Today we present you with an SEO-related post from Edwin Smith, a Toronto-based expert in the field.
Learning about SEO and how you can optimize your site’s SEO performance is an eternal effort. There are new things to discover as search engines update their algorithms. However, there are also a lot of basics that most site owners still forget regarding their on-site SEO efforts. In this article we will offer some tips for avoiding a few critical on-site SEO fundamentals.
A User-Friendly 404 Page
Do you use a customized 404 page? Even the best sites still have users visiting the wrong link and being shown the 404 page. Search engine crawlers are often lead to 404 pages as well, mainly when following an old link or one that no longer works.
The best way to deal with the situation is by making sure that all links are alive and working. Still, that shouldn’t stop you from creating a user friendly 404 page. Some of the things you can do are:
- Create a catchy remark that will put a smile on your visitor’s face. This is a huge improvement on user experience and will stop them from quickly leaving the site upon seeing the page.
- Add a search field to the page. Point out that users can also search for the content they need.
- You can also add relevant contents from the Blog or Articles section to the page. Show a post thumbnail and excerpt for three to five posts that user may be interested in. You can either randomize the posts displayed or use advanced tracking to find out what brought users to the 404 page and display relevant contents accordingly.
These simple tips will make your 404 page much more effective in keeping users happy and preventing them from bouncing.
Local Information in Strategic Elements
Whether you are working with the best Toronto SEO companies or doing everything yourself, targeting a more specific, local market segment is the current trend. You can launch a fully localized SEO campaign or simply use simple elements to increase your local exposure.
Adding the name of the city you are based in to the title of the page and the description meta tag is the first thing you need to do in order to increase your local exposure. You can also add a complete address or contact information to the footer of the page to further enhance the effects.
When you have local-related contents on your site, be sure to add the name of the city and other local information to the <h1> tags as well. The only thing to keep in mind is to keep these local cues short so that your site doesn’t appear unnatural. Crawlers will still pick these cues up and your site will rank higher on local searches.
Remove Unnecessary Outbound Links
We often link to another site or resources to provide users with additional resources. Unfortunately, these outbound links can hurt your site’s SEO performance if not managed correctly. Do a quick scan of your entire site and remove outbound links that don’t belong in the articles, mainly those that aren’t relevant to your content or the overall theme of your site.