Summer is on its way and so we thought it was time for a quick
review of your website.
Anyone who knows us will tell you we have a site
analysis process we follow to check websites on over 100 different
parameters. That's over 100 things we look for that can affect rankings
and conversions on a website. But more of that in a moment.
In the next three minutes we're going to take just five of those
100+ elements so you can understand the importance of them and apply
better principles to your website.
1. Broken Links?
How many broken internal links does your website have? Whether they
are misspelled or pages have been removed it's important to clean
them up, as search engines loathe broken links. So check your internal
links are all working and all content pages are in place.
2. Linking to Iffy Sites?
Are the sites you link to still there and are they trustworthy?
If your website links out to other websites then now is the time
to check them - Google makes it very clear that linking to bad sites
or bad neighbourhoods can have an adverse effect on your site's
rankings.
So you want to check:
a/ Their website is still live and active and
b/ The website is genuine and of good quality.
3. Keyword Overkill?
Including relevant keywords people search for into your site copy
is a basic part of SEO but are you making sure that the repetition
of keywords in your content is acceptable - or are you keyword stuffing?
(This implies over-using keywords in your pages.) Have a think about
this because an over-use of keywords can cause a site problems and
of course not using them at all in your site copy will leave you
in the wilderness.
4. Can I find the same content you have on other domains?
When you look at your website is there anywhere I can find the same
content elsewhere online - either on another site or your website?
If so you are effectively duplicating content, and search engines
will not value your site highly for this. If content is being replicated
with similar navigation on another domain you own then you run a
more serious risk that one (or more) of the domains will be ignored
or penalised. For
more on duplicate content click here >>
5. And finally to use another notion from Google: "Don't
be Evil"
Ask yourself this - is there anything you're doing right now to
your website in an attempt to improve search rankings that you would
not feel comfortable explaining to a competitor or even to Google?
Hidden text? Hidden Links? Keyword Stuffing? Ask yourself this and
answer it honestly. If the answer's YES and you know you are doing
things you shouldn't, then you are probably taking unnecessary risks
with your business. With so many legitimate ways to help promote
a website leave behind anything you suspect to be underhand.
Summary:
So there were FIVE TIPS to get you going on your website. Whilst
it's only a small part of the analysis
we do for clients, we hope it's been useful to you.
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GSINC are a forward thinking Internet Marketing & SEO company
based in Solihull, Birmingham, UK. If you would like to talk
to Gareth about reviewing your website or for GSINC to provide one
to one support for your business then call 0800 0431 298.
