When it comes to optimizing your site, there are a lot of things to remember to do. You have to conduct keyword research on a page by page basis, optimize the content, write meta descriptions, include call-to-actions in the content, create unique URLS, developing an internal linking structure and much more. It’s often easy to forget one or two things from your SEO checklist when optimizing your site, especially if your site has hundreds (if not thousands) of pages.
Are you guilty of forgetting these on-site SEO musts?
Optimized Images
Search spiders can’t see images, they can only read text. That’s why it is important to optimize the most important images on any given page of your site. Chances are your company logo is an image. If you don’t include an image tag, then you are missing out on a critical branding component of your site. When properly optimized, images from your site can rank in the search engines and help drive traffic through to your site.
Footer
A footer is a great way to help develop a strong internal linking structure. Not quite a mirror copy of your top level navigation, the footer lets visitors click through your site without having to scroll back up to the top of the page. This improves the overall user-experience. A footer is all a good place to incorporate links you need to have (like a privacy statement) but don’t want to clutter your high level navigation with. You should also incorporate links to your social profiles in your footer and save valuable webpage real estate for more important information.
Repeating call-to-actions
Man sites are guilty of not being “pushy” enough. It’s understandable; you don’t want to annoy your readers and drive them away. But you have to keep encouraging them to act, otherwise what reason do they have to stay? If you want someone to sign up for your newsletter or call for a proposal, don’t just say it on your homepage and hope they remember. Repeat it throughout your site! It’s possible to be aggressive without turning your visitors away; it just takes a balance of content and call-to-actions.
Meta descriptions
While not a major ranking factor, Meta descriptions are still very important. Think of your Meta description like a miniature online ad. It is the only content a visitor will see in the SERP before they decide to click on one link over another. What does your Meta description say? Does it make your site look like it will be useful for the searcher? Your Meta description should be a unique overview of the content on the page. This informs the visitor of what they can expect to see when they click through.
