In today’s super-connected world, a website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) often means the difference between a site attracting new visitors or languishing in relative obscurity. It’s estimated around 71% of all modern consumer journeys start first with an online search, meaning if your site doesn’t rank high up the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), you’ll have little chance of even being considered in the minds of your potential clients.
Today, effective SEO has become an essential tool in a company’s overall marketing strategy and, in a world where there are now more web pages than there are people, it is one of the few proven ways to attract footfall drive sales. Whether you run an e-commerce site or are just using your web pages more as a showcase, below are a few tips you could employ to improve your SEO and start climbing up the results pages.
Employ the services of a professional web marketing firm
If you aren’t already, you should seriously consider partnering with a professional web marketing firm. While it’s true that there are some aspects of SEO you might be able to stumble through on your own, if you’re looking to have any success in the online arena, you’ll need to think about bringing in professional help. Indeed, a skilled SEO firm will likely look after all the other subsequent points noted below, freeing up your time to concentrate on running your company.
Think about page metrics and load speed
As the internet moves increasingly mobile, the bigger search engines (e.g., Google) have begun prioritizing mobile-optimized content. Indeed, Google (which accounts for around 92% of all search-engine-generated traffic) openly punishes sites that don’t load quickly.
To improve page load times, you should look at optimizing scripts, fonts, plugins, and graphics, etc. Anything you send to a user device and that could be hampering loading times should be considered. Try to think about your pages from a user perspective and test all aspects of page performance – from how the site loads to how you onboard new clients into your e-com platform.
Improve your site’s security and
Also, when it comes to e-commerce sites, you should additionally test your store’s security measures and consider using KYC verification (or working with a company that does). KYC will allow you to reduce the number of stages a client has to go through to order, thereby improving the shopping experience and improving the protection of both yourself and your clients. Any steps you take to improve the security of your site will push your ranking higher with Google. As an extra measure, you should also set up Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption on your site, as this has been proven to be favored by the search engine.
Optimize all graphics and convert to WebP format
One of the most common culprits for slow-loading sites is bloated graphics – and these same graphics can have a hugely detrimental effect on your page load times. At the very least, you should optimize your existing images and graphics, but you should also consider converting them to the new WebP standard.
Ensure your site is built to a responsive format
As mentioned earlier, Google is particularly focused on providing the best mobile experience to its users, and this means servingwebsites that work on all devices. If your site isn’t already responsive, you need to have it redesigned quickly, as non-responsive sites are automatically listed lower than those that scale to different screens.
