SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of increasing the visibility of a website in a search engine in order to boost the site’s traffic. Before SEO can be conducted, however, a website needs to have certain aspects. It is important that your site is checked before it is launched and visible to the public.
At a base level, a website creator needs to be aware of the keywords of the site. Keywords are words or phrases that a search engine user might search in order to discover a business. For example, some keywords of a computer repair company might be “computer,” “repair,” “laptop,” “computer repair,” “laptop repair,” and “broken computer”. Creating a list of keywords on each page that you intend to target is a good starting point.
Accessibility is another large aspect of SEO. In 2018, Google modified its algorithm to prioritize sites that are mobile-friendly. If your website looks great on a desktop or laptop, but doesn’t have a version for someone’s smart phone, your site will automatically be ranked lower in Google’s search results. In addition to having a mobile version, it is important that a website is accessible to all. Adding something called alternative text, or alt tags, to images is one aspect of accessibility. Alt tags are descriptions of images that screen readers can read aloud to visually impaired users.
Another important type of “tag” to include in your website is a meta tag. Meta tags, according to WordStream, are “are snippets of text that describe a page’s content” that appear in a webpage’s code, but aren’t visible to the user. Meta tags give search engines information as to what the page is about, and are a perfect place to include your keywords.
The loading speed of your website and the amount of content it has are both other things to consider before launching your site. Websites with low page speeds are also ranked lower in search engine algorithms, just like non-mobile-friendly sites. Having plenty of content, with appropriate keywords and subsequent meta tags, can be a bonus. Before the actual launch, keep in mind that outreach is beneficial. If you have social media profiles on which you can share your new website, you can leave more digital breadcrumbs in the trail that search engines pick up on. While this isn’t an extensive list of things to consider before launching your website and keeping SEO in mind, make sure to be aware of what you can do to setup your website to be the best that it can.
