What is the address of your website? How are the links of your website? Are they clear and understandable or are they full of random numbers and characters? You should know that just like the content on your site, Google reads and understands each of the URLs associated with a web page. That is why it is important that you use them to indicate what that web page is about.
How to create a SEO friendly URL?
Always use lowercase letters.
Avoid the use of special characters: accents, exclamation marks, question marks, commas, periods, etc.
Do not leave spaces between words. Use the hyphens
Keep it short and memorable.
Include the main keyword in the URL
🚨 Be careful: if you make changes to your URLs and you have been using those links for a long time, it will be necessary to report these changes to Google, as well as think about redirections to prevent users who already know them and enter through these addresses from finding what they are looking for .
Sign up for Google Search Console
If you want to appear on Google for free, one of the best ways is to make the search engine your best ally and one of the ways to do that is to tell them about your site. No, you don't have to tweet him or send him an email. The best way to show your site to them is through their tools, in this case Google Search Console.
What is Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a tool that allows you to better track your website in Google search results. In other words, through this platform you can find out how users find your site on Google, if there is any problem in positioning new content, which websites have links to yours, check which search terms are most effective for you, and much more.
How to use Google Search Console?
Google has a pretty comprehensive guide on how this tool works, but if you're a novice user who wants to learn, here's a brief overview of how to get started.
Create a Google Search Console account by clicking here. Don't worry! It is completely free.
Verify ownership of your website. Prove to Google that the site you want to add is yours by proving ownership of your domain, uploading the site's HTML file, sharing the Google Analytics tracing code, and other verification methods. Select the most suitable for you.
Submit the sitemap of your site. You can generate it yourself following Google's instructions or rely on a free service on a website.
Upload the robots.txt file. This document serves to indicate to the search engines which pages and which they should not visit and index. Here you have a super complete guide to do it.
Enable notifications to your email. In this way, in the event of any problem, Google will send you an e-mail telling you if everything is going well with your site or if it has found a problem.
Adapt your site to mobile devices
How does your website look from your smartphone? Could you make a purchase from there? You should know that since 2015, Google made changes to its algorithm to give more weight to those sites that provide a good experience in its mobile version.
For this reason, it is important that you make sure that your website or online store is easy to navigate from other devices, that the content displayed on mobile and desktop devices is the same, among other details in general.
How to adapt a web page to mobile devices?
Make sure the design is responsive. That is to say that the content is made to adapt depending on the size of the screen in which it is observed.
Avoid (at all costs) elements that use Flash. And by this I don't mean photos, but technology, as they can slow down your site and make load times longer.
How to appear on Google Maps
A constant question from entrepreneurs with a physical store is how to appear on Google Maps and for this there is a part of SEO that is essential to know: local SEO.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the set of actions, techniques and strategies that serve to optimize a web page and improve the brand positioning of a company within a specific location , appearing in the list of relevant solutions around the user who performs the search.
Let's take an example. Let's imagine that you are looking for a coffee shop with Wi-Fi to work in the Mexico City area, in the La Condesa area. When searching Google for the term “cafes with Wi-Fi” if you click on the option that Google gives you to give you results according to your location, you will be able to find options of coffee shops near you that meet this characteristic. That is one of the main functionalities of local SEO.
Benefits of local SEO
Increases the visibility of physical businesses and a brand in a region.
Attract a larger audience and potential customers.
Pay your local authority and provide confidence to your users.
Improve the search experience, as well as the stay of your visitors.
Let's look at some actions that, in addition to improving your local SEO, will help you appear on Google Maps and give your physical business more visibility.
Sign up for Google My Business
If you haven't signed up yet, you'll find that Google My Business is an amazing platform that will help you promote your business as well as your online store. Through this tool you can interact with your customers, post updates about your business, give them information about your menu, costs, locations, hours and many more details.
How to sign up for Google My Business
Go to the Google My Business page and create your account. If you already have a Google account for your business, you'll just need to sign in.
Start creating your brand profile. Include the name, the category to which it belongs, full address, if you have home delivery, telephone and URL f your website.
Verify and claim your company. Once the data has been entered, you must prove that the profile created is from your company, either through postal mail, email, by phone or through Search Console.
Clever! You can now start managing your business profile on Google My Business.
Add your data and show your products
Once you have created your Google My Business profile, it is important that you start adding and customizing your business listing. The more information you add, the more certainty and credibility you will give to everyone who finds you on this platform, in addition to the fact that Google will show your company file when they do searces related to the keywords you target.
What data can I include in Google My Business?
Photos of your establishment and the products you sell.
Menu and costs.
Additional services.
Business hours, as well as special hours.
Link to your appointment or reservation platform.
Telephone, Whatsapp or link to online chat.
Promotions or discounts per season.
If you're in doubt, Google has a pretty comprehensive guide on how to get a great business listing on My Business. Take a look here!
Post regularly
It is not enough to create a profile in My Business and leave it. It is necessary to follow up and if it is possible to make a calendar of periodic publications that will help you to make your profile look updated and recent.
What posts can I make on Google My Business?
Launch of new products or expansion of the product catalog.
Changes in schedules and services.
Opening of other branches.
Seasonal promotions.
On top of everything, Google My Business gives you the option to include reviews and comments from customers who have visited your establishment. You can encourage them to leave you a good review or to tell others what they liked about their stay, in exchange for a discount on their next visit or a benefit of being there.