Want to make your site go “shwiing” in search results? Want some really useful bite size fresh ideas (or reminders) to give you a real sexy SEO ranking boost? Let’s get started!

We have found that the websites which have sexy SEO:

• Have more pages
• Are mobile friendly
• Quick to load
• Incorporate a healthy number of keywords put into the copy
• Have text that reads well and makes sense
• Incorporate proper security on the website and the server
• Are regularly updated

It seems like a lot of work, sure, but the information is freely available on how to do it all.

And if you need help – we’re here for you!

For us, it’s not that hard – we’re creating and upgrading sites regularly with all this knowledge and expertise. More reassurance below – we want you to feel comfortable, this is meant to be sexy after all!

• You can make a lot of improvements in just a few hours
• Much of the work you do on the website can have extra hidden benefits – more interesting content to repurpose and share a much better user experience, and better clarity on your offering
• You can build on the efforts week by week, and if you think about it, not everyone has the stamina to do this – so with persistent efforts, you’ll surpass your competition in leaps and bounds!
• We have an SEO expert and because of this, we offer our amazing SEO Starter Kit

We put our heads together at TLD and have a list of fresh ideas or reminders of what you already knew below – in mixed order!

Reply to your Google Reviews

This of course means that you should have some. We’re pretty good at asking for them and while we don’t get them from everyone we ask (because people are busy) we do find if you ask a lot, you’ll get a few. Recently we learned that when you reply to each one – that boosts your rankings, and you’ll make the giver of the review happy. Sexy SEO includes being nice to your clients! Especially when they’ve taken the time to submit a Google review. However, as a bonus, Google will give you favourable SEO points if you show your Google Business area is actively managed by responding to reviews. Even if you have a bad review, don’t be discouraged. There have been studies that show that 95% of unhappy customers could even become repeat customers, if a problem is sorted out quickly.

How many words?

Not to waffle on, but there is a lot of debate about word count on pages. Logic and common SEO knowledge say that if you want to be found for a specific keyword or phrase, having that a few times over on a page would increase your chances of “beating” your competitor.

HubSpot did a study and found that the “sweet spot” is 2,250–2,500 words. While this is possible for long-form articles, or guides, it can seem a little forced for a homepage. It can be overkill for some product pages. We need to consider not only what Google wants but also what people want – think sexy! Our advice is to be complete with answering the main questions for the topic of the page – and compare your page (whether it’s a home page, product page, service page, blog article, or another page) with those of your top-ranking competitors when it comes to SEO. Equally important to word count is the way the page is designed and presented. A big block of text is never going to be as interesting to readers as when the text is divided up with a professional and easy-to-read layout.

Image optimisation

For sexy SEO, using images cleverly means you need to do a few different things:

• Name the file according to what you see – e.g. blackcat.jpg rather than 2034498.jpg
• Make sure the image is optimised to be fast loading – the lowest file size possible without losing visible quality. You only need the image to be as big as its largest display in pixels at 72dpi
• Alt text for every image – adding this with good descriptions containing keywords you want to be found for

SSL

We have been talking about the importance of adding an SSL certificate since it became newsworthy in 2017. Not just for security, but also for how it LOOKS! This will remove that really obvious “not secure” message next to your website address. Which, dare we say it, is not sexy SEO! You may have noticed that there are both http:// and https:// website addresses. That little “s” in the URL shows that the website is encrypted and more secure. It indicates that there is protection against cyber-attacks and data theft.

Google also classifies this as a ranking signal for Google. When Google looks at 2 different websites, with the same exact ranking score (out of 200 factors), they will prioritise a site with an SSL certificate over one without.

Mobile Friendly

Creating a website that works properly on a mobile phone is now essential for SEO. These days you can’t create a non-mobile-friendly site and expect to rank your web pages anywhere in the search engines. In fact, Google has rolled out a “mobile-first index” that prioritises the ranking of web pages that are mobile-friendly. Have a look at this test for how mobile friendly your site is, from Google. And, while there are other search engines, Google is still the market leader and has the largest portion of the market share – so make sure you check this against Google’s criteria.

Google My Business Page

Google My Business (GMB) is a free platform offered by Google to help businesses increase their online visibility. When you set this up, you look different right on the Google search results page. Your business information, such as name, address, phone number, and website, will be prominently displayed in a “knowledge panel” on the right side of the search results page. This panel may also include photos, customer reviews, and other information that helps potential customers learn more about your business. Setting this up is a simple process that can take 30 minutes to an hour – but of course there are ways to enhance this.

Submit the site to Google Search Console once launched

Google Search Console is a must-have tool for website owners who want to improve their visibility and ranking in Google search results. The setup process involves creating a Google account, adding the website, verifying ownership, submitting a sitemap, and monitoring performance. By using Search Console, website owners can identify and fix crawl errors, monitor security threats, and gain valuable insights into their search performance, such as the keywords that drive traffic to their site. Regular use of Google Search Console can help maximise a website’s potential and reach the right audience, making it an essential sexy SEO tool for anyone looking to improve their website’s performance in Google search results.

Inbound high-quality links

It used to be enough to just have lots of links to your site and that would make your site creep up. Nowadays, quality beats quantity. And there are a number of things that make Google think your links are “quality,” as detailed in this article, The importance of inbound links. Ideally, the sites linking to you would be higher in quality than your site. This is why our SEO specialist Tom tells us to get ourselves good PR. There’s more value in having a link from the Daily Telegraph or the Sunday Times Blog, than a number of links from lesser known websites. For example our SEO specialist Tom has recently started working on a new clients website, a new Greek restaurant in London, called OMA (Part of the London hospitality collective dcco.) whose inital press release led to some higher profile press coverage such as this piece in the Evening Standard London which also contains a nice URL branded link to the new website.

Humans and Bots

Many of the things that Google (and let’s also add Bing to the mix) likes are also what humans like. These include sites that load quickly, sites that feel secure, and sites that have relevant and useful information relating to what they specifically searched for. When setting up your site, think about the humans. Follow these guidelines so you please Google and also reassure the humans that they are in the right place, when they click through to your website.

And don’t forget those keywords!

Keywords play a crucial role in search engine optimisation (SEO). They help search engines understand what your website is about. By incorporating relevant and targeted keywords into your website to increase the chances of appearing higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for those keywords. Keywords also help search engines determine the relevance of your website to a particular search query. It’s important to choose the right keywords and use them in a natural and strategic manner within your website’s content. This will not only improve your visibility in search results but also enhance the user experience for your audience. Ultimately, effective keyword research and optimisation are critical components of a successful sexy SEO strategy.