Make Google friendly website: listen to what people like

How to make a Google-friendly website?

We all know the importance of Google search. But the truth is that when you put your user in the center, SEO comes more naturally. Google improved its searching tools and they now even penalize the over-thought SEO copywriting. They acknowledge the importance of contribute to a richer online world. Nowadays, most people consider googling as at least the starting point of research so there should a responsibility with it. What should we do to make a Google-friendly website? We have to build our sites to be more useful to our users.

How do you get people to find your website easier?

You’re on the bus. You remember that an important deadline is getting closer: you have to deliver a report for work or maybe college. You open your mailbox and check the content of what you should write. It’s not as easy as you thought. You read the subject and copy it. You paste it in Google and start searching for more information. And there it is the article you were looking for, leading the Google search, a flashy title, an appealing first paragraph. You open it, you start reading… something’s not right. They keep repeating a phrase, over and over again. It doesn’t sound natural. It doesn’t sound smart. They even conjugate the verbs wrong just to include those exact words. You leave that page. Immediately. Let's make a Google-friendly website, focusing on what people like.

Have a look at these basic values from Google webmasters!

Keep this in mind: prioritize content!

When you have something to say, half of the way is done. Content is everything and it’s what will get your message delivered. There are many websites, blogs, posts on social media, that rather than sophisticated techniques, the content will differentiate you from the rest. As technology gets developed, users also start being more skeptical and pickier when it comes to online information. We are now used to being online almost all day, so it means we are more prepared to discriminate between useful and not useful content too. Of course, the design is really important, but an empty great design isn’t what you’re aiming too. In order to provide quality content, you should begin with proper market research. Define target and after that think of taglines and slogans which focus on the needs and wants of your specific ‘personas’. The key is to deliver a clear, nice-designed, and content-focused website. And of course, with clear calls to action.

Compress images to empower your content

When we talk about content, it may sound like we only talk about text. But an efficient content can come in the form of images. We don’t get tired of repeating the highly visual world we live in nowadays. People are used to seeing images everywhere and every time. When it comes to being clear about a product we offer, for example, images - and videos, why not? - are the undeniable tool.

Users are more skeptical but… also lazier. Images get the message delivered without much effort and this means that they engage the audience quicker. Images are gaining more and more important and they also bring with them the fact that they give double chance to get seen online by Google image search. Take a look and learn all about image formats, and why you should use a resizing image tool.

Nevertheless, if you want images to play their amazing part, you need to help them. Compress images is a key step to truly strengthen the content. As we said before, navigate is an everyday thing and as such we’re used to jumping from one website to another. We expect it to be fast! There’s a huge bounce rate when images take ages to load - and with ages we mean less than 3 seconds -. There are several online ways to accomplish this, you can check this tool out here.

Stock images: do I need to avoid them on my website?

There’s not one opinion regarding this. There are some people who advise using them when you’re low on budget. It’s true: you can get for free incredible images, in high resolution, ready to embellish your site, such as Unsplash - Pixabay - Gratisography - But if we’re talking about giving our users the best content we can, investing in original photographs is an intelligent move.  There are thousands of websites using the same images all over the Internet. How can you build your identity when something is exactly the same as others? Custom photography helps you to find your proper brand tone, to achieve a professional reputation in the eyes of a user and simply to be yourself. When you create your own images, you can give the photographer the concept you want to impress in them. If you desire to stand out, original photographs are an investment you won’t regret.

Effective design

You may have heard: in three seconds you have to catch your user’s eye. In this short time, they can’t be thorough with content. So before impacting with it, you have to make sure your design retains the user. A good design will help you to make a first good impression and to engage the visitors even before they have enough time to see everything you carefully prepared for them. Effective design should work as a practical tool to gain time, you may say. But also, the design has the function to embrace your identity, empower your message and reinforce your values. It’s important to follow web design trends and readapt them to your visual identity. You need to accomplish a clean, nice and esthetic website. That’s true and easy to identify but the design is much more than that. It implies psychology knowledge and a clear vision of the brand’s target. Typography matters, colors matter, composition matters.

Pay attention to performance

The content is everything. We made that clear. But there’s an aspect that both apply applies to UX and SEO. We’re talking about performance. Fast websites may not be noticed by users, but I can assure you slow websites will definitely impact on the bounce rate. Performance is one of those things people only pay attention to when there’s a lack of it. Prevent this and do everything in your power to optimize it. When we talk about performance, we’re not just talking about the speed of your website, but the time to interactive as well. Imagine scrolling down and touching a button that doesn’t work properly!

Social media to promote your brand new content

Now you have an amazing website (probably Google-friendly), with a carefully prepared content, presented in a clean design… How can you promote it for free? Through social media! Besides using SEO techniques, you can get even more traffic when you use social media for this purpose. This is really useful. In one hand, you will have a more interesting social media for your brand, with less padding information and more quality content. And on the other hand, you will create a bridge between your website and your Facebook, Twitter o LinkedIn.

Rank on top

To make the website Google friendly, we need to know that Google changes its algorithm all the time. Before the way to rank on top was ranking well on Google and you will get more traffic. But now, on the 21. century it's no longer the way.

Now, and as we said in this article, people love to be loved. The people recognize when the brands talk with the heart when the brands empathize with their visitors or consumers. You can read these 5 tips to rank on top

1. Look at what people want and what are they looking for.
2. Please people
3. Rank on Google's top
4. Please the people Google has sent
5. Rank even better in Google
6. More traffic

Think that Google will reward you if you give what people are looking for.

Summing up: 6 tips to improve your website for your users!

1. Create original and interesting content. Identify your target and give your users useful and rich information.
2. Compress your images and optimize how they’re shown.
3. Invest in original images when possible. Remember the importance of quickly make the first impression you aim to!
4. Design your webpage in an effective way but also with a design that contributes to building your brand identity.
5. Improve your site’s performance. Make your site fast and smooth.
6. Get as much feedback as you can. Send your website over to professionals but also to friends, family. The best way to check how your website responds is to try it in the real world with real users!

Make the website Google friendly = Knowing what our visitors want and how we need to talk to them. Create content especially for them!

Please your users, give them a high- quality content, a remarkable user experience and you will please Google without noticing it!