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Nine factors that affect your website usability
and SEO
Optimizing web pages for search engines does not mean creating
special pages for search engines. Optimizing web pages for
search engines is often the same as optimizing web pages for
web surfers.
If you do it correctly, your website will be attractive to
both web surfers and search engine spiders. The following
list shows nine factors that can improve the usability of
your website as well as your search engine rankings.
1. You should have fast loading web pages
Usability: Web surfers don't want to wait for web pages.
Search engine optimization: Search engines can index your
web pages more easily.
2. Your web pages should be easy to read
Usability: It's easier for web surfers to read your web pages.
Search engine optimization: Near-white text on a white background
and tiny text is considered spam by most search engines.
3. The contents of your web pages should be clearly arranged
Usability: Clear headings, paragraphs and bullet lists make
your web pages easier to read.
Search engine optimization: Clear headings, paragraphs and
bullet lists make it easier for search engines to find the
topic of your web pages.
4. Your web page images should use the IMG ALT attribute
Usability: Web surfers with images turned off and visually
impaired visitors will be able to see the content of your
images.
Search engine optimization: Search engines cannot index the
content of your images but they can index the content of the
IMG ALT attribute.
5. You should use custom 404 not found error pages
Usability: If your 404 not found page contains links to other
pages of your website or a search form then people might remain
on your website.
Search engine optimization: Proper 404 error pages make sure
that search engines index the right pages of your website.
6. Your website should be easy to navigate
Usability: Clear and concise navigation links that are easy
to find help your website visitors to find content on your
site.
Search engine optimization: Clear and concise navigation
links that contain your keywords make it easy for search engines
to index all of your web pages.
7. Important content is above the fold
Usability: Web surfers with small computer screens can quickly
see what your web page is about.
Search engine optimization: The sooner your important content
appears in the HTML code of your web pages, the more likely
it is that it will be indexed by search engines.
8. Your web page titles are explanatory
Usability: If web surfers bookmark your web pages, a clear
web page title will help them to find it again.
Search engine optimization: The web page title is one of
the most important SEO elements. It should contain your keywords
and it should look attractive so that web surfers click on
it when they see your web page title in the search results.
9. The URLs of your web pages are meaningful and self-explanatory
Usability: It's much easier to remember a web page like www.example.com/support
than a web page like www.example.com/123123-werwc.php?2342234.
Search engine optimization: If your URLs contain your keywords,
this can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings.
Dynamic URLs with many variables can lead to problems with
search engine spiders.
There are many more factors that influence the position of
your website in Google's search results. If you want an in-depth
analysis of elements of your web page, check your website
with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.
IBP's Top 10 Optimizer analyzes all of your web page elements
and it tells you how to change your web pages so that your
website will get top 10 rankings on Google.
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