tank wrote: ↑14 Mar 2019, 17:16
OK Lexikos is game for some alternate download pages. we need to all prepare something that fits the theme of this site and He will pick one he likes from that
That's awesome news. I'm a bit booked up this week, but maybe I can help with this next week. It's important to properly implement the header tags on this page, currently it is structured like this on the DOM:
Code: Select all
URL Element Order # Tag Name innerText
https://autohotkey.com/download/ 1 < H2 > Other Releases
https://autohotkey.com/download/ 2 < H2 > Documentation
https://autohotkey.com/download/ 3 < H2 > Uninstallation
For SEO best practices, you want to always start with an H1 tag that matches very closely or exactly to the Title tag - this should be near the top of the page visibly, so a user would interpret this as the title of the page once they click into it from the SERP. This is important because it's one of the first validators to users that they have in fact landed on the page they intended to when the clicked on the link from the SERP.
So this downloads page should be set up structurally somewhat like this:
<h1>Download AutoHotkey Installer</h1>
...
General information about AutoHotkey, uses, history, etc.
Download Link
Description about Link
Download Link
Description about Link
Source code Link
Description about Source Code Link
...
Additional information
...
<h2>Download Previously Released AutoHotkey Versions</h2>
...
General information about other AHK releases
Download Link
Description about Link
Download Link
Description about Link
Download Link
Description about Link
...
<h2>AutoHotkey Documentation and Tutorials (Official)</h2>
...
General information about AHK documentation
Link
Description about Link
Link
Description about Link
Link
Description about Link
...
<h2>Uninstall AutoHotkey (Official)</h2>
...
General information about AHK uninstallation
Link
...
Then the headers should be listed in hierarchical fashion, H1, H2, H3, etc. H5-H6s are not really necessary, but not discouraged. Think of each page as an essay you are writing. Title of the article is the H1, article headers are H2s, article sub-headers are H3s, sub-sub-headers are H4s, etc. Google bot tries to make sense of pages primarily using H1-H3s to sum up what the intent & content of the page is. There should only every be one H1 tag - more than that and it can confuse Google bot because it doesn't know which one to associate with the "main theme" of the page.
Title Tag (and possbily H1) would be something like "Download AutoHotkey - Get The Ultimate Windows Automation Tool" (pixel width must be ~580 pixels or less, otherwise will become truncated in desktop SERP)
Meta Description be something like "Download AutoHotkey, a powerful Windows Automation Scripting Tool. Automate basic to complex tasks - keystrokes, mouse, web browsers and any program." (pixel width must be ~920 pixels or less, otherwise will become truncated in desktop SERP)
*side note: I'm guessing that majority of AHK.com visitors navigate via non-Mobile devices, so while it may be important to also optimize for mobile users, probably not as important as many other more mobile-centric websites. In a general sense though, the majority of users are browsing the net with mobile devices, so we definitely should keep this in mind.
Notice how this page differs from all other AHK.com pages - once you land inside of it, you don't have access to the main navigation links at the header and footer of the page - this is another red flag to Google not to trust this seemingly "one-off" page. This functionality needs to be added in and at least somewhat match the rest of the website. This is not only bad in Google's eyes, but more importantly it negatively affects performance of user engagement on this page and across the entire website. There should be some eye candy on this page that motivates visitors to click further into the site, such as a call to action to start studying the documentation or tutorials, to sign up for the forums if they are a new user, to post their first post in the forums, etc. Doesn't have to be super fancy or anything, but help facilitate engagement beyond the download page.
Another aspect to consider here is what pages are internally linking from autohotkey.com to the download page? I don't see many, but I honestly haven't checked to see how many or where they are coming from. The less internal links to a web page, the less Google is going to see it as an "important" page, which affects its visibility in the SERP. This is probably one reason why if you search "download windows automation" in Google, only the AHK.com homepage shows up and it is ranked #7. Other less vague search queries, like "download windows automation tool" and "download automation tool", autohotkey.com doesn't even show up in the first 100 results. To help improve the Downloads page's "Page Authority", it is necessary to create more internal paths to that page within autohotkey.com. I think it would increase download rates and download page traffic to include a colorful always-visible site-wide "Download AutoHotkey" link in the top-of-page main navigation menu. This will help those who first land on the forums to direct them towards the download page, it will direct Google bots to crawl this page more frequently and recognize it as an important webpage within AHK.com.
Additionally, this download page suffers from "thin" content, another red flag for Google (and real users) not to trust it. Generally, a page should contain at a bare minimum, 400-600 words - the page currently contains ~150 words. I'm happy to help write more content for this page when time permits. Generally, Google ranks pages with more content higher (e.g. higher word counts). We could add a few sections in there to increase search engine visibility and make the page more "beefy". There are always exceptions to SEO best practices though - what is more important is the user base who frequents that page the most often (not Google). For instance, you wouldn't want the download page to be a 3,000 word article with the download link buried 500 words down - instead having the download link right at the top of the page and succint explanations that help the user feel safe downloading some random file off the internet as well as confirming to them that they are in fact downloading what they are looking for on the web.