The world has moved online and the majority of businesses now have at least a basic website. With the wealth of guides and easy to use website builders now available, you may have built your business website yourself; or you may have paid an agency or professional to build it for you. Either way, here's a quick checklist of essential items every website should have.
1. Title tag
Hover over any website tab in your browser and the title tag will appear, the title tag is meant to be a concise description of the page's content. Google will only display about the first 60 characters of your title tag so get straight to the point! Every page on your website should have a title tag and it's important for SEO (search engine optimisation) and website usability.
2. H1 tag
Each page on your website should have just one heading 1 (H1) tag. The H1 tag is a little piece of HTML code that tells your website browser what your most important piece of content or heading is. If you have written a blog, for example it will probably be the blog title. To find out if you have a H1 tag on your webpage click Ctrl U to display the source code of your webpage and then Ctrl F and type H1 to find the H1 tag. It should look like this <h1>I'm a heading</h1>.
H1 tags are important for SEO and will help google find and understand the content on your webpage. Make sure you understand how your website builder eg. wix, shopify, wordpress adds H1 tags to your website, so that you can ensure that each page has just one H1 tag!
3. Google search console
"Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results." Most website builders such as Wix or shopify have built in tools to enable an easy connection to Google Search Console and submit your website's sitemap, which is a file that gives site crawlers such as google information about how your site is organised. Over time, google search console will also provide you with a wealth of information about your site, including keywords that your site is ranking for.
4. Google My Business
Absolutely essential if your business has a physical presence, a Google My Business account will allow your business to show up on Maps and in local search. Furthermore, you can add all your business contact details, opening hours, offers and more!
5. Is your website mobile friendly?
Most people tend to use a computer to design their website, so it's easy to forget to check what each and every page looks like on a mobile. However, with more and more traffic coming from mobile devices, having a mobile friendly website is essential. Take a look now, does your website look as good on a mobile phone as on your computer? If not, it's worth investing some time to ensure your website is as mobile friendly as possible.
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