Website Redesign SEO Checklist

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

19, Oct 2023 | SEO

There comes a time in the life of most websites where the organisation responsible for it chooses to overhaul its look, feel and function, whether this be for branding, business direction, user experience (UX) or simply aesthetic purposes.

It can be easy for those working on a website redesign project to get caught up in new functionality and fresh visuals, and as a result one of the most critical elements of a web presence is often forgotten: SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of making a website as easy to read by search engine algorithms as possible, in order to rank highly on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

When a website is properly optimised, it benefits not just from competitive rankings in relevant search results, but also from enhanced UX and higher levels of satisfied, engaged users.

SEO is by no means a ‘one-and-done’ exercise, but instead an ongoing activity that can formulate part of a wider program of continuous improvement. If SEO is overlooked in a website redesign process, the presence of it in search engines will fall and the full cycle will need to be restarted all over again. 

Cover all your SEO bases with our website redesign SEO checklist.

The Foundation: Understanding Why SEO Matters in The Website Redesign Process

The world’s thirst for knowledge has shifted and grown with the advent of the internet and increased accessibility to vast connectivity has seen search engines become the ‘go-to’ resource for most questions and queries.

To ‘Google’ is now a verb, with over 8.5 billion searches happening daily on that one search engine alone, and the Google Index holds up to 60 billion active web pages at any one time.

It is no surprise therefore, that SEO efforts now form a key component of a digital marketing strategy – as without it, web presence would simply get caught in the ether and underestimated, ignored, or missed entirely.

Optimising a website’s content, structure and UX to be easily navigated by both users and search engines’ automated bots alike is critical to the gain of organic web traffic. While there are indeed a number of traffic-generating options that businesses can pay for, organic traffic refers to traffic sourced without any payment being made, so it can be ensured that the reason for visiting the website over and above any others is genuine and intended.

This makes organic traffic extremely valuable – and SEO is the best way to obtain such traffic and attract visitors in this way.

With those visiting websites through organic means already holding genuine search intent behind their visit, these users are most likely to follow conversions, gather information for purchase decisions, make purchases and hold an overall positive perception of the site. This makes organic traffic a fantastic source of business growth and when managed properly, can increase sales.

If SEO is ignored or forgotten during a website redesign process, all these benefits are lost; and negative consequences can be felt as a result.

URL Structure & Mapping

URLs specify the location of a web page or other online resource and allow users to identify where on a website certain information resides. URLs are considered a minor ranking factor for search engines but give weight to the overall domain authority as well as offer up another opportunity for keyword usage.

Well written URLs can serve as anchor text and provide an easy navigation system for web crawlers to understand and index a website’s structure.

Where new pages are being written and included as part of a website redesign, it is important that URL structure is kept consistent and that all external and internal links are checked and tested to preserve link equity. If links are broken, a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error can occur, and users are likely to click off to another website.

If pages are to be replaced, webmasters can code in 301 redirects to allow a permanent redirection from one URL to another.

This maintains the search engine ranking of the existing URL but allows for users to access a newer page version. Search engine crawlers do recognise that the content has been replaced but do not impose ranking penalties.

Retaining Quality Content

Website redesign processes need not entirely replace a site’s content. There’s no need to fix what isn’t broken!

Top-performing content should be kept unchanged or minimally updated, as it has already proven its worth to users.

Retaining content that has historically been of success for a website allows for the SEO weight to be maintained and those who have accessed the content in the past to continue to as they have previously – or better yet, share onward with others.

Where content has been successful from an SEO and brand perspective historically but now contains outdated information, it can be updated without compromising the existing ranking.

A byline or paragraph at the top of the page, dated and with a summary of the updated information along with a link to a more up-to-date page is considered best practice.

Mobile-Friendliness & Responsive Design

Searches now occur from mobile devices more than they do desktop computers; likely due to the convenience of being able to access information in any place at any time. This means that traditional website builds are no longer enough to present content suitably for all visitors and so website redesigns should always follow a mobile responsive, if not mobile-first approach in its build.

While Google insists that no one on-page factor affects search rankings alone, mobile usability impacts on overall UX for most, which is considered vital to SEO. Additionally, if a website redesign doesn’t cater for mobile devices in its formatting and structure, those who do encounter it in search engine rankings simply won’t click through to the domain or will rapidly click away once they do.

Those managing a website redesign project are likely to have formal testing measures in place but there are a variety of tools that can be used to check the mobile compatibility of any domain.

This includes the manual testing of site resources across various devices but also the use of Google Search Console’s online Mobile Friendly Test by either URL or code to provide a ranking of its performance.

Site Speed & Performance Optimization

We live in a culture of instant access to information and as a result, society expects to be able to get what they want instantaneously online.

This means that where a decade ago web users would accept waiting a few seconds for pages to load, user behaviour now dictates that pages should load immediately, and they are rarely likely to wait should anything take any longer.

The loading speed of a webpage and the content on it is a Google Core Web Vital. Core Web Vitals are considered a significant search engine ranking factor. Referred to as the LCP (Largest Contentful Point), Google’s web crawlers analyse the time that the largest content on a page takes to load ready for user interaction – and as far as rankings go, the quicker the better.

Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool allows webmasters to test and grade their websites to benchmark their performance and get an idea of how well they perform in the search engine’s algorithm as a result.

Optimisations can be made fairly easily in most cases through the use of image compression, utilising CDN practices or minimising code usage. Where issues remain, webmasters can consult with SEO specialists to identify issues and resolve them as they occur.

On-Page SEO Essentials

Aside from the usage of SEO keywords and relevant terms throughout written content, there are several on-page SEO essentials that are design-critical. It is important that webmasters need to remember the inclusion of these throughout the website redesign process.

The title tags and heading structures of written text need to be kept correct and consistent throughout for not just formatting purposes but also to demonstrate to web crawlers topics and theme importance.

Also, meta titles and descriptions should be included on all pages in order to demonstrate appropriate information in search engine results. Similarly, images used should be optimised and always include ALT tags describing their contents for enhanced accessibility.

Internal linking strategies should be put to mind just as external are, providing easy navigation for users. This increases the amount of time users are likely to spend on a site and allows for plenty of direction made to pages aimed at driving conversions.

XML Sitemaps & Robots.txt

Web crawlers ‘crawling’ through websites are key to the relevant algorithms understanding what a website is about, who it’s for, and how to rank it amongst other content for searches.

When undergoing website redesign, webmasters and marketers must ensure that these bots are able to navigate the site swiftly and accurately so that the calculations made in its ranking are correct.

XML Sitemaps are files listing out the essential pages of a website; in essence mapping them out for web crawlers to follow. Sitemaps can be submitted to Google (and other search engines) to provide directions for its indexing. This ensures that even tricky-to-reach pages, such as those without any internal links pointing to them, are recognised and indexed.

Existing website redesigns should also include a refreshed robots.txt file. These files control the behaviour of web crawlers, so that only webpages that the webmaster wants indexed are – and others are left un-indexed.

Secure & Accessible Website: Importance of HTTPS

Google doesn’t want to direct its users to unsafe or insecure websites as this in turn would give a negative perception of them and their services. Google prioritises ranking secure websites above those without adequate safety precautions in place as a result.

The use of HTTPS is a ranking factor as part of overall UX. HTTPS encrypts the connection between browser and site to safeguard the interception of any data between the two.

Where websites don’t use such safety measures, they are unfavourably ranked by Google and in some cases, excluded from ranking altogether. This makes it a must-have for website redesign projects!

Another security item those working on a website redesign must look to include is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate.

This is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity, and the owner of the website and associated subdomains, as well as proving encryption of SS/TLS. SSL Certificates must be obtained from a CA (Certificate Authority) and once verified and granted, should be installed and activated on the website’s origin server. As a further security tool, this too boosts SEO through the demonstration of security commitment from the domain.

Duplicate Content Issues

Where new content is being produced as part of a website redesign, it should be checked that duplicate content doesn’t appear across the site too. While basic admin areas such as footers and calls to action may be duplicated, there is rarely value in large portions of duplicate text.

In some cases, duplicate content exists within a website for genuine reasons. Content of this type can be differentiated through the use of canonical tags coded in HTML to flag the preferred version of a page and identify between duplicate, near duplicate and similar pages. In website redesign projects, these tags can flag distinctions to web crawlers as they revisit the site.

There are various software tools available online for the detection of duplicate content, both within one website and across other sites (whether intended or not). Sites such as Siteliner and Copyscape can highlight incidences of repeat copy across the internet, which can be of great use to webmasters and marketers working on digital content.

Structured Data & Schema Markup

Schema markup is microdata added to a webpage in order to create a ‘rich snippet’ of extra information to the page’s results in search engines. Schema.org, the central resource for schema markup, was created as a collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yandex in 2011 and since has guided hundreds of thousands of webmasters in enhancing their results in SERPs.

When done correctly, schema markup gives further information to search engine’s web crawlers on the context of a webpage in order to better inform their results presentation.

This impacts positively on positioning pages in the right order, at the right time, on the right queries. Rich snippets, when included on search results, contain information such as ratings, prices and images – and give more data to users on first glance; improving the chances of a clickthrough from a SERP.

Schema.org can be considered the best central resource for information on structured data and schema markup. In addition, there are tools to test the structured data of a website which webmasters and marketers can use to their benefit such as the Google Structured Data Testing Tool. This allows for the real time testing of coding

Social Media & SEO

A presence on audience-relevant social media channels is expected by most consumers but does not directly impact SEO. However, as a marketing channel focused on reputation building, it holds indirect affect on rankings as a brand builds its overall authority.

Social media sharing options on all appropriate content provides the facility for users to spread content they find useful or interesting onward to others, amplifying reach and furthering the possibility for brand exposure.

This is an often forgotten but is a key win in website redesign projects – as adding these tools only takes a few minutes but can have a vast impact.

It’s important that brands keep consistency across all platforms. While approach and exact content may differ depending on what works for each channel, users must be able to immediately recognise who a brand is and what they do based on their messaging – no matter where it is they see it.

Monitoring & Reporting: Post-launch Considerations

Once a website redesign has gone live, there are several checks webmasters and marketers should carry out to ensure they’re best possibly placed SEO-wise.

Noindex tags are on-page codes that instruct search engines not to index a page. Often inserted into webpages as they’re being tested, they block indexing by search engines entirely and so must be removed before launch. If the site has gone live without this check being carried out, it must be done as soon as possible!

Setting up Google Search Console and Google Analytics to interact with a website can be done by inserting a small piece of code. This verifies live indexing and will gather statistics on user behaviour through the site to report on how its being used and supply information on what’s working and what isn’t – allowing for a cycle of continuous improvement in web performance to begin.

Monitoring tools will also be able to flag where crawl errors occur, links are broken, or other issues present so that they may be rectified swiftly.

Keyword presence and performance and traffic levels should also be monitored on an ongoing basis. Where performance isn’t as expected, improvements can be made, and where wins are experienced, further work can be put into enhancing these areas.

Website Redesign SEO Checklist Wrap-Up

Website redesign projects are all too often chalked up as a rebranding or aesthetic exercise, with the likes of SEO forgotten as it’s considered ‘taken care of’ through the usage of keywords in copy.

This can have devastating consequences for the ranking of a website and as a result, for the competitiveness of the organisation.

A well-planned SEO strategy must include content considerations alongside on-page and off-page factors and the implementation of appropriate coding. With a well-rounded approach to SEO is taken after a website redesign, the website may avoid negative ranking impact altogether – and could even benefit positively without interruption.

No matter how far-reaching a website redesign is, it should be embraced and considered a good opportunity for new learning.

Entering a cycle of continuous improvement provides the chance for businesses to get better and better, growing their web presence and shifting their digital marketing and SEO strategy to fit algorithm changes and user behaviour demands, meeting and exceeding needs and expectations.

With the help of a specialist SEO agency like Woya Digital, website redesigns and the onward management of domains can be hugely successful: elevating brand perception, reputation and sales. Don’t underestimate the power of SEO… instead run with it and open up a world of digital possibilities!

Start Your Campaign With An SEO Website Analysis

Start Your Campaign With An SEO Website Analysis

14, Oct 2023 | SEO

With the ever-changing goalposts and frameworks presented by search engine algorithms and the myriad of both off and on-page tasks required to improve and optimise website SEO, where do you begin?

There is a ‘right’ way to go about a successful SEO campaign and the most effective relies on certain steps being carried out before others. At Woya Digital SEO and search marketing experts, the first step we take to create a baseline for work forms the first element of our strategic SEO marketing success strategy: an SEO website analysis.

What Is An SEO Website Analysis?

SEO is the practice of optimising a website in order to best demonstrate to search engines its relevancy, authenticity and trustworthiness – all in the hope of ranking as high as possible on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and outranking competitors.

SEO encompasses both on-site and off-site activities as well as organic and paid-for tasks that can be undertaken to help boost ranking and reputation and ultimately, gain competitive advantage.

A site analysis is an SEO website audit of a site’s current status in SEO-relevant terms – a kind of health check. This analysis will flag improvements that can be made, highlight factors that are already performing well, present opportunities arising from existing content, and outline any threats from existing internal or external factors. Usually, results data is visualised in charts and reports to make clear the impact of work required moving forward.

An SEO site analysis is best carried out by an independent SEO expert who is able to examine the data first-hand, but can be carried out by a piece of software known as a ‘crawler’. A crawler, similarly to the programming used by search engines themselves, works through the site’s data as an automated process and ranks its SEO factors through machine learning.

A detailed SEO audit should be completed before any SEO activity takes place, but can (and should) be carried out regularly to provide periodic check-ins on the status of the website.

Why An SEO Website Analysis Is The Optimum Starting Point for Any Campaign

Before embarking on any business project, it’s important to know the point from which work begins.

A comprehensive SEO website analysis allows for a baseline to be created and understood, and the effort of SEO-related issues to be enacted as efficiently as possible. Without an initial SEO website analysis having been completed, efforts may be duplicated or time spent on activities that will have little positive effect.

When carried out regularly, an SEO website analysis offers a moving picture of the success of SEO work and helps provide guidance in the face of ever-changing algorithm requirements.

The Importance of Analysing SEO Data

While Google and other search engines don’t share their exact algorithm changes and schedules for developments, it’s believed that changes are made as often as weekly. This means those striving for search engine rankings improvements will find the goalposts moving and the impacts of their efforts shift.

In taking the time to analyse SEO data, businesses are able to ensure that not only are they focusing their time and resources in the right areas, but that they’re able to adapt swiftly to any changes in direction and can often predict how and when shifts in algorithms are to be made.

Key SEO Metrics to Track

There are a variety of metrics that should be monitored on an ongoing basis in order to understand the impact of SEO work.

While these may vary by business and website dependent on project focus and/or industry, sector or competitive position, the following are generally considered the most important to measure:

The Best SEO Analysis Tools

There are a variety of tools, free SEO tools, and paid available to assist in SEO website analysis.

Google have their own, free-to-use, tool known as Google Search Console. The most popular software amongst those looking to rank on the world’s largest search engine, it integrates specifically with its own Google algorithm to enhance positioning where possible.

Using Search Console, webmasters are able to:

    • Submit a sitemap to Google
    • Check the crawl rate and view statistics on when a Google crawler has accessed the website
    • Write and check a robots.txt file to discover any inadvertently blocked pages
    • Check both internal linking and external links to and from the website
    • Receive a list of any pages that Google has struggled to crawl, alongside details of any errors presented
    • View site speed reports
    • View page experience reports (including information on core web vitals and HTTPS data)
    • Receive notifications from Google on any manual SEO penalties
    • Check and monitor security issues

SEO Website Analysis Focus Areas

Technical SEO Website Analysis

Technical SEO refers to factors for optimisation on a site that are known to impact on Google’s appetite for ranking.

This includes mobile responsiveness, the creation of a sitemap, the improvement of loading times and page speeds, creating an easily ‘crawled’ site structure and the identification of any duplicate content.

Analysing technical SEO often identifies areas for ‘quick fixes’ for webmasters to implement changes that are vastly beneficial.

On-Page SEO Analysis

On-page SEO is the practice of optimising the content of a website in order to help it better rank within a search engine. This commonly includes optimising title tags, including keywords in headings and ensuring internal links are working.

The analysis of on-page SEO allows for webmasters to find changes that can be made on their site and to swiftly identify any improvements to be made, or worked into a workflow.

Off-Page SEO Analysis

Off-page optimisation is activity that takes place off of a website to increase its rankings. This includes the activity of building backlinks, encouraging branded searches, and increasing shares across third party social media channels.

Off-page SEO work often follows a relationship marketing approach and can form the foundation of solid strategic business partnerships. Off-page analysis presents businesses with a good indication of not just the status of their professional relationships but also the SEO positioning of others relevant to them.

Where another website has a high DA (Domain Authority) that proves positive for backlinks, it can be considered that that business is likely ranking well and their own SEO efforts are having a positive impact. The business can then decide how to proceed with the ongoing maintenance of any relationship with that organisation.

UX – User Experience

User Experience (UX) is still considered a relatively new aspect of SEO but has grown hugely in its impact on ranking in recent years.

Google and other search engines now hold great weight in the ability for a website to be easily navigable, well accessible and helpful to its users.

The analysis of UX provides not just guidance on how a website can be better structured or formatted in order to gain a good ranking online amongst searches, but also in opportunities for improvements to be made and conversions to be increased.

SEO Competitor Analysis

Competitors offline do not always translate directly to the online space, so it’s imperative that businesses understand who they’re up against in both markets.

While there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for industries or sectors, there are always benefits to be gained from understanding competitors’ strategies through a competitor analysis.

Understanding what others do well can help give insight not just to how to duplicate and imitate efforts for ranking gain, but also to find where others aren’t performing, and ensure your business is visible where others aren’t.

Local SEO Analysis

Local SEO refers to a geographically-localised online presence, managed through Google Business Profile which ranks organisations based on a variety of factors for those making relevant searches in or to a set physical area.

Generally speaking, local SEO offers a variety of search engine advantages that general SEO doesn’t – and it can be considerably easier to rank higher when localising efforts.

The analysis of local SEO can throw up a whole different picture compared to more general SEO initiatives, as well as provide a good overview of who and what the business should be focusing on.

SEO Content Analysis

Website content demonstrates to search engines its topic, relevancy and credentials in its field.

Long gone are the days of simply scanning for keywords and now a series of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) measures are used to help identify, understand and really work with the authentic ways in which users actually carry out searches.

Content needs to meet users’ needs and satisfy them, and ideally encourage them to carry out a conversion or share content further. Content analysis helps identify gaps and opportunities for further content creation, but also can help identify issues such as misspellings, broken links or duplicate material.

International SEO

International SEO is the practice of optimising an online presence to best demonstrate to search engines which countries a website is targeting as well as which languages in which products and services are offered.

Analysing international SEO can help identify those who really are competitors abroad but can also ensure that the correct audiences, in their correct languages, are being catered for through the business’s web presence.

Structured Data and Schema Markup

Structured data is that which populates a fixed field within a file.

This markup helps search engines understand how to display and interpret the content within it, and schema is widely agreed upon amongst all of the major search engines so that it remains consistent throughout.

While analysing markup and structured data holds SEO benefits, it also allows webmasters to be sure that their formatting is correct and easy to read by users.

Social Integration

Social media demands a vast amount of hours spent online by the general public, and a huge amount of marketing spend and effort by businesses.

Where content on websites is considered useful, relevant or entertaining, it can also be shared across third party social media channels, expanding its reach and creating link pathways by users back to a website.

Social integration of content can be analysed in order to identify what really works when it comes to creating value for an audience, and will help success be repeated in future content creation.

Penalty and Traffic Drop Analysis

Where traffic drops suddenly from a website or page within it, it is likely that some kind of issue or error has occurred – or even that a search engine penalty has been incurred by the website that has resulted in less traffic being funnelled to it.

It is critical that marketers and webmasters stay on top of any changes in traffic activity as they are likely to indicate a problem. The ongoing analysis of issues provides an immediate indication for change to be made and any errors fixed. Without the identification of this kind of fault, users simply won’t be shown the website, even where other significant SEO work is being carried out.

SEO Keyword Analysis

The way in which engine users actually complete their searches changes all the time as technology develops and language and linguistics change. This means that not only do the keywords and phrases change over time as people’s searches do, but businesses need to amend their own content to meet these needs accordingly.

Keyword analysis can throw up some promising direction to be taken by those creating content in their quest to meet the needs of their audience and also help identify trends in searches that marketers can cater their messaging toward.

Do you require an SEO website analysis to begin putting together the steps of your SEO campaign? Or perhaps you are an agency and require white label SEO support for your customers? The Woya Digital team can help and guide you by following our SEO marketing success strategy. Book an SEO call with us today!

 

 

Technical SEO Checklist for a Strong Foundation

Technical SEO Checklist for a Strong Foundation

26, Sep 2023 | SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) forms the backbone of any organisation’s online digital presence: elevating it through the ranks of content found by search engines to gain exposure to the correct audience.

However, no matter what businesses may try to improve their search ranking (in particular above their competitors), their efforts may be in vain without strong technical SEO in place building the foundation from which to grow.

But what is technical SEO and how does it contribute toward an overall positive SERP (Search Engine Results Page) position? Let’s investigate…

Technical SEO Fundamentals: The Basics

Technical SEO refers to the optimisation activities that can be undertaken to improve a website’s structure for it to be better understood and ‘crawled’ by the programs that manage and integrate their algorithms.

In many cases, these tasks also improve the UX (User Experience) of a website and so improve the usability of the website to make it more easily navigable and likely to result in positive conversions.

As something from which the rest of SEO efforts can be built upon, technical SEO is a critical component of any optimisation strategy – and forms an element of the Woya Digital SEO success wheel for a comprehensive and whole approach.

Understanding Technical SEO: Why We Do It & Why It’s Important

Technical SEO underpins how a search engine is able to ‘crawl’ and comprehend a website’s content, so builds the foundation from which content SEO and other such elements can be built.

As a result, it’s a ‘must-have’ to get right, as without it having been completed correctly, other SEO efforts will fail.

As technical SEO is integrated within a site’s structure, it also impacts the experience that users of the site have. While not traditionally a ranking factor for search engines, good UX is now considered an integral contributor to SEO.

While Google doesn’t publicly release details of the exact formula for ranking success, they do state that UX elements are more important than ever in the analytic process of judging which sites rank where.

Understanding Technical SEO: Why Hire a Professional?

Technical SEO doesn’t just involve cosmetic tasks aimed at optimisation but also the setup and structure of the website at hand. As a result, such activities must be carried out correctly as errors could result in disruption to the website’s service, formatting, ranking or even uptime.

It is always recommended that an SEO specialist is hired for technical SEO tasks to mitigate the risk of any issues occurring.

Woya Digital has a team of exactly these specialists, ready to enact SEO improvements right into the foundations and coding of your website before embarking on work across more cosmetic elements.

Understanding Technical SEO: Setting The Stage For On-Page And Off-Page SEO

Technical SEO is one of the earlier steps in the process of managing and running an SEO campaign as it’s so deeply embedded within a website’s structure. As a building block from which other activity is then created, it sets the scene for both on-page SEO and off-page SEO activity.

On-page SEO refers to the optimisation of the content placed within a website and includes the provision of relevant SEO keyword usage, easy formatting and the implementation of shareable options for all pages. This presents the topic, relevancy and authenticity of a brand to search engines.

Off-page SEO refers to the optimisation of the way other sites direct and refer to the one in question. This includes links to the site, mentions of the brand and listings in appropriate directories – all of which demonstrate the authority and trust of a brand to web browsers.

Once the technical SEO basics are in place, on and off-page SEO can be worked on successfully.

Understanding Technical SEO: Key Factors

There are several key factors to technical SEO that need focus in order to best present a site to a search engine for its analysis:

Website Crawling and Indexing

Web crawlers (also known as search bots or spiders) are automated programs that scan websites and index their content to categorise and rank them.

The aim of this analysis is for web browsers to learn what is on every webpage and understand it well enough to file it for download when a user makes a query (search) for something relevant. This, combined with the search engine’s algorithm system for determining the importance of factors, ranks the results end users see.

Web crawlers are, in essence, analysis and filing systems. However, they must be able to move through a website in totality and catalogue it to understand what a site is, who it is for, and what it offers. If they are unable to do so, the site will either be presented incorrectly in search results or excluded from results altogether.

The technical SEO aspect of website crawling involves making the site as easy for crawler programs to navigate as possible. This means fixing any broken internal links, ensuring pages are titled and labelled accurately, and following links to and from external sources to build a picture of industry relevance.

Common issues that hinder web crawlers from properly indexing a website include not having a proper robots.txt code file in the site’s web server (this specifies the rules for such bots to access the site) and having broken links or incorrect internal navigation menus.

These are easily created and fixed and can have vast benefits on the SERP position of a website. Once the problems have been resolved, search engines can even be manually instructed to ‘re-crawl’ the site and update their records.

Site Architecture and Structure

A website’s architecture refers to the planning and design of the site that establishes how it works, its structure and usability.

This includes the grouping of content across pages into relevant themes: to make the site easily navigable and ensure information can be found without too many clicks for users, as well as for search engine crawlers.

A well-structured website is easy for search engine crawlers to work around and analyse, and so allows for the best possible comprehension of the site for technical SEO purposes. A coherent sitemap aids this, and if not included on the website already, can be manually submitted to search engines for their scanning.

Site Speed and Performance

Site speed is a key factor in SEO as well as UX as it provides a swift way for users to identify and consume the content they want to, or move on to another page (or site) if it’s not what they were searching for.

Now, fast-loading pages and content across devices is considered a critical factor of SEO as it has been confirmed to be an important element for the algorithm’s positioning in SERPs.

If a website doesn’t perform in the way it should, is laggy, or doesn’t load content in the way users would expect then it will be down-ranked by Google and other web browsers.

It’s imperative, therefore, that the infrastructure and content on a site load as wholly and quickly as possible. There are various online tools to test a site’s performance, such as GT Metrix.

Mobile Optimisation

With now well over half of search engine searches taking place on mobile or portable devices (Google US estimates that over 63% of their total daily searches happen on a mobile device), it is no longer enough for businesses to have a website that displays beautifully on a laptop or desktop PC but doesn’t format to smaller screen sizes.

Google now has separate crawlers to check for desktop and mobile optimisation and will prioritise those websites that perform well on both.

This mobile-first approach to indexing makes the correct and appropriate formatting of a site for smaller devices a critical job for SEO purposes. It is best practice for webmasters to take on a ‘responsive design’ approach that automatically adapts the formatting of their site to whichever device it is being accessed from.

Security and Accessibility

A key part of website UX is that the content within can be accessed by all who wish to. As such, a site should be as accessible as possible for a range of users and secure in them doing so – allowing users to browse and utilise the website without any risk to them and their devices.

Accessibility improvements are frequently considered just to be for the benefit of those with a disability, sensory, cognitive or motor impairment issue, but in fact, benefit all users. A variety of tools and technologies can be implemented into a website to improve its accessibility as well as technical SEO activities such as labelling the alt-text of images, allowing for keyboard menu navigation, and providing accurate and thorough meta tags and descriptions.

All websites to be indexed by a search engine should reside under HTTPS. This uses the SSL/TLS protocol to encrypt communications and ensure that any malicious hackers are unable to steal data as well as to authenticate web servers to prevent cyber attacks.

Structured Data and Schema

Structured data is a markup code within a site’s back-end that helps web browsers understand how to interpret a site’s data and display its content.

Google, Bing, Yahoo and Yandex have all collectively agreed to support certain structured data and schema so that it doesn’t need tweaking or changing to rank on each. This is a further signal for search engines to help boost SEO performance.

Web pages by themselves are considered ‘semi-structured’, usually just unstructured content with some metadata input to speak to search engine algorithms. Including structured data within schema markup allows for a boost to the ranking that metadata achieves, tailoring it more to the user’s needs and intentions to communicate better to both the search engines and the user searching.

Implementing schema on a website can be difficult so is usually managed by an SEO specialist alongside a web developer.

Core Web Vitals and UX

Core Web Vitals are a set of factors that Google ranks as important in a site’s UX. They grade a URL’s performance based on various elements within a page, from Poor to Good, identifying areas for improvement to boost SEO.

Currently, there are three Core Web Vital measurements: Largest Contentful Point, First Input Delay and Cumulative Layout Shift. Google considers sites with good UX to be the best to rank highly, and so those with decent scores can enjoy good rankings on SERPs.

Improving the metrics related to Core Web Vitals can help a website gain a competitive advantage against others displaying in their search results as well as providing a better UX overall, likely to result in a positive brand perception and increased conversion rates.

Redirects and HTTP Status Codes

HTTP status codes are backend server codes that communicate to a search engine the health of a website or webpage at any given time. These three-digit codes are essentially error messages returned to a browser when a server is unable to fulfil a request.

Where content isn’t available for a user to access (or, therefore, a search engine), a code is delivered. Businesses may opt to install redirects to other content on their domain rather than return a blank page while any issue is being rectified.

Proper redirects prove to a search engine that any content unavailability is only temporary and so avoids being down ranked as a result of an area being ‘down’.

A 307 redirect acts as a temporary fix in this instance and can be programmed in by an SEO specialist while the issue is being resolved. Without such a redirect in place, the search engine will assume there is a permanent problem and will rank it negatively accordingly.

Analytics and Monitoring

A website’s SEO efforts should not be tackled as a ‘one-and-done’ effort and form part of a continuous improvement cycle. Therefore, a website’s performance should be monitored on an ongoing basis. This can be achieved through tools such as Google Analytics to set up and present SEO-related metrics.

However, it is also recommended that a specialist service is used to best display and understand these statistics to avoid any misunderstanding and to ensure that any improvements can be made as swiftly as possible in line with algorithm developments and changes.

Google doesn’t release exact details of its algorithm updates and the frequency of them, but it’s believed that changes are made as often as twice a week – so websites must be updated often and not just left to meet the needs of requirements that may be quickly outdated, as its search engine rankings will suffer as a result.

Understanding Technical SEO: The Bottom Line

Technical SEO forms a critical part of a business’s digital marketing efforts and is the foundation from which SEO excellence can be achieved.

Investing time and resources in optimising a website from a technical perspective cements the best possible position from which to build SEO strategies and campaigns that will succeed time and time again.

To begin your SEO journey, get in touch with Woya Digital. Our team of SEO specialists will provide a full audit of your website to ascertain existing performance as a baseline from which efforts can be concerted and enacted.

Function better, convert better and rank better – all with the help of some clever behind-the-scenes technical SEO!

Woya Digital’s SEO Marketing Success Strategy

Woya Digital’s SEO Marketing Success Strategy

21, Aug 2023 | SEO

SEO marketing (search engine optimisation) should be a key focus for those looking to grow a competitive and advantageous online presence.

The lack of transparency in the search engine results sector however, does create confusion amongst those seeking support with search engine related services.

At Woya Digital, our expert SEO team have curated a structured, considered and balanced blueprint which guides us through all SEO campaigns. This blueprint is based on years of vast expertise, knowledge and experience.

The elements of SEO are constantly changing, meaning it is imperative that businesses choose not just a trusted partner for their SEO marketing, but also one that keeps up to date with the ongoing developments in the sector and is therefore able to maintain SEO growth and success.

Here we provide an overview of the main elements contained within SEO marketing, and just how we at Woya manage a strategy for SEO success.

Why is Search Engine Optimisation so important for modern businesses?

There are few businesses still in existence who don’t benefit from a digital presence – and while this can make brands, products and services easier to find for those seeking them, it also means that the online market place is pretty crowded.

Focussed SEO efforts allows for organisations to differentiate themselves and stand out from the crowd in their given sector or industry, gaining competitive advantage and converting online visitors into paying customers.

With more understanding than ever of search engine optimisation practices amongst marketers, but with a frequently updated marketplace in which to function (it’s estimated that search engines such as Google tweak their algorithms and programming more than once a week), it is critical that businesses invest in successful and strategic SEO marketing in order to maintain their presence in search results.

Organic SEO

A well understood SEO tactic is to buy advertisements and essentially ‘pay your way’ to a high search engine ranking, but this aspect of SEO does not prove genuine authenticity and prestige in the way that organic efforts do.

Organic SEO refers to the practice of optimising a website in order to enhance its search engine ranking without any paid advertising. This doesn’t involve investing money into the search engine as a straight transaction, but as we have mentioned, it is subject to regular and ongoing changes.

Organic SEO must take into account the balance of the importance weighed on different factors within a website and exactly how each one contributes toward the overall ranking of the site. While the exact perfect ranking formula has never been revealed by any search engine to the public, there are many elements of organic SEO that can be managed as a baseline, including:

  • Overall page content
  • Accessibility factors
  • UX (User Experience) factors
  • Domain authority (DA), experience and trust
  • Quantity and diversity of link building and linked websites
  • Use of unique SEO keywords, images, video and other content.

Overall, it is proven that search engine results that appear organically receive more clickthroughs than those that have been paid for (PPC), and these are marked as paid adverts. Organic results also perform even better when combined with paid search engine marketing, and so form a great base from which to manage all search engine optimisation SEO marketing strategies and gain the most competitive advantage from it.

Working with Proven SEO Marketing Experts

Hundreds of thousands of SEO agencies and support services exist spanning all industries, territories and specialisms. It should be noted that there is currently no regulation of the SEO industry and so it can be difficult for businesses to identify which organisations are likely to deliver successful, white-hat search engine marketing strategies, and which aren’t.

In particular, in an age where companies are struggling for survival post-pandemic and in financially tumultuous conditions worldwide, not all have ability to invest vast sums into SEO marketing without the guarantee of success and ROI.

It is hugely important that the SEO experts or business chosen by those looking for help and support is experienced in the field. Without being able to rely on any single accreditation or regulation mark, instead it is recommended that:

  • Proof is sought of successful campaigns – in the form of case studies, testimonials and other happy customers who have experienced enough success through SEO marketing and other SEO related services to recommend the provider
  • Reviews are read on the company – preferably on an independent third-party review platform that allows for genuine, verified and unedited reviews to be left by those who have purchased a service from the provider in question
  • Checks are made into the sector-specific experience of the SEO agency – in order to ensure that the business will be able to support the specialism of the organisation at hand. There are several industries that may require some bespoke focus and it’s handy to know that those working within the firm are able to offer such support

How Woya Digital Works with SEO

Woya Digital has worded with companies globally, across many sectors, supporting them with search engine opitimisation and associated digital marketing services for many years, with a team of experts in all professional marketing fields.

We work to The Woya Guarantee for all of our customers – guaranteeing measurable success in all SEO campaigns delivered so that you’re able to rest assured you’ll see an uptick in traffic, conversions and search engine ranking. We’re so confident in our team and their expertise that if we don’t improve keyword ranking and traffic within 6 months, then you won’t pay until we do.

Indeed if we don’t believe that we can make a positive difference to your SEO, we’ll let you know and won’t take you on as a client. Your business deserves the best and if we feel that our experience doesn’t fit or that we can’t help you improve, we’ll help you find a partner that can.

Alongside working directly with business clients on their SEO marketing strategies and campaigns, Woya Digital also offers white-label SEO services to other digital agencies. The level of respect we’ve received in our industry is unrivalled; and we’re pleased to say that we’ve accomplished the partnership of peers in the digital space who entrust their own client’s SEO performance to us.

The Woya Digital SEO Wheel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Woya Wheel is what we refer to as our guiding pathway to organic search results success.

Profitable and well-performing search engine optimisation is made up of focus on a range of elements that, when combined and balanced, will boost SEO ranking and in turn, online visibility.

Where many businesses who refer to themselves as SEO ‘agencies’ actually only provide a single service (such as link building or accessibility optimisation), we at Woya Digital focus on on elements all in order to provide an all-encompassing SEO solution.

Driven by our expert team who specialise in all areas of search engine rankings and their years of experience and onward success, we created the Woya Wheel and apply it to every organic SEO strategy and campaign in order to develop and optimise successful search ranking results. The elements that make up the wheel include:

Website SEO Analysis

In order to begin to develop any SEO strategy, first the potential of the online presence must be established. This involves undertaking a full analysis of the existing website to understand best its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This provides a baseline from which work can begin and allows for the full possibilities of success to be explored.

A website analysis does not always just take place at the beginning of any SEO marketing project, but instead should be revisited periodically to allow for new or amended strategies to form and further improvements to be made – especially in line with the ongoing updates and changes made to search engine algorithms.

SEO Keyword Research

While the days of ‘keyword stuffing’ website pages with as many relevant keywords and phrases as possible is now long gone, search engine algorithms still rely on the content of a website in order to understand what it is, who it’s for, and how well-presented it is for its users.

Woya Digital enact keyword research regularly in order to ensure that the content on the site is ever-current and that it fits the developing needs of user searches.

Recent Google updates have included the analysis of Natural Linguistic Programming (NLP) patterns as the way in which users search changes and develops all the time.

SEO Competitor Analysis

While the goalposts of SEO itself are always moving, so too are the activities, achievements and appetites of industry competitors. It is critical that businesses understand who their true competitors are in the online space – with the recognition that competing websites do not always equate to their ‘in-person’ competitors off line.

Woya Digital provides competitor analysis of competitor’s websites, social media, online presences and other SEO related activities to help our clients gain understanding and then advantage above them and ultimately, perform and rank higher within search engine results within which they appear.

Technical SEO

There is much ‘behind the scenes’ of a website that can be changed and improved in order to best demonstrate to search engine algorithms the authenticity, trustworthiness, relevancy and user experience of a site.

Technical SEO related activities include the creation and submission of site maps to Google (and other search engines as appropriate), creating an SEO-friendly site structure, improving loading speed issues, enacting mobile responsiveness changes for multi-device display and finding and fixing duplicate content issues.

On-Page SEO Optimisation

On-page SEO optimisation includes that of content already on a website to ensure search engines can read, understand and comprehend the site’s pages.

Woya Digital manages on-page optimisation across all websites including meta tags and descriptions, keyword usage, responsive formatting, internal linking, URL optimisation and sharing facilities.

Blogging and Guest Posts

To ‘blog’ has existed since 1994, and (contrary to some belief) is still an important element of SEO marketing. While the concept of blogging has evolved vastly since the 90s, it is used by organisations to present useful and shareable content aimed at its target audience; often to cement a brand reputation and position itself as an industry leader, and to add fresh new relevant content to a website – content is king!

A blog post can be published either on a business’ website itself or as a guest post on other relevant websites – and may be used directly as sales content or as more general marketing.

At Woya Digital we support clients both with content writing and creation, for publishing on site and for promoting to third parties in order to present guest posts on other domains.

Digital Press Releases

PR is no longer the domain of busy newsrooms but now primarily managed online by publications worldwide who need (and want) to access articles as quickly as possible in order to present onward to their own audiences.

Woya Digital provides a simple digital press release service which provides the potential of coverage and publicity across territories, targeted specifically to an audience segment or demographic.

The high quality backlinks achieved from such coverage can be hugely beneficial as part of an SEO campaign, with respected news services and websites on-board for partnership.

Directory Submission

SEO directories remain an important digital marketing factor, but the facilitation of submissions to directories must be carefully managed to avoid false or damaging listings.

Woya Digital maintains a database of only genuine and current digital directories, and will submit clients details to them in order to create one-way, regional and free backlinks.

Quality SEO Link Building

Quality link building is a critical element of search engine marketing. Working with our strategic partners across industries and the world, Woya Digital are able to build mutually beneficial business relationships to enhance the SEO credentials of all parties.

High quality, well-respected websites with good Domain Authority (DA) are the most effective links to receive, and our existing relationships allow for these to be created and maintained.

Monthly SEO Reporting

There is little point in investing in SEO marketing as a one off, search engine optimisation it is a moving target and something that requires continuous and consistent focus. Woya Digital provides easy-to-understand search engine results reports for all clients on a monthly basis.

Each report includes in-depth analysis alongside a quick overview for ease, highlighting the most relevant changes and explaining different aspects of search engine optimisation worked on.

If you’d like to start your spin of the Woya Wheel and learn how we can support your business with SEO efforts and to increase your website organic traffic, drop Woya Digital a message. The SEO journey starts here!

 

What Is Your Website Bounce Rate Telling You?

What Is Your Website Bounce Rate Telling You?

8, Feb 2023 | SEO

SEO can seem a minefield, with a myriad of acronyms, jargon and industry terms to navigate and ever-changing goalposts of algorithm preferences, best practice protocols and software tools.

One such term amongst the many is ‘website bounce rate’. Let’s explain what it means, how important it is, and how it can be improved to boost overall SEO performance.

What is a Website Bounce Rate?

A website bounce rate is a statistic usually expressed in a percentage, and refers to the amount of users who arrive on a web page and then leave the site altogether without navigating through to another page, or taking an action on page.

Also known as a ‘single page session’, it gives an indication of the prevalence of those visiting a page, not taking any other action on the website, and leaving. This is considered a sign of the effectiveness of any given webpage on a site as, unless the desired effect for a page is solely to be read and then abandoned, its purpose is not being properly fulfilled.

What is Considered a Good Website Bounce Rate?

Website bounce rates vary hugely between industries and site types and so a perceived ‘good’ or ‘bad’ rate can be difficult to ascertain. The average website bounce rate online varies hugely, and so it’s near impossible to set a goal for a business’ online presence without some solid market research.

Website bounce rates also vary dependent on the device users are accessing the site from. Mobile devices result in an average bounce rate of 51% across all industries simply due to the brief nature of their typical usage, whereas tablets sit at around the 45% mark and desktop computers nearer 43%.

This means that it’s critical for businesses to take device usage into account, as they are more likely to have a higher website bounce rate if the majority of their users are using mobile devices. Traffic sources are also sometimes responsible for increasing website bounce rates, with visits originating from social media and paid ads often resulting in less engaged traffic.

It’s near impossible for any website bounce rate to be below 20%, as human behaviour simply can’t be accounted for, and so it’s not advisable for organisations to aim for 0%.

A bounce rate over 70% would, in most industries, be considered negative but is usually fairly easy to decrease as it’s often due to UX (User Experience) issues: such as poor design, excessive bots, browser incompatibility or tracking code errors.

How Website Bounce Rate Interacts with Other Aspects of SEO

There are many aspects to the overall discipline of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and so it’s worth noting that website bounce rate is just one of many factors that contribute to digital activity, presence and performance.

Technically, website bounce rate doesn’t directly influence page ranking – but it is an indirect factor.  Higher bounce rates are often indicative of a UX issue that will impact on the overall performance of the site and demonstrates its usefulness to the algorithms of search engines.

How Overall Time-On-Site Affects SEO

Similar to website bounce rates, the time on-site (also known as the dwell time) is the amount of time a user spends on a web page or site before clicking elsewhere. A very low dwell time indicates that the page doesn’t meet the user’s search intent, and a longer dwell time shows genuine engagement. This metric demonstrates to search engines the authenticity, topic and overall usefulness of the website and so longer times are considered bette, but after 30 minutes of inactivity on a site, the session ends to account for untrue inflation due to windows/tabs left open unintentionally.

Website bounce rates and dwell times are different measures but both allow marketers and webmasters to understand user satisfaction and engagement with the content created.

What Bounce Rates Tell Us About a Site/Page

A website’s bounce rate can be considered a reliable informant factor of a page’s perceived value by users. Where a bounce rate is high or conversions aren’t happening where desired, new approaches can be trialled as the existing content obviously isn’t landing correctly with its audience.

One important metric to monitor is bounce rates from content that’s being linked to as a part of a paid campaign, as this can demonstrate the ROI (Return On Investment) on money spend. High bounce rates or low conversions from paid ads indicate a disconnect between the advert and the landing page and may result in wasteful expenditure unless the issue is addressed and resolved.

Website Bounce Rates Should Be Constantly Monitored

People change, attitudes change, online best practices change and website bounce rates change – and this is exactly why bounce rates need to be monitored on a continuous basis and not just as a one-off measurement of website performance.

With the algorithms behind search engines being constantly updated as well as consumer behaviours shifting, it’s not unheard of for bounce rates to ebb and flow, too. A rapidly changed website bounce rate can indicate a sudden website error or issue and so may be the first symptom of a problem that can be rectified swiftly.

Get Support With With Your Website and SEO

If you need to improve your website’s bounce rate or just need to understand where it currently sits and why, a specialist SEO company such as Woya Digital can help you comprehend things – and better your position.

Bounce rates are often easily shifted into more positive territory with a little knowhow, and with the expert team at Woya on-board, you can be sure of a move in the right direction.