5 tips to improve homepage usability and click throughs

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One of my clients sent me a wireframe of their new homepage the other day and asked my opinion about it from an seo and usability point of view. While reviewing the page I realised that a lot of small businesses are sometimes not aware of basic usability principles and may be missing out on opportunities on their homepage.

Below are 5 simple usability tips that will help your homepage perform better and enhance user experience.

Link building basics - Getting started with directory submissions

With link building taking more and more prominence in your website's search engines rankings (around 60 to 70% depending on sources), getting your link building strategy right is crucial for successful SEO.

While there is huge emphasis being put on social links at the moment, the basics of link building still apply and "old" techniques such as directory submissions still bring benefits, not only in terms of rankings but also in terms of traffic and brand awareness.

Where to start?

A simple search in google for free online directories will bring a lot of results (49.7 millions to be precise!). So as a business, which directories should you get registered on? Well as with everything in link building, quality is not always better than quantity so check the pagerank of the directories you're considering. And choose the most popular directories to start with as they will get more visitors and increase your chances of getting traffic through.

The Golden Age of SEO? the times they are a changin'

As I was reading "The Golden Age of SEO" article on search engine land this morning, I remembered a post I wrote back in 2010 about the demise of onsite optimisation (Whatever happened to good old seo).

Funny to see how things have gone even further with SEO in the last 2 years and I now find myself including link building, social media and conversion optimisation advice in SEO audits for my clients. As every good SEO expert or agency should do, I adapted and keep learning everyday, which is probably why I enjoy my job so much.But I'm glad to see onsite still matters.

If you're new to the wonderful world of search marketing, here are (some) of the things you'll need to consider to get good rankings for your site:

• Onsite optimisation - making your site and its content as search engine (and user) friendly as possible
• Traditional link building - we're talking directory submissions, blog posts, article sites here
• Social media - building and maintaining social media profiles for your business (G+, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, Pinterest....). Engage and respond with your audience on an ongoing basis
• Conversion optimisation - driving masses of traffic to your site is great, but where's the ROI if you don't get conversions? Testing is key
• Tracking and monitoring - you need to know what's working (or not working) to refine your search strategy

What's been your seo experience over the past few years?