It is important that your website appears in search engine results related to your mission. Here are some of the basics of optimizing your website that will put you at the top of the search results.
1. Quality Content
The foundation for any website is focused, quality content.
Make it easy for visitors to quickly find what they are looking for and tailor it to your target audience. Also, be sure to use words and phrases people may be searching for related to your organization.
2. Heading Optimization
Using typography to break up long blocks of text is not only a great way to keep your readers engaged, but it is also important for SEO. Including words and phrases your audience may be searching for lets search engines know those keywords are important and related to the content.
In addition, make sure you are using your website's heading functionality rather than simply enlarging the text size or making it bold. Your CMS will likely have a way to choose which heading you'd like to assign to this text.
3. Internal Links
If you have content on your site that is related, include links that will bring visitors there without leaving your website. This linked text (called anchor text) will let search engines know that it is relevant content.
Internal links will also help keep visitors on your site where they can deepen their knowledge of your organization's mission.
4. ALT Text
Search engines can't see images so use the ALT text functionality when adding an image to your site. Your ALT text should be descriptive of what the image contains and will be read by the search engine so including keywords here is also helpful.
ALT text is also important for website accessibility. Visitors who are visually impaired using a screen reader won't be able to see the image but the screen reader will be able to read the ALT text.
5. Site Speed
Search engines favor sites that load quickly on both desktop and mobile. Google has a handy tool for assessing page speed and providing insights on how it can be improved.
Now that more than half of website traffic comes from mobile devices, approaching website design from a mobile-first perspective is crucial to providing a good user experience.
Postscript: Review your Google Analytics data frequently to see how your website is performing. Note the date of any edits that are made so you can track and monitor any changes in your data.
