When designing a website, it is tempting to fall into bad habits. Even good intentions can produce negative results. Often, websites focus too heavily on pumping their content full of keywords, neglecting other, simpler ways to attract an audience. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a necessary consideration in this day and age, and Google is smart enough to separate the keyword vehicles from the truly quality websites. You want yours to fall into the latter category.
Fortunately, it’s easier than it sounds. There are a few basic concepts to consider during the design of your team sport website:
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The faster a site loads, the better it ranks. This year, site speed is the most important factor in SEO, as opposed to last year when it was not even in the top 10. That means you need to make design choices with loading speed in mind. The most bells and whistles attached to your homepage, the slower the load will be - and the less audience you will reach.
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Mobilization is fully upon us, and you must adapt. There are two ways to go about that: either developing an entirely separate mobile site, or making your webpage responsive enough to be effective on smart phones and tablets. Though both are good, Google prefers responsive web design, as it guarantees the exact same experience to each user, no matter the platform.
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Make your content easy to find and impactful. Consider adding a FAQ section, streamlining your in-site search engine and interlinking between pages to aid navigation. This will help your time on site rating and click-through rating, which both bear positive correlation to SEO ranking.
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Resist the temptation to advertise. Though it may be profitable, ads will hurt your websites traffic in the long run, and drive users away. It slows down load time, frustrates the reader and takes space away from meaningful content. Google also recognizes a site with too any ads, and reflects its findings in your site’s ranking.
In the changing world of SEO, keyword use is giving away to a more holistic approach. Though keywords can still help drive traffic, we are approaching an era in which websites will be ranked on top to bottom user experience, not just an abundance of keywords. In order to keep up, use these basic trends to guide you, and consider what you would want to see on a team sport website.
