How Can Beginners Optimize Their Own Websites?

I. Optimization of Website Structure

1. Code Structure: Streamlining
   For search engines, what they crawl is the website's code. Therefore, the more streamlined the code structure, the more efficient the spider's crawling will be. How to streamline the code? Encapsulate CSS and JS for calling, and do not write them into the source code. Additionally, minimize the use of JS on the website, adopt a DIV+CSS structure, and abandon the table structure. However, nowadays, whether it is ready-made blog templates, CMS templates, or corporate website building, they all do a very good job in code streamlining.
2. URL Structure: Static URLs
   How important is URL staticization for SEO? In fact, according to some previous studies, there is no significant advantage between static and dynamic URLs. Generally speaking, a static URL is like http://www.example.com/reed/123.html, while a dynamic URL is like http://www.example.com/view?123. They are quite similar. However, if your dynamic URL is something like http://www.example.com/view&6548mm&id?3658, that would be quite bad. Moreover, considering user experience, URL staticization is the best choice.
3. Directory Logical Structure: Clear Entry and Exit, Three-Level Directory
   Generally, we recommend that the directory levels of a website do not exceed three levels. The experience of many predecessors is to adopt a tree-like structure, that is, the structure of homepage —— directory —— article, as shown in the figure below:
   The tree-like structure makes the entire website's logical structure clear, which facilitates users in quickly finding the content they want. Plus, with the reasonable use of internal links, for spiders, it forms an extensive crawling road system. If you want to get rich, build roads. Once the roads are built, are you afraid that spiders will not come to crawl?

II. Optimization of Website Tools:

1. 404 Page Creation: It is inevitable for a website to have pages deleted or users mistakenly clicking on pages that never existed. Without a 404 page to guide them, it would be irresponsible for a perfectionist and excellent webmaster.
2. Website robots.txt Creation: The robots.txt is the search engine crawling protocol. In other words, you can use this file to tell search engines which directories not to crawl. A website's source code contains many system files that do not need to be displayed to users, and naturally, they should not be displayed to search engines either. If you do not guide them, search engine spiders will waste their energy on those system files, causing resource waste.
3. Sitemap Creation: A sitemap generally refers to XML and HTML maps. For individual webmasters, ready-made blog systems and CMS systems have functions or plugins to implement these two types of maps. A sitemap allows search engines to more efficiently crawl website content.
4. Website Mobile Optimization: This is the mobile Internet era, so website mobile optimization is a must. The first choice is a responsive design, like Ideal Youth Studio's. The second choice is to create a mobile-specific site (M-site).

III. Optimization of Website Content

1. High-Quality Content: For a website, high-quality content is fundamental. I have seen too many websites with excellent content but poor structure and external links, yet they still have good rankings. This shows that in SEO ranking, if the full mark is 100 points, content should account for 90 points. Therefore, when updating content for your website, make sure it is high-quality and valuable. Do not write articles just for the sake of updating, such as those that are nonsensical, trivial, and nutritionless.
2. Consistent Updates: Consistent updates are not only a requirement of search engines but also crucial for website visitors. Regular updates encourage visitors to frequently visit your website, preventing user loss. If users feel that your website is being abandoned by them, search engines will deduct points from your ranking score. Imagine a user visiting your website for three consecutive days without seeing any new content; how likely is it that they will come back on the fourth day?
3. Continuous Mining of User Needs: In creating content for your website, an excellent SEO professional should mine user needs and write articles based on long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords represent user needs, so continuously explore long-tail keywords to meet user demands.
4. Engage with Users: Open up comments, increase user contribution channels, etc., to involve users in the content creation of your website.

IV. Optimization of External Links

1. Friend Link Exchange: The most common and relatively high-quality external links are those exchanged within the same industry. It is recommended to add 1-2 new friend links per week. If there are already too many friend links on the homepage, consider adding some to directory pages.
2. Industry Website Contributions: Contributing to industry websites not only increases external links but also enhances brand influence to a certain extent. However, not every industry has industry websites for contributions. In this regard, you can also pay to publish some soft articles on portal websites for promotion.
3. Portal Blog Posts: Portal blogs mainly include Sina, NetEase, Tianya, etc. However, some portal blogs will automatically add nofollow tags to external links. Currently, Sina and Tianya still allow external links.
4. Self-Media Platform Articles: Self-media platforms can also be used for external links, such as Toutiao, Baidu, Sohu Self-Media, etc. But they only allow text-based external links.

V. Website Brand Optimization

1. Create QQ Groups for User Interaction: You can also create WeChat groups. In user interactions, you can discover more user needs, and some user suggestions can be unexpectedly helpful to your website.
2. Establish a WeChat Public Account: A website should also have a WeChat public account. It is much more convenient for users to read your articles on WeChat than to open your website on their mobile phones. Do not let users who are reluctant to open your website slip away.