Here are ways you, a non expert in web design or SEO, can improve the SEO on your site.
We've found ourselves deeply entrenched in the world of website development and SEO lately, and it's been an exhilarating journey. As a small business owner, wearing multiple hats is par for the course, but there are certain aspects that have felt daunting at times. I vividly recall a conversation with Sam a few years back when he stressed the importance of adhering to standard SEO practices as we were building the first iteration of our website. At the time, I couldn't help but question whether it was necessary to strive for perfection in every detail. After all, wasn't simply having an online presence enough? However, as time passed, we began to realize the significance of paying attention to the finer points of our website. We witnessed firsthand how focusing on elements like page speed not only improved user experience but also drove an uptick in traffic. Our journey to enhance our website's performance led us to discover invaluable tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Through this tool, we gained insights into the factors influencing our website's speed and user experience, prompting us to take proactive steps to optimize its performance. As a video production business based in bustling Boston, the importance of visibility cannot be overstated. While our expertise lies in creating compelling visual content, ensuring that our target audience can easily discover us online is paramount. Thus, diving into the scary, dark waters of of SEO became an essential component of our growth strategy. We've learned that enhancing our website's SEO not only improves our ranking in search engine results but also amplifies our online presence, ultimately driving business growth and fostering meaningful connections with our audience.
My point in sharing this blog is to encourage all small business owners to take a look at their websites - making small adjustments can be really really easy and take your online presence a long long way. If you’re not sure what your first step should be, I’ll point you in the right direction with the focu on PageSpeed Insights below. If you have 15 minutes in your day, this can really change the game for you!
Access Google PageSpeed Insights:
Open your web browser and go to the Google PageSpeed Insights website. You can either search for "Google PageSpeed Insights" on Google or directly navigate to the URL: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.
Enter Your Website URL:
Once you're on the PageSpeed Insights website, you'll see a text field where you can enter the URL of your business website. Type or paste the URL of the page you want to analyze into this field.
Initiate Analysis:
After entering the URL, click on the "Analyze" button or hit Enter on your keyboard. Google will then start analyzing the provided web page for both mobile and desktop devices. So far, so good - you’re on your way! Just know that you have to do it for each individual page on your site. Don’t be intimated or throw your hands up and say forget it - just start with your homepage.
View Results:
After a few moments, Google will generate a report displaying the PageSpeed Insights for your website. This report includes various metrics and recommendations to improve the page speed and user experience. A LOT OF THIS WILL NOT MAKE SENSE TO YOU! That’s okay, just bear with me here.
Review Opportunities and Diagnostics:
Scroll down the report to find specific opportunities and diagnostics suggested by Google to improve your website's performance. These may include issues related to JavaScript and CSS, image optimization, server response times, and more. Some of this is probably way over your head, to be honest some of it still doesn’t make sense to me and thats okay. But there are some things in there that are pretty obvious, for example if it says that some of your images are too large than you should be making sure that all of the images on your website are smaller than 400ish KB!
Implement Changes:
Take action based on the recommendations provided by Google. Get on your site and make those small adjustments. Are you missing H1 headlines? Are you images too big? Change that!
Re-test:
After implementing changes, it's essential to re-test your website using PageSpeed Insights to see how much the performance has improved. This iterative process allows you to fine-tune your website for optimal speed and user experience. This is there the satisfaction comes in - when you see those numbers turn green you’re in a great spot!
Monitor Regularly:
Website performance can fluctuate over time due to various factors such as updates, changes in content, or increased traffic. Make it a habit to regularly check your website's page speed insights to ensure that it continues to deliver a fast and smooth user experience.
Is this the solution to all your SEO problems? Absolutely not. But is it a step in the right direction? Sure is and a little goes a long way with something like this. If you’re looking for more info on how we can help you improve your sites traffic, we’d be happy to connect you with our partners at SheilaGrace!
