Essentials of Website Optimisation in 2019

Author: Chris Walker

10 years ago, Google only used approximately 200 ranking factors to determine SERPs. A lot has changed since then. But, one thing has remained constant - you do not have to work very hard for every ranking factor. Some of the factors carry more weight than others. Below given are some of the essential factors that you need to consider when optimising your website.

Technical SEO

The idea of performing technical SEO is intimidating to some. Thanks to professional agencies, an SEO audit is no longer an overwhelming task. owever, the key is to interpret the data and accordingly make changes.

To begin with, you need to pay attention to the following:

  • Make sure that your website qualifies as mobile-friendly
  • Check the robot.txt for any errors and optimise if required
  • Fix duplicate meta descriptions and title tags
  • Audit the content found on your website
  • Fix broken links as it hampers the user experience

    • Mobile-first

    In March 2018, Google officially rolled out the mobile-first index. This move meant that it was time to move away from the desktop-only approach and embrace mobile. Take a look at some of the basics for optimising your website for mobile.

  • Optimise your website to seamlessly work across any device, including mobile, desktop, laptop and tablet
  • When using a responsive design, scale your images
  • Make use of short meta titles so that they are easier to read
  • On mobile, less is more. So, long-form content might not necessarily convert to more traffic and improved rankings
  • Avoid pop-ups that cover content

    • Speed of your website

    Page speed directly impacts traffic, as well as, conversions. Visitors leave a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Slow loading speed creates a poor user experience and this is the reason why Google takes website speed into consideration as a ranking factor. Some of the best practices for optimising website speed are:

  • Compress files to reduce their size and combine common files to decrease requests
  • Reduce HTTP requests for different parts of the page, such as images, scripts and CSS
  • Have JavaScript and CSS load simultaneously
  • Enhance server response time
  • Reduce the size of the images
  • Keep plugins and redirects to a minimum
  • Make use of a CDN

    • Link building

    Links have been an important element of SEO and amongst the top ranking factor for quite some time. In 2019, Google has become more adept at identifying, as well as, devaluing spammy links. So, you need to be careful when implementing link building strategies. Whilst high-quality links can provide you with online visibility and more traffic, poor quality links can lead to Google penalising your website.

    If you want to know more Bradford website optimization essentials, talk to an expert.

    Nhance Digital specialises in providing bespoke Bradford website optimization services. The company focuses on helping brands gain visibility across online channels and connect with potential customers. From their humble beginnings, the company has now grown to become a force to reckon with in the UK.