If you did an audit of various websites, you’d quickly see that not every page that does on-page SEO well ranks well. They may have chosen keywords wisely and optimized their content for them. Yet still, they are buried deep down in the search results while other sites rank with the bare mention.
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One of the main reasons is the trustworthiness of one website over the other and there’s a lot you can do to make sure you measure up. Show the search engines and just as importantly your readers that you have a website that can be trusted.
Make sure you have an SSL certificate. You want your website to be accessed through the more secure https protocol. Speak to your host about getting this installed and what steps you need to take to make sure your entire site is converted over. Most hosts have a fee for the certificate, though some of them will offer it as part of their standard package. If you host with us, SSL doesn’t cost anymore.
If you have some pages of your site that aren’t showing the padlock, check out why by running that page through missingpadlock.com to see what errors you have. It could be simple errors you could fix in moments. I see these errors most often with embedding Youtube videos. Go back and check your code or the size of the video.
Another note to mention. If you don’t have an SSL on your site, Google probably isn’t crawling it. So no matter how much SEO Optimization you do, it won’t help. Google wants to send people to reputable sites only. If you want to know more about SEO, check out this blog post here.
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Improve your website’s load time and make sure it is mobile accessible and responsive. These technical details are becoming more and more important when it comes to ranking well. If you don’t get this right, you’re almost dead in the water. If you are using WordPress to run your site, choosing the right theme will go a long way towards helping you accomplish this. Choose a theme that isn’t bloated with code. I know, how do you know. Page builders have a tendency to have a lot of ‘extras’ in their coding that you just don’t need. I recommend building a site on a Genesis platform but if you must use a builder, use Elementor. I’ve found it to be less ‘bulky’ then Divi.
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Add privacy policy, terms of service, and FAQ pages to your website. Not only will the addition of these pages (and making sure you link to them from each page on your site), signal credibility to the search engines, it will also show your visitors and potential customers that you are serious about what you’re doing. Also consider adding accessibility to your site. Making your site easier to read for those with impairments not only shows you care but also makes good sense. Not everyone consumes information the same way. Allowing people to choose how to consume your site makes good sense. Accessibility plugins can be free and they have loads of features. I use one that can make the text bigger, smaller, change the contrast, the background to light or dark, and a few other cool features. I always add this plugin to my website packages.
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Social signals are another important part of trustworthiness. We are social creatures who look to others for cues on who we can trust and who we should avoid. Set up social media profiles to go along with your site. Build your audience there and share your best pieces of content regularly. As others like, comment, and share, your credibility will start to go up. Don’t get overwhelmed with this. Post what you can to wherever you can. But having a page on at least 2 or 3 social media platforms just makes people more confident in you and your business.
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I just can’t say this enough…work on credible content. Even I struggle with this. I’ve just recently decided I’m going to bulk all my posts and content and spend a few hours once a week working on blog content for my sites. Yes, I said sites. Have you visited my Craft Class site yet? Check it out at Keptcreations.net. Use backlinks if you can. Yup, what I just did there (linking to my other site), yah, that’s a backlink. Work with others in your industry and have each of you write up a blog post and link to one another. But make it credible. Don’t just do it to do it. Provide VALUABLE content. That’s what people want to read and consume. Don’t forget, this takes time. Build that reach and those links organically and over time.
