Local businesses need mobile-optimized websites to appear in search results. A mobile website is also easily accessible on any device. Every local company also needs its website to be SEO-friendly. This means having a sitemap, alt tags and meta tags, a good URL, and the necessary webpages, as well as other features.
Highstreet Marketing has many clients around Washington, most of them being small, local businesses. It isn’t uncommon for companies to come to us with outdated websites that are not fulfilling their functions properly. To successfully bring in new customers, local businesses need mobile-friendly websites. This is especially important to help small companies reach people in their area. Our experts can make your website SEO-ready and mobile-friendly.
What does it mean for a website to be mobile-friendly?
A mobile-friendly website is one that loads quickly and looks great on a mobile device such as a phone or tablet. Desktop websites have a horizontal layout, while mobile websites are usually vertical. The fonts must be big enough to be seen on a small screen. A mobile-friendly website also needs to be easily navigable. A mobile website needs to keep in mind that people will click on aspects of the page with their fingers on a touch screen, so buttons should be large and clear.
Visibility on Google
Before making purchase decisions, people usually search online. And more often than not, they are making these searches on their mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, Google may not promote it, even if you’re local and a good fit for the searcher. User experience is its top priority, which means that it should also be your priority. Without a mobile website, your business will be invisible to your potential customers and won’t rank. This is especially important for local businesses that have to go up against large competitors.
Provides for Easy Access
When your website has both a desktop and a mobile version, it makes it easier for people actually to use your website. One great thing about having a well-made website is that it’s available for your audience to access around the clock, whenever they may need it. People won’t have to wait for business hours to get their questions answered and find the information they need. An easily accessible, mobile website means more sales.
What does SEO-ready mean?
It’s not enough for your business to be mobile-friendly. It also needs to be SEO-ready. This means that your website has the basic foundation needed to build on for SEO. It’s the starting point for effective SEO, and is needed so that search engines can index, crawl, and find your website in the first place. An SEO-ready website usually has:
- Fast loading times
- SSL certificate (creates a safe, encrypted connection and lets the website use HTTPS in its URL)
- Clean code structure that is crawlable for search engines
- Proper website URL structure
- Website optimized for mobile
- Basic title and meta tags
- XML sitemap (lists all the important pages on a website)
- Robots.txt file (gives instructions to web crawler bots)
Further Explanation
Your website’s actual URL is important to its success, which is something that many business owners don’t realize. The URL needs to make it clear what the website is about. A good URL will drive traffic to your website, and it is also important to future SEO campaigns. When choosing a URL, it’s crucial to keep both your company’s goals and your audience in mind.
As mentioned before, an SEO-ready website needs to have a sitemap. This tells bots from search engines (such as Google’s crawlers) how to navigate your website. It gives them information such as which pages are important. Highstreet Marketing can put together a sitemap that will be to your advantage.
The alt tags and meta tags on your website are vital to SEO. They add textual information to videos and images on your website so that search engines know what they are and what their purpose is. These tags also tell Google what is on particular pages of your website. Alt tags and meta tags are vital to proper SEO and ranking in search results.
An SEO-ready website will also have certain webpages.
- The home page has links to other pages and summarizes what your company does. Home pages should have important keywords and optimized images.
- Contact us page, where visitors can fill out an online form and request a consultation or quote.
- An about page that gives information about your company and website. This allows visitors to get to know your business.
- Product/service pages, which are dedicated pages for what your business offers. If you sell items, these pages will have photos and descriptions of your products. If your company is service-based, these pages describe the various services you provide.
- Other pages, such as your website’s blog. This will depend on what type of business you are running. Highstreet Marketing can help you figure out what pages to include.
Make Your Website SEO-Ready
What you should take away from this article is the importance of having a website that is both mobile-friendly and SEO ready. Local companies need to do what they can to reach as many people in the area as possible.
Highstreet Marketing helps companies in Tacoma, Puyallup, and beyond to reach potential clients. Our experts will revamp your website and give it a solid foundation to build on.