Understanding Basic Website Optimization for the Small Business Owner
And if you, as the business owner are going to take responsibility for the performance of your company website, either by taking on the task yourself or finding a quality alternative for outsourcing it, then at a minimum you need to have a good grasp on the basics of website optimization. The game is a whole lot more complex than the old yellow pages days when you simply paid more to show up first and biggest. Even if you are planning to hire a company to optimize your web property for you, a decent understanding of the foundational principles will allow you to weed out the pretenders from among the dozens of companies offering SEO services.
Website optimization can be divided into two broad categories: On-site factors and off-site factors. Although not everything may fit neatly into one of these categories, as the lines tend to blur a little on certain things, and some may even argue for adding a third dimension, these two divisions will be helpful in explaining the basics of how the system works.
Basic On-Site Optimization
The on-site category includes everything that appears on the site or happens on the site that you, the business owner, have direct control over. This includes URL architecture, link structure, content structure, content length, content relevance, page layout, images, and numerous other elements. If it is on the site and the site manager has direct control over its existence and function, then it falls into this category. Below are a few of the most important elements.
Site Content
The important words to keep in mind when it comes to content are relevance and uniqueness. The search engines are only interested in whether the content on your site is highly relevant to what your potential customers are looking for online and whether that information is unique to your site, or if it is cheap web fodder that has been copied and pasted all over. In fact, it is important that you have unique relevant content even among the pages of your site. Too much of the same content repeated on multiple pages will cost you dearly in terms of search engine results.
URL Architecture
This can be one aspect that is easy to overlook, but the way the URLs on your site are structured can play a big part in telling the search engines what type of content is on that page, and thus when to display that page in search results. Page URLs that end in something generic like http://… /pageid4/ will not be given the same consideration as one that uses a relevant keyword in the URL like http://… /seo-services/.
Internal Link Structure
From the main navigation menus, to clickable images, to text links, which pages are linked together and how they are linked together will either help or hurt or your chances of showing up in search results in a big way. The overall purpose of the link structure should be aimed at improving the end user's experience, so easy navigation and clear destination should be top priorities in the link arrangement.
Basic Off-Site Optimization
The off-site factors in website optimization include the many things that search engines use to determine your site's value to a searcher, or how good of a match your product or service is for what they typed into the search bar. These are elements that you certainly can influence, but unlike on-site search engine optimization factors, you don't have direct control over.
Backlinks
In many ways this is sort of like a search engine popularity contest, and the web properties with the most the most "votes", or backlinks, from the most important authority sites in the market will receive preferential consideration. Offering great content or helpful tools and resources can be a key way to encourage other sites to link to yours.
User Experience
Yes, the search engines really do keep track of different statistics that help them gauge the usefulness of a site for the user. And they use these measurements as part of the determining criteria in ordering websites in a search results page. For instance, a high bounce rate, meaning that visitors immediately hit the back button on the browser rather than spending time and going deeper into the site, tells the search engine that the site was not a good match for what they were looking for, and leads to lower rankings in the future. On the other hand, a high percentage of visitors who visit multiple site pages, spend significant time on those pages, and who do not return to the search after leaving the site leads to the assumption that the visitor found what they were looking for on the site. Giving the user a better experience is always rewarded well by the search engines.
While understanding website optimization in-depth can take substantial time and effort, business owners would be wise to have a basic understanding of the process so that they may either properly implement strategies, or outsource the work to a competent SEO company. In a world where the customer's preferred method of locating a service or product is an internet search, website optimization could easily be the factor that determines a small business' success.
Website optimization can be divided into two broad categories: On-site factors and off-site factors. Although not everything may fit neatly into one of these categories, as the lines tend to blur a little on certain things, and some may even argue for adding a third dimension, these two divisions will be helpful in explaining the basics of how the system works.
Basic On-Site Optimization
The on-site category includes everything that appears on the site or happens on the site that you, the business owner, have direct control over. This includes URL architecture, link structure, content structure, content length, content relevance, page layout, images, and numerous other elements. If it is on the site and the site manager has direct control over its existence and function, then it falls into this category. Below are a few of the most important elements.
Site Content
The important words to keep in mind when it comes to content are relevance and uniqueness. The search engines are only interested in whether the content on your site is highly relevant to what your potential customers are looking for online and whether that information is unique to your site, or if it is cheap web fodder that has been copied and pasted all over. In fact, it is important that you have unique relevant content even among the pages of your site. Too much of the same content repeated on multiple pages will cost you dearly in terms of search engine results.
URL Architecture
This can be one aspect that is easy to overlook, but the way the URLs on your site are structured can play a big part in telling the search engines what type of content is on that page, and thus when to display that page in search results. Page URLs that end in something generic like http://… /pageid4/ will not be given the same consideration as one that uses a relevant keyword in the URL like http://… /seo-services/.
Internal Link Structure
From the main navigation menus, to clickable images, to text links, which pages are linked together and how they are linked together will either help or hurt or your chances of showing up in search results in a big way. The overall purpose of the link structure should be aimed at improving the end user's experience, so easy navigation and clear destination should be top priorities in the link arrangement.
Basic Off-Site Optimization
The off-site factors in website optimization include the many things that search engines use to determine your site's value to a searcher, or how good of a match your product or service is for what they typed into the search bar. These are elements that you certainly can influence, but unlike on-site search engine optimization factors, you don't have direct control over.
Backlinks
In many ways this is sort of like a search engine popularity contest, and the web properties with the most the most "votes", or backlinks, from the most important authority sites in the market will receive preferential consideration. Offering great content or helpful tools and resources can be a key way to encourage other sites to link to yours.
User Experience
Yes, the search engines really do keep track of different statistics that help them gauge the usefulness of a site for the user. And they use these measurements as part of the determining criteria in ordering websites in a search results page. For instance, a high bounce rate, meaning that visitors immediately hit the back button on the browser rather than spending time and going deeper into the site, tells the search engine that the site was not a good match for what they were looking for, and leads to lower rankings in the future. On the other hand, a high percentage of visitors who visit multiple site pages, spend significant time on those pages, and who do not return to the search after leaving the site leads to the assumption that the visitor found what they were looking for on the site. Giving the user a better experience is always rewarded well by the search engines.
While understanding website optimization in-depth can take substantial time and effort, business owners would be wise to have a basic understanding of the process so that they may either properly implement strategies, or outsource the work to a competent SEO company. In a world where the customer's preferred method of locating a service or product is an internet search, website optimization could easily be the factor that determines a small business' success.
