Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be daunting for newcomers. But with some simple strategies and tips, even novices can increase their website rankings through applied digital marketing strategies and SEO in Glasgow agencies.
Utilising H2 headings on your pages can help optimise content, create an easy skimmable experience for users and web crawlers alike, and enable keyword placement without impacting its readability.
1. Optimise Your Images
Images are an essential part of SEO in Glasgow and can significantly boost the performance of any website, including load time, user experience and search engine visibility. Image optimisation includes sizing, compression and alt text to help Google recognise what they represent on a webpage as well as best practices that increase accessibility for screen reader users.
While all the tips listed are crucial, certain techniques are considered black hat and could negatively impact your ranking on Google Search in the long run. For instance, hiding text behind an image is considered spamming by Google and will result in penalties being assessed against your account.
Use descriptive filenames and resize images according to their displayed sizes for maximum image optimisation. This will reduce file sizes without compromising quality and increase loading speeds. Experiment with different compression rates until you find what works best for your site; JPEG or PNG files might work better as they tend to have smaller file sizes that scale better across devices, helping avoid long load times that are detrimental to SEO.
2. Include Alt Text
Alt text provides search engines with an explanation of an image on a webpage, helping searchers better comprehend it while also helping visually impaired visitors access its contents.
Optimising alt text requires including your target keyword(s) within its description, but be careful to avoid keyword stuffing by only including it sparingly if it adds context to the content on the page.
As part of an alt text description of an image’s purpose, this will benefit users with slow connections or who have disabled images in their browsers.
Be sure to include alt text for images that are more than simply decorative, such as page dividers or brand graphics. Furthermore, testing your alt text with a screen reader will show if it is helpful; many screen readers tend to stop reading long-winded alt texts, which isn’t helpful for users with visual impairments, so keep your alt text concise yet informative for maximum user benefit.
3. Optimise Your Title Tags
Title tags are short bits of text that summarise your page and appear in search engine results pages (SERPs) and social media when your content is shared. They’re an essential element of SEO—digital marketing techniques used to help websites rank higher in SERPs—that help websites achieve a higher search engine rank. A great title tag should be distinctive, informative, and inviting enough to encourage a click-through. Likewise, its keywords should reflect those found throughout your page’s text, but remember not to overstuff your title tags with keywords, as Google may either penalise or even penalise for keyword stuffing!
When selecting keywords, consider their monthly search volume and their competitiveness to optimise title tags for maximum CTRs. When adding power words to titles to increase click-through rates and engage readers, try placing them at the beginning for maximum visibility.
4. Optimise Your URLs
An optimised URL is key for SEO purposes. Your URLs should be short, descriptive, and contain accurate keywords; moreover, they should be easy for both humans and search engines to read.
When optimising URLs, static URLs that remain consistent every time someone accesses your pages are the most efficient solution. This ensures they remain readable and trustworthy while speeding up page loading time. Furthermore, adding additional characters or parameters to URLs should be avoided, as these can become distractions to both visitors and search engines alike.
An effective way to optimise your URLs is to switch from underscores to hyphens when connecting words, as humans find this more readable and search engine algorithms prefer them. Finally, place keywords near each URL’s beginning for maximum search engine ranking results.
5. Create Unique Content
An increasingly competitive digital landscape makes it hard to stand out, so unique content is key for SEO purposes and helps increase search engine results pages (SERPs).
Creating unique content means understanding what your target audience wants and needs and avoiding duplicate material, which confuses search engines and can be identified using tools like Copyscape.
To create unique content, keywords should be utilised in both title tags and meta descriptions to make it stand out. An ideal keyword would reflect user intent; for instance, someone searching “best dog food for senior dogs” wants more information about specific foods, making a solid title tag and meta description essential to finding what they need quickly and efficiently.
One way to create unique content is to draw from personal knowledge and experiences to add flair and draw more visitors to your website. Google Analytics makes it easy to monitor how effectively this unique content is performing by offering time-on-page data analysis.
