(Article by Rocket Media, Digital Marketing agency based in Newcastle)
Octopus Media have been designing and building websites since 2013 and have seen the transformation of the search engine optimization (SEO) field. Over the years, we’ve learned a great deal on how to grow your business through Google Search and we have a dedicated team of specialists who can make that happen for you. As well as learning the intricacies of successful SEO, we’ve also become aware of what needs to be avoided to stop harming your SEO chances. We’ve listed a few issues below that could cost your dearly if you don’t proactively avoid it.
Large Images
One of the algorithms that Google uses to rank pages is the speed at which a website loads. Octopus Media have a target of getting every website to load within 3 seconds and we do this through our dedicated team of web design specialists who focus on intelligent design and slimmed down image sizes. The size of an image can sometimes be the main factor for the slow loading of a page and that’s why we take extra care to make sure our CMS is optimized to help the website load fast.
Numerous factors go into the development of a web page and these include technical aspects such as JavaScript, HTML code as well as the CSS. Octopus Media’s web designers are specially trained for optimizing all these factors for increasing your SEO success. One thing to avoid at all costs is not compressing any images that you upload onto a website. In particular, avoid uploading an image on to the website directly from the camera as this carries a lot of ‘online weight’ that can considerably slow down your website. The longer it takes for the website to load, the more likelier it is for the visitor to leave the website, which is another factor that can contribute to lowering your SEO chances.
Copied Content
The basic building blocks of successful SEO is creating optimized content thus it’s a necessity to keep uploading your website with content on a regular basis. The temptation is there to take a shortcut and replicate content from another website onto your website. However, the consequences of doing this from an SEO perspective can be devastating. Not only would this be an infringement of someone elses copyright but it will also blacklist your website as a source for duplicate content thus reducing your chances of getting more visitors to your website via Google.That’s why we recommend that you create all of your content fresh, or get in touch with Rocket Media’s copywriting team for help on content.
Poorly worded Meta Tags
Meta titles and Meta descriptions are part-and-parcel of successful SEO optimization and it’s important that you become an expert in this area otherwise it could dramatically affect your chances of bringing visitors in from Google. Octopus Media have access to optimized content management systems that make it easier to adjust these Meta Tags. The wording within these tafs is also of vital importance and its of paramount importance to have flowing text in these descriptions rather than spamming these sections with your target keywords. Googles’ algorithms are only getting smarter day-by-day and they will easily be able to pick up spammy Meta Tags that will cost you severely when it comes to your SEO positioning. Stick to a word limit of around 50 words and make sure that this section explains the contents of the website.
Need help with SEO?
Octopus Media offer some of the best SEO services in the north east at a price that is SUBSTANTIALLY lower than our competitors.
Each one of our clients get a monthly audit of how their website SEO has progressed.
(Credit: Rocket Media, Newcastle SEO experts)