Entrepreneurship includes initiative and the desire to do things yourself. Trust is sure to be found! The question is when you should make the website yourself and when you should turn to a professional.
The structure of the website is the most important and neglected part of the website
Sinun ei tarvitse osata koodata nykypäivänä, jotta saat nettisivut itse tehtyä, mutta on tärkeää ymmärtää, että kaikki nettisivut ovat loppujen lopuksi koodia, jota hakukoneet tulkitsevat. Myös visuaalisilla editoreilla tehdyt sivut, kuten Squarespacella, Wixillä ja Elementorilla. Editorit tekevät koodin sen pohjalta mitä elementtejä valitset ja miten merkitset niitä. Esimerkiksi tässä blogissa oleva pääotsikko ”Milloin nettisivut kannattaa tehdä itse?” on pääotsikko on H1 tagilla merkattu ja väliotsikko on H2. Tämä teksti on p-elementti. Kaikki nämä tagit ovat taustalla olevaa koodia, vaikka niitä en tätä kirjoittaessa näe.
Why is this important?
Google interprets the code of the website when it places the position of the website's search engine visibility. In addition, Google has certain criteria for what kind of pages it ranks high. A significant part of the criteria is related to the structure of the site.
When should you make a website yourself?
A) You understand the basics of search engine optimization
You don't need to do search engine optimization for your pages or be an expert in that field. However, you should understand the things in the previous paragraph, about what google looks at your website and that you don't specify the structure incorrectly. If you make the structure correctly, you can later return to optimize other areas, but if the structure is made incorrectly, then the entire site must be redone if you want to invest in search engine visibility. Websites in themselves do not bring customers, only well-designed websites do.
B) If you don't have the money to pay a professional
The situation is completely understandable. Watch youtube videos, read previous blogs and check out my Instagram. A lot of information is available for free, but don't go wandering around blindly.
Common website mistakes
There are too many titles and they are labeled incorrectly
Each page may only have one H1 marked heading. Headings should also be in proportion to the amount of text. So use only title elements for headings and text elements for text and do not cross-format them. If your page is full of only titles, the search engine visibility of the pages will decrease.
Text on images
If text is included in images, search engines cannot interpret it. Even if a visually impaired person visits your website, their reading device cannot read the text in the image. All of these decrease search engine visibility. So keep the images as images and add a text element on top of the image.
The layout is confusing
It should be as easy as possible for the visitor to get from place A to place B on your website. Navigation and page layouts should therefore be clear. If you want the visitor to read your texts, you should also plan them correctly.
- Do not center long texts. Align them to the left.
- Keep text lines narrow. Wide text is hard to read.
- If there is text on top of the image, keep a big contrast between the color of the image and the text.
The exterior looks like it was made by a hobbyist
The harsh truth is that self-made pages can be noticed. However, if you make the website yourself, then use a ready-made website template into which you change the texts and images. This is the most likely way to succeed.
