Websiteabilty Q & A on Website Optimisation and SEO

Alex Hutson of Websiteability gave an excellent masterclass to AIPP members during our Zoom Conference Series. Here are the key points to take away from the advice he gave at the following Q & A session on how to improve your website. There are some excellent tips here – some of them very quick and easy to do.

For Alex’s full presentation go to the resource section here.

…but put the customer at the heart of it. Make them the hero figure – the Batman to your Robin. You are selling your customers a lifestyle, a solution, an opportunity – outline it for them and how if you work together it can be a reality.

Proven data shows ‘About Us’ pages get lots of hits. Make sure you have one and that it is updated, relevant and engages viewers with more than just puff copy i.e. ‘we’re a great team here with lots of experience, trust us’. Tell them WHO you are. Use pictures, give bio’s and examples of experience and make this the real side of your personality. Here’s AIPP’s.

This scores the content of your website or blog and tells you how readable it really is and makes suggestions as to when to make sentences shorter, use better grammar etc. People will tune out if they can’t understand what you are writing or if its not persuasive. Here is an example of a tool to do this. https://readable.com/

Another useful tool used by members. Nothing shouts un-professional more than typos, mis-spelling or poor use of language – and its FREE! Add it as a plugin – it comes in the form of an app.

Even the telephone number. More than half of people will be viewing your content on a phone or tablet. Make it as easy for them as possible. And ensure your contact details are immediately obvious – don’t make users search or scroll for them.

Ensure your website journey make sense and your pages have logical hierarchy. Consider your use of headings and make sure you only have one H1 tag per page – and make it the one you want Google to find.

Include outbound links as well as internal links to improve your Google rating and if you can get backlinks from other sites so much the better!

Supply your customers with a template so that it is easy for them to fill out and submit. Prompt them with the info you want to highlight – Was the service, fast friendly, efficient? Check out these examples on Hubspot. If you have the budget consider trying a Trust Pilot service – currently we are researching what is the best service for our industry so will report back! Google’s own indigenous review system may be worth considering too.

Set it up with Google Tag Manager so that clicks on important items can be tracked, such as telephone and email link clicks. They can’t be tracked otherwise.

Customers like to know your site is secure and are much less likely to upload their details or search on an unsecure site (you can see this in your URL).

Consider using software such as Cloudflare DNS.  This will speed up your sites loading and offer advanced security.

Use large images of good quality. Look to the industry leaders for tips – they have paid a lot of money to ‘experts’ to ensure their sites are as appealing and consumer-friendly as possible so learn from this!

Consider many of your target group have poor eyesight and will struggle to read text too small, in uncomfortable fonts or against harsh backgrounds.

If you have badges, membership (such as AIPP/AIPO) or professional qualifications such as RICS – use them and make sure they are fully visual on your site.

Any of the guides on AIPO can be added to your own websites – visit https://aipo.org.uk/downloads/ download the pdfs and upload them to your site. The AIPP Buyers guide can also be customised with your own logos for a small fee. Email claire@aipp.org.uk for details.

To see how your website ranks along with your pages and keywords we recommend SEMrush. But a few keywords can be tracked for free in Uber Suggest.

Our thanks again to Alex Hutson of Websiteabilty  – for personalised advice, book a free 30 min appointment with Alex.