What Does That Even Mean?
A site that's good for SEO takes care of everything that can be done automatically for you. Then, it offers tools to make doing everything else easy. Here are some examples.Automatic
Every time a new page is created on the site, the header is automatically put in an "H1" tag in the code. This helps Google understand what the page is about.Made Easy
There is an easy way to add a description of the page for Google to see and use in search results.Where Sites Go Wrong
Sometimes website platforms are too focused on selling websites and not focused enough on marketing them. This means that the focus is often on pretty pictures and cool features. But things that the customer doesn't already understand (like SEO features) can be left out. One of the most egregious examples of this is a platform we came across (that shall not be named) that made beautiful sites but lacked important SEO features for their customers. Their jewelry gallery pages did not have an option for adding a description for search engines. This leaves Google with no choice but to scrape together a description made of random prices, SKU numbers, and titles of the jewelry pieces in the gallery. People who see descriptions like this are less likely to click.Where Sites Go Right
SEO generally has two parts, Technical and Content. A site that does SEO right gets these two parts right. Let's take a look at what they mean. Technical SEO is usually focused on making sure it's quick and easy for your website to give a Search Engine Bot the info it needs to understand and list your site. Content SEO is usually focussed on making sure you have plenty of well-made and targeted content on your website for visitors once they get to your website.Some Features for Good Technical SEO
- The site automatically puts page headers, subheaders, italicized text, and bold text in the right code tags (makes things easier for Google)
- Page titles and descriptions are all easy to add to all types of pages of the site
- Text descriptions for images (known as "alt text") are easy to add to images on the site
- It's easy to add images with a smaller file size
- The site does not load a lot of unnecessary code (this slows down the site speed and makes life harder for Google)
- "Index pages" (like search results pages and category pages) are well formatted
- URLs have human-readable words rather than random numbers (like SKUs)
Some Features for Good Content SEO
- You can add a blog
- Formatting pages with nice layouts for pictures and video is both possible and easy
- Text and images can be added to every type of page (including gallery pages)