Upgrading A Website For SEO

The thought of upgrading a website for some is almost overwhelming. Upgrading for SEO reasons is a smart move. The truth is that your website involves technology.  Technology changes and how people use that technology changes as well.  Upgrading your Website is mandatory if you want to compete for business online and offline.

Let’s put this into perspective and talk about the various business technology that had to be upgraded to stay on top of the hill.

Look around your office and house and pick out 1 piece of technology that you bought and never had to upgrade.

Do you still have a phone with analog dial pads?
Do you have a walkman?
Is your cell phone the same phone you got in the 90’s?
Are you still using the same desktop computer and screen that you had 5 years ago?

The same world happens to your website that happens to all the other technology in your life.  The difference is that it’s getting serious now.  As the younger people are becoming consumers, they are bringing with them the technology that they trust.  

Go ahead; ask a younger consumer to fax you a resume.  Their heads will explode. But ask them to scan you the resume or send it via email and you’ll have mail in your inbox before you hang up the phone.

How does a website developed 5 or 10 years ago become obsolete?  Where do I begin?  

• Fashion changes – what is visually appealing now was not in fashion then
• Search Engine algorithms – How a search engine found, crawled and determined the value of your information has changed drastically.  
• Keyword utilization – Consumers are much more savvy with their searches now.  They know how to find the products they seek and trends in how and what they search for change all the time.
• Images-Videos – Outdated, non optimized images and old or outdated videos are a turn off to visitors as well as search engines.
• URL’s, Page Titles, Meta keywords and Descriptions – All of these have changed over the years.  

What can you do with your site to upgrade and stay competitive?

• You can do nothing and watch as your business fades away much like the old technology.
• You can invest in a new website that utilizes current technology to optimize your site almost on its own.
• You can talk to a good developer (like us) and see if the code your site is built on can be tweaked to make your website conform to today’s internet.

If you want to give this a shot on your own then here is the recipe that you must follow.  Each step, no short cuts.  Like any great recipe, leaving out just one ingredient will change the finished product.

Everything I’m going to talk about is in reference to the new content that you will need to post each week.  If you don’t plan on keeping new and fresh content on your site then stop now and create your next pay per click ad and budget.

Okay let’s get you up to speed!

First things first – We need to get a good handle on keywords

Each page on your website should focus on (1) keyword.  Don’t try to shove every keyword you can think of on one page and think it will be a blanket solution.  When a person is searching for a specific item or piece of information the search engines want to provide them with as close of a match to what they are seeking as possible.  If you have included that search phrase along with dozens of others then the search engine will dilute the value of each of the keywords and consider the content too vague to be delivered as a choice on their first page.  Do your research on the keywords that YOUR customers are using.

Just because you’ve focused on the one keyword doesn’t mean you have to repeat that word 27 times to get Google to understand.  Quite the contrary, if you can’t deliver content that is written in a natural way that will entice the visitor to move to the next step and purchase your product then you’ve really done nothing to gain in sales and revenue.
What you can and should do is use the exact keyword a few times but change it up in the body of the content.  Make it plural, use similar phrases.   Just remember that the end result needs to be a great piece of content that provides your visitor with what they were seeking.

Now that you have the keyword you want to work with, let’s create a great title

Your page title is going to show up on the search query.  It will be the first thing a person sees and you need to make it worth reading.

• You will only get 70 characters to work with so think it over.  Try to reduce the stop words like and, the, of etc.
• The keyword should be as close to the beginning as possible while still sounding natural
• Each title on your page needs to unique.  
• If you’re going to have your business name in the title then it should come after the keyword and separated with a pipe (|).  Example Blue Waterproof Widgets | Your Website.

Once your page title and content are complete we need a great description

If you have no description then Google may take the first part of the first paragraph.  Don’t let this happen.  Give your content a great description.

• You have 150 characters to use.  
• Make sure your keyword is used at least once and twice if possible.
• This is your chance to give a person a reason to want to read what you wrote or get your offer.  Make your description readable and don’t just assume that your keyword is enough to get that click.

Don’t forget your URL

Not only will your URL show up on the search query information for your customer to see but Google reads it as well.  If your URL is messy with no clue about the content title then you lose on both ends of the search.  
I recommend using underscores for your URL’s.  Some people like dashes and to be honest Google says do what you want, however………….  Google also made it clear that when you use a dash (-) they will index each word separately and when you use an underscore (_) they will index the whole phrase.  This is important when you are targeting long tail keywords.

Almost done, you’ve been a champ for reading this whole article.  It tells me you are taking this seriously.  Kudos to you!

It will go to reason that you will have several pages that focus on various parts of your business but that also can be points of interest to someone that is reading and wants to know more.

I use an excel sheet with article titles and URL location for just that reason.  When you have an article that touches on a more in depth page that you’ve created, put a link to that page.  So if you’re talking about Blue Waterproof Widgets and you mention that some customers prefer purple metal widgets instead and you have created a page that talks about purple metal widgets then link that page for your visitors to read. 

Just highlight the words purple metal widgets and click on the link symbol on your document creator.  This should bring up a box that asks for the location of the link, drop in the URL for the other article and you have just put an internal link on that page.

Last thing - Images  

Google will tell you that they can’t see your images but they can read how you titled them.  Keeping in mind that use of your keyword in the image will bring more value to your content.  Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Use them.

Ready to get started?  Need some help?  Need to vent? Why not call and talk to us? Complete Web Solutions is an U.S. Business and we understand that business can’t wait.  Call us now 719 302-5029 you will be glad you did.