Here's a list of 5 SEO Tips that we've come up with based on some of the things we have done recently for our customers. They aren't in any particular order, and we're obviously not saying that these are a definitive list of SEO tips, but they are generally just good practice that will eventually help your search engine rankings. Some of them just sound like common sense, but if you start by covering the basics then you give yourself a much better chance of doing well in going for that #1 ranking!
1. Create unique and quality content
This seems like a very obvious thing to say, but content really is king when it comes to the search engines. There's no point just having the same old content that can be found on other sites across the web as you need to stand out from the others! Even if you are looking to dominate a fairly local market, make sure that you have things on your site that your competitors don't. We're a fairly small, local web design company and whilst there are lots of good companies who offer the same services as us, we are trying to be different and do things they don't (like for instance we have this blog, and our Twitter account). This all goes a long way to uniquely identifying your site and giving it that little extra reason to stand out get amongst the rankings.
2. Use the correct html element
When it comes to ranking a page, or defining what the page is about, search engines will look at what elements you have used to describe your content. For example, a <h1> tag will tell the search engine that you are placing more emphasis on the text in that tag than in perhaps a <h6> tag. When you use <h[1-6]> tags, also make sure that you keep the text consise and to the point, there's no point stuffing the tag with a long piece of text; simply describe what the following section is about in a short manner with your keywords/keyphrases in it. Remember to back the next section up with the same words and phrases as well!
3. Make sure your site is crawler friendly
As the search engine crawlers visit your site, please remember that there's just some things that they can't do. They can't:
- Use any of the javascript you have on the page (so no javascript driven menus please!)
- Fill out any forms you have created
- Search your site via that cool search box you made
- Read any text you put on an image
- Index any of the flash files that you kindly made for your users
4. Research your keywords/keyphrases
Deciding on what words and phrases may sound rather straight-forward as you know what and who you are targetting, but how do you know what people are searching for? Rather than guess, have a look at some sites like Google Trends, Google Adwords, Keyword Discovery and Word Tracker to help find out what might yield the best results. Also remember that it's not just which words you use, it's also they order you use them in. Try a few different combinations to see if some are being searched more than others and pick and choose which ones you go with carefully.
5. Check your site can be easily navigated
When you've designed a site, try asking a friend or colleague to navigate around the site without telling them what to do or where to go. Watch them while they do it and see what their natural movements are and where they go with the mouse. You'll be surprised by this if you've not done it before as quite often they'll make movements or go around in a different manner to what you may have done. At the end, ask them what they thought about the site navigation- Did they find it easy? Did they ever get "lost"? What improvements would they suggest?
It's easy to think you've designed a well structured site but remember to try and be objective; you are probably not the typical user who will reach the site and what you've witnessed is probably closer to what you could expect. You then need to take this information and come up with a way that is easy to navigate for humans, but equally as easy for the crawlers. I'd suggest taking this human accessibly approach and creating a sitemap out of it that you can then submit to Google to help them. For more information on sitemaps, please visit the Webmaster Tools page and sitemaps.org.
Mark Smith
MDS Solutions