Jeffrey Fazal of Creativus Design Featured on Website Planet: A Deep Dive into Tailored Digital Solutions
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Contents
IS YOUR SITE INDEXED?
Having your site indexed means that your content has been discovered by search engines and you are appearing
somewhere in their results. If your site is not being indexed, there could be an issue with your robots.txt file or Google
may have penalized you. If your website was recently launched, keep in mind that it can take up to 30 days for your
site to be crawled and indexed.
DO YOU HAVE A BLOG?
An active on-site blog is extremely beneficial to both your customers and your search engine rankings. This gives you
the opportunity to post fresh and engaging content that will improve your site metrics and increase your ranking
keywords.
IS YOUR SITE OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE DEVICES?
More than 60% of today’s online searches are done through a mobile device (cellphone, tablet, etc.). With this
continued growth, Google has stressed the importance of having a website that is compatible with these platforms
and optimized for mobile users. Common issues can derive from small text, compact links, content width, and more.
META TITLES & DESCRIPTIONS ON KEY PAGES
Meta titles and descriptions are information that displays directly in the search engine results and can have an effect
on your overall click-through rate. We have found a number of errors that on key pages where your meta titles and
descriptions are not properly optimized or do not meet current HTML standards.
H1 TAGS ON KEY PAGES
Search engines look at headings to determine the importance of certain information on your website. Headings range
in hierarchy from H1 to H6 – H1 being the most important. This tag should be included on every page and summarize
its content. We have evaluated and found changes needed on key pages of your site
Broken Links
When content is not easily found, it can have a huge effect on website metrics, such as bounce rate. If a visitor can’t
find what they’re looking for on your site, they are likely to go somewhere else to find it. Every link – internal and
external – on your site needs to be analyzed regularly and all broken links should be updated to help keep visitors on
your site.
Text/Code Ratio
The text to code ratio refers to the percentage of visible text on your webpage when compared to the non-visible
information, such as HTML elements. As a rule of thumb, your website should contain no less than 20% text and a
minimum of 250 unique words per page.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that lists each page contained in your website. Primarily, it’s used by search engines to log
your organization structure, index your pages, and find new and relevant content when changes are made.
ROBOTS.TXT FILE
It is important that your site contains a properly configured robots.txt file. This file communicates directly with web
crawlers and search engines to determine the location of your sitemap and can also restrict their access to certain
areas of your website. If configured incorrectly, it will affect the content and pages that are found in the search engine
results.
Canonical Domain
Visitors can reach your site by typing the domain name in the address bar, and they can do this with or without the
“www.” prefix. Although both pages look identical, search engines will see them as separate pages with duplicate
content, or two versions of your website. It is important to make sure that no matter what they type in the address
bar, that it takes them to the same page, with the same URL every time. This is called a canonical domain.
Page Speed
If your website takes longer than 2-3 seconds to load, you could be losing up to 1/3 of your visitors. This can also
affect your search engine rankings. Obviously, page speed can vary based on a number of factors including the
visitor’s location and Internet Service Provider; however, your website design, structure, and the server it’s hosted on
will affect speed for everyone.
On-site Duplicate Content
Providing your visitors with relevant and unique information builds value for your site and shows that you have
something to offer them that can’t be found anywhere else. Having content that is duplicated on another website can
have a negative effect on your search engine rankings.