How to Create an SEO-Friendly Website for Your Digital Marketing Agency

Your agency's website is one of the most powerful tools you can use to market your brand online. However, a well-designed website also needs to support SEO best practices in order for you to get the best results possible.

In this article, we'll outline how to create an SEO-friendly website for your digital marketing agency. You'll learn some of the best practices to implement when designing each page and provide the tools you need to get the job done efficiently and affordably.

How to Create an SEO-Friendly Website?

Creating an SEO-friendly website is no rocket science. According to Moz, satisfying search intent is the primary goal of Google, and therefore it should be the primary goal of SEOs. It is followed by user experience. So SEOs should focus on creating a fast and responsive website that answers user queries in minimum steps.

You can also use our SitesĀ Tool to make a professional and SEO-friendly website. These websites are specifically designed for digital marketing agencies to convert more clients. You don't need any developers to create a website when you use this tool.

Here are some of the proven tips to develop an SEO-friendly website:-

1. Focus on Improving Your Website Speed

A fast, responsive website is one of the most important things for a marketing agency to possess. Digital marketing and advertising is an extremely competitive field that grants users hundreds, even thousands, of unique options. If any of your pages take longer than a couple of seconds to load, then you've already lost to your competition.

Studies indicate that conversion rates can drop by as much as 20% as page loading speed increases from 0-5 seconds. Compounding this negative result is the fact that Google's search ranking algorithm utilizes page speed and responsiveness as a ranking factor. Faster websites generally demonstrate lower bounce rates, greater retention time, and, therefore, rank higher than slower websites.

Fortunately, there are many solutions to ensure that your agency's website remains lightweight and quick. You should be certain to utilize Google's PageSpeed Insights tool to diagnose any speed-related errors that are impacting your website. It's as simple as entering your URL and allowing Google to render a list of errors and suggestions for optimizations.

Many modern website builders and CMSs feature built-in tools and plugins that help to improve loading times. This can help you to implement “lazy loading,” which describes the process of deferring the loading of content that is not immediately visible in the user’s viewport. This allows the website to load critical content first while loading additional images, videos, or texts later or as necessary.

A second tip is to compress images to an appropriate size that allows for faster rendering without compromising quality. Seldom is a full-size, high-resolution image imperative for general viewing, especially when those images are commonly viewed from a mobile device. Stick to image formats such as JPEG and PNG for faster rendering. The former generally allows for slightly higher quality at the cost of some speed, while the latter is built for maximum efficiency.

Finally, be sure to minify any HTML, CSS, or Javascript located on your website. When a browser attempts to communicate with a server and access your site, it reads each line of code one by one. The more information there is to process, the longer it will take to load the content.

We mentioned above how “lazy loading” can communicate which assets are vital to load immediately to a browser within these lines of code. However, you can further improve your speed by making sure to eliminate any redundancies in the code or chunks that are dead and no longer being used. This can commonly happen if you used a third-party tool at one point but are no longer relying on it. Even if your developer initially needs to write the code in a specific way to ensure functionality, they should take efforts to minify it as much as possible afterward.

For even more tips on how you can improve your page loading speeds, click here.

2. Keep it Mobile-Friendly

Another important Google ranking factor in addition to page speed is mobile readiness and responsiveness. More than half of the entire world’s web traffic now comes from a mobile device, whether it be a cellular phone or tablet. However, because these machines are generally less powerful and rely on 4G, 5G, or Wi-Fi connections, your website needs to accommodate this.

Google once again can be our ally as we can use Google Search Console to check our domain for any health errors. Included in this free error report are factors that are negatively impacting mobile performance. It will also include direct feedback as to what you can do to correct the unique errors that are affecting your website’s performance.

To avoid mobile-friendliness issues when designing your site, be sure to implement media queries in your CSS. A media query essentially identifies the content on your website that you wish to load based on the device being used to access it. This can greatly improve load times and performance by eliminating the process of loading unnecessary data that won't actually be used during the mobile experience.

With this in mind, you should tailor the appearance and layout of content to fit smaller viewports. This includes further optimizing images, condensing content (or temporarily hiding some of it via lazy loading), or eliminating media outright to keep the mobile design minimalistic and fast. A simple design and theme are essential for getting the most out of your mobile performance.

3. Optimize Your URLs and Meta Descriptions

The content on your website, your page URLs, and even your meta descriptions all assist Google's algorithm in understanding the purpose of your website. The better it understands the information on your website, the more confidence it has, and the more likely it will share your domain as a search result to inquiring search engine users.

In accordance with SEO best practices, you must manually optimize the URL for every page on your website. URLs should follow a consistent, organized structure, make sure of the primary keyword, and be free of any unnecessary characters and clutter. The poor URL structure will often contain dates, numbers that reference the page or post, and other unwanted characters that make it difficult for both the user and Google to read. However, an optimized URL might look something like this:

www.dashclicks.com/blog/best-seo-practices-in-2021/

This made-up website URL tells us everything we need to know about the specific page we are visiting and the pathway taken to get there. The use of “www” and “.com” are standard, necessary protocols, with our domain name taking center stage. Then, we describe the pathway by indicating that the active page is under our “Services” category. Finally, “Local SEO” describes the primary content and keyword for that page.

If you were to further optimize the rest of the URLs for this website, you would want to follow a similar structure to keep things uniform and efficient. If you utilize web pages that contain similar content for desktop and mobile viewing, be sure to address the primary version of the page with a canonical tag. This tells Google to only crawl the primary web page, which avoids a penalty for duplicated content.

Meta descriptions also communicate the content on a page to Google and the user. These are the brief descriptions that appear underneath a website on a search engine results page. You must manually enter an optimized meta description for each web page, or your CMS will like auto-populate the field with an excerpt it finds on-page.

While there is no “limit” on meta description length, Google will truncate anything longer than 160 characters. This cuts your idea off mid-thought and generally looks less appealing than a clean, concise description. Try to keep your description less than this character limit. Additionally, a meta description should help communicate what a person can expect to find when clicking the link. It should not be clickbait, dishonest, or misleading. You should use it as your opportunity to advertise and intrigue your potential visitors.

You can learn how to write the perfect meta description here.

4. Protect Your Website and Your Users

Yet another ranking factor for Google is upgrading your website from the HTTP protocol to HTTPS. This is the process used between your website server and a browser to access and download information. Google promises to elevate the rankings of websites that feature an encryption protocol over those that do not.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the standard protocol used across the web. HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) indicates that an encryption protocol has been added to the process. This is done by purchasing an SSL certificate to protect any data transferred between your website and the end-user.

You can upgrade your website to HTTPS by purchasing an SSL certificate for your website. This verifies ownership of the domain and ensures that any data transmitted is being sent to the correct server. It also encrypts any data being sent to protect it from threats online. There are a variety of SSL certificates to purchase depending on the size of your brand and your needs, but a basic SSL certificate will suffice for most small businesses. eCommerce websites will want to consider purchasing a more sophisticated SSL certificate to protect sensitive data used in financial transactions.

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5. Feature Keyword-Optimized Content

When most people think of SEO, they think of keywords and keyword ranking. Featuring keyword-optimized content throughout your entire website is a foundational component of any strong SEO strategy.

After you design your website, you will need informational content for users to consume. This content should concisely describe your brand, your various services, your unique value proposition, and anything else that can assist the reader in making informed decisions as a consumer. The average word count is roughly 500-700 words per page, but more will work to your benefit so long as the content is of high quality. The longer the content, the more opportunities there are to use keywords and describe your business.

Not only is this information empowering for your visitors, but it also helps Google understand the nature of your business. Marketers use keywords that exhibit high search volume and match the content with consumer intent. Focusing on the right keywords and ensuring that your content falls into the hands of the right kind of consumer is key to boosting the amount of content on your site.

After you're satisfied with your core web pages, you need to consider adding a blog to your website and integrating it into your SEO strategy. Rather than bloating your pages with excess content that distracts, expand your keyword strategy by writing information articles for your blog. This allows you to create additional content that focuses on a variety of topics that are relevant to your industry. Because blogs serve to inform and educate rather than sell, this can help to build trust between you and your audience and establish your brand as a reliable authority.

6. Use Internal Linking

Internal linking is another vital SEO strategy that serves to keep visitors on your website for longer periods of time. Any time that a page links to another page on the same website, it's known as an internal link.

Internal linking should be implemented naturally and suggest content to visitors that relates to the content on the page that they are visiting. For example, you may want to direct users from one service to additional related services that can help with the topic at hand. Additionally, you can sprinkle notes in blog articles that address issues or topics that are immediately relevant to the products or services you offer.

Internal linking also serves the purpose of helping Google crawl and understand your website better. When you manually create connections between pages, Google's web crawler will follow those links and process those additional connections. The more relevant data it receives, the more confidence it has in using your website as a search result for keyword-related topics.

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7. Build Up Your Backlinks

While an internal link connects two pages within the same site, a backlink is whenever another website links back to a page on your website. Backlinks are incredibly valuable for your SEO and can noticeably boost your rankings when implemented correctly.

When you build a brand-new website, it starts with no previous relationship with Google's search algorithm. Even when you utilize best design and content practices, it takes time and consistency to build the authority and confidence you need to progress upward through the ranks. However, a backlink from a website that already has authority and confidence with Google can help to boost the SEO value of your own.

You can think of a quality backlink as a vote of confidence from peers that consistently utilize best SEO practices. Google understands the nature of those websites and the brand. When that website backlinks to yours, Google then assumes that your brand is tangentially or directly related to the subject matter by association. From a user perspective, that trusted website also directs its traffic to your webpage. The more incoming traffic to your website, the better your results will be when it comes to your SEO efforts.

With that said, building backlinks requires more outreach and effort than other strategies. You will need to connect with webmasters and look for opportunities to bring your brands together. A common method of doing this is by writing guest blogs for other websites, which then allows you to boost your own website and online profiles naturally. This calls back to our reliance on high-quality, keyword-rich content that provides legitimate value to consumers. If your marketing team offers the ability to build monthly backlinks to your site, the impact on your SEO will be significant.

Get an SEO-Friendly Website for Your Agency Today!

With these tips in mind, you might be wondering where to start when it comes to building your website. DashClicks' brand-new platform offers marketing agencies the ability to create a fully-branded site instantly when you sign up and utilize our Sites application.

Every paid account owner is eligible to select from a variety of templates to use as their new agency website. These websites are low-cost, lightweight, and complete with everything your business needs to hit the ground running. When you select from our list of existing website templates, you get the following immediately:

• A 15-page website hosted by Amazon Web Services
• A ready-to-go SSL Certificate
• SEO-friendly content for every page that features your personal branding
• Personalized branding throughout the site – upload your assets and get moving
• Built-in contact forms and call-to-actions
• Daily website backups to protect you from losing any data
• Drag-and-drop web builder (no coding knowledge required)
• Built-in website analytics to track visitor activity

Among these pages includes a ready-to-go blog page, which you can use to start creating high-quality, informational content that's relevant to your industry. Simply create a new entry, start writing, and post at any time. The easy-to-navigate menus also simplify the SEO process by giving clear fields to customize your URLs, meta descriptions, search images, and more. These sites are built to be lightweight, fast, and mobile-ready for every new agency.

All you need to do is update your DNS records, point them to the new website, and your new website will be updated with your custom domain. After purchasing your new site, it's yours forever. We can provide ongoing SEO support by providing the strategies mentioned above and more, including content creation, backlink building, on-page hygiene, and keyword research.

Build SEO-Friendly Websites for Prospects

In addition to claiming your new website, a membership will grant you access to our InstaSites application, which allows you to instantly create similar websites for your prospects. You can modify these websites to your liking at any time and only need to purchase when you successfully convert your prospect into a customer.

Our InstaSites selection features well over 200 website templates that span 60+ unique industries. These sites use the same technology that allows you to automatically personalize each site with the prospect's name and branding. Our easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor requires no coding knowledge and allows you to make some final editing touches that can secure the sale.

The number of pages included varies based upon the template, but each includes all the SEO-friendly content a site needs to get started immediately. These sites utilize the same system and processes as our agency websites, making it convenient and simple to get your clients moving. It makes your workload easier, and the speed and quality are guaranteed to impress any prospect.

If that's not enough, our InstaReports software allows you to instantly create reports for your prospects that explicitly outline site health errors with their existing site. Quickly compare these issues with the immediate conveniences offered by our ready-to-go websites and start securing more deals than ever before. Our platform offers everything a marketing agency needs to improve its online presence, secure new clients, and fulfill services all in one location.

Conclusion

Creating an SEO-friendly website requires strategy and commitment to see the job done correctly. Each page not only needs to be well-designed for a high-quality user experience but also needs to be fast and responsive for mobile devices. You can look into addressing these issues immediately by utilizing free tools mentioned above, such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console.

Improve the security of your website by purchasing an appropriate SSL certificate that meets your brand's needs. Google promises an SEO ranking boost for site owners that utilize HTTPS and protect their visitors according to their own standards. Not only do you receive this direct boost, but a secure website is immediately visible to visitors and establishes the trust you need to acquire new and returning visitors.

You can further boost your site's SEO value by ensuring that each page is complete with high-quality, keyword-rich content. You can continue supporting your core website pages by investing your time into a blog that features informational or newsworthy content that interests visitors and is relevant to your industry. When building this content library, be sure to utilize internal links whenever possible. Then, begin your commercial outreach to connect with other website owners that can provide you with valuable backlinks over time.

Finally, note that building an SEO-friendly website is not a one-and-done process. Google's algorithm changes almost daily, and this varies from having minimal to substantial impacts on how a website's health and value is ranked. Continue to monitor your website regularly, utilize Google's free tools to check for errors, and implement the necessary changes to ensure that each page is healthy and SEO-friendly. With consistent practice, any new digital marketing agency website can work its way to the top of search rankings.