Aaron Riddle
The web has (and will) continue to be a constant source of revenue for business and organizations. An effective SEO presence will keep your business atop the rankings, but there may be underlying things happening on your website that could be hindering your organization.
Boost your SEO and move up the rankings with these 5 developer fixes:
1.HTTP to HTTPS
Over the past year, Google has taken into consideration that the security of your website. A way to do this is to look into SSL encryption. You’ve probably seen websites with the HTTPS out there, showing that they have an SSL in place. This one time change can give a bump to your rankings and keep your visitors safe.
2. Improve Your Website’s Navigation
Your navigation is a crucial part to your visitor’s web experience. An awkward or difficult navigation to trek is only going to slow your visitors down and exit from your website. Keep your website navigation simple (the less the better) for visitors to find the content they are looking for and to traverse them down the funnel.
3. Page Load Times
Have you ever encountered a slow loading website? With our attention spans and modern day “instantaneous” lifestyles, it’s easy for us to leave that website immediately, Google has taken notice and has utilized this within your authority and rankings.
So what are some quick ways to improve your page load times? Here’s a couple to get you started:
- Consolidating Plugins and Modules: Remove ones you are not using or have been inactive for at least 6 months
- Reducing Image Sizes: If your images are shrunken down to fit within certain sizes, page load times will drastically increase. Optimize your image sizes before hand to decrease file size and increase page load times. Picresize is a great resource to get those image sizes you need quickly.
4. Redirecting Broken URLs
All search engines have “crawlers” on the web checking all facets of your website. If you’re website has multiple broken URLs, search engines take that into effect and see that you are not providing available content to your visitors, diminishing your rankings. Check your broken links through any web monitoring tools (Google Search Console is a great place to start, and FREE). Make it a priority to check your tool once a month to update any broken or mis-redirected links.
5. Updating Non-Optimized URLs
Your Content Management System (CMS) has a way of implementing its own URL for you (have you seen something like /index.php?p=378243 before?). Be sure to optimize your URL with a keyword, title or phrase that effectively describes the content on the page.
Bonus: Building a Responsive Website
While this is in no means an “easy” fix, something that developers can consider is providing an ideal web experience for visitors from all different devices. Google has taken this into consideration with its rankings and creating a responsive template that automatically adjusts to the screen size the visitor is using will help solidify your rankings and keep you above the rest.
In the world of SEO, making the visitor experience as simple and straightforward is key. Google wants their searches to be showing the most relevant content possible. Optimize your content and follow the steps above to create an ideal experience for your visitors going forward.
What other developer fixes have you implemented to help boost your SEO initiatives?
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