The aim of operating online is to create a good website that will help us to get noticed by the major search engine, Google, and thus improve our site rankings. With higher ranging comes higher visibility and a greater possibility of increased sales, coupled with a larger customer base. But of course, the first thing is to create a good website. So… what makes a good website? Google’s Matt Cutts gives us some great points in this video.
Here are the points in a nutshell:
- Crawlability – make your website crawlable, view it in text browser. How does it look? Is it readable and well organised?
- Sitemap – create a sitemap. A sitemap is a list of pages of a website that are accessible by web crawlers and users. It gives a comprehensive view of the structure of the website.
- Content – good, properly written content. Don’t pad articles with unrelated content. The content should be relevant to your website in general and specifically to the particular article.
- Marketing, promoting, optimising – target your niche. Make them aware of what you have to offer.
- Hooks – create newsletter, tutorial, specials…give people a reason to subscribe to your newsletter and return to your website.
- Social Networking – use social networks such as Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, to tell others about your website and what you do.
- Offer something interesting – in as much as it is possible, try to create a unique experience for your users.
Implementing these could improve your website’s ranking. It will take a bit of time and dedication, but if you are consistent you will see benefits. If you are unable to start or be consistent in getting these done, consider outsourcing this role, then if you so desire, take on the responsibility once your online presence is established.
