It feels like the rules for website performance are constantly changing. That can make it hard to figure out what to spend your time on. But there are two classic SEO strategies that always work: Improving Website Content and Page Speed.
How do I improve Website Content?
There is one area of SEO that you can always work on. It will always benefit your site and will always be a current strategy. I am talking about working on your website content. I have identified five different scenarios that show your content needs work.
- Not enough of the right content. – Your site is not coming up in searches and not generating organic search traffic.
- Wrong pages ranking for the right keywords. – You see your website listed on page 1 of your target keyword phrase. Problem is the page Google is showing is not the page you want people to see.
- Lots of content, not enough search traffic. – Your team has been consistently adding new content to your site. But more content does not seem to generate more traffic.
- Google is ignoring new content. – You are posting new pages or blogs but it is taking weeks for them to show up in search results or to generate traffic.
- Google is dropping current or older content on your website from their index. – Pages that used to drive a lot of traffic have dropped off. Their URLs stopped showing up on your traffic reports.
Any of these could apply to a big site or a small site. They could apply to an old site or a new site. Could your site be suffering from more than one of these issues? Dig into your analytics to find out.
What information can I use to diagnose what is wrong with my content?
Reports in Google Analytics and Google Search Console will diagnose content problems.
Google Analytics (GA4) Reports
- Acquisition/Traffic acquisition/Organic Search – Try clicking the “Insights” button at the top right of the screen. This will pop open a side bar. Click on Traffic Analysis. Click on “Month over Month Growth of Users”. Are your numbers going up or down?
- Engagement/Landing Page – This is the list of web pages visitors see first. They generate traffic. Is your new content showing up here?
Google Search Console Reports
- Performance/Pages tab– Click around on this report to find out which keyword phrases are ranking for each page.
- Performance/Queries – This list will give you the phrases you are ranking for. Click on each to see which page is generating the traffic. Is it the right page?
- Indexing/Pages/Click on the button “View data about indexed pages”– This is the list of pages from your site currently appearing in search results.
- Indexing/Pages/Crawled-currently not indexed – This is a list of pages on your site Google has reviewed. But do not currently appear in search results. When the page drops off this list, you are out of Google’s index. Take action while they still appear on the list.
What is Page Speed Optimization?
Websites that appear on page one of a Google Search load on average in 1.65 seconds. Numerous studies show that improving your page speed, by even a half of a second, increases leads to your site. Not to mention if you are the person logging into the site to make updates, a faster site makes your job easier. You can’t go wrong working on page speed.
There are many factors that impact how fast your website moves. Some are easy changes, some require major surgery. Factors that impact the speed of your webpages will include:
- Images are not Optimized – 90% of the time this is the source of slow websites. Images files were added to the site without compression or resizing.
- Website Hosting – Not all hosts are equal. If you are constantly running out of space and resources, you will slow down. Or if your hosting company is running you on an old server, because you are on a low cost plan. That will also slow your site down.
- Old Software – Hosting account is not on the current version of its software. Or you have not been doing maintenance on your website. You are running old versions of themes and plugins.
- Size of your entire website – How many pages are you operating? how many files make up your site? how big are those files? Consider reviewing content and eliminating what isn’t performing well anyway.
- Content of individual pages – Large images, too many fonts, multiple photo sliders, automatically generated content all will slow things down.
- Third-Party stuff – Feeds from social media. Loading in font files. Anytime you are connecting to a 3rd party. Like a sales CRM. The connection loads with your site. You are a causing a slow down.
The best place to start working on Speed issues is to start taking speed tests of your site. Do multiple tests over a couple weeks. Trying to vary the day of the week and time. Speed tests are a snap shot of the site’s performance at that moment. Multiple tests will give you a better idea of how your site is doing.
Running the tests are easy. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. We also use GTMetrix. They have a free test version. Just make sure you type in your exact domain name in each tool. WWW or not WWW. Use the HTTPS.
How to Get Started with Website Content and Improving Speed?
We have a couple of resources that can help you get started working on your SEO Strategy.
- What is a Website Content Review? – Check out one of our serious traffic generators and get a blueprint to start your own review.
- Reviewing Blog Post Performance – Another article with step-by-step instructions on how to track your blog performance.
- Technical SEO Checklist – Would you like to know where your site is at from a technical SEO point-of-view? Download our checklist and see how your site scores.
- Technical SEO Audit – We have a starter audit that is free. You will receive a custom report on the status of your site. Sign-up now.
