Your question is “How do you increase the authenticity of your website?” well, Let’s discuss.

A website needs to have authentic, quality and unique content, so that it can create a good reputation for itself and draw a fair amount of organically generated traffic. The authenticity of a website also helps it to be a leader in its niche. One can use different ways to use SEO (Search engine Optimisation) efforts to get in the top of SERP (Search Engine results pages).

The SEO methods might be used to make our website look authentic, but this might not translate into our website actually being authentic. In the past, looking authentic would have been enough to get ourselves high rankings in SERP. However, it is not the case now. Genuine efforts are needed so that the website may look authentic rather than “pretend” to look authentic.

To look authentic, a website doesn’t require drastic changes in its overall content or design. It is about figuring out “to be authentic” rather than looking one. It is about doing more for a website rather than looking for shortcuts or easy ways out.

It is unfortunate that some people or companies want the formality done rather than putting efforts, money and time to make their websites “worthy” of having the top rankings.

As the search engines are getting better in figuring authenticity, it becomes more difficult to rank, especially if websites appear to look authentic. There is also a chance of being hit by a Panda Update or other algorithms of Google, or other search engines for that matter. This would decrease a website’s ranking ensuing a loss of traffic and potential revenue.

The following tips and suggestions could be used to make a website look authentic. These are as follows:

ONSITE                                          

1. Keywords: Be careful about how many times you have an exact match of your targeted keywords in the body text. Repetition can be used, but in limited or optimum amounts. Unnatural repetitive text could result in a penalty by a search engine.

   Synonyms and variations ought to be used in the content text. The goal is that the content should look naturally written with cohesion and flow.

2. Exact match internal links: The links from our website should have a purpose and relevance. They should not be for the sake of them being there. Every link emanating from our webpages need not have an exact anchor text. The anchor text can contain variations, synonyms, meaningful phrases and even “click here” as per the needs.
3. Footer Links: The links given at the bottom of a site are called footer links. We see a lot of webpages which have too many footer links. This should be avoided. Too many links don’t seem natural and they look cumbersome.

   Also, avoid exact keyword matches footer links, if possible. Keep them to a minimum by putting most commonly looked links at the bottom.

4. Exact Match Keywords in navigation and indicators: The indicators in page, such as the heading, titles, sub-headings etc can have exact match keywords. But having exact match keywords in all such indicators would not be a wise advice.

   Use such indicators with synonyms and variations. Keywords in indicators can be used at strategic places.

And, the same advice goes for using keywords in navigation. Long tail keywords, especially, should be avoided in navigation. This is because it would make the navigation look ugly and unnatural.

1. Use Rich content: The website should have a variety of media. Most of the users who visit a page usually don’t devote much time to read the text.

   Therefore, keeping this short attention span in mind, the content on a website should not only contain text, but also, images, graphics, videos, charts, animated features etc. In addition to this, the text colour, font and headings should be varied to break the monotony.

Interesting photos, images and memes are a sure way of capturing the attention of users and break the monotony in long texts or in the span of long pages. This also increases the length of their stay on a certain webpage and keeps in them in humorous mood.

The pages’ content would have to be made ‘consumable’. The multimedia and varied features make the content of a page ‘consumable’.

Only content contained in long texts is not going to draw attention of users and the bounce rate from the page would be higher in such case. The content should also be of quality, genuine, well-researched, thoroughly planned and made with the goals of the website kept in mind.

The content should be designed and made keeping the end-user in mind and not the search engine.

1. Placement of Content: Placing content and text on a page must be carefully done so as to keep the page interesting. The various components of content should be integrated properly, so that they give a soothing effect and transition from one idea to another on the page.

   This also helps a user to easily navigate through the content without losing focus on key things mentioned on the website.

2. Useful mobile applications and online tools:

There has been a proliferation of mobile devices and phones as well as apps. Developing apps or online tools which relates to the services or goals of our website is a great way to engage with consumers or users.

This also signals the search engines that we have the requisite apps or tools for such seekers. This increases the authenticity of our website, to which our business or organisation is related to.

1. HTML Tag rel=”author”

One of the powerful ways of showing the authenticity is using this tag.  On a website, we would be producing a lot of content.  Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to establish ourselves as the real creator of that content.

Using this ‘rel’ attribute will help in doing that.  This helps us prove to search engines that we are the author of the content developed.

LINKS

1. Activeness on Social Media: Active involvement and posts on various social media such as Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. has now become almost compulsory for websites. Social media helps in expanding our footprint on the internet and helps us to establish a dialogue with the interested people or community.

   Posts related to our website and similar promotions are needed so that the website is publicised. Social media may also help in getting genuine backlinks to our website. Also, the active presence and engagement on social media is an indicator of a website being authentic.

2. Activeness on YouTube: In as similar way as the social media, YouTube presence has become important to promote a website or business or enterprise. Promotional content with interesting themes and visuals can attract a lot of people to our websites.

   The goal is to get a loyal base of subscribers on YouTube, which would eventually translate to more website traffic. Also, this increases the genuineness and trust of a website in user’s eyes.

3. Industry Forums and Blogs: Being natural means that you are being a part of the community in your industry. The best way to do this is to make sure that you are listed and found in industry directories, participate in industry forums and comment on other industry blogs.