Common Page Speed Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Website

Posted on January 15, 2025January 24, 2025 by bigjawdigital

If you own a small or medium business, your website could be one of the most potent tools for showcasing your products and services, inviting customers to your doorstep, and driving sales. However, if your website is slow, you may lose valuable visitors before they see what you offer. Your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy should prioritize increasing website page speed.

Unfortunately, many business owners unknowingly commit mistakes that end up hurting their website’s page speed. In this article, you’ll learn about common website optimization errors and how to fix them to ensure your site runs as fast as possible.

Website page speed and user experience

So why does page speed matter? It’s because people do not like waiting for unnecessarily long periods. Think of how impatient people can get while waiting for a traffic light to change or how quickly they switch lanes on a fast-moving highway.

The same goes for internet browsing. Users often correlate speed with the quality of their experience—the faster a web page loads, the better.

In general, website visitors expect your pages to load within three seconds. Any longer, and they’d move on to comparable but faster alternatives, which are likely your competitors. But even if they stay, making them wait can affect other key metrics. For one, a single second of extra wait time can decrease your conversions by 7%.

Furthermore, Google introduced page speed as a ranking factor for desktop and mobile searches in 2010 and 2018, respectively. Thus, increasing your website’s page speed can make it more visible and discoverable to potential customers.

Website optimization errors that affect page speed

Without knowing it, you could be committing mistakes that negatively impact your website page speed. These are the errors you should avoid and technical SEO tips to resolve them:

Leaving large images uncompressed

High-quality visuals are essential for a great user experience and make your site more attractive. However, large, unoptimized images take longer to load, so using them can significantly slow down your website.

When uploading images to your website, compress them using tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim. This reduces their size but not their quality. You should also consider using modern formats like WebP, which are smaller in size than traditional formats like JPEG and PNG.

Ignoring browser caching

When users visit your website, their browser downloads files like images, stylesheets, and scripts from your servers to display them. Browser caching stores these elements on the user’s device so that they don’t need to be re-downloaded the next time that user returns to your site, expediting loading times.

There are several ways to set up browser caching. One of these is to use plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache if you’re running a site with WordPress. You can also take advantage of content delivery network (CDN) services that offer browser caching, such as Cloudflare and Akamai.

Overusing plugins and widgets

Too much of anything is never good, and that’s true for plugins on your WordPress website. While they can be incredibly helpful for adding useful features that enhance user experience, using more than necessary can bog down your website. Similarly, too many widgets, like pop-ups and embedded social media feeds, can slow down your pages as well.

To prevent excess and unnecessary plugins and widgets from weighing down your site, audit your plugins and widgets regularly. Remove outdated ones and those you don’t use or need, and try to find lightweight alternatives for those that significantly increase your website’s loading times.

Neglecting mobile optimization

With most web traffic nowadays coming from mobile devices, failing to optimize your website for mobile can be a costly mistake. More than half of mobile users will abandon your website if it doesn’t finish loading after three seconds. Also, 70% of them won’t be inclined to return after leaving.

Use Google’s website speed test, also known as PageSpeed Insights, to assess your site’s mobile performance. This test also provides recommendations on how to improve your website’s mobile speed, such as optimizing images and reducing server response times.

If you are creating a new website or redesigning your current one, it’s helpful to use a mobile-first approach to development. This strategy focuses on optimizing your site’s design and functionality for mobile devices before considering desktop users. It covers tactics like implementing simple navigation and a mobile-responsive design.

Avoiding using a CDN

A CDN can help speed up your website in more ways than enabling browser caching. It distributes your website’s assets to servers across different geographical areas. When a visitor visits your website, their browser downloads your site’s assets from the server closest to their location. This reduces the data transfer distance, which affects loading times.

Implementing a CDN is especially helpful if your website has visitors worldwide. It also reduces the load on your server, helping it to run faster and smoother.

Forgetting to minify code

Your website is powered by code, such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Unnecessary characters, spaces, and comments in this code can make your site’s files larger, which takes longer to download. Minifying your code removes these unnecessary elements, making your website faster.

You can use tools like UglifyJS and CSSNano to minify Javascript and CSS, respectively. WordPress also has plugins that automatically minify your website’s HTML, CSS, and Javascript files.

Skipping regular speed tests

The issues impacting page speeds aren’t always readily apparent, and finding them early means you can fix them before they cause any significant negative impact on your site. Use tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google’s PageSpeed Insights to conduct regular website speed tests.

Using cheap or shared hosting

Your hosting provider plays a crucial role in your site’s performance. Cheap or shared hosting services may seem like a good deal, but they often come with limited resources. This can lead to slow loading times and even crash your website during high-traffic periods. Consider investing in a reliable hosting service or upgrading your current plan to ensure your website has ample resources to handle traffic.

A fast-loading website isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have if you want to market your business effectively to potential customers online. By avoiding the above mistakes, you can ensure that your website is optimized for speed, providing a positive user experience and improving your search engine rankings.

If you don’t know where to start, consider hiring a professional technical SEO agency. They can assess your site’s speed and performance, identify issues, and provide recommendations on optimizing it for maximum efficiency. Don’t let slow loading times hold back the success of your website—partner with an SEO agency today and improve your website’s speed!

Optimizing Images for Faster Website Performance

Posted on January 10, 2025January 24, 2025 by bigjawdigital

Improving your website’s speed should be a priority of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Whether you run an online store or a business site, your web page speed can directly impact user experience, conversion rates, and SEO rankings. One of the easiest and most effective ways to make your site run faster is by optimizing images.

Images make your site more visually appealing and engaging, but leaving them unoptimized can slow down your website. This article will guide you through simple but effective strategies to optimize images without sacrificing quality.

Image optimization matters for web page speed

Imagine yourself entering a store. As you do, you notice that the door opens too slowly. Once you get in, the lights take a few seconds to turn on. The store assistant also takes an unnecessary amount of time before serving you. Will you still want to shop in that store or leave in frustration?

Website visitors expect swift service, too. In fact, Internet users expect web pages to load in one to three seconds. Any longer, many of them will leave, possibly going to your competitors and never returning to your site. When visitors do stay, each extra second of load time can decrease conversion rates by 7%.

Image optimization does more than speed up your website. It ensures visitors do not wait for images to finish loading. Optimization also reduces the strain on your servers, allowing your site to handle more traffic without slowing down.

Eight critical steps for optimizing images

Here’s a technical SEO guide on how to optimize images to improve web page speed:

Choose the right file format

Different image formats serve different purposes.

JPEG is best for photographs and images featuring many colors, offering a good balance between quality and file size.

PNG is ideal for images requiring transparency, such as logos and icons. However, it often results in large file sizes, so use it sparingly.

WebP is a modern format that produces high-quality images at significantly smaller sizes. Many browsers currently support WebP, so it’s often preferred over other formats.

SVG is a vector format great for logos, icons, and simple graphics. It’s light and scales well without losing image quality, making it perfect for responsive web design.

Which format you choose depends on the type of image and its purpose. Be sure to test different formats to find the best one for your needs.

Resize images to fit display dimensions

Do not upload images that are way larger than your site’s display dimensions. For example, if your web page displays at 800 pixels wide, avoid uploading an image that’s 3000 pixels wide. This wastes bandwidth and slows down page load times.

If you use large images, resize them to match the exact dimensions on your site before uploading them. Thankfully, free tools like Canva and TinyPNG can help you accomplish this.

Compress images without losing quality

Compression reduces file size without a noticeable loss in quality. There are two types of compression:

Lossy compression slightly reduces quality but results in smaller files. It’s suitable for most web images.

Lossless compression retains all quality but achieves smaller size reductions. This compression type is ideal for graphics and icons.

/ul>

Online tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and Sqoosh are great for quickly and efficiently compressing images.

Leverage lazy loading

Lazy loading defers the loading of off-screen images until the user scrolls to them. This dramatically speeds up initial page load times because only the images visible on the screen are loaded. Most modern website builders and platforms, such as WordPress, have plugins or settings that make enabling lazy loading a breeze.

Use descriptive file names and alt text

Optimizing images isn’t just about fixing file sizes. Proper naming conventions and alt text contribute to technical SEO and accessibility.

Use descriptive, keyword-rich file names. If you’re creating a product page for a wire Phillips screwdriver, for instance, you should use “phillips-screwdriver” instead of “IMG1234.”

Search engines use alt texts to understand the images in the page. Use the alt text to describe the image and make sure it contains relevant keywords. For the above example, you can use “Phillips screwdriver for home repairs” as your alt text.

Run a page speed test and site audit

After you’ve optimized images, you should assess your site’s performance by running a page speed test. It gives you a detailed analysis and offers suggestions for improvement. Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are often used for page speed tests.

A comprehensive site audit can further identify other issues that could slow down your website. Aside from confirming your images are optimized, it can also check for broken images, missing alt tags, and other technical SEO problems. A site audit can be done with tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.

Implement a content delivery network (CDN)

A CDN is composed of servers spread across multiple locations. Your site’s contents are spread across these servers, and users are served images by the server closest to their area. Because of this, users experience minimal latency and your pages load faster. Popular CDN services include CloudFlare, Amazon Cloudfront, and Akamai.

Automate image optimization

If manually optimizing images feels overwhelming, automation can be a big help. Many website platforms offer plugins that handle image compression and resizing automatically. For instance, you can use the plugins ShortPixel and Imagify on WordPress, as well as the apps Crush.pics and Image Optimizer on Shopify.

Optimizing images is one of the most effective ways to improve your website’s performance, enhance user experience, and boost search engine rankings. It makes your website more attractive and appealing to visitors, leading to increased conversions and a stronger online presence.

If you find tweaking elements of your website overwhelming, consider partnering with a technical SEO agency instead. An agency has experts who can develop and implement technical fixes, including page speed tests, site audits, and other steps for monitoring your website’s performance. As a result, you can focus on other essential aspects of your business while ensuring your website is optimized for success.

Invest in technical SEO today and give your business’s online presence a boost!

10 Proven Ways to Improve Your Website’s Page Speed

Posted on December 2, 2024January 27, 2025 by bigjawdigital

Do you ever feel like Internet users are too impatient? Well, that’s because they are. With such a vast amount of information and content available just a few taps away, users have become used to getting what they want nigh instantly.

This has translated into their browsing habits as well, with studies showing that most users will abandon your mobile website if it doesn’t load within three seconds. Such behavior can increase your site’s bounce rates and negatively impact its search engine optimization (SEO) performance.

So, how can you prevent your website from falling victim to this impatience? Here are 10 proven website optimization tactics to improve your page loading speed:

Get website performance insights

Before you begin optimizing your site, you need to know where it stands in terms of performance. You can use Google Search Console to conduct a website SEO audit to uncover issues potentially slowing down your web pages’ loading speed.

Go to Search Console’s “Experience” section and navigate to the Core Web Vitals report. It evaluates key areas like loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability, giving you a clear idea of which technical and SEO improvements to implement.

Optimize images on web pages

Images make your web pages more attractive, informative, and engaging, but they can also slow down your website. This often happens when you use images in an incorrect format or very large file sizes.

When using images, ensure they’re in formats like JPEG and PNG, which are compatible with web browsers and compression tools. If your images are too large, use tools like TinyPNG to compress them without compromising quality.

You can also implement responsive images through the “srcset” attribute. Responsive images automatically adjust their format and dimensions according to the user’s device. This keeps images on your website looking great and loading fast, whether viewed from a wide desktop monitor or a small smartphone.

Take advantage of browser caching

When users visit your website, their browser retrieves files from your server to display the page’s contents. This process can take time, especially if your website has many elements.

Browser caching temporarily stores static assets on your website, such as images and Javascript, on the users’ browsers. The next time they visit, these assets are retrieved from their browser instead of your server, cutting down on page loading time.

Reduce the number of HTTP requests

An HTTP request happens when site visitors perform specific actions, such as clicking a link, leading to their browsers retrieving assets from your server. The more elements your page has, the more requests are made. Unfortunately, each request adds to your page’s loading time.

Consider removing unnecessary elements from your web pages as a website optimization tactic. You can also combine CSS and Javascript assets to reduce the number of files that need to be retrieved.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

Distribute your content across a CDN, a network of servers located in different geographic locations worldwide. Whenever someone accesses your website, they are served content from the closest server, reducing the time it takes to load your web page.

Minify your website’s code

Your website’s CSS, Javascript, and HTML code can have comments, white space, and formatting that help make it easier to read and debug. However, these features can make your website’s code bulkier and your pages slower.

You can use tools like Minify to remove unnecessary white space, comments, and formatting from your code. CMS platforms like WordPress also have plugins that can automatically minify your code, making the process more convenient.

Implement the lazy loading feature

Lazy loading prevents images and videos on your web pages from loading until the user scrolls to them. If users don’t scroll down, the elements at the bottom of your page won’t load, reducing the page’s overall loading time.

Enable Gzip compression

Another website optimization technique you should consider is Gzip compression, which reduces the size of your website’s files during transmission. This process compresses assets like CSS and Javascript files, making them smaller and faster to load.

Remove render-blocking resources

Render-blocking resources are elements on your web page that prevent the page from displaying until they’ve loaded. These resources can include CSS, Javascript, and fonts.

One way to remove render-blocking resources is using asynchronous loading for your scripts. This allows different parts of your page to load simultaneously, reducing overall loading time. You can also use the “defer” attribute in your script tags.

Tools like Google Lighthouse can help you identify render-blocking resources in your web pages. Like Google Search Console, Lighthouse offers visibility into your site’s Core Web Vitals and is a handy tool for website SEO audits.

Clean up your code

Your website’s code can have errors and inefficiencies that can slow down your web pages. These include broken links, unused code, and invalid HTML tags. Regularly conducting technical SEO audits on your site can help you detect redundant or outdated code, allowing you to clean it up and improve your website’s overall performance.

Your website’s page loading speed may seem like a small detail, but it’s critical to providing the best experience to users. When visitors find the information they seek quickly and efficiently, they’re more likely to stay on your site longer, increasing your chances of converting them into paying customers.

Additionally, fast loading makes your site appear more reliable, leading to higher search engine rankings and better overall SEO performance. These are some of the top reasons that make page speed optimization one of the most important technical SEO improvements you should make on your site.

However, implementing the steps above requires some tech know-how, so consider hiring a dedicated technical SEO company if you don’t have the expertise to do it yourself. They have the necessary tools and knowledge to help you optimize your website for better page loading speed and overall user experience, leading to improved rankings, traffic, and conversions.

Don’t let a slow website hold back your online success. Optimize your site’s page loading speed today.

The Power of Visuals: Why Your Website Needs Multimedia Assets

Posted on November 11, 2024January 27, 2025 by bigjawdigital

When you hear “content,” you probably think of text or anything written, such as website copy, a blog article, or a status update on social media. You are right, of course, but content can also go beyond written words.

With the variety of tools and digital platforms available, you can create engaging and visually appealing multimedia assets that can take your website to the next level. Think videos, images, and infographics—all of which you can post or combine with other types of content to engage your audience and bolster your digital marketing efforts.

Here are the reasons multimedia content can be such powerful assets in your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy:

Visuals encourage users to stay

When visitors land on your site, it only takes them a moment to decide whether to stay or leave. Providing them with the right visual elements can make all the difference.

Studies show that humans can process visual stimuli—especially familiar ones—within milliseconds. Much of the brain’s cortex is also dedicated to processing visual information. These prove that human beings are visual creatures, and the right visual cues can be powerful tools for grabbing and keeping your target audience’s attention.

A well-chosen image or video can communicate your business’s values or your offerings’ features and unique selling points. Office tours or behind-the-scenes looks at your business can keep users curious or engaged. Visuals can entice users to stay on your site or visit your other pages, leading to higher engagement rates.

Visual elements improve your SEO

Incorporating multimedia assets isn’t just about pleasing visitors; it’s also key to improving your visibility on search engines. Visual elements like images and videos enhance your SEO efforts in multiple ways, such as:

Alt text. The alt text is added to an image, offering a brief description when users hover their mouse over it. It can carry your target keywords and provide search engines context about the image and the rest of your page.

Captions. Often, captions provide more context and added information not present in the image or video. It can also be used to incorporate keywords and help with SEO.

Backlinks. You may attach backlinks to your multimedia assets, providing sources or directing users to other pages on your site. Sharing your assets, like on social media, also creates more backlinks and improves your website’s authority.

Multimedia assets help lower your site’s bounce rates by enticing visitors to stay longer. Bounce rates refer to the percentage of visitors who leave your site without performing other actions, such as clicking on other pages or links. As any reliable SEO guide will tell you, a high bounce rate tells search engines your site is not engaging visitors or providing relevant information, leading to lower search rankings.

Multimedia assets help build trust

Visual elements do more than pique interest; they also help establish credibility. Imagine two websites selling the same electrical device. One only has text descriptions, while the other has images and videos explaining the device’s features, how to use it, and customer reviews. Which one would you trust more?

Images and videos also help humanize your brand. Many users hesitate to trust brands they find online, but showing the faces and people behind your business can make it more relatable and trustworthy. Adding multimedia assets of real employees, customers, or events can help win over potential customers and build a loyal following.

Visual content drives conversions

Ultimately, your digital marketing efforts should lead to increased conversions and revenue. The right visual content can help you achieve that by making the buying process more compelling for your target customers. Here’s how:

Product photos. Detailed images that show your products from different angles can make potential customers feel more confident about purchasing.

Explainer videos. Videos demonstrating the product’s features and usage can reassure customers who are hesitant because of unfamiliarity or complexity.

User-generated content. Photos and video testimonials from past customers prove that real people use and enjoy your offerings, making them powerful motivators for anyone considering purchasing.

Multimedia assets are also helpful beyond e-commerce. For example, restaurants can post mouth-watering visuals of their menu, and home service companies can demonstrate their expertise through videos. The possibilities are endless!

Socials and media promotions drive traffic

Visuals can do incredibly well on social media. Adding them to your posts can increase your likes and shares, increasing engagement and traffic to your site. This is especially true with media promotions, where you use social networks to showcase your products, services, and brand messages.

Getting your content shared on social media broadens your reach and exposes your business to more potential customers who might not have found you otherwise. Social platforms are inherently visual, so make the most of them by creating shareable assets that capture attention and inspire engagement.

Tips for implementing multimedia assets

You can incorporate multimedia assets into your website and digital marketing strategy in multiple ways. Here’s a short SEO guide to get you started:

Optimize images for web

Ensure your images load quickly by compressing files without sacrificing quality. Large, unoptimized images can slow down your site, disrupting user experience and negatively impacting your SEO.

Use high-quality images

Your visuals should be of excellent quality and aligned with your brand and content. You can use stock images, but consider investing in professional photography if you have the budget. Custom photos make your business look more authentic and distinct from competitors.

Add transcripts for videos

Video transcripts make your content accessible to people with disabilities and those who want to watch on mute. They also allow you to use your target keywords and provide more context to search engines, boosting your SEO.

Hire an SEO company

If you’re unsure where to begin with adding multimedia content to your digital marketing efforts, consider working with an SEO agency. With their expertise, you can be sure your visuals are correctly tagged and optimized for maximum SEO impact.

For small and medium business owners, multimedia assets are no longer optional; they are essential for standing out from the competition. They can enhance engagement and boost your SEO efforts, making your website more visible to the right audience and helping increase your conversion rates.

If you need help figuring out where to start, consider contacting an SEO agency. Many small and medium business owners hire an SEO company for expert guidance and assistance in optimizing their websites and strengthening their online presence. Consider taking that same step to elevate your digital marketing efforts and see the difference it can make for your business.

Creating Content That Ranks and Engages with Help from AI

Posted on October 30, 2024January 27, 2025 by bigjawdigital

Publishing content on your business’s website is crucial to growing your online presence, but simply creating content isn’t enough. Your content should rank well on search engine results so your target audience will find it more easily. It must also engage your target audience so they will likely stay on your website or return, giving you more chances to convert them into paying customers.

If you are a small or medium business owner, developing fresh and high-quality content for your website while running your daily operations can be overwhelming. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can make the process easier, helping you create solid content even if you have limited knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO).

This article will guide you through crucial SEO tips to help your content rank higher, focusing on how AI tools can enhance your content SEO strategy.

Begin with a solid SEO foundation

Before you dive into content creation, you need a strong SEO foundation to ensure your website is optimized for search engines. One of the first things to do is an SEO site audit, which evaluates your website’s performance and overall health. This process checks for issues that may hamper your site’s ranking potential.

AI-powered tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush can simplify technical processes like SEO site audits. These tools comb through your site and report issues like slow loading speeds, problematic links, and missing meta descriptions. They then suggest fixes for these issues, helping improve your site’s ranking and user experience.

Research high-quality keywords

Keywords are the terms Internet users use when performing online searches. Using the right keywords on your website and posts increases your chances of reaching the people who are interested in them.

AI-powered tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, and Answer The Public are incredibly helpful in keyword research. They analyze search trends to provide insights into what people are searching for and how difficult it is to rank for specific terms and phrases. They can also suggest the most effective keywords for your content.

Here’s an SEO tip for your keyword research: the most popular keywords aren’t always the best ones to prioritize. Rather, you should consider your target audience’s search intent. For instance, if you run a plumbing business, you might think using the keyword “plumber” makes sense because of its very high search volume.

However, your target audience probably wants to contact the nearest plumber to their home, so optimizing for the keywords “plumber near me” or “best plumber in Orlando” makes more sense. AI tools can help you identify these long-tail keywords for your content.

Mind your keyword density

As any excellent SEO guide will tell you, your content SEO strategy should be more about quality than quantity. Using keywords more times in your content does not guarantee that it will perform better. Overusing keywords can lead to keyword stuffing, an SEO mistake that results in clunky content and search engine penalties.

You should be careful of keyword density, which is the percentage of times your chosen keyword appears relative to your content’s word count. No magic number exists, but a density between the 1-2% range is generally considered effective. That means that if your article is 800 words, your primary keyword should appear eight to 16 times.

AI-powered tools like Yoast SEO and Quetext can help analyze keyword density. You can even pair some of these tools with Grammarly to optimize your content’s grammar and readability.

Generate headlines and meta descriptions

Your content’s headline and meta description reflect what it is about and entice users to read your content. They also help search engines make sense of your content, enabling them to index it properly. For these reasons, headlines and meta descriptions greatly impact your content’s search ranking and ability to engage users.

AI tools like Copy.ai and ChatGPT can create multiple appealing, SEO-friendly headlines and meta descriptions. You can then choose the ones that resonate the most with your target audience.

Write high-quality and compelling content

For your content to get the approval of both readers and search engines, it has to be useful, well-structured, and interesting. You can use tools like Grammarly and Hemmingway Editor to refine your writing, keeping it concise, readable, and error-free.

ChatGPT can also help you simplify complex topics, making them easier for your target audience to understand. This includes providing pointers on improving your content’s tone, style, and language to make it more relevant to your target audience.

Update your content with AI insights

A functional content SEO strategy is a long-term commitment. You need to update your content regularly if you want it to stay relevant and rank continuously. Platforms like Clearscope and MarketMuse can analyze popular topics, enabling you to stay abreast with changing Internet trends and audience preferences.

Furthermore, a tool like GrowthBar informs you of underperforming pages on your site so you can optimize them with new and stronger keywords. It can also tell you crucial information, like the ideal word count for your content or which related keywords can help it perform better.

Monitor and update your content strategy

A successful content SEO strategy requires constant monitoring. Analytics tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush can tell you which pages are performing well and which areas need improving.

Additionally, these tools can give you insights into your competitor’s content strategies. Understanding them can help you identify tactics you can use to improve your own content. AI tools can simplify every stage of creating high-quality content that ranks and engages, from keyword research to monitoring performance. Thanks to them, you can ensure that your website is visible and valuable to your target audience.

But if you still find the process of planning, creating, and updating your content too time-consuming, you can follow the example of other small and medium business owners. Instead of managing their website themselves, they hire SEO companies whose teams of SEO experts manage every step of content optimization.

Leverage the power of content to give your website a competitive edge in the online world today!

The Complete SEO Checklist for Website Redesigns

Posted on October 23, 2024January 27, 2025 by bigjawdigital

Redesigning your business’s website is something you might eventually want to do. Whether you’re doing it to update its look, improve user experience, or enhance its other features, you should carefully approach the process so it doesn’t end up affecting your website’s search engine rankings.

In this comprehensive SEO guide, you will learn how to accomplish your website redesigning project while preserving your site’s search ranking. This checklist will cover general website SEO, technical SEO, and crucial steps like SEO audits to ensure your site remains search-engine-friendly from the beginning to the completion of the process.

That said, here are steps you should never ignore during the website redesigning process:

Set clear SEO goals

You should define your SEO goals before jumping into the redesign process. Having clear objectives helps guide your redesign strategy and ensure that SEO remains a priority.

Here are sample goals and what you should do:

Improve organic traffic by focusing on keyword research and optimizing your website’s content.

Boost local search visibility by optimizing local SEO elements like Google Business Profile, local citations, and customer reviews.

Improve mobile performance by ensuring mobile-friendliness and fixing page loading speeds.

Ensure everyone involved in the redesign project is aware of your website SEO goals and works towards achieving them.

Conduct a thorough SEO audit

An SEO audit ensures you know where your website stands before you make any changes. It helps you identify what’s working well, what requires improvement, and what errors might exist. Make sure your audit covers the following:

On-page SEO. Review your content, meta tags, headers, and how keywords are used.

Technical SEO. Check the site’s structure, page speed, and mobile-friendliness.

Backlink profile. Evaluate the quality and number of backlinks to your website.

An SEO audit provides a foundation for necessary changes, so its importance cannot be overstated.

Mind the site’s URLs and redirects

Redesigning the website can affect its URL structure and, possibly, its search ranking. If you need to change any URL, make sure to set up 301 redirects to inform search engines that the old page’s contents have been permanently moved to a new location. This helps you preserve your pages’ SEO equity and prevent broken links.

Tools like Screaming Frog can crawl your website and identify all existing URLs, making it easier to map out redirects.

Prioritize SEO-friendly content

Your website redesigning project must never sacrifice SEO-friendly content in favor of aesthetics. Take this opportunity to refresh and optimize your content for your target keywords by following these steps:

Keyword research. Find relevant keywords using tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest and incorporate them into your page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and content.

Content optimization. Ensure that each page’s content is unique, aligns with user intent, and provides value to site visitors. Make sure your content is readable, and avoid keyword stuffing.

Internal linking. Check and fix internal links to smoothen user experience and ensure search engines crawl your website more effectively.

Remember that search engines want to give users high-quality content. Failing to prioritize SEO-friendly content can negatively impact your website’s search rankings.

Improve mobile optimization

Half of all web traffic is currently generated by mobile devices, so having a mobile-optimized website helps your business reach as many potential customers as possible. It also improves user experience and helps your site rank higher.

Your mobile optimization strategy should focus on these factors:

Responsiveness. Your website’s layout should adjust seamlessly to different screen sizes.

Page speed. Reduce media file sizes and enable features that improve page loading speeds.

Mobile usability. Ensure that buttons are functional, text is legible, and navigation is straightforward even on smaller screens.

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help you ensure your site is mobile-friendly and all features work as intended.

Focus on technical SEO

Tech SEO forms the backbone of your site’s performance in the search results. During the redesign process, you should focus on your site’s technical aspects, such as:

Security. If your site isn’t already using HTTPS, a redesign is the perfect opportunity to do so. Increasing security makes your website more trustworthy to users and search engines.

Indexing. Your site should be crawlable by search engines; otherwise, it won’t be indexed properly and will not appear in the search results.

Site structure. Ensuring your website has a clear hierarchy and helps search engines make better sense of your content and improves user experience.

Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console let you track changes in traffic, rankings, and user behavior after making changes.

Update your XML sitemap

An XML sitemap helps Google and other search engines index your website’s pages more efficiently. During the redesign process, ensure that changes are reflected on your sitemap. These include new pages you want to be indexed and ones you don’t want to appear in the search results.

Additionally, review your robots.txt file—which tells search engine bots which pages to crawl and ignore—to ensure it’s updated with your redesigned site’s changes. Once done, submit your sitemap through Google Search Console.

Test and monitor performance

Just because your redesigned website is live doesn’t mean you can call it a day. You should monitor its performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, looking for changes in traffic and rankings, as well as crawl errors.

Moreover, always check your site’s health using regular SEO audits. This can help identify emerging issues that could affect your website’s performance.

Website redesigning is an exciting opportunity to make your website more aligned with your brand, but it’s also a critical opportunity to address flaws and improve its SEO performance. As long as you’re conscious of your SEO goals and prioritize them throughout the process, you should end up with a website that looks and functions better while driving more traffic to your business.

If you don’t know how to start and where to focus during your website redesigning project, don’t hesitate to consult SEO experts.

Mastering Technical SEO in 2024: Key Tactics for Optimizing

Posted on September 27, 2024January 28, 2025 by bigjawdigital

Search engines like Google value high-quality content, so delivering engaging, well-made, and useful information is necessary in any search engine optimization (SEO) effort. But as crucial as it may be, exceptional content is just one part of the equation. You also need to optimize your website’s technical elements so it ranks high on the search engine results page (SERP) and has more likelihood of being clicked by potential customers. This is where technical SEO comes in.

What is technical SEO?

Search engines “crawl” or scan the different elements of your website to understand its relevance and the best way to rank it in the search results. Technical SEO, also known as tech SEO, refers to the process of optimizing your website so search engines can crawl it without trouble.

Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses largely on keyword strategy and content, tech SEO concerns a website’s “behind-the-scenes” aspects, such as its structure, security, loading speed, and mobile performance. Why does this matter? Because your site’s ability to run smoothly and efficiently factors into how visible it becomes to potential customers.

Indexing issues lead to low rankings

Search engines cannot recommend your website to users if crawlers cannot understand its contents. Technical issues such as broken links and incorrect use of canonical tags can prevent proper indexing, which means your website may not appear in SERPs at all.

Site performance affects user experience

Google wants to provide users with the best experience, so it prioritizes websites that load quickly and are easy to navigate. When a site takes too long to load or has a confusing structure, visitors usually abandon it without taking action, increasing bounce rates. High bounce rates can lower your website’s search ranking.

Technical issues lead to penalties

Search engines flag websites that violate their guidelines, such as employing spammy tactics, having duplicate content, or failing to implement proper security measures. These penalties often result in a drop in ranking. Considering that more than half of clicks only go to the top of Google’s search results, you’d want to avoid penalties and get your site to rank as high as possible.

How can you optimize your site’s performance?

The importance of tech SEO cannot be overstated, especially if you want your business to outshine your competitors in the SERP. To optimize your website for better rankings, it’s crucial to focus on the following technical SEO points:

Page loading speed

You need to speed up your website’s loading time, especially if your primary focus is generating and converting leads. More than 40% of consumers expect websites to finish loading within two seconds, and taking a second longer can reduce your conversion rate by 7%. Among mobile users, 53% abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load.

One way to improve page loading speeds is to compress images to reduce their size without compromising their quality. You can also minimize HTTP requests by limiting the number of elements on your page or using CSS sprites to combine multiple images.

Mobile-friendliness

As more than 50% of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices, you need to optimize your website for mobile users. Google uses mobile-first indexing, prioritizing your site’s mobile version to determine its ranking. If your site is not mobile-optimized, you could end up with lower rankings and missing out on visits by potential customers.

Running a tech SEO audit can help you confirm that your website performs optimally on mobile devices. Pay attention to how your website adjusts to different screen sizes. Make sure your content remains clear, the design stays intact, and no buttons are missing.

Crawl errors

Imagine waiting months for your website to rank, only to find out it wasn’t indexed properly because of crawl errors. These errors occur when issues like 404 errors, misconfigured redirects, and a problematic XML sitemap prevent search engines from accessing segments or elements of your website.

A tech SEO can help uncover crawl errors so you can fix them promptly. You should also regularly update your sitemap and ensure that it’s submitted to Google so that all important pages are indexed.

Site structure

Search engines understand what your site is above by looking at its structure. A clear, hierarchical structure ensures that search engines can easily navigate and index your pages. It also leads to a website that facilitates a smooth user experience and makes it easy for visitors to find the information they seek.

To optimize your website’s structure, use clear, SEO-friendly URLs that describe what pages are about. For example, “www.yourwebsite.com/services” is more helpful to search engines and users than “www.yourwebsite.com/1234.” You can also use breadcrumbs, a feature that helps users understand where they are on your website.

Security

The Internet is anything but secure, and search engines prioritize the safety of their users. A secure HTTPS site helps protect user data and build trust with your audience. HTTPS has been used by Google as a ranking signal for years, and sites that aren’t secure are flagged with a “Not Secure” warning, potentially scaring away visitors.

If your site still uses HTTP, switch to HTTPS by acquiring an SSL certificate. Many hosting providers provide free SSL certificates, so take advantage of the offer to improve your site’s security and rankings.

Should You Partner with an SEO Agency?

Technical SEO is a complex process that takes plenty of effort and time. That’s why many business owners hire professional tech services to handle the technical aspects of their website while they focus on running their business. A professional SEO services provider can do everything from tech SEO audits to ongoing optimization, helping boost your website’s ranking and contributing to your business’s growth.