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Webmaxing SEO Basics Course (2024)

Module 5 - Helping Search Engines Understand Your Site (Text)

Module Text

Helping Search Engines Understand Your Site Explainer Video

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Check List

Let's recap!

In Module 1 we looked at SEO Scams and Cons so you can avoid the companies that could cause your website considerable harm.

Module 2 covered personalized search so you don't make the very common mistake made by many website owners and think you have good rankings when you don't!

In Module 3 we saw how Search Engines go about deciding who should be in their Search Results Pages and in what order they should rank.

Module 4 was all about deciding what you want to rank for in the SERPs so you don't waste your time trying to compete with much larger players or ranking for phrases no one searches!

Now the preparation is done its time to go to work on your website. Our first step is to help search engines get around your website by ensuring the content is easy to find.

If you don't have a website to work on right now or you want to work on something which matches the content of this course open our sample website, How to be a Carpenter, in a separate window and use this to try out the activities we're about to cover.

The best way to think about website structure is to imagine how your website compares to a well designed book.

Follow the slides below to see this comparison in action

  • A book has a clear title which gives the reader a clear idea what it is about, A website should do the same.
  • A book has a table of contents to help navigate the text. A website should have similar, clear, easy to find navigation.
  • A book is divided into chapters, each one with an obvious topic. Each page on a website can be thought of as a chapter with its own title and content.
  • A book offers an index so specific information can be quickly found, a website should have a search facility to achieve the same goal.

What's your website called?

Let's start with the main title of the website. It should give clear and obvious clues as to the content

Click the cards below to see how we could turn vague website names into much better ones - both for visitors and search engines.

Vague

Wood Life

Better

How to be a Carpenter

Vague

Sally's Cafe

Better

Sally's Vegan and Wholefood Cafe

Vague

Bob's Blog

Better

Bob's Health and Lifestyle Blog

Vague

Ali & Sons

Better

Ali & Sons London Plumbing Supplies

Getting around your website

If your website's navigation is clear and obvious to visitors you can be 90% certain its also clear to search engines (we'll close that 10% in a later module!)

Your main navigation menu should be:

Click each card below to see great examples of clear navigation

Sally's Vegan and Wholefood Cafe

Sally's Vegan and Wholefood Cafe

Sally's navigation menu is well thought through

  • Its on the left hand side where many people expect the navigation to be
  • It includes key information her customers will need such as her location and contact information.
  • She highlights a service others may not offer, ordering online.
  • Its free of clutter.

Bob's Health and Lifestyle Blog

Bob's Health and Lifestyle Blog

Bob has obviously given a lot of thought to his navigation menu.

  • Its at the top which is a popular place for navigation menus
  • He's highlighting the main sections and topics of his blog
  • Information most visitors don't need (e.g. Contact) are moved out of site to the bottom of the page.

How to be a Carpenter

How to be a Carpenter

Our example site makes it extra easy to get around the site with their navigation.

  • Like Sally's Cafe its in a common place on the left
  • The options are ordered in a way that makes sense for someone looking to learn and for bots to crawl.

Ali & Sons London Plumbing Supplies

Ali & Sons London Plumbing Supplies

Ali and Sons have designed their navigation menu with care.

  • Using icons as well as text makes it really fast for visitors to scan the options and find the products they need
  • Each menu element is well described and is clearly to a section of the site.
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And what about navigation to the other pages of the site? In a later module we'll cover how to link all your pages together in a way that optimizes the main topics of your website.

Explainer Video

Do search engines use the search box?

Earlier we mentioned that a well designed website has a search option. That sure makes sense for a great user experience but is it really part of SEO?

If your site is well designed (and we'll come to that later) search engines can follow what visitors do, including what they see after they carry out a search. They may well then add that page to their index if it has a unique url so don't miss the opportunity to increase the number of pages you could potentially have in the index's of major search engines.

Has this module highlighted issues with your website or SEO work but you don't know how to resolve them?

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