To create an SEO website you need to take care of the following aspects:
- The host.
- The Dominion.
- The SSL/TLS certificate.
- The structure of the information.
- The title tags, meta tags and H1.
- The use of the right words ( keyword research ).
- The quality of the content .
Surely you have repeated many times the importance of appearing in the first results of Google . It is not by chance: as we explained here , the relationship between SEO and getting new clients is closer than you imagine.
Now where should you start?
In this article we will share our pencilian roadmap so that you know what are the essential aspects that you must adjust to create your SEO website and thus start a successful search engine positioning strategy.
Preliminary technical actions for an SEO web page
There are at least 3 technical factors that can influence the optimization of a website:
- The hosting (physical space) in which it is hosted.
- IP adress.
- Security certificate .
The assertive purchase of each of these components depends on how informed you are about how they work and what you need them for.
Choose a quality hosting provider
A hosting is the physical storage in which all the files that will make up your site will be . Its capacity is variable and will depend on what you intend to do on the web: sites with many pages and uses will need more memory.
As Federico Rodríguez from Inboundcycle describes it , hosting influences several aspects when you create an SEO website. The main ones are:
- Loading speed : the time it takes for your portal to be displayed.
- Uptime – How many hours per day your site will be available to users.
- Reliability : buying your own hosting is like buying a safe space for your visitors. Only when you have the right conditions, will you generate the credibility for them to approach you.
Now, where can you buy secure, fast and efficient hosting that meets the performance standards you need?
In our experience, GoDaddy can be a great option.
Other alternatives are Bluehost , HostGator , and Hostinger .
Remember that when you decide to buy the land on which you will build your house, you will need to be sure that you will receive good attention and efficiency.
Manage TLS or SSL security certificates
TLS or SSL certificates are a key and a shield: they secure the data in your server chest and protect your site from users in the browser.
TLS and SSL stand for “Transport Layer Security” and “Secure Sockets Layer.”
The first is the updated version of the second.
Because they are important?
Because they declare confidentiality, integrity and authentication to search engines .
To determine if a site has a security certificate, check if its URL starts with HTTPS and if it has a padlock.
There are also free tools to check it online:
The impact of a TLS certificate, according to Michal Pecánek of Ahrefs , is registered in the following points:
- Lightweight ranking signal : Google classifies HTTPS sites as guarantors of privacy (which positively influences your web positioning).
- Security and trust : if you cannot generate secure connections, your bounce rate will increase drastically, as many users will leave your portal when they see that you are not reliable.
- Adaptability to modern protocols : certificates allow you to update your site with the latest technologies available in terms of security and web performance.
And since our Pencil route is designed to help you with everything, we share this Techradar article so you can learn about the best providers of security certificates.
Get a dedicated IP address
An IP is the identity card of your site and is made up of a series of numbers that denote a unique address.
However, as is often the case, this identification can be shared to lower costs, so it is quite common to associate an IP with more than 70 domains.
What’s wrong with sharing an IP? In principle, nothing.
Now, if you share the same vehicle license plate with 70 people, how can you be sure that you will not be stopped for a traffic violation that you did not commit?
Dedicated IP addresses can help you shield your website and your future SEO strategy. According to Woorank , here are the reasons to opt for freehold ownership of a license plate with no violations:
- Speed of response.
- Successful installation of a security certificate.
- Ability to receive high volumes of traffic .
As with security certificates, we leave you this link to GoDaddy so you can find out how much a dedicated IP address costs.
If you want to delve even deeper into these technical details that will help you to have a better web positioning, you have this article by Pencil: SEO On Page: 7 steps to apply it [+ tools and success story] .
Elements of an SEO website
Once you know the most important actions that you must carry out before creating an SEO web page, we will explain what are the considerations that you must attend to in the conceptualization and design process.
A portal planning to do SEO should be friendly to both users and search engines .
To achieve this, you need to lift the information architecture of your website . With it, you will be able to prioritize the contents and clarify before Google what you want to position.
The parts of the website that you should define more precisely in your information architecture are the Home, Services, About Us, Blog, and Pricing pages.
Information architecture
You must make it easy for Google and your users to navigate within your website.
How to do that?
Grouping your content into sections, according to the importance they have for your potential customers.
The ideal for your portal to be optimized is that it does not exceed 3 levels of depth .
That is, important information is no more than 3 clicks or “folders” from the home page.
From there you must allow the user to jump to the Services, Blog, About Us and Prices sections.
In this way, there will be an optimal hierarchy and the access of Google spiders to your website will be much easier, in addition to allowing your visitors to navigate in a simple way.
Title tags and meta tags will be essential in all sections of your portal for two reasons:
- They will tell the search engine what your website is about.
- They will be your letter of introduction to users.
It is important to be clear that the title tag is the title that your pages have in Google.
For its part, the meta tags are the small descriptions that are seen just below that title.
Creating eye-catching title tags and meta tags will attract more people to your pages.
The weight of this aspect, when it comes to positioning in Google, is very high.
Home: What should the main page of an optimized website contain?
Home is the main page your users will see.
It is vital that whoever enters there can clearly understand what your portal is about.
In addition, you should ensure that they keep reading and that they have the possibility to go to the other sections of the site.
All the information that is presented has to be very digestible.
It is important that the home of your website has an H1 (internal title) that indicates what the company is about or what it does.
A successful home can be considered if it answers the following questions to the user:
- Where is the company?
- That makes?
- As it does?
Next, you can see two other portals whose home is very well structured from an SEO point of view:
The order that the ideal home plate should have is as follows:
- Main Image – You should use a design that explains what the business offers. The title, subtitle, and call to action will be to the side or above the main design.
- Title (H1) : It is the header of the page. In three seconds, it will tell visitors what your company does and what it has to offer. It must be clear and simple. In addition, it must contain a differentiating value proposition.
- Subtitle : Put a brief description of what you offer. This is the ideal space to focus on a common concern of your company’s target. Avoid very technical terms. Prioritize the benefits of your products or services. The information you put here is a good candidate to be the description (meta tag) of this page.
Services page: how to present yourself to attract prospects?
This is one of the most important sections. Therefore, it must offer perfectly explained information, since it is the one that will most interest your potential clients.
How well or poorly this page is structured will depend on the capital that can enter your company.
By adjusting this section you will not only improve the positioning of the website, but users will be satisfied after reading well-explained content, with which you can convert visitors into prospects.
It is necessary that this page contains the answers to frequently asked questions that users have in relation to your products and services.
Like the Home, on the services page you will have to place:
- An H1 similar to the title tag assigned to the page.
- An introductory paragraph detailing the purpose of the section.
- An explanation of what steps your company takes to make a product or provide a service.
About us: the faces behind the company
In these times it is impossible for you to concentrate on selling, on closing a transaction.
You need to attract people who share the same values as your company and gain their loyalty.
For this you must, above all, offer a first-class experience.
In this sense, transparency is an essential aspect for users when making a decision.
They will always lean towards that company that offers them responsibility, trust and closeness.
The About page is a great opportunity to explain to users why we do what we do, connect with them and earn their trust by showing them the most personal side of the brand.
It is vital that on this page you make clear what characterizes your company and how it was born, who you are or who they are, what you can do for others and a contact so that they can communicate with you.
Blog (or project page): customer magnet for your website
In this section will be the bulk of your content. That is to say, all the informative texts that will answer the questions of whoever enters your website .
Relevant considerations:
- The blog must be organized by topics and categories.
- All content marketing should be exploited in it and it is the ideal section to sell what you are and what you do.
- It is essential that it is useful for your users. Therefore, the content must be deeply developed.
- Build an internal navigation system with links to other articles on your website.
It is very important to include calls to action in the texts, to bring the user closer to a possible purchase.
The projects page , on the other hand, has the function of showcasing your work. This is essential if your company provides services that can be evaluated for their visual characteristics (such as in design disciplines).
A portfolio or project page should generate this feeling in the prospect: “ I want them to do to me what they did to them ”.
Recommendations for a projects page are as follows:
- Shows the work in progress behind each release . This way you will demonstrate the creative capacity of your company.
- Do not select only the best . It can also be valuable to demonstrate that they have been part of a process in which learning has been constant.
- Communicate versatility . Even if your company is just web design, include some side work.
Prices: the last station in the journey of conviction
According to Marcus Sheridan in his book They Ask, You Answer , before making a purchase decision, prices are the information most sought after by a user on the Internet .
Therefore, you must produce content that explains the reason for the cost of each of your products or services.
You do not need to be too specific, but the idea is that your potential clients know what variables affect the budget of a project .
Accessibility
An SEO-optimized web page should be easily accessible to both users and Google bots. Some key aspects to optimize accessibility are the following:
- Robots.txt file: allows us to hide pages that we are not interested in positioning from search engines.
- HTTP status codes: it is common to find errors on our website, such as the popular 404 error. We must be very aware of these errors and solve them as soon as possible. Google Search Console will be of great use to you here.
- Sitemap: is an XML file that allows search engines to understand the hierarchy of information on your website.
- Web structure: it is recommended that the structure not be more than 3 levels deep, that is, that no page is more than three clicks away from home. This will make it easier for Google to read your site and index it later.
- Web speed: Load time is in the top 10 of ranking factors out of about 200. Ideally, keep load times as low as possible.
What should you not do while creating your SEO website?
What you should avoid at all costs is creating texts that do not correspond to the keywords that your website needs for its positioning.
If you wear 5 shirts at the same time and forget about pants and shoes, will you be dressed?
In SEO, being covered is not putting on many clothes at the same time, but wearing the ones that create the best outfit.
Before you finish, keep these three things in mind:
Do not make excessive use of keywords (keyword stuffing)
Creating content full of irrelevant keywords will immediately drive users away from your website, increasing the bounce rate .
If people ‘bounce’ away once they’ve visited one of your pages, you’ll lose ground on Google.
Why?
Because, let’s remember, Google is at the service of users and cares a lot about their behavior.
If your pages act as a repellant instead of a magnet, the search engine will consider your page as unwanted or without valuable content.
As a last consequence, making excessive use of keywords risks Google penalizing you for trying to hack the algorithm.
Plagiarism: the line you must not cross
You must avoid plagiarism to other people and also within your own website.
Avoid that different pages have exactly the same information .
This error usually happens, for example, when you have several products with similar descriptions.
Absence of titles and subtitles
The absence of titles and tags in your content will make it difficult for search engines to crawl.
Without the presence of headings that rank and order your content, Google may interpret that your site will not be friendly to users.
Conclusions
Creating an SEO website is painting and arranging our living room to wait for visitors: each detail that we adjust is a piece of furniture that we have or a painting that we straighten.
In this case, Google checks how cozy our house is to let in those who come to visit us.
The optimization depends both on the actions of content and organization of the information, as well as on assertiveness when choosing the technical services that support our website.
If you want us to help you create an SEO website, you can click here .
