Having a functioning website can greatly help one's business in diverse of ways.
Today, it has become crucial for firms, enterprises, and individuals to have a website, either to promote product, to deliver information, to access and process data, or to communicate.
It is gradually becoming a thing of the past to rely on physical activities and marketing tactics to get the word out there.
Incorporating online services and campaigns into one's business are essential for success, and that start from having a website branded in ones name or in ones business name.
It may be difficult for someone that is just getting started to be familiarize with all the bells-and-whistles that define a good website, so I have created the list of things you need to check on your website to improve its performance on search and on social media.
Becoming a website owner is not about the title and the flair it entice; it is about the responsibility that comes with it.
There are two ways to go about it: it is either you hire a web manager to manage your website, or you manage it yourself.
Knowing about the technicalities it entails is of importance if you want to manage your site by yourself.
While some CMS like WordPress make it easy to manage a website, there are certain rules you need to follow if you want the search engines to discover and index your website perfectly.
It is not only about the content, but about the structure you put in place.
There are guidelines for every website to follow if they want to be discover on the web, and knowing about these guidelines can improve your chance of success on the web.
For instance, a web page on your site must be able to tell visitors about you and your business, and also point them in the right direction.
These include having a clear navigation bar (or menu), and a footer that host links to important areas of your website.
It can be stressful to get things right at first instance, especially if it is your first time owning a website. Getting all the details and putting them in the right spot can be difficult.
The following list highlights the crucial things you need to pay attention to on your website to improve its performance on search engines and on social network:
1. Site Title
2. Meta Description
3. Robots.txt
4. Sitemap
5. Favicon
6. Share button
7. Comment form
8. Open Graph
9. Twitter Card
10. About page
P.S: Since there are tons of different content management software (CMS) and drag-and-drop website builder on the internet, I won't be able to go into details on how to configure or apply the following features on your website.
If your site is on WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and others, I suggest you hire a web developer to help you in this regard.
Let's dive in:
Site Title
The title is the first thing on your website that speak about what you are and what your business is all about. It is what defines the primary purpose of your website and all of its contents.
Setting a clear-cut title that reflect everything you want to do on your site is very important. For instance, this website title is "Caleb Olayiwola | Content Creator", which reflect my name (as the sole owner) and my profession.
Since it is a personal website, it makes sense to name it after myself and to also include my profession in the title, which help visitors discover what to expect on the site.
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| The title shown at the top of a browser window |
It is good that the title of a website be in rhythm with the purpose of the website. On most web browsers, the title of a website is shown at the top of the browsing window as shown in the picture.
It will also be shown on social network sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others) when people post your link there.
Best Practice: Use your brand name or business name as the title of your website. Don't use generic words.
Meta Description
The meta description is the second thing that speak about what your website is meant for. In the description field on most CMS, you are expected to insert a short description (not more than 150 characters) about your website.
The meta description is where you get to explain what the website is all about, the service you're offering (if you're a business); it's where you get to put crucial information that pertains to your business as a firm or as an individual.
Furthermore, the meta description is what the search engines (such as Google) will display alongside your site title in the search result.
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| Forbes meta description shown on Google Search result |
It's important to use the details that define the whole purpose of your website as the meta description to increase its visibility across the web and on social media.
Best Practice: Use a description that clearly state the purpose of your website. Don't rant or include words that does not pertain to your business.
Robots.txt
The robots.txt file let the search engines know what to crawl and what not to crawl on your website. It also prevent crawlers from crawling or accessing web pages you don't want to display on the search engine result page.
All CMS have this rightly configured out-of-the-box, but sometimes, there may be some pages you created that you don't want to be included in the search result, which you'll need to manually add to the robots.txt file by yourself.
Allowing and Disallowing web pages on your website through robots.txt, if done rightly, can improve crawl rate and minimize the risk of duplicate content.
To access any website robots.txt file, simply add /robots.txt at the back of the site domain name. E.g www.example.com/robots.txt.
Sitemap
The sitemap is an xml file that is located inside the root folder of your site domain. It display the list of links published on your site, including the date of publication. It can be accessed by adding /sitemap.xml to the back of your site domain.
The sitemap is useful in the sense that it notify search engine crawlers about your latest post, and also help them navigate through the contents published on your website.
Adding your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster can quicken the time it takes to index your site content and to list it on the search result page.
Favicon
Favicon is meant to showcase your brand identity next to your site title in most web browsers window and on search engine result page. Nearly all website on the internet use favicon.
It is a tiny picture that show next to your site name and page title when your site is viewed on a web browser. The way to add favicon to a website differs depending on the CMS used in creating the website.
"A favicon, also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons associated with a particular website or web page." - according to Wikipedia
Using your brand logo or business logo as a favicon is highly recommended.
Share Button
One of the ways to improve engagement and increase site awareness is to put the share button below every web pages on your website. This make sure that your site visitors gets the chance to share your content anywhere on the web.
The share button can do wonders - it can increase sales, bring in more customers, increase site popularity, and make your site famous.
Most CMS have the share button built into their system. All you need to do is just enable it in your cpanel. If your website lack a share button, you can use addthis.
Comment Form
Using a comment form on your website can help visitors interact with your content, which you may find useful in getting people's feedback. While it may be helpful in sparking up conversations, it is seen as a magnet that draws spam and phishing activities on most part of the internet.
For small website owners, enabling comment can help your site rank better on search engines. If you have a lot of time to spare in moderating comment posted on your site, you should definitely enable it.
Third-party comment system like Disqus make it easier.
Open Graph
This is also an important aspect that relate to off-site search engine optimization (SEO). Open Graph is a protocol created by Facebook (META) that let app and website owners configure how their links are rendered and shown on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Generally speaking, the social network giant try as much as possible to render all links posted on its platform as beautiful as it could. However, if your links are not rendered properly, you'll need to add Open Graph meta tags to your website.
The way to do this differs depending on the CMS your site is built on.
Twitter Card
Twitter card work nearly the same way as Open Graph; it let you configure how your links are rendered and shown on Twitter.
Twitter agreed that sites that already have Open Graph implemented do not need to use Twitter card before their links are properly shown on Twitter, but that may not always be the case.
Types of Twitter card
• Summary Card
• App Card
• Photo Card
• Gallery Card
• Player Card
• Product Card
You only need to place few codes (meta tags) at the header of your site to enable any of these Twitter cards. Their implementation are nearly the same (except for few changes in their codes). This article will help.
About Us Page
You don't get to fill in the complete information about your business in your website meta description due to its 150 characters limit, that's why it is compulsory to create a standalone page that provide thorough information about you and your business.
The "About Us" or "About Me" page is where you provide detailed information about your website, including the necessary contact details and address (if applicable). You can also add your brand or business social links to this page.
It'll let people to know that a real human manage the website, thereby increasing trust. Popular search engines, such as Google and Bing, also pay attention to the about page of a website.
Conclusion
This list tick the right boxes of things you need to pay attention to as a website owner if you want to improve your site traffic and its performance.
Do you have any additions? Let me know by dropping your comment in the comment box below.
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