Author: infogenix

The Importance of Site Structure for SEO: How to Organize Your Website for Search Engines

Posted on by infogenix

The Importance of Site Structure for SEO: How to Organize Your Website for Search Engines

Search engine optimization improves your site’s page rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find your business. Whether you’re just starting a website or looking to drive more traffic to an existing site, one of the best ways to get results is to focus on site structure. Keep reading to learn more about why site structure is important and find out how you can use it to improve your search engine rankings.

Why Is Site Structure Important?

In simple terms, site structure is the way you organize the content on your website. A good structure is essential for delivering a positive user experience and boosting your search engine rankings It’s also part of your marketing funnel that leads people to become customers. From the visitor’s perspective, site structure is important because it influences how easy—or difficult—it is to find your products and services. If someone comes to your site and has to click page after page to find what they need, they might get discouraged and end up buying from one of your competitors.

Your site structure also helps Google and other search engines understand what each page is about. That makes it easier to determine if your site is relevant to specific keywords, which may improve your search engine rankings. For example, Google sees the pages in your navigation menu as some of the most important pages on your site. Those pages are likely to show up higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs) than pages that are buried under layers of other content.

Good site structure also has the following SEO benefits:

  • It makes it easier to acquire high-quality backlinks to your site.
  • Search engines will find new pages faster, giving you a boost in the SERPs.
  • It’s easier to determine if you have duplicate content, which can affect your search engine rankings negatively.

9 Ways to Improve Your Site Structure for SEO

Now that you understand why site structure is so important, here are nine things you can do to make sure your site’s structure works for you instead of against you.

1. Think Carefully About the Right Structure for Your Site

When you’re choosing a site structure, you have several options. The most common is the hierarchy, which starts out with broad categories and then gets narrower as the user makes navigation decisions. Retail stores often use the hierarchical structure, as it makes it easier for customers to find specific products. Shoppers start out with a broad category like “Shoes” and then click through to sneakers, pumps, sandals, or other shoe types.

The database site structure is based on the use of metadata and tags. Although this structure makes it easier for users to search for relevant content, it’s also one of the most complex to maintain. A sequential site structure is appropriate for sites that only have a few pages of content. You may also want to use the sequential structure if you need visitors to see your content in a specific order. For example, a fitness trainer that offers a five-step program for losing weight might use this structure to ensure the steps are displayed in the correct order.

The matrix structure relies on internal links for navigation. It’s ideal for displaying a large amount of information without having to worry about creating complex navigation menus. An online glossary is a good example of a site that works well with the matrix structure, as the site owner doesn’t have to worry about visitors viewing the content in a specific order.

2. Choose Relevant Keywords

A good site structure starts with in-depth research to find out what keywords people are using to find your website. If you operate a business in the outdoor niche, you may want to look for keywords related to camping, fishing, boating, and canoeing. Once you have some general topics in mind, you can find more relevant keywords by drilling down into each topic. If you’re working on the fishing category, for example, you might want to look for keywords related to lures, live bait, tackle boxes, waders, and other relevant items.

Once you have a list of target keywords, you can start thinking about the best structure to use for your site. In this example, the hierarchical structure probably works best, as customers will be able to choose a broad category and then search for specific products within that category.

3. Structure Navigation Menus Carefully

Your navigation menu tells the search engine bots which of your site’s pages is the most important, so you need to structure each menu carefully. Many sites use horizontal menus, but you can also use vertical navigation bars, “hamburger” menus, or dropdown menus. The right choice depends on many factors, including how much content you have and how that content is organized. If your site has thousands of pages, you may want to use dropdown navigation, which allows users to click on a broad category and then choose a subcategory. Horizontal menus work well for sites with just a few pages, or for sites that have just a few broad content categories.

4. Avoid “Hiding” Content

If you want to deliver a positive user experience, you must make it as easy as possible for visitors to find what they need. Generally, a visitor shouldn’t have to click more than two or three links to find a specific product or service. Whether you’re building a website or updating a site’s existing structure, make sure that your navigation menus and internal links make it easy for users to find helpful content.

5. Focus on People, Not Search Engines

SEO is important, but that doesn’t mean you should focus exclusively on SEO and forget about everything else. It doesn’t matter how good your rankings are if people can’t find the information they need to feel comfortable buying from you. Fortunately, it’s possible to deliver a positive user experience and improve your page rankings at the same time. Writing high-quality content, formatting it in a logical way, and making it easy for users to find what they need can all boost your rankings and improve the user experience.

6. Make Your Content Scannable

If you open a webpage and see a huge wall of text, what do you do? Most people just exit the page and look for another site with the information they need. Part of having a good site structure is formatting your content so that it’s easy to read. Content should be highly scannable, which involves using header tags (H2, H3, etc.), bulleted lists, numbered lists, bold text, and other formatting elements. As the user’s eye moves down the page, these elements will guide them along, making the content easier to digest.

7. Use Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are navigation tools that help visitors understand how the content they’re reading relates to other pages of content on the same website. Many retail stores use breadcrumbs to make it easy for users to navigate. For example, Bed Bath & Beyond has broad content categories. When a user clicks one of those categories, they’re presented with several subcategories, such as storage bins and boxes, storage cubes, storage baskets, and storage totes. Each of these pages leads back to the main category, making it easier for users to find what they need.

8. Maintain Balanced Categories

When possible, make sure your content categories are well-balanced. Generally, you shouldn’t have one category with two pages of content and another category with 500 pages of content. Try to have about the same number of pages assigned to each category to make it easier for search engines to crawl your site and understand what each page is about.

9. Keep Your Content Up to Date

For search engine users, there are few things more frustrating than when a website displays old information that’s no longer relevant. One common example of local events calendars. Someone looking for a weekend activity doesn’t want to know what activities were available 3 years ago. They want to find an activity they can do this weekend or sometime in the near future. The same rule applies to e-commerce sites that continue listing discontinued products even though there’s no chance of those products ever coming back into stock. It’s disappointing when someone searches for a product, finds a listing, and then realizes that the item is out of stock and has been discontinued.

Updating your site regularly is also essential for good SEO results. Every time you update a page, Google and other search engines notice that there’s something new, which gives you a little boost in the rankings. Refreshing existing content can also help you drive more traffic to your website, showing the search engines that your pages are relevant to users’ keyword searches. If you do a search on Google, you’ll notice a date under each meta title. When that date is several years old, users may wonder if the content is still relevant, prompting them to click links with more recent dates.

Fresh content is also helpful for maintaining good site structure, as it can make it easier to get rid of unneeded categories and make sure your site’s structure makes sense for what your typical visitor is trying to achieve. As you work through your older content, you may decide to consolidate some of it or delete it altogether, leaving fewer pages left to organize.

Partner with Infogenix for Better Site Structure

At Infogenix, we know the search engines inside and out. Our SEO experts know exactly how to develop a site structure that delivers a positive user experience and helps search engines understand what your site is all about. If you need help implementing these tips or getting better SEO results in general, contact our Utah SEO agency at (801) 724-7493 or request a free estimate. We have custom SEO services available to help your business succeed.

Posted in SEO

5 SEO Strategies Your Competitors Aren’t Doing

Posted on by infogenix

5 SEO Strategies Your Competitors Aren’t Doing

Every time a search engine user enters a keyword related to your business, you want your website to appear on the first page of the search results. Search engine optimization (SEO), the process of making your site more visible to people using search engines, makes that possible. Many companies follow the same basic SEO strategies, making it difficult for one company to break ahead of the pack and reach the top of the rankings. If you want better SEO results, try these five SEO strategies your competitors aren’t doing.

1. Investing in Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to the practice of creating and distributing relevant, valuable content to the people in your target audience. Blog posts, e-books, videos and case studies are just a few examples of content that can be used as part of your content marketing strategy. The key to using content marketing effectively is to do it consistently. Publishing one blog post isn’t enough to improve your rankings and attract new customers. You need to publish new content regularly, whether that means blogging three times per week or adding to a library of downloadable e-books on your website.

Even though consistency is important, it’s only one piece of the content marketing puzzle. You also need to focus on quality, as Google looks for quality signals when determining if one page should rank higher than another for the same target keyword. These quality signals include original analysis, in-depth topic coverage, relevant links and a close match between the user’s search intent and the content on the page.

2. Targeting Low-Competition Keywords

Some keywords are more competitive than others, meaning it’s more difficult to rank for them. For example, “diamond jewelry” is extremely competitive, as it’s short and attracts a high volume of search traffic. One of the biggest mistakes a website owner can make is focusing on these ultra-competitive keywords instead of searching for keywords with less SEO competition.

For a jewelry store owner selling diamond jewelry, it might be easier to rank for a term like “emerald cut diamond engagement rings,” even if fewer people are searching for that specific phrase. Finding less competitive keywords gives you time to build your site authority so that you can eventually start targeting more competitive terms.

3. Prioritizing the User Experience

Many of Google’s quality signals focus on the user experience. When someone visits your website for the first time, is it easy for them to find what they need? Do they have to click link after link just to find more information about your products or services? Is it easy for them to contact you? How long does it take your pages to load? If you deliver a high-quality experience, a new visitor is more likely to buy from you. A poor user experience, on the other hand, drives people away from your website.

Google also assesses your website based on its technical capabilities, such as mobile responsiveness and online security. Mobile responsiveness refers to a site’s ability to display correctly on different screens. To deliver an excellent user experience, your website should look and function well whether the visitor is using a laptop with a 15-inch screen or a smartphone with a much smaller screen. If you’re not already prioritizing the user experience, doing so can help you improve your search engine rankings and build a loyal customer base.

4. Focusing on Quality Link Building

It’s long been known that link building is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. When other websites link to you, it’s like their owners are giving your content a vote of confidence. They’re telling their visitors that you’re a trustworthy resource in your industry. Outbound links are also important, as they tell Google and other search engines that your website provides in-depth coverage of each topic and makes it easier for users to learn more.

Although inbound and outbound links are essential for improved rankings, it’s important to understand that not all links have the same value. If you have an inbound link from a sketchy website, Google may view it as a sign that your content isn’t as helpful as it could be, causing your site to drop in the rankings. To prevent this from happening, focus on building quality links. Here are a few tips:

  • Participate in podcasts and television interviews to attract inbound links from traditional media outlets and podcast networks.
  • Write guest blog posts for other websites. Make sure that the owner of each site agrees to link to a relevant page on your site in exchange for your expertise.
  • Use social media to share your blog posts and other types of content.
  • Check your inbound and outbound links regularly to make sure they work correctly.

5. Repurposing Existing Content

When you first start using content marketing as part of your SEO strategy, the thought of creating thousands of pages of new content can be daunting. The good news is that you don’t have to create every piece of content from scratch. Once you create an article or blog post, you can repurpose it in several ways. As a result, it’s much easier than you might imagine to put your content marketing strategy into practice.

Here are just a few examples of how you can repurpose existing content:

  • If you have a blog post with several statistics in it, use the statistics to create an infographic.
  • Old podcast episodes gain new life when you transcribe the audio into an article or how-to guide.
  • Use a series of blog posts on the same topic to create an e-book.
  • Search through past blog posts to find ideas for podcast episodes or media interviews.
  • Use an article as the basis for a new YouTube video.

Start Optimizing Your Website

At Infogenix, we know the ins and outs of each ranking algorithm and understand how to optimize websites accordingly. To start getting more organic traffic, call (801) 724-7483 or email sales@infogenix.com.

Social Media Resolutions for 2019

Posted on by infogenix

Social Media Resolutions for 2019

It’s the new year, and you’re probably setting up quarterly and yearly goals for your business. Your plans might include optimizing your website and starting some new PPC campaigns. As your social media marketing experts in Utah and Vegas, we recommend you also set some goals and resolutions on your social media pages.

Social media has been rising in importance and usage for the last few years, and it’s here to stay. If you are new to social media marketing, read our article about the importance of social media marketing, or our social media page. If you’re already experienced in social media marketing, take a look at these tips for fully optimizing your social media campaigns for 2019.

5 Social Media Resolutions

  1. Utilize Live Video

    While traditional video is still a very effective post type, live video is overtaking it in conversions and click-through rate. Your viewers on Instagram and Facebook are interested in seeing the real you–not the trimmed, scripted version of your business in your pre-made videos. We recommend you start with a Q&A session where commenters can ask questions live and hear their answer. It’s a great way to get your audience engaged and to trust your brand!

  2. Get More Length Variety in Your Content

    Content is still king, but having a lot of long or short posts in a row gets repetitive. For cornerstone content, or content that is a big part of your business, we recommend 1,000 words or more, interspersed with “snackable” content, that people can consume in a few minutes.

  3. Engage With Your Audience’s Content

    If your followers are posting photos or videos using your product, connect with them! This is a great way to show your followers that your business is fun, inviting, and that you care about your user base.

  4. Get Some Influencers

    Social media influencers are all the rage, and studies show that having a celebrity endorse your product or service on their blog or social media platforms can greatly increase your conversions. Lots of influencers are open to discussing your terms–just make sure you have everything agreed upon beforehand!

  5. Use Facebook and Instagram Stories

    The short videos that disappear after a day started with Snapchat, but Instagram and Facebook show more promise with business marketing. Use these stories for behind-the-scenes content, showcasing your brand’s personality and increasing trust.

Contact Us Today!

See what these changes in your social media marketing campaign can do for your business! If you have any questions about starting a social or digital marketing campaign, give us a call today! Our SEO and Social media experts in Utah and Las Vegas have several years of experience under their belt. Give us a call, and let us help you grow your business!