Archive for SEO

Open Links to Other Sites in a New Tab/Window

August 17th, 2015

chainWhen you add a link to your website to another OUTSIDE website, it’s best practice to have that link open in another tab/window. This allows YOUR site to stay open for the user, increasing the likelihood that they will continue looking around on your site after they finish with the link that opened.

Keeping people on your website will not only increase the chance that they will learn more about you and perhaps connect with you in the future – it also has a positive impact on your search engine (Google) rankings.

For links that are WITHIN your website – say, from the Home page to the About page – you should leave the link in its default state, opening in the same browser tab and window. You want to encourage a user to click around from page to page in your site, and opening a new tab or window for every click would be incredibly annoying!

Whether a link opens in a new tab or a new window is determined by the settings that an individual user has made to their browser. Website managers can set links to open in what ever “new” option the user has chosen.

How to set a link in WordPress to open in a new tab or window:

WP Link popupSetting a link to open in a new tab/window in WordPress is easy!  When you are creating a new link, simply tick the check box under the title bar titled “Open link in a new window/tab”.  That’s it!

The hardest part is that the next time you open the Insert/edit link popup, the “Open link a new window/tab” will be checked by default.  You will want to develop the habit of making sure this box is checked/unchecked as needed.  Staying on your own site: unchecked; taking the user to another website: checked.

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Find & Fix Broken Links

June 22nd, 2015

chainYour site might get lower search engine (Google) rankings — that is, appear lower in search engine results — if your site has broken links in it.  Broken links are when a link on your site (which probably worked when you first created it) no longer works, and displays an error or “page not found” message.

This might happen if you linked to a page of another site, which subsequently took down that page of their site, or changed the URL of that page.  It frequently happens for our clients when they remove old PDFs and images from the Media Library without removing the links in posts or pages to those media files. (Remember, when you insert an image, you are creating a link to that media file.)

To find broken links on your site, use this free online Broken Link Checker.

Once you have identified the broken links, then the next step is to fix them by either updating to the new URL (if there is one) or removing the broken link.

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Follow Navigation Menu Conventions

April 13th, 2015

direction signFollowing conventions with your navigation menu will help users more intuitively find their way around your site.

You definitely want to make visiting your website a pleasant experience for users, and not something that is frustrating or puzzling. When site visitors can’t find things they are looking for pretty immediately – some studies show in under three seconds! – they are quick to leave your site. You lose not only that one visitor, but if too many visitors are leaving your site quickly, that could start to affect your search engine rankings, losing you even more visitors.

Menu Conventions

One way to help your site feel more intuitive is to use some simple conventions about menu items and their order on your menu:

  • The left-most item on your menu should always be your “Home” page.
  • Just to the right of Home should be your “About” page. (About pages are often the second most visited page of any website, so it might not help you to either rename or reposition this item.)
  • Your “Contact” page will go on the far right end of the menu.

While everyone wants their website to stand out and be different, following menu conventions is an act of hospitality to make things more pleasant for your website guests.

We will be having other posts about menu items soon.  Let us know about other topics you are interested in!

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Using Headings in WordPress

September 16th, 2014

Headings in WPYou may have noticed a drop down in the bottom row of the WordPress toolbar that will allow you to quickly change the fonts in your page or post. (It’s displayed in the picture in this post.)

You should not use the Headings to change your font size simply to emphasize text. Heading 1 down through Heading 6 are used to change the font size (and perhaps the font colors, or even the fonts themselves), but their usage should be reserved for actual headings.

Search engines use your headings to index the structure and content of your web pages. It is important to use headings to show the structure of the content on your page or post. Heading 1 is for the most important heading, Heading 6 is for the least important heading.

Users skim your pages by its headings too.  Using headings helps your users move intuitively through your content.  They won’t be able to do this if you make entire blocks of content display as headings.

When you need to emphasize text, use bold or italics. Never use underline for emphasizing text on the web–your users will mistake it for a link.

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