How to Structure Your New Website for Optimal SEO

Your website is the online face of your business, and really important for drawing people in. Search engines want to give their clients (the searchers) the best experience possible, which means getting them in front of businesses that the searcher would like and could trust. You can have a beautiful website, however, google (at the moment) does not have a bot that judges the ascetics of a site, but rather relies on algorithms that crunch a lot of data to deliver the results they do. How your website is structured is one of the key metrics that factor into the google equation.

Analyzing The Vitals

When I bring on a new client, the first thing I check is their website's structure. As an SEO expert, this structure tells me a lot. I feel like a doctor looking at a patient's medical chart when I review the site map. A site map shows me:

1. Whether the web developer planned things out well.
2. How tidy the site is - if it's messy, it might mean there are other problems too.
3. If the content matches what the client wants to achieve.
4. Whether the site can grow and handle more content in the future.
5. How up-to-date the content is.

For instance, last week, I was checking a potential client’s site map and found lots of pages selling generators and power tools. That's great for a hardware store, but not so much for a pest control company. A site map is so useful that Google even asks developers to submit theirs on the Google Search Console. So, the way your site is organized really matters.

Now, let's dive into some key tips for setting up your website in an organized way and talk about making your website structure great for SEO. We will focus on creating a well-made homepage, main service pages, and targeting different locations with city pages.

The Role of the Homepage: Your Business’s Digital Introduction

Your homepage is often the first point of contact between your business and potential clients. It should function as an "About Us" page, offering a comprehensive overview of who you are and what you do. Other than providing a great user experience to your potenital client and letting them quickly know exactly what you do, this homepage should be search engine optimized only for your brand name.

• Target Primary Keywords: The primary keywords for your homepage should be your business name. This not only aids in brand recognition but also ensures that when potential clients search for your business, your website ranks prominently.
• Content Focus: The content should articulate your business’s mission, values, and unique selling propositions. This helps in establishing brand identity and trust with your audience.

If you go into detail about any of your services on this page, you run the risk of having your homepage rank for other services. I have seen homepages interfering with city landing page ranking. Whenever you have multiple pages ranking for the same keyword, both pages loose. You will want to keep this in mind for all the pages you are trying to get ranked.

Primary Service Page: Showcasing Your Main Offering

Every business has a flagship service or product that stands at the core of its operations. Your website should have a dedicated primary service page for this offering. You will be sending people here from your homepage. Before you even think about building a city landing page, you must first be sure to create a dedicated service page with no location data. One of the primary reasons for this is that you do not want to send people from your homepage to a city landing page. You might have someone from a different city land on your website, and when they click on the primary service, they become disoriented because they are on a page that represents a city 30+ miles away.

• Content Depth and Quality: This page should provide detailed information about your main service, explaining how it meets the needs and expectations of your target audience. The content should be rich in relevant keywords without compromising readability and engagement.
• Visuals and User Experience: Incorporate high-quality images, videos, and infographics to make the page visually appealing. Ensure that the page is easy to navigate, with clear calls-to-action (CTAs) leading the visitor towards making an inquiry or purchase.

Geo-Located Primary Service Page: Localized SEO

For businesses serving specific geographical areas, having a geo-located primary service page is crucial.

• Local SEO Optimization: Include location-specific keywords in your page content. This helps in appearing in search results when potential clients are looking for services in your area.
• Customized Content: Tailor the content to reflect local needs, trends, and cultural nuances. This approach resonates more with the local audience, fostering a sense of community and relevance.

Structuring for Growth and Expansion

Properly structuring your website with a focus on your homepage, primary service page, and geo-location ensures a solid foundation for SEO.

• Scalability: As your business grows and diversifies, this structure allows you to add new services or expand into new areas without diluting the SEO strength of your existing pages.
• Google Indexing and Identification: A clear, well-structured website helps Google bots to index your site effectively, ensuring better visibility in search results. It also prevents issues like duplicate content or keyword cannibalization, which can arise with poorly structured websites.

A strategically structured website is pivotal in optimizing for search engines. By focusing on a compelling homepage, a detailed primary service page, and incorporating geo-location targeting, your website will not only attract the right audience but also lay a robust foundation for future growth and expansion. Remember, your website is the digital heartbeat of your business; structuring it for optimal SEO is key to ensuring its visibility and success in the online realm. This information is so important, and yes, I am informing my competition with this stuff, but, it is so important and I want all of my future clients to have a well structured site so that it will save us all a bunch of headaches in the future :-)