Last Updated on Aug 5, 2013 by Jenna Scaglione
Need some search engine love?
If your website is not ranking anywhere in the search engines, it’s time to take a look at your SEO strategy NOW to properly prepare for the holiday rush.
The search engines will explode with activity around November until the end of December. Get in on this traffic boost by analyzing your website to ensure it is well-optimized in Google’s eyes.
On the surface, your website is a place where customers research and purchase your products. But, under the hood, there are complex factors at play. The search engines, especially Google, consider these factors when ranking your website. If too many are faulty, it will affect your ability to rank, which will result in missed profits this holiday season.
What on-site factors should you manage?
There are at least 25 different factors to assess, but for the sake of time I will cover three in this article.
1. Metadata
Metadata is a sensitive subject. Years ago, webmasters would stuff their title tags with multiple instances of their keywords hoping to manipulate the rankings. Today, this practice not only does not succeed, but it may also result in Google downgrading your website in the rankings.
When it comes to metatag generation, above all, avoid keyword stuffing. Create a title tag that is valuable to a human viewer with no more than one instance of your keyword. In addition, Google does not use your meta keywords as a ranking signal anymore, but it’s not difficult to abuse this feature, so use it wisely. Create a meta description that will compel people to click on your website, since this copy is featured in the search results pages under your website title.
2. On-page content
Will your website content get flagged by Google for over-optimization? In a post Google Panda and Penguin world, we can’t be careful enough with our website content. Over optimization is all too common today since many webmasters think adding their keywords helps them to rank in the search engines, but they often unknowingly abuse this practice.
Should you add keywords to your website content? Yes, but avoid stuffing. Create your content without your keywords in mind. If you read it back and you did not add any relevant keywords, add some back in, but be careful! Avoid stuffing keywords in your headers, internal links, and image alt text. Think about your users first, not the search engines, when creating content for your website.
3. Slow-loading website
Did you know that a slow website can negatively affect your website rankings? In fact, Google is so serious about efficient websites that it just announced it was adding speed factors to the algorithm for mobile websites. Essentially, if your mobile website does not load fast enough, you will be downgraded in the rankings.
User experience is a serious matter for Google and the search engine prioritizes this for its searchers. If its searchers are not happy, Google isn’t happy.
If your website (including mobile) takes longer than about four seconds to load, you have some work to do.
Organic traffic is an integral part of a profitable Ecommerce marketing strategy and it is especially vital during the holiday season. Perform an SEO Audit of your website and ensure you have ticked all of the boxes so your website is well-optimized in Google’s eyes.
If you are not aware of all of the checklist items you should assess for your website, Numinix offers a 25-point SEO Audit which touches on the points I discussed along with 22 other vital factors. Performing an SEO audit is crucial to increasing your search engine visibility. Click here to find out more about Numinix’s SEO Audit service and get your online presence prepared for the upcoming holiday season.