SEO Blog

Optimising a website, particularly on-page elements, can pose some problems. Whilst you’re looking to do what’s best for the search engines, you also have to keep visitors in mind. One small error in your linking or content could see a potential customer become just another statistic in your growing bounce rate figures.

The distinction between the duties of an SEO and a webmaster often become blurred. However, as SEO should be focussed entirely on developing the site so that search engines are easily able to find their way from page to page and ensuring it is optimised throughout.

With the development of search engine algorithms and the integration of more technical ranking factors, quality has become a major factor. Which is why SEOs have to concern themselves with issues that include site speed, link architecture and of course content. Of course these are important things for any site owner to be aware of, but it certainly shouldn’t escape the attention of anybody who is practicing search engine optimisation.

Here’s one example of how a small issue can quickly escalate into a large problem.

On your homepage you have a number of links. On the left-hand side you have your main categories, each of which contains a number of sub-categories. Now imagine if one of these links was broken.

Suddenly you not only have a main category that is unavailable from your main entry page, but potentially dozens of other pages beneath it. The sub-categories would then be immediately inaccessible, aside from going through the Sitemap, but who’s going to do that? Then all of the products or services within those sub-categories are also lost.

This is a potential disaster for a site. Your linking structure has been compromised, search engines can’t navigate through all your pages and any potential customers clicking on that link are likely to turn tail and run. Yet it could be down to one simple coding error. One small misspelling within your link. That is how fine the divide between success and failure can be.

Content is another area that requires close attention. Whilst copy can be your best friend when optimising a site, it can also be your worst enemy.

If your pages are filled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, then your professionalism will be brought into doubt. Equally, if your copy is dull and offers little incentive (or information), how can you hope to entice visitors into becoming customers? Get your messages up front, get them noticed and, above all, get them right.

Some people will be more pedantic than others when it comes to language issues. But you have to assume the worst and cater for the most astute eyes. This means doing thorough proofing or, at the very least, passing your content through a spelling and grammar checker.

Perfection of course is almost unattainable. Whilst we would all like to have a site free from errors, invariably, whether done by ourselves or not, they do creep in. The most important thing is being able to identify these issues quickly and address them

This is where Webmaster Tools and a good analytics package can really pay dividends. This will highlight unusually high exit rates and broken links within your site. Use these and your common sense to optimise a site for both search engines and visitors.