Five ways to improve your website’s content for Google and visitors alike
So how do you produce high-quality content that satisfies both Google and visitors?
One of the best ways to improve your website’s Google rankings is to post high-quality content that Google algorithms favour. However, it’s not just Google you need to please: your visitors, naturally, are crucial to your site’s success.
So how do you produce high-quality content that satisfies both parties?
Make sure you link to good sites
It’s frustrating when you click on a website link and it’s broken. Site visitors hate this and so too does Google.
Source high-quality links only, and be careful about how you use them: think good, relevant content; web page usability, and mobile optimisation. The alternative is linking to spammy or low-quality websites, which, when picked up by Google, will harm your search engine rankings.
By doing this, visitors will appreciate the care and attention given to providing content with valuable hyperlinks, rather than obvious attempts to pander to Google’s requirements. The content will read far more natural for humans as well as algorithms.
Be strategic about your visuals
Images, graphics, web design – anything visual is a sure way, when done well, to win visitors over. You don’t need to be excessive about how bright and colourful your site is in order to attract positive attention from people. Enlist the services of high-quality web designers who will help you balance UX and graphics to create a website that is a pleasure for visitors to browse. This includes well thought-out product photographs, for example, if you’re an ecommerce site.
Images can be an excellent way to improve your content for search engines, too. Be sure to correctly label them with relevant tags and attributes, as this is what Google looks for.
Use the right tools
Visitors are going to click on your site initially based on how visible you are on search engines. With this in mind, keep track of your metrics via Google Analytics to improve your content, and therefore your site’s ranking. By reviewing how well you’re doing in various statistics, you can adjust your content to include more keywords. This will, in turn, make your content more accessible and relevant for site visitors, as Google will be able to find it and help keep your site high on their listings.
A warning, though: don’t make metric monitoring your site’s priority. Google is known for its frequent updates and alterations to what they’re looking for with their algorithms. While stalwarts of site ranking such as keywords are always good to include, don’t get caught up on them – focus on your visitors, and your site will work fluidly with Google Algorithms, rather than be at risk of sudden ranking drops when Google makes an update.
Keep sentences short
Visitors appreciate short sentences, without unnecessary filler text or content. One way to keep your sentences short is to monitor your site’s Flesch-Kincaid score. This tells you how accessible to all visitors your website’s copywriting is, so you don’t overcomplicate site info, descriptions, or any other facet where text is involved.
Short sentences are a key attribute to this: no visitor wants long, rambling statements. They just want to know the details in a simple way.
If you respect your site’s readability for visitors, Google is more likely to favour you. Obvious too is that the more visitors to your site, the more popular it’ll be – one sure way to grab Google’s attention.
Don’t be a robot
If your website is impersonal and robotic, people will be put off. No one wants to feel as though the content was written by an automated machine. Make sure you make your content human – what is your brand’s personality? Represent that in the way you speak to your customers.
Similarly, search engines know when your copywriting is just standard text, rather than being carefully considered and making use of terminology and relevant links. Ensure you enlist quality copywriting to help your brand shine through in all areas of text, and you’re sure to be more popular with Google as well as prospective and current customers.
At iFactory, we’re experts in all facets of digital marketing and design for your website. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can help your site rank highly on Google while being as user-friendly as possible for visitors.
