Is your internal website navigation good, usable and bug free?
Your websites navigation needs to easy to use. Your navigation system must be intuitive and must be easy to see. For example, you should make sure that the search bar is at the top of the page, and that any small sitemaps are on the footer.
The navigation should be bug free. In other words, you should be able to click a link and have it take you to the page it describes. The link should be clickable and should never lead to the web page freezing.
Are your pages too heavy?
Every web page that a person looks at must be loaded onto their computer. Thanks to broadband Internet, your web page should take less than three seconds to load. If it does not then there may be too much to load, and you are going to have to lower the weight of your page. You may have to make images smaller, lower the weight of elements, or spilt certain parts of one page so that it makes two. The longer it takes for your web page to load then the lower you will rank on the search engine results pages.
Some people create very good web pages that are very attractive and very salable, but the trouble is that some people (especially those with 3G) are going to have to wait longer for it to render (appear) and load. Some people simply do not have the patience for such things, and why should they? The Internet is so bogged down with crappy content that most pages people visit will be abandoned within seconds.
Does your website have relevant keywords within it?
This is a tricky subject, which is why it is a good idea to do a lot of keyword research. [WordTracker.com is a great start.] You need to find out what sort of keywords your target audience are using to search for your web pages. You should also check to see what keywords your competitors use, because they too are aiming to attract your target audience. You should research the correct keywords for each of your pages, since each page is most likely going to differ from all the others.
You should use keyword tools to check to see if a keyword is used a lot, but you should also think about keywords that come to your mind. What would you type into a search engine? You also need to be aware of what you would write and what your target audience would write. For example, you may choose keywords such as “X for sale”, but remember that as a buyer, you may actually search for “Buy X” or “Where to buy X”. Try to put yourself in your target audiences shoes and use a little bit of common sense and gut instinct.
Every web page that a person looks at must be loaded onto their computer. Thanks to broadband Internet, your web page should take less than three seconds to load. If it does not then there may be too much to load, and you are going to have to lower the weight of your page. You may have to make images smaller, lower the weight of elements, or spilt certain parts of one page so that it makes two. The longer it takes for your web page to load then the lower you will rank on the search engine results pages.
Some people create very good web pages that are very attractive and very salable, but the trouble is that some people (especially those with 3G) are going to have to wait longer for it to render (appear) and load. Some people simply do not have the patience for such things, and why should they? The Internet is so bogged down with crappy content that most pages people visit will be abandoned within seconds.
Does your website have relevant keywords within it?
This is a tricky subject, which is why it is a good idea to do a lot of keyword research. [WordTracker.com is a great start.] You need to find out what sort of keywords your target audience are using to search for your web pages. You should also check to see what keywords your competitors use, because they too are aiming to attract your target audience. You should research the correct keywords for each of your pages, since each page is most likely going to differ from all the others.
You should use keyword tools to check to see if a keyword is used a lot, but you should also think about keywords that come to your mind. What would you type into a search engine? You also need to be aware of what you would write and what your target audience would write. For example, you may choose keywords such as “X for sale”, but remember that as a buyer, you may actually search for “Buy X” or “Where to buy X”. Try to put yourself in your target audiences shoes and use a little bit of common sense and gut instinct.
Where can you get your information from?
For a start, you should never take the word of things you read from articles and websites online (an odd thing to say within one of those very articles). The fact is that a lot of online content has not been created by true experts. A large portion of it has been created by people who are making up plausible lies. The rest of it is created by well meaning (but misinformed) fools.
There is some very good advice to be found online, but you must take it all under advisement (with a pinch of salt). Your best place to start is with Google itself. They have a lot of tutorials on their Google webmaster section, and even some forum answers from their staff which are very handy.
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