Are you Googling “How to make my site SEO friendly” only to turn up the same tired, unhelpful advice? You are not the only person to need a little extra help when it comes to getting your site to appear in search engines, and even we started somewhere. So, what does SEO friendly mean when you dig below the surface and what strategies do you have to help you leverage this tool?

This article unpacks the many layers of SEO that exist. By the end, you should understand the changes you need to make so that your brand appears enticing not only on search engines but everywhere online. If you are ready to boost your site’s visibility, read on to discover the actionable strategies you have been looking for.

What does SEO Friendly Mean to Search Engines?

Search engines use a variety of algorithms to ensure the links that end up on them are relevant to the users who search for them. While there are several factors that this encompasses, Google states that the main things they pay attention to are a site’s:

Experience. How much the writer has personally interacted with the subject of the page. For example, you would not want someone to write about a BMWs who has never driven.

Expertise. How much the content creator is knowledgeable about a subject. High expertise prevents false information from spreading and shows a site as reliable.

Authority. How much the party in question is considered the go-to on a subject. A product creator’s page will be the authority on a product, or a government on their own policies.. 

Trustworthiness. This is how likely it is that a page avoids potential user harm. Ensure that you provide high-quality and fact-checked information to ensure you do not fall behind in this factor.

While Google leverages these areas, though, these are not the only considerations you need to make. Search engines, especially those outside of Google, factor in many more things, such as:

• Relevance to the search
• Accessibility of the site
• The user experience of web pages
• The quality of internal and external links

You also need to be aware, though, that all search engines constantly update their methods. The ever-evolving nature of SEO ranking may change what it means to be “SEO Friendly”, meaning you need to stay on your toes. 

Learning how to write SEO friendly blog posts while such changes occur may take some ongoing learning, but it is a battle you can win.

Technical SEO

While most SEO work is much more than a simple checklist, there are certainly places you can leverage one to quickly see improvement.

First, you need to ensure the infrastructure of your site is accessible, not only to users but to a search engine’s crawlers. These bots are like the Internet’s little Indiana Joneses, and will explore every crevice of your website. They need to know that a link is clear, though, and not blocked (and no rolling boulders exist). 

At the same, you need to:

• Ensure pages load quickly to prevent user bounce
• Use SSL certificates and secure the website to ensure trustworthiness
• Use XML sitemaps and robots.txt files to help guide search engine crawls
• Check on your site’s visibility on sites such as Google Search Console

While this may seem like a lot, each item you do not optimize is another weight holding you back from succeeding.

On-Page SEO

While most SEO work is much more than a simple checklist, there are certainly places you can leverage one to quickly see improvement.

First, every individual web page you have on your site should have everything it needs to inform search engines of what your site is about. The more of these you have on each page, the more likely a search engine is to inform others that you are an expert on that page’s topic. These include:

• Meta Titles
• H1 headers
• Meta Descriptions
• The body text of the page
• Image alt tags

The most popular way to do this is through the use of keywords. These are terms that users might search for and could appear on your site. You need to ensure that these are naturally placed on your web pages, as good spelling and grammar are both signs of trustworthiness.

You should also link together pages on your site. This encourages visitors to remain on your pages, convincing a search engine that they should pay attention to your site. It both pushes the idea that your site is worth reading and also allows search engines to understand that your site is simple to navigate.

Off-Page SEO

It is not only within your own site that you need to focus your SEO efforts. You should also start to develop links from outside your URL, building up “backlinks” from other reputable sites. This way, you will boost your credibility with search engines and encourage them to consider you an authority in your industry.

If you are a local business, you also have an additional card up your sleeve. A Google My Business page is like an accessible cheat sheet for your site. You can leverage local SEO by claiming your business listing and bringing in positive reviews. 

Using these tools, you will boost how much people consider you an authority in your local area, bringing them to you when they want something.

Technical SEO

Last of all, you need to ensure the infrastructure of your site is accessible, not only to users but to a search engine’s crawlers. These bots are like the Internet’s little Indiana Joneses, and will explore every crevice of your website. They need to know that a link is clear, though, and not blocked (and no rolling boulders exist). 

At the same, you need to:

• Ensure pages load quickly to prevent user bounce
• Use SSL certificates and secure the website to ensure trustworthiness
• Use XML sitemaps and robots.txt files to help guide search engine crawls
• Check on your site’s visibility on sites such as Google Search Console

While this may seem like a lot, each item you do not optimize is another weight holding you back from succeeding.

Essentials of SEO Friendly Website Design

If you want your website to be SEO friendly, it takes more than ticking all the search engine visibility boxes. If users do not spend time on your site, nobody will consider you worth linking to.

As such, an SEO friendly site will use both high-quality aesthetics and functionality to create a site people will want to return to. One of the best ways to do this is to offer an easy-to-navigate experience that gives users exactly what they want. This may be a product, but might also be information on how to use it, or new ways of considering similar items in the future.

How Do Aesthetics and User Experience Help SEO?

If you have a website that looks professional, you are much more likely to retain many of the people who come to you. People will see you as someone they can trust, and they will not only convert into customers but recommend you to others too.

To do this, try to incorporate some of the following advice:

• Ensure content is both readable and appealing
• Use color schemes and branding that make navigation easy
• Organize your website in a logical manner
• Test the site to see if people can find what they need fast and update it when they cannot
• Include simple feedback mechanisms to foster an invested community

All of these together ensure your site is both readable and simple to use. This helps get people from their first interaction with you to signing up for what you offer.

Mobile Optimization and Responsive Design

When you design your site, make sure not to only plan it for desktops. Over a half of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices and, if your site is not optimized for it, you will lose a lot of potential customers.

Not only this, but it can also directly impact your search engine rankings. Many search engines prefer sites that people can use on mobile, and as such will list a page lower if it receives a significantly lower score on mobile.

As such, try to adapt content to be both effective and readable on smaller screens. Change up font sizes and button dimensions, or consider adjusting the whole layout of the site. This can give mobile users a much smoother experience.

Advanced SEO Strategies for Long-Term Success

Once you have the basic optimization of your site done, strap in, because it’s time to take this to the next level. 

A truly SEO friendly site uses several of these to boost how its users perceive their experience. For example, user data can offer powerful insights into exactly what your target audience is doing on your site. You can then focus on key areas of engagement to boost your SEO further. 

As you continue forward, make sure to combine your efforts with other areas of marketing. This includes social media, email marketing, and content creation. Overlapping keywords and boosting your visibility in these areas can give you the best chance of making an impact in your industry.

Leveraging Structured Data and Schema Markup

Make sure to organize the structure of your website to be as clear as possible for search engines to understand. This way, you can ensure they categorize you correctly in search results and prevent confusion when users visit.

For example, your websites should use:

• Clear meta tags such as titles and descriptions
• Logically-ordered Headers
• Clear header hierarchy

All of these help make your site comprehensible to both people and algorithms.

At the same time, you can leverage the on-screen layout of search engines to help you get seen. Using schema markup, you can dictate the type of page you have. This will then push the search engine to give it more visibility in areas such as:

Rich snippets. Expanded search results that include information like review star ratings or prices of products.

Knowledge graphs. A section of a search result that displays detailed information about a product or business.

Featured snippets. Brief excerpts from a webpage that directly answer a searcher’s query.

Carousels. Recipes, articles, or multimedia files can all appear in a dedicated display in a search engine.

This list is not exhaustive, though. It only represents a small example of the ways different search engines give the most trustworthy sites pride of place.

Using AI the Right Way to Avoid Delisting

As Google considers any site with a high level of experience more presentable, it stands to reason that it does not rate AI content highly. The writing a large language model produces can often be impersonal and only touch the very surface of what it might need to explain.

Despite this, many sites use AI to help them produce content fast. Sadly, this has led to pushback from search engines who have reduced their visibility in search engine lists in response.

Still, using an AI can help you in other ways. It can aid in contact planning, or understanding where your site is falling behind in SEO. It can also help you with updates for other sites such as social media to save you time in the long run.

Many business owners are also starting to develop personalization algorithms to boost UX. These analyze the history of a business so that they can provide specific help that matches the customer’s needs on a website. This incorporates an AI into the flow of a site, helping prevent user bounce as they never lose track of what they need.

Debunking Common SEO Myths

Several misconceptions about SEO exist, and many of them may be directly harmful to your business efforts. Learning the reality of these can ensure you always choose the wisest tactics and optimize your efforts for the best chance of success.

Myth 1: More Keywords Means Better Rankings

Back in the early 2000s, when Google’s algorithms were new, you could push more of a specific search keyword onto your pages to boost your visibility. This has no longer been the case for decades, but the rumors persist.

Search engines now instead prioritize the context of a piece of work and the intent of a user’s search over keyword density. This ensures the internet retains its high quality, rather than a high quantity of irrelevant information.

Instead of keyword stuffing, try to put these keywords in strategic places, such as the meta title and meta description. You may also want to invest in a keyword planner to give you more insights without compromising your content.

Myth 2: You Only Need to Focus on Google

While Google is the elephant in the room, other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and many others also play a strong part in global SEO focus. Countries outside of your own may not have access to Google, after all, and may instead rely on other, local, browser options.

You should try to diversify your SEO efforts where possible to increase your visibility and traffic, don’t only focus on one search engine. Also, learn the unique algorithms and ranking factors for each search engine results page. These can help you further optimize your visibility for a broader audience.

Myth 3: Images Don’t Impact SEO

The images themselves may not directly increase the number of people who see you on a search engine result page. This doesn’t mean they are irrelevant, though.

Images can do the following to help you:

• Boost user engagement and reduce bounce rate by breaking up text
• Offer a space to put alt text and file names that match your keyword efforts
• Appear in rich snippets or featured images with the proper tags

More broadly, images can help you with your branding, ensuring you appear professional and consistent in your tone.

Future-Proof Your SEO Efforts With Expert Advice

Answering the question, “What does SEO friendly mean”, takes more than a single article to explain. Any of the above topics could encompass a whole evening of learning on their own. This is why having professional SEO advice can mean the difference between amateur efforts and real visitors.

With Rose & Cactus SEO, you will receive the kind of high-quality, actionable advice you should expect from a real industry veteran. So, contact us here at Rose & Cactus to ensure your SEO strategy is not only effective short term but offers long-term benefits too. Let’s turn your site’s potential into measurable results today.