people view everything on their phones. So, you have to make sure that your visuals are optimized for mobile devices. Create a site with responsive design and fast-loading images.

Utilize Visual Search Platforms

It’s advisable to explore visual search platforms. Some examples are Google Lens and Pinterest Lens. They use advanced image recognition technology to connect people with visually similar content. This type of optimization can broaden your reach.

Interactive Images

It’s great to make your pictures interactive and shoppable. For instance, you can incorporate elements like clickable hotspots or product tags. This can give you an opportunity for direct engagement and conversion. 

Audits

You need to conduct regular image-based SEO audits. It can help you ensure that your visuals align with your overall strategy. Some points you should check are 

• Broken links;
• Outdated alt text;
• Compliance with best practices, etc.

Visuals by Users

We suggest you encourage user-generated visuals. For example, they can create images and videos related to your offerings. This might add authenticity to your brand. It can also contribute to a diverse range of search queries.

4. Voice Search Optimization

Voice search gained a lot of popularity in the last few years. We believe that it’ll only continue to thrive in 2025. This approach is way more convenient and faster than standard alternatives. So, it’s necessary to optimize your website for voice search.

Natural Language and Long-Tail Keywords

Voice searches tend to be more conversational and longer than typed ones. You need to adjust your content for natural language. Try to incorporate long-tail keywords that mimic how people actually speak.  

Featured Snippets 

Voice assistants often pull information from featured snippets. They always appear at the top of search results. You have to structure your materials to provide concise and informative answers. Another thing that can boost your chances of being the chosen source is Position Zero.

Location-Based Queries

We want to mention that many voice searches are location-specific. So, it’s important to concentrate on local SEO. You have to

• Claim your Google My Business listing;
• Optimize for local keywords;  
• Provide accurate business information, etc. 

This is necessary if you’re targeting a local audience.

FAQ Pages 

You can craft FAQ pages that handle common questions in a conversational tone. Try to predict the requests people might voice. Then you can provide detailed and informative answers. It’s advisable to structure your content in a question-and-answer format.

Schema Markup 

Also, you can implement schema markup to give search engines more context about your content. This can raise your chances of appearing in rich results. It will make your materials more appealing when delivered through voice search responses.

5. Mobile-First Indexing

All major SEO companies will tell you that this strategy will become even more significant this year. First, we want to explain what it is. It means that search engines give the mobile version a priority over its desktop counterpart. It has developed because people mostly access the internet through mobile devices. Google recognized this shift. So, it has adapted its algorithms.

Below, we present the key components of mobile-first indexing.

Mobile-Friendly Design

Responsiveness can help you adapt your site to different screen sizes. So, it’s necessary to create a mobile-friendly design. That way your clients can view your materials on any device. 

Page Speed

This element is a vital ranking factor for mobile searches. You need to optimize your site’s loading times. You can do that by 

• Compressing images;
• Leveraging browser caching;
• Minimizing unnecessary elements, etc. 

Metadata

You need to make sure that metadata is consistent across both mobile and desktop versions. Try to pay attention to the titles and meta descriptions you use. It can help browsers understand and categorize your materials accurately.

Mobile-First Content

Always, tailor your materials for mobile users. Focus on simple and engaging content. That way people can easily consume it on smaller screens. Try to prioritize the most practical info and use straightforward CTAs.

6. AR and VR

More and more companies are adopting the newest developments in their practices. AR and VR have been especially popular lately. So, what will they bring?

Extended Dwell Time

These developments are pretty immersive. Their usage can lead to extended dwell times on your site. Search engines interpret longer dwell times as a sign of practical and relevant sources. So, you can potentially improve your page’s authority by keeping people engaged for longer.

Reduced Bounce Rates

Interactive pieces can captivate people. It can help you decrease bounce rates as visitors spend more time exploring your site. Lower bounce rates show that your materials meet people’s expectations.

Differentiation 

Standing out is necessary in highly competitive niches. AR and VR features can set your site apart. It will make your brand image memorable and distinctive. This uniqueness can attract more attention and referrals. This, in order, will result in higher visibility.

Rich Media 

This type of content can contribute to the richness of your media assets. As we’ve mentioned above, visual searches are becoming more prevalent. So, visually attractive and interactive pieces can make your site more discoverable.

Interactive Product Displays

These innovations can revolutionize product displays for e-commerce pages. They allow people to virtually try on products or visualize items in their actual environment. This makes their online shopping experience much better. This level of interactivity can lead to higher conversion rates.

Shareability 

There’s no doubt that interactive materials have the potential to go viral on social media platforms. The more your content is shared, the more social signals it generates. Browsers consider social signals as indicators of applicability and popularity.

Backlink Attraction

Unique and innovative AR and VR pieces can attract attention from other pages and media outlets. This will potentially result in more backlinks. Remember, that backlinks from authoritative sources are extremely important.

7. Local SEO

We’ve mentioned this approach a few times above. Now, we want to explain it in more detail, because it will definitely become prevalent.

Hyper-Local Keywords

First, you need to refine your keyword strategy. Incorporate hyper-local terms that resonate with your target audience. Some of the options you can use are:

• Neighborhood names;
• Landmarks;
• Colloquial phrases, and more. 

Localized Content Marketing

Also, try to develop content marketing tailored to your local clientele. Create blog posts and multimedia pieces that highlight local events and community interests. This can establish your relevance within the community. Plus, it gives practical information to local searches.

Local Schema Markup

You have to employ local schema markup. That way you can provide search engines with detailed information about your business. Some of the points are:

• Address;
• Contact information; 
• Business hours; 
• Reviews, etc. 

Augmented Reality 

We recommend you integrate the AR technologies we mentioned before. For instance, you can use it to: 

• Host virtual tours of your business; 
• Showcase products in a local setting; 
• Create interactive backgrounds, etc.

Influencer Collaborations

Also, you might collaborate with local influencers and thought leaders. This can help you to amplify your reach within the community. Influencers can help promote your business and share their experiences. They usually generate authentic materials that resonate with their followers.

Online Reputation Management

Always pay attention to your online reputation on local review platforms. Try to respond promptly to reviews, whether positive or negative. Showcase your commitment to customer satisfaction. A positive online reputation contributes to local SEO success a lot.

Conclusion

Most businesses operate online and have a website. Effective SEO approaches are more important than ever. You always have to keep up with all the latest trends to stay at the top. Stay ahead of the competition and bring your website to the top ranks!

Author’s bio: Dmytro Sokhach is an entrepreneur and a 6-Figure Flipper Club member. Founded Admix Global (web agency) that helps companies significantly increase traffic from search engines by building editorial links.

The post Advanced SEO Strategies for 2025 appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

Index:

• SEO basics for beginners
• SEO terminologies
• How to do SEO for a website step by step
• How Webnode helps you with DIY SEO
• DIY SEO FAQs

SEO basics for beginners 

SEO is gaining popularity and website owners are hearing about it from all sides. Often, they would like to get into SEO but don’t know where and how to start. While it might seem intimidating at first, you can easily learn SEO basics and start with SEO for your website. So what is actually behind this often spoken, but still mysterious to some, acronym?

What is SEO and how it works 

The term SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It can be defined as a marketing discipline that improves where your website displays in organic search results. Simply put, the better your SEO is, the higher you will rank in search results (and the more likely people will be to find and click through to your website).

The mission of search engines like Google is simple–find all the content that is created on a topic and sort it according to its quality and relevance to the users’ questions.

When you use website SEO, you want to “convince” the search engines that your content is more relevant, higher quality, and more accessible than the content on the same topic from other websites.

Working to improve your SEO optimization is crucial to the success of your website, but keep in mind that it is a long and continuous process. Therefore, it is advisable to use a strategy as a guide if you plan to do SEO yourself.

Strategies make your job easier and determine the direction of optimization. Each website is unique and is in a different stage of development, so there’s no one-size-fits all strategy. Your SEO strategy will also evolve over time.

What is the goal of SEO

The goal of SEO is to try to improve the visibility of your site in search results. The more phrases you cover and the higher you rank in the search results, the more visitors you will get. A number of SEO methods and activities are used for this purpose, for example:

• Keyword analysis
• Content analysis of competition
• Web speed optimization
• Optimization for mobile devices
• Building backlinks

Many people think that the goal of SEO is to please Google or other search engines. In reality, however, the goal is to please people. Search engines only respond to people’s behavior. They try to guess their needs and rank the results according to what they like.

Google has developed an evaluation algorithm–a set of metrics and factors it employs to measure website relevance. The list of pages in the search results is then sorted for each user according to this evaluation.

The algorithm is constantly evolving and improving, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest SEO trends. Lastly, if you do SEO for news websites, prioritize providing timely and accurate information, as these factors significantly impact your website’s visibility.

Why SEO is important for your website

Do you know why search engine optimization is important? It’s not just another source of traffic. In addition to making your website more visible and easier to find in search results, SEO also supports the growth of all your channels. This is because website optimization improves the look, function, and quality of your site. 

Benefits of SEO

There are many benefits to well thought out and executed SEO optimization including:

• Ranking higher in search results, which makes it easier for your website and content to be discovered by the right people
  
• Improving the accessibility of the website and user experience–whether visitors are using a PC or mobile phone, are in a place with a poor internet connection, or are visually impaired
  
• Making it easier for users to explore your site by making it possible for them to search and navigate through your web content effectively in just a few clicks
  
• Persuading users to spend more time on the website because you provide all the information and resources they need in one place
  
• Less costs for paid search positions as you will be needing to pay for fewer keywords

All website visitors will benefit from these factors. The improvements you make when you do SEO yourself will help build the authority of your domain and the reputation of your site.

SEO terminologies

When it comes to DIY SEO for beginners, there are a few key terms you’ll want to make sure you understand before you get started.

On-page SEO factors 

On-page SEO includes the settings and adjustments you can make directly on your website. For example, creating effective titles and meta descriptions for your webpages or ensuring that users can navigate to all content within as few as three clicks. The advantage of On-page SEO is that you have them completely under your control. 

Off-page SEO factors 

Off-page SEO includes off-site actions that can impact your website’s ranking. For example, building backlinks or working with social media. 

Off-page factors are not as easy to control as on-page factors. Getting a backlink to your website is not as easy as creating a title for a web page. However, off-page factors have a big impact on your site’s ranking and should not be underestimated.

Technical SEO 

Technical SEO ensures that your website is secure and indexed by search engines, making your website searchable. It improves the structure of the site, makes it easier to view and faster to load. Therefore, technical mistakes can be fatal.

Technical SEO tasks include proper redirection, canonicalization, or page speed optimization.

Keyword research 

Keyword research is an essential part of website SEO. To do this successfully, you’ll need to understand which keywords your intended audience is searching for and how much competition related to those keywords already exists in search engines. Once you know which keywords you have the best chance of ranking for, you can incorporate them into your content.

Linkbuilding 

Linkbuilding involves getting other websites with high authority to include links to your website in their content. These links are typically included in the blog section. A website is considered authoritative if it is trusted by search engines, providing truthful, high-quality content and up-to-date information. Authoritative websites are typically very popular, referenced on other websites, shared on social networks, and have a rich web history.

How to do SEO for a website step by step

1. Find relevant keywords for your website 

When thinking about how to do search engine optimization yourself, keyword research is one of the first places to start. It is necessary to conduct a keyword analysis to find out which phrases and keywords you should use in your content.

You can do this for the whole website, however, it is often better to do a smaller analysis first. Focusing only on the content you’re currently creating is a faster and easier process, but you’ll need to repeat it for every piece of content.

There are a number of tools that will make this work easier. Thanks to them, you don’t have to invent keywords or phrases or take any guesses. However, your own ideas are also an important resource and often the initial step.

Some tools for keyword research are paid but there are also plenty of unpaid SEO tools available.

The search engine itself is a great free tool to start with. Let’s say you’re writing an article about rebuilding an ebike. Open an incognito window so your past search history won’t skew the results. Then, type “ebike conversion” into the search bar and watch a list of variations and potential keywords magically appear before your eyes.

Sometimes Google also offers related queries. You can find them at the bottom of the page below the search results. These are thematically related types of queries that users ask Google.

Google will also provide a FAQ box for some questions people ask. When clicked, it also offers an answer with a link to the page. This is a great way to check out user questions as well as the competition. As you start clicking on the answers, more new questions will appear. You can find many query phrases for your keyword analysis with this process.

The disadvantage of data from search engines is that there are no metrics for the keywords. You know the phrases were searched for, but you don’t know how often or how much competition there is. It is then difficult to evaluate the importance of the phrase for SEO optimization.

These metrics are usually provided by paid tools but you can also use Google Trends to find some of this data. It provides data on the most searched queries, including search volume and trend metrics. However, the data can be difficult to find and the tool displays only short generic phrases.

If you use paid advertising in search and use Google Ads, you can use the keyword planner tool. However, the data isn’t very accurate.

Create a list in Excel or a similar spreadsheet editor to keep track of your keyword research. Here you can sort phrases alphabetically and delete duplicates.

If there are a lot of phrases, you can group them according to their meaning. Most importantly, you can start sorting and classifying them. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as every website is unique. In principle, however, you should determine:

1. Search Intent
   • The purpose is to estimate the intention with which the user will ask the query. The phrase “conversion kit for 350w e-bike” is likely to be used when searching for a specific conversion kit. However, the phrase “conversion to e-bike experience” may be used by someone who is just looking for more information about converting an ebike conversion.
     
2. Context
   • What type of content you want to use the keyword for (eg. category, blog, product, etc.). Determining the type of content is closely related to context. For our example article, the phrase “350w e-bike conversion kit” might be used as an entry in a list of engines whereas the phrase “conversion to an e-bike experience” could be the title of a separate chapter in a piece of blog content.
     
3. The keyword difficulty and search volume
   • It’s common to think about search volume when prioritizing keywords but don’t forget about competition and relevance as well. The keyword “electric bike conversion” has almost 400 searches per month. However, the “conversion to a central-wheeled electric bicycle” expresses much more precisely what the user is looking for. The long-tailed phrase has only 25 searches, but lower competition. An article optimized for this phrase will be easier to get to the first position in a search engine but a smaller number of visitors will likely see it. However, there is a high chance for conversion.
     
4. Where to put keywords
   • You will use generic and searchable keywords such as “conversion to an e-bike” mainly in the H1 title or headings. You can use synonyms or specific phrases such as “mountain bike to e-bike conversion” in subheadings H2 – H6, the body text, link texts, or image titles. Important keywords can also be highlighted in bold.

Your spreadsheet will help you create a clear classification, which in our example may look like this:

2. Optimize the content of your site

Content is the base of successful search engine optimization. Without quality content, setting titles or meta descriptions will never have the sufficient effect. It’s important to keep in mind that you create pages for visitors, not robots.

Search engines can evaluate the quality of content by user behavior. If the content isn’t compelling enough, users will leave the site and stop visiting. This is a signal for search engines to stop showing pages in search results.

When you do SEO yourself, it is always important to identify the target group of readers for your contents and to understand their needs. Try asking yourself these questions:

• Who is your site intended for? Is it suitable for the younger generation or older readers, for a narrower group of people in a certain field, or is it for a wide range of readers?
  
• What language does your audience use? Do they speak formally or do they use slang?
  
• Do your visitors expect content full of images and videos, or prefer plain text without unnecessary distractions?
  
• Will your site be visited primarily from mobile devices or computers?

Your content should always be unique, related to the purpose of the website and written with your target audience. It’s also a good idea to research the best SEO tips for how to structure different types of content. For example, an optimized blog article might include:

• Text length: min. 1000 – max 3000 words
• Max. paragraph length: 5 lines
• Use headings H2 and H3 for easy navigation
• Use a numbered list or bullets
• Insert a featured image
• Insert min. 2 internal links

3. Create optimized meta titles 

The meta title is the first point of contact between your website and a potential visitor. It is the first thing they will see in search results. With this in mind, it should clearly indicate what your site is about so the searcher can understand if it is relevant to their needs.

Titles have the power to persuade users to click on your page in search results or continue their search. The title is also taken into account by indexing robots and is therefore an ideal space for inserting the most important keywords.

The title of the page in the search results

Webpage titles also appear in the previews of posts on social networks whenever someone shares your site. You will also see it on the browser tab. This makes it easier to navigate between the individual search tabs.

Display of title on the browser tab

• The title should clearly describe the content. Create a unique one for each page of the site.
  
• Create a title primarily with the user in mind. Remember that the main goal is to entice readers to visit the site. The text should attract attention and make the user click on it.
  
• The length of the title depends on the characters used. The maximum length is 600 px, which corresponds to about 60 common characters. If the title is longer, it will not be displayed fully. As a rule of thumb, short, readable titles are best.
  
• Try to optimize the text from left to right. Keywords or calls to action are ideally listed at the beginning of the headline, where they attract attention first. But don’t overdo it. Ideally, use one or two of the highly searched keywords that are most relevant to your content.
  
• If you have space left in the title, you can mention your brand name at the end.
  
• Be creative. You can use numbers or emoticons in the title.

What happens if you don’t add a meta title? Then, the main title of the page will be displayed. However, it’s better to use a meta title that has been optimized for SEO.

Meta title in the Webnode website builder

4. Create optimized meta descriptions 

The meta description has a similar function to the title. It appears in search results or on social networks and tries to attract users. It’s an additional text that aims to introduce the content on your website.

How meta description appears in the search results

You can use it to increase your click-through rate by creating a good description that will engage and persuade users to visit the site. Search engines will respond positively to a better click-through rate and then the position of your site will improve.

What if you don’t fill out the meta description? In this case, Google will display an excerpt of the page content. This isn’t ideal as there may end up including excerpts from different places in the content and the text will not be continuous. Google can also choose to display other text if it evaluates that snippets of the content are more relevant to a search query than the manually generated meta description.

• Create a meta description for users. Remember that the primary goal is to persuade readers to visit the site and increase your click-through rate.
  
• Try to optimize the description for a specific search query or group of related queries.
  
• The description limit is about 160 characters. This corresponds to two or up to three short sentences. If the description is longer, it will not be displayed fully.
  
• Present the benefits, call to action, or other important information about the product, offer, or contact details in the meta description.
  
• Try using numbers or emoticons in the text to increase its attractiveness.

Where to insert the meta description in the Webnode website builder

5. Optimize images 

Images are often overlooked when thinking about how to improve SEO. However, more and more people are searching the internet for images. They are either looking for the images themselves or looking for more detailed content based on the image. It would be a shame to ignore this opportunity and not adapt your website to it. 

You can also get to the top positions in image searches using relatively generic keywords as the competition is lower than in full-text search. Therefore, it is worthwhile to focus on image SEO optimization.

Before embedding an image on the website, optimize its data size. This is done in two steps:

1. If necessary, adjust the image to the maximum size that you will use on the web. For PC displays, a size of approximately 1400 x 800 px will generally suffice. You can do this in any image editor.
   
2. Use software to compress the data size of images. Compression may slightly degrade the image quality. However, the difference is not discernible to the human eye. There are many applications on the Internet that do compression for free. Just enter the search term “image compressor” to find these resources.

Reducing the data size of an image will improve the loading speed of your site. This is one of the important evaluation factors for search engines.

Now you need to optimize the image information:

1. The name itself plays an important role in SEO. Name the image file before uploading and use keywords in the title to describe what the image is.
   
2. At the same time, don’t forget to fill in the title of the image in the editor, which Google indexes as an alternative description (or alt text) of the image. This is displayed to users instead of the image if it fails to load. It also helps blind users navigate the content.

Why enter these labels at all? Even these days, search engines are still unable to identify exactly what is in a particular image. Instead they analyze text related to the image for indexing purposes. In addition to the title and alternative text, the search engine also examines the surrounding text.

6. Get backlinks 

Linkbuilding is an important SEO strategy for obtaining external links back to your website. The number and quality of backlinks is one of the most important factors in page ranking:

1. Backlinks help search engines find your site.
2. When other sites cite your website, it’s a sign to search engines that it’s important.
3. Users can visit your site through backlinks. Traffic from this source is usually lower, but more relevant.

Linkbuilding is a difficult part of search engine optimization because you do not have full control over external links. You cannot simply add or edit them as content. You need to persuade other sites to place and maintain links leading to your website. Using a dedicated backlink tool LinkBox can provide strategic insights into the quality and efficacy of backlinks, facilitating more targeted outreach and better control over your link profile.

If you build quality content, good services, and a strong brand, you can get a lot of links naturally. People will refer to you because it’s useful. However, it takes time to create quality content and become known as an authority in your field. There are a number of tactics that you can employ to actively seek out backlinks and improve your link profile:

• Existing relationships
  • Do you have a business and do you collaborate with other companies or suppliers? Ask them to include a link to your website. They might be interested in promoting you to their customers and then you get a relevant link. Did you do interesting work together? You can suggest that they include a “success story” article on their website.
    
• Unlinked mentions
  • If you come across relevant content focused on a specific topic, but it doesn’t point to an important source of information that you created or that already exists on your site, you can notify the author and suggest that they add a link. Usually, this tactic is applied to mentions of your brand.
    
• Broken links
  • If you find a link that does not work or leads to outdated or poor quality content, you can notify the author of the site. In exchange, you can offer them a piece of your own relevant content to link to instead.
    
• Guest posting
  • You can arrange a cooperation with the author of a website to create content for them. In return, you can place a link to your site in the content. The topic should always be related to the content on your site.
    
• Case studies
  • Create an analysis of your niche with fresh data and news. You can contact other professionals to answer questions related to your field and include the answers in the content. If the data is interesting, you will receive links from other related websites, and if other people have participated in creating your article, they may help promote it on their social networks.
    
• Community link building
  • Go through thematically-related discussion boards and try to answer user questions. If applicable, insert a link to a relevant source of information on your website. It is important to choose a discussion thread that is active and spam-free.

Remember, it is not just about getting a link. You should try to build relationships and think about the long term strategy. Bringing value to the other party is essential in order to succeed. Also, you don’t have to target only articles. Explore videos too. Find out if there are any DIY discussion forums. Check groups and discussions on social networks. Get creative.

Linkbuilding can be time consuming and expensive so you’ll want to make sure to evaluate whether or not the opportunity is worth it when it comes to improving website SEO by checking factors such as domain authority, page authority, and relevancy.

Also, don’t forget to take care of your existing links. Check your link profile regularly to make sure that your linked pages are working and not leading to an error page.

7. Check technical SEO 

While content and links are crucial, it’s also important to consider the technical aspects when looking at how to improve SEO on your website.

Page loading speed, for example, is an important factor in technical SEO. If your website takes too long to load, visitors will quickly click away. Navigation and structure can also fundamentally affect the user experience as they allow users to quickly find information and navigate the content. They also make it easier for search engines to crawl and index pages.

Designing a navigation structure will help you create a content plan, determine the right places for topics and keywords, and create a system of internal links.

Removing broken links, checking that there is no duplicate content, and making sure that the website is secure will also boost your website’s technical SEO. 

8. Track and improve SEO 

Setting milestones for your website SEO efforts will help you understand which metrics to track and which areas could use some improvement. This allows you to choose the appropriate analytical tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free, or Google Analytics.

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and evaluate your site’s presence in Google Search results.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free SEO tool that offers diagnostic data for websites. Allows you to scan web pages and report problems found. Allows you to monitor site keywords and backlinks.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics service from Google that allows you to analyze data about visitors on your site. The Acquisitions report in Google Analytics provides data on how visitors come to your site: from search engines, social networks, or referrals from other websites. The report will help you determine which online marketing tactics are bringing in the most visitors to your site.

With the use of these tools, you can realistically evaluate how long it takes for SEO to start producing the desired results and which tactics are working (and which aren’t). This will help you plan better in the future by setting realistic goals and expectations.

How Webnode helps you with DIY SEO 

If you decide to create a website with a Webnode website builder, you will save a lot of time and money on SEO optimization as it can handle a lot of the groundwork for you.

Webnode creates responsive websites 

Nowadays, users no longer browse websites only on their computers, but also on their mobile devices or tablets. Therefore, Google has switched to mobile-first indexing. This means that Google behaves like a mobile device as it crawls the page and prefers mobile displays. If a site does not have a mobile version, it will receive a negative rating. This is an important evaluation factor for website SEO.

The website can have either a mobile version or a responsive design. The mobile version is a standalone website that is customized for mobile devices. The responsive website is programmed to accommodate a smaller size of the display. The images, titles, texts and other elements remain the same and only their arrangement and size change.

Both methods are equivalent when it comes to SEO for the website. It is only important for Google whether the chosen solution works properly.

All Webnode templates are fully responsive. We take mobile-first indexing seriously. Even the Webnode website builder is accessible on mobile devices so you can create and edit the content of your site directly on your phone or tablet.

Webnode secures your site 

Has Google ever warned you that the site you want to visit is not safe? Security is one of the evaluation factors of the Google algorithm and insecure sites are disadvantaged in search results.

Secure site connection icon

Webnode uses HTTPS to secure the site with an SSL certificate. Thanks to this, you don’t have to worry because your site will have a secure connection. We will generate a free SSL certificate even if you use your own domain for your project.

HTTPS (= HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) is an encrypted variant of the HTTP Internet protocol for transferring web pages. The protocol allows protected access to the web server by encrypting all transmitted traffic using the SSL or TSL algorithm. This is important when transmitting sensitive information (such as credit card numbers).

Webnode creates SEO-friendly URLs 

Each website page has a unique URL. If we write this address into the address bar, we will get straight to that page. This is how a lot of users visit their favorite sites so it’s important to have professional URLs that don’t contain a long string of numbers or other characters. Fortunately, Webnode only creates comprehensible URLs. 

The editor sets the address automatically according to the name of the newly created page. However, the format of the URL can be modified if you wish. Here are some tips for creating URLs:

• Above all, the address should stay permanent since each URL builds authority. The content of the page may change over time but you should try to keep the same URL unless a change is absolutely necessary. A new address always competes worse with the older ones.
  
• User-friendly URLs should be easy to read and remember, and appear credible. For example, the URL of a blog article could look like this: https://www.mydomain.com/natural-and-memorable-article-name/
  
• With the right URL structure, you can make the website easier for users to navigate. However, you will need to be careful if you change the categories in the future as the URL navigation would then be out of date.

Webnode optimizes website speed performance 

Page load speed is also one of Google’s important ranking factors. Webnode templates are therefore created with an emphasis on loading speed with SEO website performance in mind.

You can influence the performance of your website by optimizing the data size of images and other content such as videos. At the same time, avoid a large number of ads, banners, and pop-ups. If you follow these recommendations, you won’t have to worry about site speed at all.

Webnode handles duplicates 

One of the common problems SEO deals with is the duplication of content. Search engines evaluate duplicated content negatively. They can also consider content that is not the exact copy as a duplicate. If a search engine encounters duplicate content, it always selects the oldest or most authoritative variant. Other duplicate pages are then ignored or displayed deeper in the search results. There are 2 basic forms of duplication:

1. External duplication – usually your content copied and posted on another page. The rule here is simple – just don’t copy someone else’s content.
   
2. Internal duplication – occurs when multiple pages with identical content are created on a single website. It can be, for example, similar products or categories, another language version of the same page, etc. Webnode helps to deal with internal duplications.

Due to internal duplicates, some pages may stop appearing in the search results and may have indexing issues. A large number of internal duplications can penalize the entire site.

Different types of internal duplications are handled differently:

1. Language version solution
   • Use the “hreflang” tag to distinguish among pages with identical content in another language.
   • Webnode allows you to easily create different language versions of the site and sets the hreflang tag for you.
     
2. Canonical version
   • For a large number of identical pages (e.g. different product colors), the “rel canonical” tag is used to determine the preferred page.
   • Webnode website builder allows you to create various variants and set the correct canonical version.

The hreflang attribute tells Google what language you’re using on a particular page and which region it is intended for. For example, if you have similar content on one page in German for Germany and another in German for Austria. The search engine can then show this result to users searching in the relevant language and region.

A canonical tag is a way to tell search engines that a particular URL is the primary version of a page. Using a canonical tag will prevent problems caused by identical content that may appear on multiple addresses (for example, by offering a package size selection for a product, each variant may have its own URL). The canonical tag tells search engines which version of the URL you want to appear in search results.

Webnode takes care of the domain and hosting 

Both the technical and the content SEO are important for websites. It is therefore necessary to develop both areas equally. However, Webnode provides a great advantage because it will take care of the technical SEO for you so you can focus on the content.

The domain is the web address. It’s the name under which people will know and search for your site.

Registering your domain with Webnode is easy, plus you can get it for free for the first year if you sign up for a Mini Plan or higher. Having your own domain will give you an advantage for your SEO, as you have the possibility to include an important keyword related to your website purpose and will be appear in search results.

Webnode also will provide you with hosting and will guide you smoothly through the entire process of purchasing, registering, and setting up a domain. You won’t have to deal with any external hosting services.

Web hosting service is a rental of space for websites on a third-party server. With hosting, you can place your website on the Internet without having to have your own server.

And if you already own a domain, we can help you easily transfer it to Webnode.

DIY SEO FAQs 

Is it possible to do SEO yourself?

Yes, it is possible to do SEO yourself. However, it can be a time consuming process and there are many factors that go into it. Using Webnode for your website can help make the website optimization process easier as we take care of the technical SEO for you.

Is it better to pay for SEO or to do it yourself? 

It depends on your goals, your expertise, and how much time you have to devote to improving the SEO on your website.

How long does SEO take to work? 

SEO cannot be set up with a single click. It is a process that you continuously develop overtime and the results will appear if:

• You regularly produce content.
• You keep your site up and running, regularly checking that your links are working and don’t lead to 404 error pages
• Build authority for your domain by getting backlinks, promoting it on social networks, and participating in discussion forums

Conclusion

When done correctly, search engine optimization can make your website more visible to your target audience and drive traffic to your content. You can do SEO yourself, but it will cost you time, learning and effort. For more extensive and expert SEO, we recommend hiring an SEO specialist to save you these challenges.

For other ideas on how to increase traffic to your website, check out 13 Tips How to Boost your Website.

The post How to do SEO yourself (for your website) appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

INDEX

• How Does Google Rank Websites?
• How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking?
  • 15 Most Important Rank Factors in SEO
• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Conclusion

Google uses its own algorithm to evaluate websites and rank them in search results. The algorithm is a combination of various ranking factors in SEO that can gradually change over months or years. No one (probably except the Google employees themselves) can say with precision and certainty how to get on the first page of Google and what all Google considers when ranking websites in the search results.

How Does Google Rank Websites?

In practice, the user enters a search query into Google, such as “how to create your own website for free”. After, the Google algorithm evaluates the query according to its ranking factors in SEO and gives the user a list of relevant and high-quality websites arranged in a certain order. The more quality and relevant your website is, the higher position in search results Google gives you. Of course, everyone would like to be in the top position because that is where most users click and likely become a customer.

Search results: Create your own website for free

How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking?

According to the official Google document, there are more than 200 ranking factors in SEO. Luckily, some are broadly known, so you can improve the position of your website in Google easily.

15 Most Important Rank Factors in SEO:

• Good quality text and original content
• Keywords
• Meta title
• Meta description
• URL
• H1 heading
• Subheadings H2 and H3
• Internal and external links
• Alt Tags
• Images and multimedia
• Link building
• UX
• Security
• Website speed
• Responsiveness

On-page SEO

Good Quality Text and Original Content

Content quality is always more important than its quantity. Pay attention to the originality of your content. Avoid duplication and do not plagiarize texts under any circumstances.

Keywords

Firstly, identify good keywords for your business and then use them well. Google algorithms rank better those websites that have keywords included not only in the text but also in the meta title, main heading (H1) and subheadings (H2, H3), meta description, and URL address.

In the Webnode website builder, you can find SEO settings under the “pages” button, individual articles or products have SEO settings as well.

SEO settings in Webnode website builder

However, keyword stuffing does not worth it. Too many keywords in the text make the content of the website unattractive to users and algorithms either. On the other side, too few keywords may not lead to the expected traffic.

Meta Title, Meta Description, and URL

Meta title and meta description summarize the content of your website and present it to users in search results. It is what people see at first when they search for certain keywords. Therefore, the meta title and meta description should both contain main keywords and have the right length. The same applies to the URL address. Additionally, the shorter the URL, the better.

H1, H2 and H3 Headings

Headings and subheadings are important for text understanding. With good headings and subheadings, you can make it easier for readers and Google algorithms to go smoothly through the website. Add heading H1 to your homepage and all subpages. Also, use subordinate headings with lower importance in the correct sequence (H2→H3).

Multimedia and Alt Tags

Google page positioning isn’t guided just by the text. It is certainly a good idea to place various multimedia and images on your website. A visually rich website is also more attractive to visitors and potential customers.

Simultaneously, don’t forget about the alternative texts of the images – ALT Tags. Alt Tag helps Google to find out what the image expresses. ALT Tag is also displayed when the image couldn’t be loaded.

Internal and External Links

In addition, the text should contain internal links leading to various subpages of your website and external links leading to relevant and trustworthy sources.

Off-page SEO

Link building

Link building means referring to your website from good and relevant external sources. The general image and awareness of your company play an important role in your website link-building.

Social Networks

Off-page SEO includes links from social networks, comments, reviews, or so-called brand mentions. Therefore, connecting your website to various social media profiles is a great way to go. You can easily set up social network icons in the website header on each page.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the user experience (UX) and technical aspects of your website.

Secure Your Website

Your website should have a sitemap and an SSL certificate that keeps data safe. You can simply add a sitemap in Google Search Console. Webnode issues an SSL certificate automatically on each project.

UX, Responsiveness, and Website Speed

In addition, Google algorithms also work with user experience. UX elements that influence your Google page position are responsiveness, website speed, or an intuitive menu.

Tip: SEO is a complex knowledge field and people who deal with it are called SEO specialists. Various experienced agencies help their clients with SEO optimization. Do not hesitate to call for the help of experts. You can also choose from many online tools to check SEO optimization of your website.

An optimized website is essential

How to improve your ranking on Google search? Focus on the quality and relevance of your website content, and place keywords in the text and metadata. Build your brand and expertise. Pay attention to the user experience and the technical aspects of your website. Do this and Google algorithms and users will love your website.

Do you want to dive deeper into the secrets of SEO? Go for this guide on how to optimize your website step by step.

The post How to Improve your Google Ranking Position? appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

The first thing search engines check when they come to your website is whether you provide a sitemap. If you do, they preferably index the pages they find in this file. This might come in handy especially if you update your website frequently or your website is more complex.

Moreover, if your website is new and doesn’t have enough backlinks from other known pages yet, having a sitemap will significantly speed up the crawling process.

A crawling process is the automated fetching of web pages by web crawlers (bots or spiders). They index the content of your website so it can be searched. The crawler looks for other links on the page, follows them and indexes other pages in the process.

If this is your first time hearing about an XML sitemap, we encourage you to continue reading.

What is a sitemap and how does it work?

In general, a sitemap is a special document that lists all the pages available on your website. XML sitemaps were created for search engines to help them crawl new information faster.

Every time you create a new page on your website, or publish a new blog post, the sitemap lets engines know automatically there is new content available for crawling. As such, you don’t have to wait for the engines to find it on their own. The sitemap will notify them instantly.

Although the engine prefers to crawl the pages “the human way”, following the links posted on the pages naturally, sometimes there are pages on your website which are not linked. Or there isn’t a huge number of backlinks for your brand new site. That’s also where the sitemap comes to serve its purpose.

There are essentially two types – an XML sitemap for search engines like Google and an HTML sitemap for humans. The latter one we will discuss only briefly; for SEO purposes, an XML sitemap provides many more opportunities.

How to create a sitemap and submit it to Google

A sitemap is one of the technical sides of SEO. But don’t worry, it doesn’t require any technical knowledge. The other good news is you don’t need to create a sitemap file yourself. You can use a sitemap generator for that.

When you built your website on Webnode, a sitemap is already there!

Just like your website’s pages, you will find an XML sitemap directly on your domain. The format is usually mydomain.com/sitemap.xml or myproject.webnode.com/sitemap.xml. It looks somewhat like this:

An XML sitemap example

Now you know where to find the sitemap, it’s time to submit it to search engines like Google. Once you click on “Submit”, it’s done. Google will take care of the rest. Usually within minutes it will crawl your site and index the content.

Similarly, you can easily submit your sitemap to Bing.com, Yandex, and other search engines.

How to use the sitemap to improve SEO

Once you successfully submit your sitemap to Google Search Console, you can access coverage reports. These reports provide you with an overview of technical errors present on your website or “valid with warnings” if there are any.

Google Search Console Dashboard

For example, you would see if any page on your website is accidentally blocked for robots or any 404 error for a missing page. The latter would mean you didn’t set up some links correctly or they got broken in the meantime. You might want to edit the 404 page template or, preferably, eliminate the errors completely and fix the links.

You will find the official Google documentation here.

What about an HTML Sitemap?

There are also HTML sitemaps, but for the users. These help your visitors to navigate your website with more ease in case your website is really big – it is like a full-page navigation menu.

Apple HTML Sitemap – a footer navigation

You can create it as a separate page or as footer navigation manually or using a generator.

But these days an HTML sitemap is not really necessary. By having clear main navigation that your visitors can use intuitively, you will not need an HTML sitemap at all.

In regards to SEO, an HTML sitemap is not necessary either, as engines rely on an XML one.

Conclusion

To sum up, the XML sitemap enhances the ranking of your website in search results, thus boosting SEO efforts. You would only benefit from having one, as Google states.

So it won’t hurt your SEO efforts; on the contrary, it could be very helpful.

How to develop SEO on your website?

The post Why is an XML Sitemap Important for SEO appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.

First things first: How can you edit the footer in the Webnode editor?

• Click on the bottom part of your website – where the footer text is – and you can start editing. Just like that.

How to edit footer text and insert a link.

• Removing the message “Powered by Webnode” from the footer is available with our Standard and Profi Premium Plans.

What kind of content belongs to the footer?

• The first thing to add is your copyright message. Protect your copyright, and don’t let anybody copy content at will from your website. The usual message looks like this: Copyright © 2020 | Your Name.
• The footer is also the place where to put all your contact information. How to get in touch, customer support, PR person – everyone your customers might need.
• If you have a slogan, repeat it here.
• This is also a great spot to place links to the official documents like Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
• You can also add links to your social networks.
• If the main menu of your website is too extensive, the footer is a great place to link to your partners, additional services, affiliate programs and so on.

Website footer full of information, yet simple and clean.

If you want your footer to look attractive, you can set one of the photos or pictures from our database as a background. Or you can choose one of your photos to complement the rest of your website.

Is the footer too small for your needs and you would like to add more information in there? That can be solved easily – just add a section right above the footer. It will look like a part of your footer and will accommodate more information.

Extended footer with a background in color.

How did your footer turn out? Let us have a peek in the comments! Are you planning on developing SEO on your website? Try the step-by-step guide.

The post Website Footer: The last, but not least important element appeared first on Webnode Blog EN.