With millions of websites competing for top SERP, it's essential for businesses to have an SEO-friendly website to increase ranking and drive more traffic to their site. An SEO-friendly website not only helps businesses rank higher in search results, but also provides a better user experience that ultimately leads to increased sales and revenue.
In this article, we will explore how to make an SEO-friendly website, its importance, and the various optimization techniques that can help your website win the SERP.
The Importance of an SEO-Friendly Website for Business
An SEO-friendly website is a website designed and optimized to rank higher and attract more organic traffic from search engines. This is achieved by implementing various on-page and off-page optimization techniques that make the website more attractive to search engines and users.
An SEO-friendly website is important in winning the SERP because it helps search engines understand the relevance and value of your website, which is crucial in determining your website's ranking in search results. The higher your website ranks, the more likely it is to receive organic traffic and improve its visibility.
Key Elements of an SEO-Friendly Website
So, if you know the importance of optimizing the website for search engines, now you have to know how to make an SEO-friendly website. To make your website so, here are some key elements you need to optimize.
Website Structure
Website structure refers to the organization and arrangement of the website element, including its hierarchy and architecture. A well-structured website makes it easier for both users and search engines to understand the content. Therefore it is a key aspect of SEO.
Some best practices for an optimized website structure include:
Utilizing a clear and intuitive navigation system with a hierarchy of categories and subcategories.
Using descriptive, keyword-rich URLs and file names that accurately reflect the page content
Including header tags (H1, H2, etc.) to indicate the importance and hierarchy of content on each page
Making sure that internal links are clear and well-organized. It should connect related pages to help users and search engines navigate the site easily.
The above best practice is needed to create a better understanding of Google as the search engine and users as your next potential customer.
SEO Tool Set Up
Setting up the SEO tool to help your website be more SEO-friendly is a wise action. Use an SEO tool that can help you establish a better SEO-friendly website. You can use Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster, or any other search engine analytics tool.
By setting up the SEO tool, you can check whether your website is friendly enough or not. There are so many SEO tasks that should be carried out to support your website, thus you need more than an SEO tool provided for free.
You can use Sequence Stats as your helping tool with amazing features. This tool will help you monitor the site's performance and define what you need to improve. Tracking keywords, checking your competitors' websites, conducting keyword research, and more can be done with one tool.
Picture 1: Illustration of SEO tool to make a website more SEO-friendly
Website Indexability
The basic thing to make your website more SEO-friendly is to make sure it can be easily indexed by Google or other search engines. If your site cannot be indexed properly, then it will not serve users. Here are some best practices:
Make high-quality content so that Google will see your site as useful
Follow webmaster guidelines to make sure that you do not violate their rule
Submit a sitemap so that search engine crawlers can understand your site structure
Use dofollow tag on your targeted pages
Track the indexing status
Website Mobile-friendliness
Mobile-friendliness is the key element that makes Google consider your site as superior. Search engines such as Google have stated that mobile-friendly websites will rank higher in search results compared to non-mobile-friendly websites.
With the majority of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, it's essential to have a website that is optimized for mobile viewing.
A mobile-friendly website ensures that the website content is easily accessible, readable, and usable on small screens. To make your site mobile-friendly, here are what you need to do
Use responsive design
optimize visual elements
Use AMP to support web experience for mobile users.
After you implement the above optimization, do a mobile-friendliness test to make sure that your site is properly designed for all screens.
Website Usability
Website usability refers to how easily a website can be used and navigated by its visitors. It is an important factor in determining the success of a website, as a user-friendly website leads to a better user experience and ultimately, higher engagement and conversions.
To improve website usability, you can take the following steps:
Simplify Navigation: Ensure that your website has a clear and intuitive navigation structure, allowing visitors to easily find what they are looking for.
Improve Page Load Speed: A fast-loading website is essential for a good user experience. You can compress your visual elements and code to make it lighter.
Use Clear and Concise Language: Write clear, concise, and easy-to-understand language on your website to make it accessible to a wider audience.
Make Use of Visually Appealing Design: A visually appealing design can help keep visitors engaged and interested in your content.
By implementing these best practices, you can improve website usability and create a better user experience for your visitors, which is essential for the success of your website and your SEO efforts.
SEO Keywords
SEO's main game begins with keywords, so, make sure you have keywords related to your business. Using the right targeted keywords in your website is one of the ways to build an SEO-friendly website.
Put your keyword at the most strategic places such as the title tag, meta description, headings, and all over the contents. That way, search engines will understand your site better and serve it to the right users.
Picture 2: Illustration of keyword usage in Page title, headings, slug, and in content.
On-page Optimization
On-page optimization refers to the effort of optimizing the content of the website. You can start by creating high-value content that really needed by users.
It also involves making changes to the content, HTML code, and other elements of a web page to improve its relevance, authority, and user experience for both search engines and users. Here are some common on-page optimization techniques:
Content optimization: Ensuring that the content is high-quality, relevant, and keyword-rich.
Title tag optimization: Writing compelling and concise title tags that accurately describe the page's content and include relevant keywords.
Meta description optimization: Writing clear and concise meta descriptions that entice users to click through to the page from search engine results.
Header tag optimization: Using header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure the page's content and highlight important keywords.
Image optimization: Adding descriptive alt text to images, compressing images to reduce the load time, and using relevant file names for images.
URL structure optimization: Creating descriptive and keyword-rich URLs that are easy for both users and search engines to understand.
Linking Strategy
Linking your page to relevant pages can make it more SEO-friendly as it can improve navigation for search engines and users. Here are some best practices for building your link:
Internal linking: Linking to other relevant pages within the website
External linking: Linking out to high-quality, relevant, and authoritative external sources to demonstrate the credibility of the website's content.
Anchor text: Using descriptive and relevant anchor text for links to help search engines understand the context and content of the linked page.
Link maintenance: Regularly review and remove broken links to ensure they are still relevant and valuable.
That’s all the key elements of building an SEO-friendly website. If you dream about having your site at the top of SERP, then you have to make sure all the key elements are optimized.
Conclusion
Building an SEO-friendly website requires a comprehensive and strategic approach. Key factors include creating website structure, keywords, and all the above elements.
While building an SEO-friendly website can be a complex and ongoing process, the benefits are significant. A well-optimized website can rank higher in SERP, attract more traffic, and drive more conversions.
If you are sure that your website is friendly enough, you can start tracking your keywords using Sequence Stats. It is done to get you more informed about the site's performance. This tool is an all-in-one SEO tool that you can use to track keywords, keyword research, and a lot more.
You can join the hype by registering your account to Sequence Stats and enjoy the free trial!