Let’s get straight to it:
1.Mobile Friendliness
Google has recently issued an algorithm update with a deadline of April 21st, after which sites that are NOT mobile friendly will be penalised in their rankings.
They put out a statement recently that states:
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”
You can read more about it on my blog post here.
And you can take Google’s mobile friendly site test here:
If you want a quote on how to make your site mobile friendly, contact my technical guru Steve Wild here.
2. Secure Sites
Google has also stated that secure sites will also get higher rankings. If your site is “http://” instead of “https://”, this will affect your ability to rank well.
Here is their blog post about this issue from last August: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html
Again, contact Steve if you need help with this.
3. Site Speed
Your websites ability to load quickly affects your visitor experience, something else that Google rightly sees as an important factor in your site rankings.
Site speed can be down to factors like your server, the code on your site, unoptimised images and so on.
Fortunately, there is a great free tool you can use to check the problems your site may have called GTMetrix. Check it out here.
4. Basic Stuff
You need to make sure you have basic stuff on your site to ensure Google trusts you like:
– a cookie policy statement
– a terms and conditions page
– your full postal address (preferably on every page)
This is SEO-101, but I see sites without these all the time, so please check you’ve got them covered.
5. Being “Alive” in their eyes
The more you update your site, the more regularly Google will come back and check it.
If you have a static site, you’re in trouble. In an ideal world, you should have a WordPress blog on your site and you should be updating it regularly, preferably with your GOLD keywords. If you do have WordPress, make sure you’re using the Yoast Plugin – it’s brilliant.
If you don’t know what Gold keywords are, watch my Keyword Research training video here:
6. Embedding YouTube videos
It’s long been established that Google loves posts and pages with YouTube videos on (they own YouTube, so it makes sense). Ideally, you should have videos on your pages and posts that are optimised for the keywords that the page or post is optimised for.
If you want to get 100 fully optimised videos made and syndicated across all the major video channels fast for only £29.99 each, take a look at how my friend and client Jamie Pearson got a 10,000% return on investment doing just this here
7. Optimising (and syndicating) your images
Apart from changing your image file sizes (something your GTMetrix test will probably throw up), you also need to make sure your image files are named after your gold keywords along with your web address.
This is so simple, it amazes me how few people do it.
Take a look at where my blog ranks for an image search one of my target keywords for “Keyword Tapp Review” here.
The software we use to optimise images properly is called Exif Utility – you can check it out here.
Obviously, there is a huge amount more you can do – this is just a quick checklist for some of the easier things you can sort easily. For everything else, ask Steve 🙂
P.S. Yes, this blog is not properly optimised. The builder never finishes his own house 🙂
P.P.S. If you want to really get to grips with your internet marketing, sign up to my Technophobes course here.
