You have a new website developed for your business and you’re ready to go live, but how do you know it’s optimised for search engines to find you? Working alongside your developer and understanding if they have built in the necessary SEO factors is important and will ensure it doesn’t just look good but is working hard behind the glossy images and great content to showcase it and ensure it can be found.
Website speed and technical basics
Speed
Your website needs to be responsive if you want to maintain good user experience. If it takes too long to load large images, potential customers are going to leave and click elsewhere. Optimising image size and adding alt-tags to them will provide vital information to the user and to the search engine.
Content and blogging
Content
Having excellent copy that includes meta-descriptions, keywords and alt-tags tells the search engine where to find you. Understanding what the user will be looking for is crucial to defining and planning your strategy for ranking well in the organic results. Attention should be given to title tags, which are important headings in the structure of your text, dividing your content into sections and making reading easy for both users and search engines.
Regular and insightful blogs are a useful SEO tool to improve your rankings, allowing you to load your website with keyword-filled content, keeping it active and fresh and increasing your domain authority. Check out Hubspot’s tips on content-rich blogs.
Security considerations
Security
Recently, Google has changed the way it differentiates between http and https. Ensure that your website is not at risk of stolen or corrupted data. Users are put off by a website that have no security measures. Dedicated hosting can also maximise security by avoiding sharing.
If you choose to work with a specialist in web design in Cardiff, https://netcentrics.co.uk/ can help. If your project is in progress, discuss with them some of these points in line with latest algorithms and best practice:
Keyword planning for page title, H1 & H2 headings and descriptions
LSI keyword planning for body, content and headings
Alt-tags (using keywords) and meta-descriptions
HTTPS
Optimised and tagged images
Informative and search-friendly content
Keyword-researched blogs
Images early in content
External and internal links
Proofread grammar and spelling
Social media buttons/links
Calls to action
Summary
This article sets out an SEO checklist to review with your web developer before a site launch. It covers page speed and optimised images, content quality including meta-descriptions, keywords and title tags, regular blogging to build domain authority, and security basics like moving from http to https, alongside a further checklist covering keyword planning, alt-tags, internal links and calls to action.
Questions this article raises
- How much does page speed actually affect search ranking compared with content quality?
- Is moving from http to https still worth doing if a site already ranks well?
- How often should a website’s SEO checklist be revisited after launch?
