Building Your Website Based On Best SEO/Current Practices
Written By: Shane Clark on June 25, 2020
Having built or having been part of the build team on over 1000 websites over the past ten years, I would say 90% of my client base has been web design & marketing agencies. I am writing this “best practices” guide based on what I have experienced over that time.
This blog post is written with the assumption all the parts of the website are in place. The site would be at the point of going live or just about to be pushed from development into production. I will break down per section the areas I see being overlooked the most often.
SEO/Google Analytics Best Practice Items
I will start with the SEO and Google Analytics setup issues I see most often “missed.” As with any part of a website development project, it might be that multiple people have different areas of responsibility. It happens to be in my case I am familiar with both web development and SEO.
Robots.txt Setup
I find that the robots.txt file is one of the items that is usually not set up correctly. This is the most common “best practices” violation I have seen. A correctly set up robots.txt should have the following basics:
- Hide files/folders from the search engines you don’t want indexed
- Included sitemaps within the file
- Block specific “bots” from crawling the website
- Proactively allow for a particular folder to display
Here is a guide from Moz.com that outlines that pretty extensively. Also, I have a current robots.txt file on my site that can serve as an example.
Correctly Added HTML Meta Data
Title tags and meta information is critical for the ranking of your website. They must be unique per page. Having multiple H1 tags on a page could hurt the ranking of the page. There many tools such as SEMRush and SEOPowersuite that will do a full website audit to track down any issues.
Coding a Phone Number on a Website
A Phone number on a website should have a small amount of HTML to indicate it is a phone number. While most modern smartphones will recognize phone numbers regardless of how they are added, it can be problematic when trying to dial from outside the country.
Correct Way to Code a Phone Number:
<a title=”Call for a Free Quote” href=”tel:+14089155077“>(408) 915-5077</a>
Incorrect Ways to Code a Phone Number:
<a title=”Call for a Free Quote” href=”tel:408-915-5077“>(408) 915-5077</a>
<a title=”Call for a Free Quote” href=”tel:(408)-915-5077“>(408) 915-5077</a>
On my website, I have added the +1 as the country code of the US. Adding the country code to the number will allow a user from Singapore to “click-to-call.” Additionally, only humans need “(” , “)” and “–” to separate the numbers. Machines do not. I know that RingCentral, for one, will not always dial a number from their desktop application if non-digits are added.
Correctly Setting Up Google Analytics / Google Console
It is important is to understand your traffic and how your users are converting. Setting up Google Analytics, correctly setting up views, dashboards, and conversion tracking, can take a few hours but show a significant return in the value of your website. I have written an article outlining my general practices.
Testing / Providing a Website that Loads Fast
One of the most significant known factors for both the user’s experience and search engine ranking will be page load time. According to Niel Patel’s blog, every one second in page load time added can result in a 7% loss in customer conversion. Some useful tools for testing page load time are PageSpeed Insights by Google as well as GTMetrix. The website build methodology used will be a determining factor in the best load time you can achieve.
OG/Social Media Display Images
OG (Open Graph) Images control how a shared link will display over social platforms. I have a great article covering this subject from late 2019. The missing OG image is the second most commonly violated best practice, just after an incorrectly configured robots.txt file.
Missing ALT Text On Images
ALT text on images is not only good for SEO, but it is also necessary to render data for a “screen reader” used by the visually impaired. ATL text is a crucial component to achieve ADA compliance. WordPress and other major CMSs allow for the adding and management of ALT text pretty seamlessly. ALT tags should always be able to be managed within the CMS, and this includes slider images.
Correct Naming of Images/Files
All images/files added to a website should have relevant meaning based on their display use. An image of a San Antonio attorney named img007-2000 provides no value vs. one named accident-attorney-San-Antonio.jpg. This should be part of a standard coding practice used by any developer.
Uploading Properly Sized Images
A key component for any website is page load speed. Images that are not properly sized can hinder the website’s load time and negatively impact how a search engine such as Google will rank the website. Even though many CMS platforms will have plugins/built-in tools to decrease the after, I think it is better to upload a correctly sized file in the first place. I try to keep even the larger hero images to around 200 – 300kb. Smaller images for being used for internal page content should be less.
General Website Best Practices
Here are some general items I find that creates a more professional experience upon delivery. A few of these items may be arbitrary, but I use them on the websites that I deliver as a standard.
Removing Unused Files/Assets
I see in many cases where files and assets get added in development that are not needed when going live. Keeping a website free of clutter should be ongoing. There should be some maintenance protocol to seek out unused assets and remove them from the website periodically.
Creating a Themed Login Page
The example I am using is for the WordPress administrative login, but I do believe it better reinforces a brand to add it to any CMS’s login page. This holds especially true for a web/marketing agency building a higher cost website for an end-client. Handing back a “branded login” gives the site a more professional feel.
3rd Party Links Open in a New Tab
All 3rd party links should open on a new tab. I would think this is accepted practice, but I do find that it gets missed. These types of links include any social media links as well. The longer a visitor stays on your website adds value to the user experience. The length of the visit can be a determining factor in SEO ranking.
Contact Forms Best Practices
One of the essential elements on a website is the contact form(s). I will breakdown what I consider best practices when setting up a contact form.
Clear Indication on What Fields are Missing/Required
It should be apparent to the user what fields are required to submit the form. There should be a red “*” to indicate the required fields as well as messaging per item missed on the submission.
Return Focus the Contact Form Section
One of my pet peeves is when submitting a form in the website’s footer area, and any messaging is lost within the user’s view as the site is refreshed. There should be a return focus back to the point of submission for any contact form.
Indication of a Successfully Submitted Form
Once the form is submitted, there should be an indication back to the user what to expect next. An excellent example of this would be “Your Submission is Successful. A Representative Will Contact You in 24 Hours“. In many cases, it makes sense to send them to a separate page with additional information.
Sending Back a Response Email
I am a big believer that a return to the client is a big help with client conversions. A potential customer can be pushed further into the sales pipeline/funnel with this proactive engagement. The email should provide additional information and request them to engage back.
Summary
Just because anyone can build a website in 2020, still does not make it a good idea. Many times the savings on initial cost will be paid out 10X in the lack of website conversion traffic. Feel free to contact me if you’re looking to build or improve your website.
