You may have heard or read the term SEO- (search engine optimisation) friendly website a fair bit recently. But, what does it mean?

More importantly, is there really such a thing as an SEO-friendly website?

Let’s put that question to bed straight away: there is. Websites that aren’t SEO-friendly won’t enjoy many visits, or, if they do, they won’t be from the most relevant audience.

Websites that are SEO-friendly will be treated to lots of visitors who are genuinely interested in the content that’s on display.

What defines an SEO-friendly website?

There are quite a few things that define an SEO-friendly website, but we’re not going to get too deeply into the weeds today. This is because many of the elements relating to SEO are technical and, let’s be honest, rather dull unless you’re an expert.

However, there are some which normal human beings will relate to and be able to apply to their own websites.

Here’s our favourite five.

1. Unique content

Pretty much anyone can create a website and fill it with content that has been copied and pasted from elsewhere. But that won’t make it SEO-friendly.

Google loves websites that feature unique, engaging content that’s of decent length and which isn’t stuffed full of keywords (an old tactic that has no place today).

2. Unique page titles and descriptions

Every page on your website will need a unique title and description if it’s to rank well on Google.

Titles should be between 60 to 65 characters, while descriptions are best placed into around 150 characters. It can be a long, laborious job, but is one of the oldest and still most trusted SEO techniques.

3. Properly formatted URLs

The URL is basically the page address that appears at the top of your web browser for any given webpage.

In order for the website to be SEO-friendly, they need to be descriptive, separated by dashes and include a reference to the most important keyword.

4. Speedy pages

Google is acutely aware of how fast - or slow - a website is. If yours crawls along at a snail’s pace due to rubbish hosting or poor coding, that won’t serve you well from an SEO perspective.

5. Images that are search engine ready

It’s easy to get carried away with the words on your website when it comes to SEO, but images play a massive role, too.

SEO-friendly websites have an abundance of imagery that is unique and properly alt tagged for keywords. They’re also small enough in file size not to slow the site down and contain meaningful filenames.

How can you make your website SEO-friendly?

Chances are, you’ll have spotted a few elements above in which your website is lacking. Don’t panic - you can make changes relatively quickly to ensure your website is as SEO-friendly as possible.

Here are some quick-fire tips for doing just that:

• start creating unique content (blogs, rewriting your existing pages - whatever you need to do to get shot of copied and pasted stuff);
• amend URLs so they make sense - get rid of numbers or irrelevant words;
• ensure there’s an XML sitemap;
• make sure it performs well on screens big and small;
• replace stock images with your own photos;
• get rid of pages that feature overly used keywords; and
• add a few internal and external links.

Granted, you might need some assistance from an SEO agency with the above but trust us - it’ll be money well spent.

Wrapping up

We hope we’ve proved that there really is such a thing as an SEO-friendly website.

Worried yours might be the opposite of that? Book your personalised digital website audit today.