SIMPLE SEO Tip of the Day - Trust
The best definition of Trust in relation to SEO I've seen is this - if Google visited your site would he/she want to be your friend? In other words, is your site trustworthy?
From Sun Rose Compassionate Care site by Katie Vandyck
Let's keep it simple and just make a list of the things that may well make your site more worthy of Google's trust. Also bear in mind that if Google thinks you're trustworthy it's very likely your potential customers will too
Your Company Identity
People are more likely to trust real people
Put photographs of yourself and your staff on your site. Look friendly (that's essential).
(Speaking as a photographer/website maker, if you're a creative by all means have an arty photograph, otherwise stick to something natural, real and not taken in a studio)
Put a company history on the site. How did you get here, what makes you do what you do?
You've guessed it. Tell your story. People love stories.
Testimonials
The chances are they won't get read but it's reassuring to see them on a site
It's even more reassuring to see photographs of the actual people who gave the testimonials.
Be expert
Ah, this is where BLOGs come in. They are a fabulous way to prove you really know what you are doing. They are a fabulous way of changing your content regularly. They are a fabulous way of making your site genuinely useful
Write them well, write them simply and write enough content within the blog to make it something that people can benefit from. Don't skimp on information.
And use photographs. Every time.
Social Links
Google does like the likes and the retweets and the sharing. If people are responding positively to your website and your blogs and your business, Google will too
Links to other sites
Links are very complex and I'm not going to address that complexity here, except to say, don't fake them. Don't put them on just to have links. Link up with businesses relevant to yours, preferably trusted businesses, and make your site trustworthy enough for them to want to link to you.
Google knows the difference between ANY OLD LINK and ACTUALLY USEFUL/RELEVANT LINKS and doesn't like the former
P H O T O G R A P H S
The capitals are because this is something I feel very strongly about
Try not to use library photos. Google, and your customers, know the difference.
The use of library photos is unavoidable sometimes but essentially the messages they give are (fairly or unfairly) "This business is too cheap to get original photos done", "This business is lazy because they are using visual cliches on their site which have nothing to do with their actual business".
So ...
1. Spend a bit of time on YouTube and get enough knowledge to use your smart phone to record the elements of your business your customers might want to see
Try and use natural light. Natural light = Real = Trustworthiness
2. Read my COUNTLESS blogs about how to photograph for your website
3. Get a professional to take the shots
Please do contact me if you like to ask about any of these blogs on SEO or about anything to do with improving your website. And do sign up to this blog!
And finally. Tomorrow's simple SEO tip will be about Usefulness.
With many thanks for sharing SEO information to