A URL is the address of your web page. It can be hard to know what you should put for your URL and how to make it search engine friendly, so here are 10 tips on creating good URLs.

1. Always use lower case.

   The server your website sits on can sometimes handle uppercase URLÔÇÖs differently and could show the user a ÔÇÿpage not foundÔÇÖ page. Best stick to having all lower case to avoid this.
   

2. Keep it short

   A URL should have about 50-60 characters according to Google. However, they wonÔÇÖt penalise you in your website rankings if itÔÇÖs longer. Also long URLÔÇÖs are difficult to cut and paste.
   

3. Match to your page title

   Try and match your URL to the title of the page. It this then obvious to a visitor what the page is about.

4. Leave out stop words

   Examples of stop words are; and, or, of, but, the, a. You donÔÇÖt have to put these in, they donÔÇÖt improve the URL and it just makes it longer.

5. Safe characters

   The only safe characters to use in a URL are: ┬á┬á_ – ┬á. + ! * ÔÇÖ ( ) ┬ádo not use any other characters.
   

6. Make it easy to say

   Try and make your URL logical and easy to say. It gets complicated when you have relay every dash, slash and dot. Although slashes and dots are unavoidable in URLS.

7. Not too many sub folders

   Inserting the page into many sub folders can make the URL too long.
   

8. Add keywords

   Add keywords into your URL, it helps with being indexed properly and it clearly states what the page is about.

9. DonÔÇÖt repeat keywords

   Repeating keywords is something that search engines frown upon.
   

10. Make it readable

    You may have many pages to your website and start giving each page numbers, but who is going to remember a load of numbers? Make sure the URL is readable for humans.
    

    How to change your URL

The post 10 tips on creating good URLs appeared first on SpiralNet Web Design.

So you have a website but it doesn’t come up when you search for it on search engines.┬á Google states no set time for the search engine to index new websites or pages. But when it finally does get indexed you need to make sure that your site is optimised in the best possible way.

Below is SpiralNetÔÇÖs recommended guide on how to format your pages for search engines.

Select your keywords

Each page of your website should have a different focus keyword. A keyword is one or more words that users will use to find your page in a search engine. For this example we have used the word ÔÇÿBlue BananasÔÇÖ.

Set the right URL

A URL is the address of your web page. Adding your keywords in your URL will help, but it is not always necessary in order to rank well. Sometimes itÔÇÖs more important that your website pages have a logical URL thatÔÇÖs short and easy to remember, approximately 50-60 characters.

10 tips on creating good URLs

Titles and description

Add keywords to the title and meta description.┬á This is what will show up in search engine results. ┬áItÔÇÖs important here to think about how you can stand out from your competition amongst the search results. What is going to make someone click on your link?

RULES:

• The page title should be between 35 and 65 characters.
• The meta description, however can be up to 156 characters.

Keywords in the text content

The text is very important when it comes to the adding keywords.

RULES:

• The keyword should appear in the first paragraph so that it is obvious what you page is about.
• The keyword should appear in a heading.

The content of your page

Google ideally likes to see a minimum of 300 words on each page. This is not always easy if you are creating a contact us page. The last thing you want to do is fill it with unnecessary dribble so this may be one rule you canÔÇÖt always stick to.

The keyword should be found in your text, but repeat it too many times and youÔÇÖll be penalised by Google.

If you have a WordPress site with SpiralNet you will have a plugin that tells you if your keyword density is too high in your text.

Keywords need to be put in the alt tag of an image. An alt tag is what you name an image for search engines to read. If an image could not be displayed visitors would see the alt tag instead.

How to set alt tags in images

Good readability

It is important that your page reads well. Google will be looking for easy to read web pages so try and follow the rules.

RULES:

• Keep your paragraphs short.
• Try not to have too many sentences more than 20 words long.
• Each sub-heading should not have any more than 300 words in the text that follows it.

If you have a WordPress site with SpiralNet you will have a plugin that rates the readability of your text.

Writing content for your website

A word on blogs

Blogs are a great way of getting more traffic to your website as it allows you to create more pages that target many keywords.

Inbound links

The more inbound links you have to your website the better.  Google ranks a website higher if it has good reputable links coming from other websites.

The post How can I make my web page search engine friendly? appeared first on SpiralNet Web Design.

How often do you spend more than five seconds on a web page? Usually, it’s a case of quickly scanning a page before moving on to the next. This is something we need to remember when writing content for websites.

Break it down

Creating a whole chunk of text is not going to attract any readers so break it down.

Use titles and subtitles so that visitors can quickly see what your page is about. Short and to the point makes sure the reader doesn’t have to do any guesswork.

Having a short paragraph at the top of your page that summarises what the page is about will inform the visitor quickly if it’s something they want to read more of.

Think about what your visitors will want to know when they get to your site. When you are searching for a tradesman, restaurant or club, what do you want to know?

Tips for reducing content

When you think you have written the perfect page, cut it down by half and then reduce that again by half. Extreme I know, but don’t forget that website visitors just scan, they will not read huge paragraphs of text. So cut down using these tips:

• If your page is about prices then just layout your prices. It’s a complete waste of time adding paragraphs of text introducing your prices. All visitors will do is skip down to the prices and then move on. So cut it out.
• Adding content like ‘Welcome to London Hairdressers’ is not necessary as it’s on the top of every page of your website and it’s not giving any information that’s new. So cut it out.
• Don’t add simple instructions such as ‘click on this button’ or ‘fill in your name, phone number and address below’. If it looks like a button or a form then it’s obvious what needs to be done. So cut it out.
• When you read back your content do you find yourself saying ‘blah, blah, blah, blah’? If you do then you’ve just written a load of waffle. Cut it out! 

REMEMBER: Cut your text down. Having a long chunk of text is boring and it could also mean that visitors will leave your site.

The post Writing content for your website appeared first on SpiralNet Web Design.

1. Great first impression.

A professional website acts as an impressive first contact, convincing the potential customer that they need what you are offering and inviting them to contact you, via telephone, email or contact form on your website.

2. Open 24/7.

A website is a cost-effective tool that allows your business to attract new customers continuously 24/7.

3. Increase your target area.

Attract new customers that otherwise would never find you and they can do so when your business is closed.

4. A website address is much easier to remember than a telephone number.

Include your web address on all your promotional material allows customers to take action straight away when they see your advertisement or hear about your services.

5. Increase customer confidence.

With the right content, easy navigation, and quickly accessible contact details, your website greatly increases customer confidence in your company and therefore more business.

6. Find out what your customers want.

Website statistics makes it easy for you to find out what customers are looking for on your website, how long they spent on your site and if you have want you want.

7. Low cost Advertising.

Use links to Facebook and other social sites to promote your business to a wide range of potential customers.

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