3 Website Issues That Can Affect Your SEO

In today’s competitive online world, having a website online is only half of the battle. The other half is getting your target audience to find your website.  

There are several ways to do that, thanks to social media, but how do you attract people outside of our networking circle? Google of course!

But since there are over 83,000 blog posts published every hour, it can be hard to stand out. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in!  

Our marketing team at Charisma discusses three website issues that could be affecting your SEO efforts and what you can do to rank higher on Google. Ready? Let’s go!

The Importance of SEO

In the simplest of terms, SEO optimizes your website’s visibility online. This means that the more people that visit your website, the more your online traffic will increase. Therefore, the better chance you have to provide your product or services to a greater number of people in your target audience.  

Now, let’s discuss three issues that could be negatively affecting your SEO efforts!

#1. Having a Bad User Experience

What good is posting content to your website if your target audience can’t find it or has trouble reading it?

No one is going to stick around and read your blog if your website is:

• Hard to read
• Slow loading
• Visually distracting
• Unresponsive
• Difficult to navigate  

And if you are familiar with Google Analytics, you’ve likely heard the phrase “bounce rate.”

Bounce rate is the percentage of people that click on your website and then leave right away and is part of Google’s SEO ranking factors.

If you have a high bounce rate, it indicates to Google that the visitors to your website aren’t finding what they need on your website, or that your content isn’t meeting their expectations.  

This is where a bad user experience can have a major impact on your SEO. Consider ways to improve your website to offer a better user experience. Could it load faster? Does it work correctly on mobile devices?

Keep Reading > Understanding Bounce Rate in Google Analytics

#2. Not Being Social Media Shareable

Social media websites are excellent for increasing SEO. They encourage users to participate as well as share with their friends and family. Although social signals don't directly affect your SEO ranking, they do increase the number of people who can access and consume your material, which is exactly what you want!

To enhance your efforts, make sure your content is easily shareable.  

Two social sharing rules to remember:

1. Make social media sharing buttons obvious: Don’t make your audience look around for them. They won’t do it- they’ll just move on without sharing.  

2. Keep your content interesting: If your target audience doesn’t think your content is interesting, they aren’t going to share it. If you want your content to reach the largest number of people, write content that is engaging and can be easily shared.  

One last thing to remember; the whole point of having a social media presence for your business is to get website views so more people will see and engage with your content, ultimately enhancing your SEO!  

#3. Having Broken Links

A broken link doesn’t take visitors to their desired page when clicked on. Why is this bad for SEO? Well, when Google web crawlers or Google Bots index the webpage, they visit your website’s links to collect data.  

If they land on a link that is broken it is BAD for your SEO. This means that you won’t be ranking high on any search engines until the broken link is fixed.  

Fixing broken links:

To fix the broken link, you’ll have to find it first! The best way to check for any website errors or broken links is via Google Analytics or another SEO tool.  

If you find any broken links, compile them into a list. Now, it’s time to take action!

You can fix broken links by:

• Replacing broken links with a live one: This is the best method if you don’t have many broken links on your website.  

• Remove the broken links: If you have broken links that are over 4-5 years old, simply remove them.

• Reach out to the linking site: If the link is a broken backlink, contact the website that linked to you, and ask them to fix the link

• Redirection: In the case of broken internal links, create a 301 redirect that links to the live one.  

Does Your Website Need a Refresh? > 6 Things Your Website Might Be Missing

‍

SEO Strategy Support

SEO can have a big impact on your company’s visibility online. If you aren’t sure how best to use SEO to boost your visibility or you need help implementing an SEO strategy, call on our marketing team at Charisma Communications. We can help create social media and blog content that converts and boosts your SEO with a comprehensive SEO strategy.  

Ready to rank higher on Google? Schedule a consultation with our marketing pros at Charisma Communications today!

‍