Basics
Ensuring your website is designed and built with the latest internet standards is very important for satisfying your visitors and maintaining search engine traction. Global trends show that users are spending less time “browsing” for information as they expect to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible. This is a result of improvements in search engine technology and the evolving habits of web users.
Websites need to be well organized with clear navigation to ensure users do not leave in frustration and land up on competing sites. Google have started tracking these metrics for determining quality. If a large percentage of your visitors “bounce back to Google” then your website will be demoted as it does not provide a good user experience. Here are some typical factors that often cause problems.
- Old/Bad Design
- Confusing Navigation
- Slow Speeds
- Page too Busy (Users Struggle to Find Information)
- Too Much Advertising
- Low Quality Content/Images/Videos
- Outdated Information
Responsive Design
Over the past few years more and more internet search traffic has been conducted on mobile devices. Smart phones and tablets have taken the world by storm and trends are strongly indicating the steady decline of the desktop PC. This is a major problem for millions of websites as web pages do not display correctly on these devices. Modern responsive websites are built to accommodate this ensuring pages easily adapt to the size and resolution of the device being used .
Youtube recently stated that over 40% (6 billion visits per month) of their traffic was coming from mobile devices compared to 25% in 2012. Google has announced they will lower rankings for non-responsive sites in the future when searches are conducted on mobile devices. As this trend continues you may find your website traffic dramatically shrinking as more of your potential customers are using mobile devices.
This website is fully responsive, if you have a smart phone or tablet handy then you can see how it works.
Website Quality
Website quality is vital for good search engine performance and that applies to the entire website. Having older and outdated sections can hurt your positions in the search results leading to lower overall traffic. Google has created a penalty algorithm known as “Panda” which specifically looks for these issues in order to maintain up to date information in their index. It is important to add new content to your website fairly regularly as well as updating or removing older information. Duplicated content on any area of your site will also cause major problems. If you want your website to perform well and bring you a constant inflow of new business then it needs to be high quality, relevant and up to date.
What We Do
Gecko can take you through the whole process from initial planning to the creation of a brand new responsive website to ensure maximum alignment with the latest search engine trends and standards. We can also advise older website owners of any areas that may require attention or might be causing quality problems. If you built your website years ago then it might be time to consider an upgrade to a modern platform to ensure you stay relevant in the online world.
If you would like to find out more about how Gecko Marketing can help your business then please get in touch today by using our contact form.