Importance of Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, (SEO) is the process of making a website better for search engines. Most search engines make an index (an entry for each page that describes the content and location (URL) of that page. Each new page can be found by search engines crawling (a process of looking for new or updated web pages). The URLs are discovered by following links, reading sitemaps and more.

Sino Soft understands that a website that is online needs to have traffic (users). To ensure you have quality traffic and the right quantity, there are factors that one needs to consider how such traffic can be attained, increased and maintained. Below are services that we offer that are important to the improving your website’s SEO index. Outlined with the services are ways and methodologies that we use to ensure the SEO process is enhanced.

Security

We understand how search engines use URLs. Most search engines like Google or Microsoft's Bing prefer all websites to use https:// when possible and it has been officially ruled that any website without any security will not be crawled and indexed at all. The https:// shows that your website is secured. At Sino Soft, we ensure that all websites we host have an SSL Certificate as part and parcel of the hosting package plan.

The use of any form of CAPTCHA ensures that any link by spammy websites or spam robots in form entry fields from sending automated replies entries or submissions. The CAPTCHA ensures your website is protected from automated spamming. All forms created on all our websites come with either a basic CAPTCHA or with client’s provision, we use Google’s CAPTCHA.

404 Not Found errors are errors that point to unavailable page or a URL that cannot be found on the server hosting the website. The server cannot find anything matching the requested URL, but a network connection between the server and client has been established successfully. Such pages are not indexed by any search engine crawler. A deleted page by a hacker can result to such results hence a need to have great security within your website. We ensure when such errors occur, a redirect URL is provided that will direct you to any specific, indexed page within the website.

With the content management platform of WordPress come issues of security. This is compounded by thousands of plugins created to supplement development of a WordPress website. During the setup of the development environment, we confirm that the version of WordPress and related files are up-to-date, and all versions of plugins are updated against any security loopholes and patched up. This ensures safety for the website as a whole, compatibility among different components within the website and a secure interaction platform for users to your website.

Design and Development

Use of the heading tags during the design and development of the website help to emphasize important text. All our websites have a searchable hierarchical structure for the content. We use meaningful headings to indicate important topics and these are well structured with no mix-up meaning smooth navigation by users through the web page content. This makes crawling and indexing much easier without any content being skipped because of mixed headings.

Optimize content by making it interesting and useful. We help clients make their content meaningful to the users visiting their website. The content may include blog posts, social media services, emails, videos, images, forums which will direct users to the site and even share the same content. We ensure there’s no duplicate content throughout the page and trying to correct grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. All these corrections and guidance helps improve your website’s SEO experience.

Image optimization is essential to ensure a website loads faster. This is done through reduced size of images used on the website, using the WordPress platform that allows “lazy load” where images are loaded much later after text or as needed as the user scrolls a page, provision of descriptive text to images and the use of commonly accepted image formats.

Responsive design is critical. We design all websites with the mobile first approach. Any website that cannot be displayed properly on a mobile device is generally ranked lower in searches even if with relevant content as most users today access the Web through such devices.

Fig: Weighting of Thematic Cluster of Ranking Factors in Google

Web Hosting

At Sino Soft, we ensure when providing a hosting package to a client, we ensure that we help with picking of a domain name that’s short for users to remember the website with. When picking a domain name, we provide alternative domain names that one can pick from. Easy to remember names mean users can recall your website and return or share with their friends, increasing traffic.

A web hosting provider should be able to provide a package that ensures their servers are optimized for SEO. We provide most of our websites on the WordPress content management system as it’s easy to set up, built for SEO with plugin support and supports more than 40% of the Web meaning the remaining content management systems like Joomla, Shopify, Squarespace, Drupal and Wix, and custom sites share the rest. Your site is in safe hands with us.

Website backup is an important part of any hosting company. We make recommendations on how to go about making an offline, or online backup (when available). This ensures that when your website is down or has been tampered with, you have a copy to fall back on to get it back online. Backups, either manual or automated are essential. With no website available, SEO crawlers have nothing on your website, meaning it's not available for indexing.

The uptime of the servers where your website is hosted matter. Our servers provide a consistent 99.99% uptime meaning your website will be online at all times without any downtime. Downtime means an increased bounce rate (the frequency at which users leave your website without doing much) to your website and missing out on indexing by search engine crawlers.

Talk to us today about how, when designing and developing your website can ensure its ranked higher by search engines. Our services as shown above ensure we have warranted that SEO is part of setting up any website. Join us and be found!