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5 essential lessons I’ve learned about websites

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In this article, I will share five important lessons I’ve learned about websites that can help you get the most out of yours. Whether you’ve got a brand new website, or not had anytime to spend on your existing site lately, here’s how to make your website work a little harder for you.

Let your copy dictate the design, not the other way around

When designing a website, it’s easy to get caught up in aesthetics and visual elements. However, it’s essential to prioritise the content and let it guide the design process. Your website’s copy should be clear, concise, and engaging, conveying your brand message effectively. The design elements should complement and enhance the content, making it easy for visitors to read and understand. Remember, the purpose of your website is to communicate with your audience, so let your copy take the lead.

The speed of your website really does matter

In today’s fast-paced digital world, speed is of the utmost importance. Visitors have little patience for slow-loading websites, and studies have shown that even a few seconds of delay can result in high bounce rates. Optimize your website’s performance by compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging caching techniques. Regularly monitor and test your site’s speed to ensure quick and seamless user experiences. A fast-loading website not only improves user satisfaction but also positively impacts your search engine rankings.

Your about page is popular

One page that often receives significant attention is the “About” page. Visitors are naturally curious about the people behind a brand, their values, and their story. Utilize this opportunity to connect with your audience on a personal level. Share your mission, team bios, and any unique aspects that differentiate your business. Craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience, building trust and establishing a genuine connection. Remember, an engaging About page can significantly contribute to a visitor’s decision to engage further with your brand.

Customers want to see pricing

Transparency is key when it comes to pricing. Visitors appreciate clear and easily accessible pricing information. While some businesses prefer not to display prices upfront, consider offering a general price range or starting point to provide visitors with a sense of what to expect. If you offer various packages or customized solutions, provide clear instructions on how to request a quote or consultation. Remember, by being upfront about pricing, you can save both your time and your visitors’ time by attracting genuinely interested customers.

Build trust with reviews

Testimonials and reviews play a significant role in influencing a customer’s decision-making process. People seek social proof and want to see what others have experienced with your products or services. Display customer testimonials prominently on your website, highlighting the positive feedback and success stories. Include relevant details such as names, photos, and even video testimonials for added credibility. Genuine testimonials demonstrate trustworthiness and can be a powerful tool for converting visitors into customers.

Building a successful website goes beyond just the visual appeal. By considering the lessons outlined above, you can create a website that effectively communicates your brand message, engages visitors, and builds trust. Let your copy dictate the design, prioritize website speed, optimize your About page, provide transparent pricing information, and leverage user testimonials. Embrace these insights and continually adapt your website to meet the evolving needs and expectations of your target audience.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Factors which determine your search engine position

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Factors which determine your Search Engine Position in order of importance…

  • Keyword use in document title
    The document title is the text within the <title>…</title> tags in the HTML code of your web page.
    Example: <title>Your web page title</title>.  Use the search term within the document title.
  • Increase Global link popularity of web site
    The global link popularity measures how many web pages link to your site. The number of web pages linking to your site is not as important as the quality of the web pages that link to your site.
    All major search engines take the quality and the context of the links into account. Search engines assume that your web page must offer relevant content if many quality sites link to it.
  • Link texts of inbound links
    Inbound links are links from other web sites to your site. If many other sites link to your site, then search engines consider your site to be important. However, the number of links is not as important as is the relevance of the linking page and the link text used in linking to your site. To get a higher ranking on Google.co.uk (pages from the UK), make sure that the web pages that link to your site use your search terms. It is advisable to use different but related keywords for the link texts. If all links to your web site use exactly the same link text, then Google.co.uk (pages from the UK) might lower your rankings because of unnatural linking patterns. In addition, the quality and reputation of the web pages that link to your site is very important to the search engines.
  • Keyword use in body text
    The body text is the text on your web page that can be seen by people in their web browsers. It does not include HTML commands, comments, etc. The more visible text there is on a web page, the more a search engine can index. The calculations include spaces and punctuation marks. Increase the keyword density for your search terms in the body text.
  • Age of web site
    Spam sites often come and go quickly. For this reason, search engines tend to trust a web site that has been around for a long time over one that is brand new. The age of the domain is seen as a sign of trustworthiness because it cannot be faked.
  • Keyword use in H1 headline texts
    H1 headline texts are the texts that are written between the <h1>…</h1> tags in the HTML code of a web page. Some search engines give extra relevance to search terms that appear in the headline texts.
    Example: <h1>your very big headline text</h1>
  • Keyword use in domain name
    The domain name is the main part of the web page address.
    Example: “your-keyword” is the domain name of http://www.your-keyword.com
    If you have a young web site with only a few inbound links, then consider registering a new domain name that
    contains the search term “trombone cds”. If you have an established web site with a lot of inbound links, then you must compensate by improving the other search engine ranking factors.
  • Keyword use in page URL
    The page URL is the part after the domain name in the web page address.  Seperate your search terms in the page
    URL with slashes, dashes or underscores. Example: “keyword/another-keyword.htm” is the page URL of http://www.domain.com/keyword/another-keyword.htm
  • Links from social networks
    On social network sites, people decide which web sites are popular. This means that the popularity on social network sites cannot be easily influenced. For this reason, search engines might trust web sites more if they are popular on social networks. (“n/a” means “data not available”.)
  • Server speed
    Popular web sites often have faster server response times compared to smaller unimportant sites. In addition, most search engines index more pages from fast web sites.
  • Keyword use in H2-H6 headline texts
    H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 headline texts are the texts that are written between the <h2>…</h2>, <h3>…</h3>, etc. tags in the HTML code of your web page. Some search engines give extra relevance to search terms that appear in the headline texts. Example: <h3>your big headline text</h3>
  • Keyword use in IMG ALT attributes
    The <img alt> attribute defines an alternative text for an image when the user uses a text browser or when the user has turned off the display of images in the web browser application. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer displays the alternative text if the user puts the cursor over the graphic. Example: <img src=”logo.gif” width=”200″ height=”75″ alt=”picture description with keyword”>
  • Top level domain of web site
    Web sites with certain top level domains (TLD) are statistically more likely to contain higher quality, trustworthy contents. For this reason, search engines might prefer web sites with restricted TLD (.edu, .gov., .mil) over younger TLD (e.g., .biz, .info, .jobs). In addition, country code TLD (e.g., .ca, .de, .fr) are often preferred in the country’s local search results.
  • Keyword use in bold body text
    The body text is the text on your web page that can be seen by people in their web browsers. The bold body text uses a darker and heavier face than the regular type face. It appears between <b>…</b> or <strong>…</strong> tags in the HTML source of your web page. CSS is not recognized. The statistics include spaces and punctuation marks.
  • Number of visitors to the site
    Search engines might look at web site usage data, such as the number of visitors to your site, to determine if your site is reputable and contains popular contents.
  • Keyword use in same domain link texts
    Link texts are words and sentences that are used as links. Same domain link texts are the link texts of the links that point to a web page on the same domain.
    Example: The HTML tag <a href=”contact.htm”>Contact information</a> contains the same domain link text “Contact information”.
  • Keyword use in outbound link texts
    Link texts are words and sentences that are used as links. Outbound link texts are the texts within the <a>…</a> tags when the <a> tag links to a web page on a different domain.
    Example: The HTML tag <a href=”http://www.not-your-site.com/about.htm”>About the company</a> contains the outbound link text “About the company”.
  • Keyword use in same domain link URLs
    Links connect one web page to another. Same domain links are the links in <a href> attributes that point to other pages on the same domain. Example: The HTML tag <a href=”contact.htm”>Contact information</a> contains the same domain link URL “contact.htm”.
  • Keyword use in outbound link URLs
    Links connect one web page to another. Outbound links are the links on a web page that point to web pages on other web sites, i.e. links to other domains. Example: The HTML tag <a href=”http://www.not-your-site.com/info.htm”>Click here</a> contains the outbound link URL “www.not-your-site.com/info.htm”.
  • Keyword use in meta description
    The Meta Description tag allows you to describe your web page. Some search engines display the text to the user in the search results. Example: <meta name=”description” content=”This sentence describes the contents of your web site.”> Even if the Meta Description tag might not be important for ranking purposes, you should use the Meta Description tag to make sure that your web site is displayed with an attractive description in the search results.
  • Number of trailing slashes in URL
    The number of trailing slashes (/) in the URL indicates where a web page falls in a site’s overall hierarchy. If the URL contains many trailing slashes, meaning it is placed in a sub-sub-directory, then the webmaster does not seem to think that the page is important in relation to the other pages.
  • HTML validation of web page to W3C standards
    Web pages are written in special languages called HTML and CSS. Like any language, HTML and CSS change
    constantly. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the governing body that establishes what is valid HTML/CSS and what is not. Search engines obey the HTML/CSS standard. If there are errors in the HTML/CSS code of your web page, then search engines might not be able to read everything of your web page.
  • Readability level of web page
    The Flesch Reading Ease test is a United States governmental standard to determine how easy a text is to read. It
    measures the approximate level of education necessary to understand the web page content. Higher scores indicate the text that is easier to read, and lower numbers mark harder-to-read texts. Scores among different languages are not comparable. To improve your score, break long sentences into shorter sentences and use shorter words. In addition, make sure that you end sentences with punctuation (a period, question mark, or exclamation point). There should be one space between each word, and after any punctuation, including commas.
  • Keyword use in meta keywords
    The Meta Keywords tag allows you to define which search terms are important to your web page according to your opinion. It should be placed between the <head>…</head> tags in the HTML code of your web page.
    Example: <meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword, another keyword”>
  • Keyword use in the first sentence of the body text
    The first sentence of the body text is the first sentence after the <body> tag in the HTML code of your web page. Some search engines give more relevance to search terms when they appear in the first sentence. Some will use your first sentence as the description of your page on the search result page.
    Example: <body>Here goes the first sentence. This text is not the first sentence.
  • Keyword use in HTML comments
    HTML comment tags are “hidden comments” in the HTML code of your web page. They are not visible to the user. Example: <!– comments with keywords –>
  • Search engine compatibility
    Search engines need text to index your web pages, to determine the theme of your web site and to produce a site summary. They cannot read what is written on your graphical images or in a Flash movie. Google recommends to create a useful, information-rich site. Fresh, continuously updated content is one of the best ways to ensure that search engines return to your web site (and your visitors, too). Some search engines penalize web sites if the search terms of the Meta Keywords tag don’t appear in the body text of the web page.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

What’s preventing your top ranking?

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Some ranking factors cannot be measured because the search engines do not reveal the necessary data, or it would be extremely time-consuming to measure.

Make sure you pay attention to the following factors because they could prevent your website achieving a top ranking.

Inbound links to your web page

  • Are the web pages linking to your web page relevant to your specific search terms.
  • How fast does your web page get new links pointing to it?
  • Do the web sites which link to your page belong to the same content category?
  • Since when do the links to your page exist?
  • Is the text surrounding the link to your page relevant to your search terms.

Your web page

  • How many important links from your other pages point to your web page?
  • Do the links on your web page point to high quality, topically-related pages?
  • How often and how many changes do you make to your web page over time? Is your content up-to-date?
  • How often and how many web pages do you add to your web site?
  • How long do your visitors spend time on your web page?

Search engine result page

  • Do your competitors on the search engine result page get a manual ranking boost by Google.co.uk, for example Amazon or Wikipedia?
  • How many visitors of the search engine result pages click through to your page?
  • How often do search engine visitors search for your company name or web page URL on Google.co.uk?

Negative ranking factors (you should be able to say “no” to all the following questions)

  • Is your content very similar or a duplicate of existing content?
  • Is your server often down when search engine crawlers try to access it?
  • Do you link to web sites that do not deserve a link?
  • Do you use the same title or meta tags for many web pages?
  • Do you overuse the same keyword or key phrase?
  • Do you participate in link schemes?
  • Do you actively sell links on your web page?
  • Do a majority of your inbound links come from low quality or spam sites?
  • Does your web page have any spelling or grammar mistakes?

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Grow your online reviews

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Online reviews are extremely valuable, they provide trust and credibility with your customers and they can improve your search engine position. Studies show that having more Google reviews directly correlates with an increased local search performance.

The tutorial below provides instructions on how to request customer reviews on Google My Business and Facebook and add the links to your email signature.

Google My Business

If you have a Google My Business page, log into your Google account and search for your business on Google. On the right hand side, click on the button ‘Get more reviews’ and copy the link.

Facebook

If you have a Facebook page, click on reviews on the left hand side (if you are unable to see this, go to Edit page info > Templates and tabs and enable reviews). Copy the link shown in the address bar.

Now you are ready to request your reviews

Use the above links to contact your customers and send a polite request to leave some feedback. Send it to as many customers as possible.

Email signature

Add the links in to your email signature
Instructions for Outlook  | Instructions for iPhone / iPad

Monitor reviews

Monitor your reviews and respond to everyone. If you receive a negative review, don’t panic, this is your opportunity to leave a professional response.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Ultimate guide to setting up & optimising a Google My Business page

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Quite simply, a Google My Business page helps customers to find you. It can increase your position in the search engines in particularly local search results.

Please note at the time of writing Google My Business allows you to perform the following steps however due to the current pandemic, they may have to introduce limited functionality.

How to add your listing

The dashboard

Go to the Google My Business Dashboard and click on Sign In on the top right hand side (you will need a pre-existing Google account to do this).

Adding your location

Click on add location > add single location.

Adding your business

Type in your business name and click on ‘add your business to Google’ (the search bar will aim to find your name and address so select this option if this is available).

Adding your services

Select from the list of services (add custom services if your services for your category are not listed).

Adding your location

Select a location and add the address of your business.

Checking your map position

Re-adjust the marker on the map by dragging to a new position if required.

Adding service areas

Add the areas your business provides services for. This shows in your listing and helps bring customers so add as many as possible.

Adding further details

Add your business phone number and web address if you have one.

Finish and verification

Finish and check your address. You will receive a postcode in the mail for verification (this normally takes up to 4 days but could be delayed due to Covid-19).

Once you have received the postcode, log in and add the code under this section and your listing will appear on Google like this…

How to optimise your listing

Completing your profile

Complete your profile by adding your hours, description of your business and uploading a logo (tip: click on home on the left hand side to return to the dashboard at any point). Your logo will need to be square to appear correctly, contact me if you need support with this.

Adding more information

Add as much information and media as you can. Including attributes (e.g. “wheelchair accessible,” “free wifi”), the day and year you opened, behind the scenes, before and after photos etc.

Creating regular posts

Create regular posts to notify customers of regular news, what’s new, updates for Covid-19 etc.

That’s all there is to it folks. If you want to take it once stage further and promote your new page, check out this link to download social media posts, posters and free stickers.

I hope this tutorial helped you set up your Google My Business page. Please do get in touch if you need any support or I would love to hear from you to see how you on.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

So your website is now live, Congratulations! What next?

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You have just paid a web designer for a sparkly new website so now you can take a break and expect the enquiries to come flooding in. Unfortunately unless you are a targeting an incredibly niche market, this is rarely the case.

A new website competes with other sites that have been around for years, potentially decades but there are a few things that you can do to make sure you end up higher in the listings, make sure Google lists you in their index as soon as possible and you end up with a search engine friendly website…

General

Here are some general tips to help track your website and enable your site to be listed quicker in the main search engines.

– Install Google Analytics or AWStats (which comes as standard with all hosting from TJ Design)
– Add your website to Google Webmaster Tools
– Link Google Analytics with Google Webmaster Tools
– Create a robots.txt file and upload it to the root directory of your site (go to www.yourwebsite.co.uk/robots.txt to check if you have one).
– Create a sitemap.xml file submit this to Google Webmaster Tool (go to www.yourwebsite.co.uk/sitemap.xml to check if you have one).

Link building

Many of the leading search engines count the amount and quality of your inbound links as a major factor so here are some tips.

– Create a ‘related links’ page on your website so you can link to reputable sites and even more importantly they link back to you. (think suppliers, local business directories, partners, industry associations not competitors)
– Add a Google My Business page
– Use Moz’s Open Site Explorer, and add your main competitors websites, view their “Inbound Links” from “Only External” sources to see their related links. Contact any reputable companies and request the opportunity to exchange links.
– Over time, the search engines will crawl your site and add you to their listing but you may be able to speed this process up by manually entering the URL for your site at these popular search engines..

Don’t use any automated submission programs to submit your site to multiple search engines at one time. This can be considered as spam and you could be removed completely.

– Spend as much time as possible adding your new website to business directories and use their features like reviews to make your profile really stand out. Here are some that I would recommend…

– Add your website link to your business cards, flyers, stationery, emails, forum signature and any social media platforms.

Summary

The above recommendations will give your new website a real kick-start to being found on the internet. It can be time-consuming trawling the internet looking for appropriate places to link back to your website but I can assure you that it’s well worth the effort. You should invest at least a couple of hours from when your website launches to make it a happy, healthy search engine friendly site ready to take on the competition. Good luck!

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk