How to Design An SEO Friendly Website that Ranks Well in 2020

If you want your website to succeed, it needs to rank well, and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about that. Without solid rankings for your keywords, it might as well not exist. Now of course, if it were as easy as waving a magic wand, everybody would be doing it. Search engine optimization is as much an art as it is a science, and getting the results you want means experimenting, following trends, and keeping a close eye on your metrics. 

In the article below we went into detail with several SEO techniques, methods, and website modifications that will definitely improve your rankings. Some you are probably aware of, other you might not have heard of before. Wherever you stand here, we truly believe you can get something of substance from the article below.

Loading speed optimization

First things first – are you aware what are people’s attention spans like these days? Yup, pretty short. Blame the internet, the education system, millennials or boomers, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is how it influences your rankings and the way you set up your website. In this specific situation, we are referring to page load speeds.

Here is the thing, page load speeds are very important because, after a certain amount of time, people simply won’t be willing to wait for your page to load. Rather, they will move on. Even if they weather one page and actually wait for it to load up, they will most likely not check something else of your website.

You can optimize your site for speed by lowering image sizes, getting better hosting and provider deals, as well as keeping your entire set up as smoother and streamlined as possible.

Recommended: Images and Animations Weigh Your Website Speed Down

Social media is key

There is no excuse not to utilize social media to its complete and total usefulness these days. It’s a vital part of any type of marketing. Now, social media shares are not a ranking factor, but what they are is a very easy and simple way to get your name out there. 

Namely, through social media, you can drive more and more traffic to your website. The more your content is shared, the more people know that you exist. This will make backlink building much easier, and as a result, you will get greater and greater brand awareness. 

Social media also keeps you on your toes, it keeps fresh young blood running into your content and your marketing, and it stretches over every aspect and tenant of your marketing efforts.

Recommended: How to Effectively Promote Your Social Media Channels

Never stop working on your technical SEO

Never stop working on your technical SEO. SEO work isn’t just content and marketers – there is some work your developers need to do. Namely, setting things up to have proper technical SEO means you are making your website as compatible as possible with the standards set by the relevant search engine you want to rank for.

Now, technical SEO means setting up mobile optimization, page speeds, and site security. For example, you know you have to have HTTPS sites if you want Google to actually label them secure. 

In order to improve your technical SEO, you need to keep an eye on your site architecture, making it much easier for crawlers to catalogue your pages. It also allows these same crawlers to improve your rankings. Rich snippets mean extra information allowing them to stand out better. 

Set up voice search

More and more people are using voice search. And it makes sense. Just think about how popular and ubiquitous are Amazon Echo, or the usage of Google’s Assistant and Apple’s Siri. Now, this technology isn’t just a sign of how easily we want things to be. Rather, it’s simply making things as simple as we can. So, if people want to use their voice and not bother with typing, more power to them. 

Voice search optimization should follow this thought – making things simpler. Namely, optimizing for voice search means using natural phrasing, lots of question keywords, minimizing compression and contractions. Long-tail keywords are vital for this area. 

Recommended: Voice Search – Why Everyone Is Talking about It (and Why You Should Join the Conversation)

You also want to hire a good company if you feel like there is just too much work for you alone. Your team can handle one part of optimizing your website, while you can transfer other sections of the work to other websites. 

Our second piece of advice for asking for help is going with somebody local. So, if you are set in Sydney, we suggest you get a good SEO in Sydney set-up. If you’re in Melbourne, go with some Melbourne SEO agency, you get our drift.

Use AI

AIs are just about to get their big break when it comes to SEO. Namely, Google is using its own RankBrain system, which has AI functionalities in it. This is a bot that continually improves the search results you get over Google by using machine learning, focusing on patterns and contexts in millions upon millions of specific pages. There are also some WordPress plugins that can automatically update and upgrade some of the content you have. The possibilities are endless, as long as you can wait a bit, and know where to look.

Optimize for mobile

Look around, ask around, think about how many people exclusively use their phones to browse the internet, to actually do research, to shop, to read, for entertainment and pleasure. Well, they can’t really enjoy all of that if they can’t read your stuff on their phones. This is where mobile optimization comes in.

If you want the right level of results for your work, for your website, and for basically everything you have in terms of online marketing, you need to optimize for mobile. Your websites need to be read properly on phones as they would be read on any desktop computer. 

Don’t forget about video

Another fantastic place where you can use SEO is video content. Namely, SEO shouldn’t just be about the text. Rather, you should also use it when it comes to your video content when you actually want to get the word out there. Video content itself is a fantastic way to get more traffic and to earn some loyal visitors and viewers. However, optimizing them for SEO can give you even finer results.

There are a couple of things we would like to emphasize. Add proper tags and keywords into their titles and Meta tags. SEO embedding options are also great, as are getting the best players possible.

Recommended: Pictures in Numbers: Some Notable Facts and Stats on Video Marketing

Content is king

There is nothing better and more important for your marketing efforts in regard to SEO than having good content. Of course, learning how to create content that can actually be useful is not easy – quote the opposite really. Still, you need to get this done properly.

First of all, if needed, hire some good writers and content creators, or have your team practice their writing skills and get things going. Quality always trumps quantity, don’t forget that. Your content shouldn’t be just a vessel for keywords and links. Rather, it should make things better, you should focus on creating good, educational stuff.

Recommended: Visual Content to Include in Your Marketing Strategy in 2020

Conclusion

So, here you have some tips on how to design the most SEO friendly website for 2020. If you want good rankings, if you want good results, you’ve come to the right place. The above rules are just some things you need to keep in mind but are certain things that will help you get the best results possible. So, above all, remember that content is king, it’s not just a skeleton for your SEO efforts, it should be genuinely useful. Then, also keep in mind that mobile optimization and voice search optimization are also very important, as is social media, and technical SEO. Continue experimenting and testing yourself and your work, and you should see good results.

Nick Brown

Nick is a blogger and a marketing expert currently engaged on projects for Media Gurus, an Australian business, and marketing resource. He is an aspiring street artist and does Audio/Video editing as a hobby.