How Well Does Your Website Rank Compared to the Competition?
How Well Does Your Website Rank Compared to the Competition?
As you set up and design your website, be sure to ask yourself these questions. Your business needs a website that is optimized for search engines and that will keep customers on your pages rather than switch to another site.
To do this, you need to follow basic patterns for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), especially when it comes to web design and SEO factors. Sites with these features are the ones that rise above the competition.
Design Elements
The same goes for your website. Create something that looks polished, professional, and engaging. The following elements will help make your site one that offers value to your visitors:
Contact Information
Don’t make it hard for your customers to communicate with you. On your homepage, have your phone number listed and links to your social media accounts. Customers who don’t want to call or message you on social media might prefer an email address or a contact form. Your goal should be to make yourself accessible to the customer through whichever form of communication they prefer.
Balanced Layout
Too much content on a page is not visually appealing, and it may drive customers away rather than persuade them to consider your offer. Include areas of negative space on each page where the visitor’s eye can rest. This will ensure that the content you do provide only includes the most valuable pieces of information, rather than fluff attempting to fill empty space.
Testimonials
Ask your customers to rate their experience with you, and provide a portfolio of examples so leads can see your work in action. If you’re looking to update your reviews even further, Skoshe offers reputation management services to give your brand the online reputation it deserves.
Clear CTA
Your call-to-action (CTA) needs to be apparent from the moment your customers land on your site. This could mean including a CTA button in your top navigation bar or right at the top of your homepage. The entire design of your page should be centered around your CTA. It’s the whole purpose of your website, to drive leads into conversions. Cut to the chase and let customers know what you have to offer and how to get it.
Responsive Design
There’s no denying it; markets are going mobile-first. Close to 35% of online purchases are made on a mobile device. If your site doesn’t respond well on a mobile device, then you could be losing out on a lot of potential clients and customers.
Mobile-friendliness is a must. Skoshe can also help you design or update a website, so it has that mobile responsive design. Check out how else Skoshe can optimize your web design and online marketing for improved sales and search listings.
Good design isn’t all you can do to make a site more discoverable on search listings. It’s just one factor that boosts your site’s SEO.
More SEO Factors to Consider
The algorithm for search rankings changes every year. But some factors remain constant in improving a site’s SEO. Along with good design, these elements will also improve your ranking and help make certain that your brand isn’t left in the dust.
Keywords
Expert marketer Neil Patel says that beyond this basic search, you should do competitive keyword analysis. Find out what keywords your competition uses and how well they work for these brands. You may find hidden keyword opportunities that they are missing, but only if you do your research first.
Backlinks
For better SEO, inbound links or backlinks continue to dominate how you rank. A backlink is a link on someone else’s site that directs a user back to your site. To Google, the more that other sites refer back to your site, the more credible you are.
Your ranking will suffer, though, if backlinks to your site are not from sites with relevant content to yours. Quality matters over quantity here; however, the more backlinks you can have the better. Getting those backlinks can be difficult, but having a blog with valuable, original, and shareable content will be your biggest tool here.
Page Speed
If your pages take longer than 2 seconds to load, you may be hurting your SEO. Sites with slow page speeds have lower rankings and higher bounce rates. Use a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see if any changes need to be made on your site for a shorter page load time.
Final Thoughts
So again, ask yourself some questions: Does your site have good SEO? Is its design one that invites visitors to learn more and engage with your brand? Does it include elements like relevant keywords and backlinks that optimize your pages for search queries?
SEO is just the start of making your brand more discoverable online. There’s always room to grow. But when you implement these suggestions, you’re well on your way.