Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
or - how to make your website search engine friendly.
General notes on SEO
We are not SEO experts. In our experience, most people who claim to be SEO experts are not either.
There is no magical way to get a No.1 listing. It may take months to get on the first page of search results.
Google is easily the world's most used search engine, and its interested in lots of juicy content. Your job is to:
- Fill your content with the keywords your customers will be searching for
- Create webpages that search engines can easily read
- Apply as many tips as you can from this page, and other sources (watch for b*llsh*t though!)
- Refrain from trying to trick the search engines
- Avoid common pitfalls
... The rest of this page is our advice to you, and the best of our knowledge.
Getting started
Keywords :
What keywords will prospective customers use to try and find your site ?
Your customer's terminology may be different to yours. (eg you say 'blank media', but customers ask for CD and DVD disks)
Is your product called different things around the country ? Eg hearth, fireplace, mantlepiece
Try to come up with a dozen or so keywords. These are the keywords you will repeat regularly on your webpages. The search engine bots (aka web-crawlers, robots) will then get an idea of what your website is about.
How are you different to your competitors?
Are your products top quality? Then also consider keywords such as: quality, bespoke, designer.
Are you green conscious? Consider: green, eco, friendly, ethical.
(we managed www.stuff-for-computers.co.uk, marketed as 'green', packing goods in newspaper and not bubblewrap etc. We picked up good traffic and happy customers. Non of our competitors had a green policy)
Your campaign :
Start an SEO campaign folder/spreadsheet so you keep focus on what keywords you are aiming for, where you are now, and what progress you are making each month.
Do you have a website now ? :
Do as much SEO research as you can, and make sure you are not flogging a dead horse with your current website. If you have no website yet, then SEO it from the start.
HTML tags
(a certain amount of technical knowledge is assumed here)
<title> :
First tag after <head> should be the page title (eg <title></title>).
Make sure you fit 2/3 keywords in, appropriate to the page content.
Unless you think people will be searching for your company name, do not put it in the title.
Don't include the phrase 'Welcome to'. Thats a waste of two words.
<meta> :
Put these two meta tags after the <title> eg:
- <meta name='description' content='Search engine optimisation. A quick guide to SEO, for improving search results' />
- <meta name='keywords' content='seo,search,engine,optimisation,quick,guide' />
(replacing the content with your own description and keywords of course)
- meta tags are not the 'be all and end all' of SEO. (you may read otherwise)
- Google sometimes uses the description to show on the results page
- meta keywords: 10 words are enough
- meta keywords: lowercase or UPPERCASE is OK
- meta keywords: singular/plural? The jury is out. What will your customers use? Maybe use both?
- Ensure the description and keywords are different on each page, and pertinent to the page
Highlight tags :
The <h1> tag makes text big and bold. The search engine will assume the text in this tag reflects the page subject more than smaller text.
Jam some keywords in these tags:
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <cite> <li> <b> <strong>
(this, we assume, is roughly the order of importance)
Far better to use <h1>TDK CDR Disks</h1> than <div class='heading'>TDK CDR Disks</div>
Image tags :
Make sure you use the 'alt' attribute for descriptive text:
<img src='tdk.jpg' alt='TDK CDR blank disks' />
<a> :
Anchor tags (links) are discussed in their own section below.
Links
Keywords not URL's :
Any link from another website to yours should contain keywords.
- 'www.thebaitkitchen.co.uk' hardly gives the search engine a clue as to what the site is about
- Use 'Bait kitchen : Quality coarse fishing bait in Huddersfield, Yorkshire' and the link is fat with keywords
If you ask another website to link to yours, give them the exact HTML you'd like them to use:
<a href='www.thebaitkitchen.co.uk?referer=media3000'>Quality coarse fishing bait in Huddersfield, Yorkshire</a>
Link depth :
How many links does a user have to follow to get to your content?
The content on your front page has a link depth of 0.
Content on a page that is linked to from your front page has a link depth of 1, and so on.
Where is your main, keyword rich content? You should ensure it has as shallow a link depth as possible.
Front pages should always be rich with your keywords.
[This page is currently under development - there is lots more to come]