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Optimizing a poorly performing website is akin to putting lipstick on a pig. To achieve SEO Failure success, follow these steps to ensure your site meets the mark.

You’ve just landed a new client and upon examining their website, you realize the task ahead is no cakewalk. The site’s information is outdated, poorly written, and hard to read due to its clunky formatting and antiquated design.

Although you could take a band-aid approach and perform some basic SEO tasks to satisfy the client, it’s evident that bigger issues need to be addressed to achieve their lofty SEO goals and land on Page 1 of search results.

It’s akin to putting lipstick on a pig, and you know you need to have an honest conversation with the client. While it may be a difficult talk, it’s imperative to discuss how fundamental problems need to be fixed and the potential budget required to do so.

You must be prepared to walk away from the project or come up with creative solutions to stay within the budget, as neither party will succeed if the website’s fundamental issues aren’t resolved.

Before embarking on an SEO program, there are two critical categories that must be addressed on any website:

1. The content on the website
2. The technical back-end of the website
   I’ll touch on what to look for in each category next.

1. Updating the content:

Clients often make the mistake of focusing solely on creating new content instead of updating and optimizing existing content on their website. It’s important to allocate equal resources for both.

When it comes to determining how often to update content, there are three things to consider. First, if the topic is evergreen, meaning it remains relevant for a long time, there may be less work involved in updating it. Second, if the query requires fresh content, such as social or political events, it’s essential to have the most up-to-date information. Finally, if the topic falls under the “your money or your life” (YMYL) category, such as financial or medical advice, the website must adhere to higher standards.

Aside from updating content, having a strategy to organize it effectively is also crucial for SEO success and user experience. This includes optimizing navigation and internal linking through SEO siloing and internal linking best practices, which can streamline the SEO program’s efforts when implemented early on.

2. Updating the website:

Before focusing on driving more traffic to a website, it’s important to ensure that the basics are covered. This includes spider-friendly code, using a reliable content management system, optimizing site speed, and ensuring mobile usability. It’s also important to take care of technical aspects like robots.txt, XML sitemaps, and 301 redirects. Using fully qualified URLs, canonical tags, and regularly maintaining the server are also crucial. Lastly, be mindful of using the right plugins and designing the website in a user-friendly and visually appealing way.

Immediate action items to tackle are:

Spider-friendly code: refers to the programming code used to build a website that is easily crawlable by search engine spiders. When a search engine spider crawls a website, it reads the website’s code to understand the website’s content and structure. Spider-friendly code helps to ensure that the search engine spiders can easily read and understand the website’s content, which in turn can help to improve the website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Some important elements of spider-friendly code include the use of proper HTML markup, using header tags appropriately, providing alt text for images, avoiding the use of flash and frames, and optimizing the website’s code for fast loading times. Additionally, using structured data markup, such as schema.org, can help to provide additional context to search engine spiders about the content on a website.

In short, spider-friendly code is essential for ensuring that search engines can properly index and rank a website, which can ultimately help to improve the website’s visibility in search results and drive more traffic to the website.

The content management system: (CMS) is the software used to manage and publish website content. A CMS allows users to create, edit, organize, and publish content with ease.

From an SEO standpoint, the CMS is critical because it can impact the website’s ability to rank in search engines. Some CMS platforms are more SEO-friendly than others, so it’s important to choose a CMS that allows for easy optimization.

For example, a good CMS should allow you to customize important on-page SEO elements, such as title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags, without needing to write any code. It should also make it easy to add alt tags to images, create a logical site structure, and add internal and external links.

Moreover, a good CMS should provide clean and structured code, which can help search engines understand the content on the page. This can also improve page speed, another critical factor for SEO.

In summary, choosing the right CMS is an essential first step in creating an SEO-friendly website. It can streamline your optimization efforts, improve your website’s performance, and make it easier to manage your content over time.

Site speed: is one of the most important technical factors for SEO. Search engines, especially Google, consider page speed a crucial ranking factor. A slow-loading website can negatively impact user experience, and as a result, search engines will penalize such websites in the search results.

Site speed can be affected by a range of factors, including server speed, image size and quality, code optimization, and the use of unnecessary scripts and plugins. To optimize site speed, it’s essential to implement various best practices such as using a content delivery network (CDN), compressing images, and minifying code.

It’s important to note that optimizing site speed isn’t just about improving rankings. A fast website also improves user experience and reduces bounce rates, leading to better engagement and conversions. Therefore, website owners must continually monitor their site speed and take necessary steps to improve it.

Mobile usability: refers to the ease with which users can access and navigate a website on their mobile devices. With mobile devices accounting for a significant percentage of internet traffic, it’s essential that websites are optimized for mobile devices to provide a positive user experience.

Mobile usability involves various aspects, such as responsive design, font sizes, clickable areas, and load time. Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices may have a high bounce rate, low time on site, and poor conversion rates.

To improve mobile usability, web designers and developers should create a responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes and resolutions. This means that the website’s layout should change and adjust to fit the smaller screen size of a mobile device.

The font size should also be legible on mobile devices, and clickable areas should be large enough to avoid accidental clicks. Additionally, mobile sites should load quickly to provide a seamless user experience.

Google has also made mobile usability a crucial ranking factor, and websites that are not optimized for mobile devices may rank lower in search engine results pages (SERPs). Therefore, optimizing a website for mobile usability is critical for both user experience and search engine optimization (SEO).

Robots.txt: is a file used by website owners to communicate with web crawlers and search engines about which pages and sections of their website they want to be crawled or blocked. The robots.txt file contains instructions to tell the web crawlers and search engines which pages and files should not be accessed.

By blocking search engines from certain areas of your website, you can prevent them from indexing and displaying information that you don’t want to appear in search results. This can be useful for pages that are not intended for public consumption, such as administrative pages or test pages.

However, it’s important to use robots.txt carefully, as incorrectly blocking pages or sections can have negative effects on your website’s visibility in search results. For example, if you block an important page or section of your website, it may not appear in search results, which could impact your website’s traffic and visibility.

It’s recommended to regularly review your robots.txt file and update it as needed to ensure that search engines can access and index the pages you want to appear in search results. You can use various tools to test your robots.txt file to make sure it’s working as intended.

XML sitemaps: are files that list all of the pages on a website and provide information about how they are organized and linked together. They are important for search engines to crawl and index a website effectively.

Having a properly formatted XML sitemap can help search engines find and index pages on a website that might not otherwise be discovered, such as pages that are not linked to from other pages on the site. It can also help search engines better understand the structure of the site and prioritize crawling of important pages.

In addition to listing URLs, an XML sitemap can also provide additional information about each page, such as when it was last modified and how frequently it changes. This information can help search engines prioritize crawling of frequently updated pages and avoid crawling pages that have not changed in a long time.

XML sitemaps are easy to generate and can be submitted to search engines through their respective webmaster tools. Regularly updating and submitting an XML sitemap can help ensure that a website is properly crawled and indexed by search engines.

301 redirects: are an important tool for maintaining a website’s search engine optimization. When a page on a website is moved or removed, a 301 redirect can be used to redirect the user and search engines to a new page or an alternative page that is related to the original page.

The 301 redirect tells the search engine that the original page has permanently moved to a new location. This passes on the link juice or authority that the original page had to the new page, helping to maintain the website’s overall authority and search engine rankings.

It is important to set up 301 redirects correctly, with the right syntax and the correct target URL. Failing to set up 301 redirects correctly can result in broken links, which can negatively impact the user experience and the website’s search engine rankings.

301 redirects can also be used to consolidate multiple versions of a website into a single canonical version. For example, if a website has both a “www” and “non-www” version, a 301 redirect can be set up to redirect all traffic to the preferred version of the website, consolidating the authority of both versions into a single canonical version.

Fully qualified URLs: Using fully qualified URLs, which include the complete “https” address instead of a relative URL, can help address certain crawling issues when linking internally on a website.

Canonical tags: Canonical tags are a type of HTML tag that can be used to indicate the preferred or canonical version of a webpage, particularly when there are multiple versions of the same content available online. When search engines crawl a website and find multiple URLs with identical or very similar content, it can lead to confusion and dilution of the website’s search engine ranking potential. By adding a canonical tag to the preferred URL, webmasters can help ensure that search engines understand which version of the content they should prioritize in their index, which can ultimately improve the website’s search engine visibility and ranking. The canonical tag is added to the HTML head section of the webpage and includes the URL of the preferred version of the content.

Server maintenance: Server maintenance is the process of ensuring the smooth operation and optimal performance of a computer server system. This can involve various tasks such as upgrading hardware, updating software, installing security patches, and monitoring server performance. Regular server maintenance is essential for ensuring that the server is running efficiently, avoiding downtime, and minimizing the risk of cyber attacks.

Server maintenance can be scheduled on a regular basis or on an as-needed basis. Some maintenance tasks, such as security updates, may need to be performed more frequently than others. Common server maintenance tasks include checking disk usage, clearing old logs and temporary files, and monitoring server performance metrics such as CPU usage and network traffic.

To perform server maintenance, it is essential to have a good understanding of the server’s configuration, as well as knowledge of the operating system and any software installed on the server. Some organizations may choose to outsource server maintenance to a third-party provider, while others may have an in-house IT team responsible for server maintenance.

Overall, server maintenance is a crucial part of ensuring the long-term reliability and security of a server system, and regular maintenance can help prevent unexpected downtime and data loss.

Plugins: Plugins are software components that can be added to a larger software application to enhance its functionality or add new features. They are typically designed to work with specific applications and can be installed, updated, and removed separately from the core software. Plugins are commonly used in content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, which allows users to add and remove plugins to extend the functionality of their website.

Plugins can perform a wide range of tasks, depending on the software they are designed for. For example, a plugin for a web browser might add new features like ad blocking or password management. In a CMS like WordPress, plugins can be used to add features such as contact forms, social media integration, or e-commerce functionality.

One advantage of using plugins is that they can be developed by third-party developers, meaning that the core software development team does not need to build every feature themselves. This can help keep the core software lightweight and efficient, while still providing users with a range of options for customizing their experience.

However, using too many plugins can also have negative consequences. Plugins can add additional code to the application, which can increase load times and potentially introduce security vulnerabilities. It is important to carefully consider which plugins are necessary and to regularly update them to ensure they are up-to-date with security patches and bug fixes.

Overall, plugins can be a powerful tool for customizing and extending the functionality of software applications, but it is important to use them judiciously and be mindful of their potential impact on performance and security.

The design: Design refers to the process of creating a plan or blueprint for the visual appearance and functionality of a product, system, or object. It can be applied to a wide range of fields, from graphic design and fashion design to product design and architectural design.

The design process typically involves research, planning, conceptualization, and execution. Designers often work closely with clients or stakeholders to understand their needs and goals, and to create a design that meets their requirements. This can involve creating sketches, wireframes, or prototypes to test and refine the design.

Good design is not just about aesthetics, but also about usability and functionality. A well-designed product or system should be intuitive and easy to use, with a user interface that is clear and understandable. The design should also be scalable and adaptable to changing needs over time.

Design plays a crucial role in shaping the way we interact with the world around us. From the layout of a website to the design of a building, good design can enhance our experience and improve our quality of life. By considering factors such as form, function, and user experience, designers can create products and systems that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also practical and effective.