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Search engine optimization (SEO) has been one of the most important terms in online marketing for years. Everyone wants to participate in the online circus to get the coveted first position in the search results. With this article, I will highlight 10 SEO points that will help you ensure that your website ranks higher in search results. From relevant keywords to mobile-friendly web pages, these tips can help you become more visible.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing your website to make it rank higher in search engine results such as Google. This can help increase traffic to your website and increase your online visibility. There are many ways to optimize your website for search engines, and here are ten best practices to consider:
1. Keywords
Keywords are important for SEO because they help search engines understand what your website is about. Try to use keywords that are specific and relevant to the content you want to share with your audience, and try to place those keywords in strategic places, such as in the title of your web pages and in the first paragraph of content on your website.
2. Website structure
A good content structure on your website can help guide the user and help them understand what your website is about. That's why it's important to use clear headings and paragraphs to break down the content. This ensures that the various topics are easy to read. A good structure on your website can increase the readability and usability of your website. When readability and usability are improved, this can result in visitors staying longer on your website and a longer session duration contributes positively to your position in search results.
3. Internal links
The word internal actually says it all, but internal links are links from a page on your own website that point to another page on your website. These internal links help users navigate the website better. In addition, internal links can also increase the authority of certain pages of your website. This is because search engines rate a page with many internal links as more important than a page without many internal links.
4. Loading speed
No one likes waiting, not even for a website to load. That's why it's so important that your website has a fast loading speed. When websites load slowly, visitors tend to leave the website as quickly as possible. Try to reduce the loading time of your website by, for example, compressing images or removing unnecessary plugins when using plugins on a WordPress website. We use Webflow, the advantage of Webflow is that this software does not use Plugins and that we can optimize images in the CMS, so we don't need plugins for that either, very handy if I say so myself.
5. Mobile-friendly websites
We have noticed that mobile is taking over the world for some time. More and more visitors are using their smartphones to search online, which is why Google, among others, attaches great importance to mobile-friendliness. Statistics from Explodingtopics.com show that more than half of the world's internet traffic visits websites via mobile devices, a whopping 60.9%! This percentage stood at only 31.6% in 2015, and since then, the percentage has only been rising. So it's high time to make sure your mobile website doesn't lag behind.
6. Unique and valuable content
Thou shalt not steal, one of the ten commandments, foundations upon which our society is built. This is not only relevant to the rule of law, but also applies to the content you share on your website. This is because Google punishes plagiarism. By the way, this not only applies to plagiarism but also to content that is not valuable. Unique and valuable content gives your website higher authority, which then leads to a higher ranking in search results. Therefore, always make sure you use unique texts that relate to your services.
7. Meta tags
Meta tags, the first thing you see of every search you do, are the headlines and descriptions of the results that the search engine offers you. Meta tags also help search engine crawlers understand what your website is about, which is why these crawlers ensure that you see the most relevant result for a particular search.
Hopefully, the above 10 search engine optimization tips are a good basis for starting to improve the findability of your website. But we also understand that you have a business to run your own and that you think after reading this article: “Do I have to take all this into account?!” , don't worry, of course we're happy to help you with that. Don't hesitate to contact us and see what we can improve for your website.
Bart is the founder of No Dead Fish and is a Premium Webflow Partner. He writes about Web Design, Web Development, User Experience, Usability, the No-Code Movement and Webflow.