In this blog post we will give you a list of 15 SEO process that you should do to help get your website to the top pages of Google. These SEO strategies should be implemented for all websites. We will not say which of these process is more important then the next, but rather all equally important for Googles search results.
In these examples we will use a roofing contractor from Chicago.
- Picking a domain name - You may not want to use your company name as your domain name. The only way a home owner would find you in the search is if they already know your name and searched your name. Choosing a domain name like "Chicagoroofrepair.com" might be a better domain name for a new roofing company in Chicago. If you have a website that has been listed in Google for year or more stay with that domain just rebuild it. Google likes a domain name that has been registered in the search console, they look at it as the website longevity.
- Website speed - A FAST website load time is getting more and more a mandatory element for website. The best thing to remember when building your main webpage, your home page, is to keep photos to a minimum and lower in the page. They must be condensed and sized appropriately for the webpage.
- Mobile friendly - make sure before you start building your site that the structure of the site is mobile friendly. Once you build 1 page you can check via Google search console.
- Speaking of photos - All photos need to be sized in the code and condensed for the best results. Do not make so small that you loose the sharpness of the picture. All photos should have a "alternative text" and text should have something to do with the meta title of the page it is in.
- Webpage content - Make the webpage content be original and helpful to the end-users. Word count??? I have had pages do really well with Google with under 150 words and I have had pages with 3000 words do well. Just do not over due the key word placement.
- The meta title of the page - Think of the title of the page as a answer to a question that someone has asked google. Example: "contractors near me" you would want the answer to be something of merit. So a good answer might be "Best 5 contractors near me". Or if a home owner asks the question of "roofer in Chicago" the answer or the title of your page should be something like "Chicago's best roofers with free estimates".
- The meta description - This is what Google will read along with the title of the page. Make sure the title is also in the description, then add in something like "read our ratings and reviews from our past clients"
- Banner ads - If you are going to have ads on your site do not place them at the top of the page. Ads will slow down your load time.
- About Us - It is best to have a link to your "About Us" page at the top of the homepage in the menu somewhere.
- Contact Us - Just like the About Us link you should have a Contact Us link also at the top of the homepage. If you can put your phone number at the top of every page in the header that would be good. If you can make it a click to call button even better. Here is the code for a "Click to Call Button" (In the HTML area place <p><strong><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="tel:5035120074"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 26px;">Call us at 503-512-0074</span></a></strong></p> (This will bold, color black and font size of 26px) of course change the phone number to your number.
- Terms of Service - You must have a link to your terms of service and or a privacy policy on every page.
- Your services - If you can make a page for each of the services you offer then in the home page place "anchor text" with links to those pages. So make a page for Chicago roof repair and on the home page place a link on the anchor text of "Chicago roof repair". Do this for each service!
- Bread Crumbs - If you can add bread crumbs to each of your pages other then your home page this will help. Bread crumbs are like a map into the website. For the page "Chicago roof repair" use a bread crumb of "roof repair in Chicago or Chicago roof repair".
- Sitemap - Sitemaps are a must. Sitemaps are just that, a map of your website that Google will use to index your pages.
- Inbound links or backlinks - This is a biggie, Google looks at links coming into your site making your website look trustworthy and popular. Inbound links are when a different website places a link to your website within a good "anchor text". So let say our national website www.local.contractors places a backlink to your company website that is huge in Googles eyes. It's like us referring a person or contractor to you. The backlinks should be from a website with the same kind of background, in our world that would be construction.
- Building static pages - Once you have your website registered for a couple months you will be able to see the most search queries for your site. Go to "Google search console" (Of course none of the above steps are worth anything if you do not have the site registered with Google and Bing.) You can login to the search console and look under "Performance" then click on impressions to get the most search queries in your site. Once you have this info make static pages where the meta title and page content has the search queries in it. example if your page has a high search queries for "Chicago flat roofing" make a page titled the same.
Seems like alot, but just build 1 page at a time. Good Luck.......