I work for Leapforce
evaluating webpages and search engine results. Google uses the data from evaluators
like me to rate webpage quality. The
quality of your website affects where it shows up in the search engine results,
so it affects the traffic to your site. While doing my job I find the same
mistakes over and over on the websites I visit.
Here is some advice for website creators.
INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS
If your website is for
a business with a physical location that you want people to visit you must
include your full address. I’m
continually amazed at how many websites just say things like “…on North High
Street” or “…in the Garment District” and nothing else. Some websites have the address but it’s not
prominently displayed, they make the user search for it. You should never make important information
like that hard to find. When someone
searches for your site they want quick easy answers to their questions. If you
want someone who is not familiar with your neighborhood to visit they need to
know your full address. The addition of
a map and directions will give your website a better ranking in Google and you
will also be rewarded with more visitors to your business.
INCLUDE INFORMATION ABOUT WHO PROVIDES CONTENT
Google wants to know
that you have some authority to write what you are writing about. If you have no information about yourself or
the people contributing content to your page Google may become suspicious. If you want a high ranking in Google you
should include a little bio about each of the contributors to the site giving
the reader some reason to believe your contributors know what they are writing
about.
DON’T GET TOO CREATIVE WITH COLORS AND FONTS
Unless you only want young
people to read your site do NOT use black with white font on your website. Worse
than that is black background with a gray font.
People older than 30 have a hard time reading it, they won’t bother and
will leave your site for another. I recently
saw a site that had a dark reddish brown background with royal blue font, it
was like trying to read while on LSD. If
you want people to read and spend time on your site it should be easy on the
eyes. The best combinations are like
what humans are used to reading – a light background with a dark font. You can play with colors but keep it a dark
font on light background and your readers will be happy.
USE GOOD GRAMMAR AND CHECK YOUR SPELLING
Yes, Google cares
about grammar and spelling. If your site
is poorly written, Google assumes that the content on the site isn’t
trustworthy, that the content was just thrown on the page as a filler and the only
purpose of the site is to have a place for ads.
If you aren’t a good writer find an editor to check your work before you
post it.
CONCLUSION
Google is looking for
websites that provide helpful, trustworthy information to people; that
information should also be easy to find and read. The better your website is at meeting these
criterial the higher your ranking in Google will be. I hope this helps you make better decisions
about how to structure your website.
