We all want our web pages to rank well, and often times we think that just posting a wealth of great content ought to do the trick, but we're here to let you know that there is a bit more to the recipe than simply adding words and images.
Draw back the curtain and you'll find that Google is especially concerned with a number of geeky factors. Get these wrong, and you'll end up scratching your head wondering why all your superb content isn't ranking well.
Let's take a peek at a 5 ways you can better optimize your pages to be more Google-friendly.
5 Ways to optimize your web pages technically
How fast does your page load? – Since we now have an attention span measuring less than your goldfish, you can see why this could be important. People don't want to wait for anything, and you can have the best content ever created but if your page takes an eon to load, they're gone! Google recognizes this, and rewards pages that load quickly.
Good internal link plan – Google will favor your page if you are using an intelligent and useful internal link scheme. In addition to helping to pass Pagerank, the main reason for linking to relevant pages you own or authority pages you don't is to optimize the user experience for your visitors.
Make sure you are Schema compliant – Schema.org is the web language markup that Google, Yahoo and Bing have consented to use in order to better see what your pages are about. This is one you'll need a webmaster for.
Use HTML elements – A significant part of how your page will be ranked is determined by the use of certain HTML elements that indicate what your content is about. This includes the use of H1-H4 tags, meta data and image optimization, to name a few.
Keywords you wish to rank for – This is your chance to tell Google in no uncertain terms what your page is focused on, and hopefully be ranked for these terms. You'll need to make sure they are found in all the places Google is looking for them, such as title tags, titles, description, the body of your content and links.