search engine optimisation (seo)

take control of your web site and unleash it's potential

introduction

be found with inbuilt search engine optimisation (seo) maximising your web site prominence (search engine ranking).

there is no one single magic bullet to achieve good search engine rankings, but with hard work, combining these strategies in conjunction with our inbuilt search engine optimisation, success is likely.

page title

the importance of the page title and your choice of wording cannot be overstated.

major search engines (google etc.) no longer favour long titles crammed with keywords, instead you should use succinct titles that reflect your body copy. ideally your page title should consist of a handful (4-8) of carefully chosen words.

the page title also forms the main heading (h1 tag) of your published page. an option in the content management system (cms) allows you to append your company name automatically to all the title tags. i.e. this page has a title tag of "search engine optimisation (seo) @ trouthead web engineering." and a h1 tag of "search engine optimisation (seo)".

furthermore the page title is included in the url (http://...) of your published page (discussed later at url rewrite engine).

body copy

body copy is the main textual content of your page.

before composing your body copy, you should compile a list of relevant keywords (keyphrases). you can then craft your body copy in a manner that maximises your keyword usage whilst still being coherent and attractive to your customers.

keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. you should be aiming for a keyword density of 1-3% for your main keywords. high keyword densities ≈10% (keyword stuffing) can be very counter-productive.

also consider using synonyms and variations of your keywords.

trend analysis tools such as google insights are useful for comparing your keyword options.

niche/less commonly used keywords can also be effective as although there is a smaller target audience, they are less likely to be used by your competitors and therefore can give you an advantage.

we do not recommend hiding content as search engines soon pick-up on these ploys and adjust their methodologies accordingly.

the effectiveness of your keyword placement in the body copy can be determined by selecting seo analysis from the copy editor in your cms.

contextual links are hyperlinks within your body copy that point to other relevant web pages.

search engines pay special attention to the words contained within your links (anchor text) and also to the title that you have assigned to the link.

in the example above, the anchor text is "google insights" and the title of the link (title attribute) is "google insights for search" which is the title tag of the target page.

do not use phrases like "click here" as your anchor text, instead utilise your keywords.

where possible and relevant, link your own pages together in this manner.

breadcrumb navigation (breadcrumb trail) pinpoints the location of the current page in your website hierarchy and allows for one-click navigation to higher levels of your website.

e.g. company name > products > kitchen > coffee machines

the link's title attribute should be the target page's title tag (e.g. kitchen = kitchen & home-dining essentials @ your company name)* and the anchor text of your home page should be your company name.

*note: this also applies to other navigation on your website.

breadcrumb navigation is a win-win, making your website more usable for your customers whilst aiding your seo objectives.

your design templates provide for positioning and styling of breadcrumb navigation.

meta keyword tag

this is probably the most over-hyped and of least value tool that you have at your disposal. major search engines no longer use the meta keyword tag in their ranking algorithms, and in most cases completely ignore it in their indexing.

your cms provides for adding a meta keyword tag, and we suggest using ten or so of your most relevant keywords.

meta description tag

although the meta description tag has no bearing on your search engine ranking, it does however allow you to summarise and present your body copy in a manner that is attractive to search engine users.

fresh content

with the growth of social media and blog sites, leading search engines are focusing on recently updated content and real-time search results.

to keep your content fresh and retain customer interest, start a blog and update it regularly. also post news articles whenever possible.

in determining their ratings, search engines factor-in the quality and number of inbound links to your website. by quality, we mean the reputation of the website linking to you.

to get the highest quality inbound links, you should provide a valued resource (ideally unique) that companies and organisations would naturally want to let their website visitors know about. this can be an informative blog, product reviews, industry news etc.

online directories: you should subscribe your website details to a handful of free online directories (global, industry related and regional).

the first category (global) is straight-forward, as you only need to submit your details to dmoz open directory project, from here your listing will percolate down to the major directories (yahoo etc.).

get listed on some reputable directories specific to your industry and also some free local business directories.

your own directory: create a directory of links to quality relevant websites.

outbound links can actually benefit your seo aims, and gain friends in the bargain. however don't let your directory listings run into the 100's.

we suggest using the company/organisation name as the anchor text and the target page's title tag as your link title attribute.

url rewrite engine

the apache mod_rewrite module provides for presenting urls in a seo and user friendly manner. e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/news/10/this-page-title/

if your server/hosting company supports the url rewrite engine, we will present your pages in this manner. failing that we will include your page title within the query string of the url.

sitemaps

sitemaps aid search engine spiders to crawl your website and (more importantly) help your customers find the content that they are seeking.

we automatically generate two sitemaps from your cms content: a html version for your customers and a xml version (sitemap protocol 0.90) for search engines.

seo analysis

terms that reflect visitor interest in your website (and therefore your company) are pooled from two sources, firstly the terms used by visitors using your site search and secondly the terms used to locate your website via a search engine (referrer query string).

the deeper the red of the highlighted text, the greater the visitor interest.

grey coloured text represents common usage words (filtered out) and keywords that have attracted no interest. if you see whole blocks of grey text, you should reconsider your keyword placement.

a keyword density report indicates the prominence that you have given to your keywords. common usage words (stop words) are filtered out. when pluralised keywords are treated as their singular form.


summary

there is no one single magic bullet to achieve good search engine rankings, but with hard work, combining the above strategies in conjunction with our inbuilt search engine optimisation, success is likely.

  • use a succinct carefully crafted page title that reflects your body copy.
  • before composing your body copy, compile a list of relevant keywords, consider synonyms and variations of your keywords.
  • use an abundance of relevant keywords in your body copy, but not so that they distract from the reading experience.
  • add relevant contextual links within your body copy, particularly to your own pages, with well-chosen anchor text and titles.
  • provide breadcrumb navigation on your pages, this also makes for a more usable website.
  • don't waste your valuable time with the meta keyword tag.
  • update your website content regularly through blogs and news articles.
  • provide a valued resource that other sites would naturally want to let their visitors know about. (informative blog, product reviews, industry news etc.)
  • get listed on a handful of online directories: global (dmoz), industry related and regional.
  • create a directory of links to quality relevant websites.
  • deploy the url rewrite engine, if available.
  • provide sitemaps to aid search engine crawlers and your website visitors.
  • review your pages periodically using your seo analysis etc. and fine tune your copy accordingly.

trouthead can offer a range of seo consultancy services, if you are interested in our seo consultancy services please contact us.