5 Best Practices Web Stories on Google

1. Create an engaging narrative

Web Stories are visual storytellers. Hook audiences in by designing a story. Create a detailed plan before starting the edit on a web stories creator. Here are a few things to keep in mind while planning your web stories:

1. Zero in on your audience
2. Find clarity on your messaging/story
3. Pick a media format (Most recently, videos less than 60 seconds are receiving the highest engagement)
4. Keep your text content ready for each page (Minimum content required is 280 characters per page, structure it into an introduction, main body & conclusion)

2. Design is crucial

A viewer taps on your story only if it has visual appeal. With MakeStories, you don’t need any previous design experience. It has in-built professional web story templates. Here are a few things to check off before you start designing:

1. Keep your brand identity intact by implementing your brand guidelines. Adding your branding details is a one time process on MakeStories.
2. Minimalistic designs go a long way
3. Keep your text within 280 characters per page for increased readability
4. Use a legible font size. It should not look too small to fit a lot of text but should not be very big either. 16px is a good font size to use.

3. Enhance your web story with Visual Elements

Adding visual elements to your web story can make it enticing for a viewer. MakeStories offers a plethora of options to choose from. They provide a media library with high-quality images and videos. Along with a variety of animations and font styles. They have beautiful backgrounds to elevate your web story design. A few things to remember while adding visual elements:

1. Use high-quality, portrait-style images and videos for the best mobile viewing experience.
2. Add your brand logo to all pages on your web story
3. Audios are a great addition to making a compelling web story
4. Maintain a theme to increase relatability
5. Add a definitive Call-To-Action

Learn more about visual elements for Google Web Stories here.

4. Incorporate SEO Strategy

To rank high on Google, it is essential to work in tangent with your SEO Strategy :

1. Your primary keywords should appear in your Meta Title and Meta Description
2. Limit your text to 280 characters per page for easy indexing
3. Analyze competitor keyword research using online tools to produce unique content
4. All your Web Stories must be self-canonical. This means telling Google that this version of the page is the main version, regardless of other pages having similar content. The canonical tag will need to be placed in the section of the HTML. For example, if the URL of your created Web Story is https://example.com/sample-page/, and it is the primary page you want to rank, then the canonical to be placed in the HTML will be as such:

 <link rel=“canonical” href=“https://example.com/sample-page/” />

5. Fulfil Story Validation Checklist

MakeStories has a story validation checklist. You can proceed to publish your Web Story only when you meet all the requirements on the checklist. These include:

1. Ensure your Web Stories have a valid AMP code to optimize mobile viewing
2. Use licensed image and video assets
3. Images should have Alt Text mentioned
4. Adhere to image dimensions. They should have an aspect ratio of 3:4
5. Make sure the logo image connected to your web story is 96×96 pixels with a 1:1 aspect ratio.

Conclusion

Follow these basic practices and make your best Web Stories. Create your first Google Web Story using MakeStories here.