Factors affecting SEO
The field of SEO is so wide ranging that it is easy to focus on only a few factors when it comes to trying to build yourself a great search ranking for a number of keywords. Naturally, focussing on particular aspects of this task means that others will fall by the wayside and perhaps not get the attention they deserve.
We explored some of the factors that you may have forgotten about, and why you should focus your efforts around putting these into place at the earliest opportunity.
Hosting Package
It may be the case that you have a beautifully designed site, and it is filled with great content, but is your server doing everything that it can to make your site accessible at all times? It is sad but true that many potentially great sites are let down by their servers not being up to scratch, which then has a massive detrimental impact on search rankings.
If you feel your server is letting you down, explore the possibility of upgrading your package, or of moving to a different hosting company.
Video Transcripts
You already know that having varied content is great for SEO, but if you are featuring videos on your site without transcripts then you are missing a trick. Yes, you will score points for having a variety of content, but search spiders cannot index the actual video content itself.
Text content, as you know, can be. So, if you have any informative videos or tutorials on your site, ensure that they all come with a transcript so that you can rank for any keywords that are included within.
Proofreading
Although it is a very basic thing to do, many people still fail to proofread their content before placing it on their site. Everything from spelling mistakes to sloppy grammar can influence your rankings, and this can be led, although not always, by an over-eagerness to attempt to blend in as many keywords as possible.
You need to read everything through the eyes of a person, and if it makes no sense or is not easy to read, change it, no matter how many books or instruction manuals you have seen around ‘writing for search.’ The bottom line is that the user experience factor will rank you much higher than any number of clever uses of keywords will.
Site Maps
Many people fall into the trap of believing that site map is just something that flashy websites have when they are looking for a reason to create an extra page. However, your site map is much more than that. It is the index for users who cannot find what they’re looking for via your links. Although that should be seen as something to work on in itself, having a site map enables search spiders to index your site better themselves, and is likely to see you ranking higher as a result.
While you may be focussing on link building or developing your social media for search, forgetting any of these factors could easily undo any good work you do elsewhere. Do not allow yourself to be caught out, and ensure they are all a part of your on-going SEO strategy.