In part 1 of things to consider for your SEO strategy in 2024 we looked deeper into keyword research, analysing search engine results, local SEO and content.
Structure
We talked about content in part 1, now we need to think about the structure of your site. Do your website URLs make sense? Are pages easy to click through to from the menu or other parts of your site?
Best practise is to look at your existing structure and ensure you have parent and child pages that make sense. So, our lawyer example: a page on divorce solicitors would be a child parent and the parent page would be family law. This would look like this:
www. lawyer. co. uk/family-law/divorce-solicitor/
Using your keyword in the URL is always a great sign, but make sure you aren’t extending your URLs unnecessarily – keep it to under 120 characters where possible!
When looking at your service pages make sure they don’t take more than three clicks to get to, ideally keep it no more than one easy click!
Meta Data
Meta titles are a page element relevant for rankings, and meta descriptions are an indirect factor that impacts the CTR (Click-Through Rate) in the search engine results page, both of which are part of your websites meta data. Google will pull this information through and show it on the SERPs like this:
This information doesn’t show up on your page, so you need to ensure that you’re writing it in the correct place in the backend of your website to make sure your potential customers see this in the SERPS.
Don’t forget to add your keywords and call to actions in your meta data, such as ‘get in touch’, ‘buy now’ or ‘read more’. Your meta title should be between 30-60 characters and your meta description should be between 70-160 characters.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is ensuring your website meets the technical requirements of search engines. Google and other search engines need to crawl, render and index your site which may be harder for the search engine spider to complete if you have technical issues.
I recommend using a site audit tool as a starting point to find technical errors and using Screaming Frog SEO Spider to manually find errors (not only technical but meta data and image issues).
To have a technically good site in terms of search engines, your website needs to have the following points nailed:
- fast load time – less than 3mb
- small site size – less than 3 seconds
- no broken links or images
- only 301 type redirects
- canonical tags
- minified code – JavaScript and CSS
- using https
- removing duplicate content
You can find out more about how to improve your technical SEO and how to do it in the Basics and Best Practises guide on SEMrush.
Backlinks
A backlink is created when one website links to another, sometimes referred to as just links or inbound links.
Backlinks show users important additional content on another website that’s relevant to yours. Our divorce solicitors may choose to link to the official government website showing where the local divorce court hearings may take place. This backlink is relevant and helpful for the user. Google and other search engines recognise this and will increase the linked page’s chances of ranking higher in the SERPs.
Backlinks are a vital part of your SEO strategy and should be treated as something you earn not something you buy. Your content should be worthy of being linked to!
The aim is to get ‘good links’. Moz SEO tool define this as coming from a trusted news site, feature diverse anchor text and are completely visible to both humans and search engine crawlers.
‘Bad links’ will have come from paying to be featured, coming from a link exchange scheme or hide links to human viewers. A great way to build trustworthy links with good value sites is to utilise services such as Digital PR.
Schema Markup
Schema markup (also known as structured data) is a type of language search engines use to read and understand your website content. This bit of code sits in the back end of your website and is not viewable to your potential customers, only search engine crawlers.
This schema helps provide more rich search results with information; this could be showing different recipes for baking a cake, tour dates to see your favourite band or answering your question about divorce.
There are many different types of schemas you can add to a page, with some of the most commonly ones being:
| Schema Type | What It Does |
| Organisation | Provides information on a company including trading name, telephone number etc. |
| Event | Provides additional information about events such as times, location, ticket options etc. |
| Article | Provides headline and snippet of blog to show more information. |
| Product | Provides information about products such as price, description, reviews and offers. |
| FAQ | Answers a question in the search results or in the People also ask drop down. |
You can download apps and plugins to add Schema Markup onto your site, or you can use Google Tag Manager to help organise all your additional code in one space.
Usability – Design & Function
Something often forgotten about is how easy it is for users to navigate their way around your website. Pretty designs can often be complicated to use, and with elements like pop up banners or hard to find menus, customers may land on your website and jump straight off if they can’t find what they want!
One key study for optimising your website came from Virgin America. Toptal’s study states that after redesigning its site in line with user experience principles, Virgin America’s conversion rates increased by 14%, its customer service calls decreased by 20% and its tickets were booked almost twice as fast.
Not only will your customers enjoy a more user-friendly website, but search engines will notice too. To enhance your website’s user experience, implement key SEO best practices. These include responsive web design, image compression, caching, file minification, breadcrumbs, social share buttons and effective text formatting. A user-friendly site is more likely to achieve higher search rankings compared to those that don’t prioritise user experience.
Crafting an effective SEO strategy involves a careful balance of various elements, from keyword research and content creation to technical SEO and obtaining backlinks. Each part of your strategy plays a crucial role in enhancing your website’s visibility in the SERPS and creating a better user journey for your customers.
By using these components, you can create an easy-to-follow SEO strategy that not only improves your search rankings but also engages and brings users back.
Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adjustments, so don’t be deflated if you can’t see results overnight!
If you’re in need of some support with your SEO strategy and are interested in the ways WorkPR can improve your results, please get in touch to allow our digital marketers to bring your SEO goals to life.
