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Search Engine Optimisation.  “SEO”.  The dark art…

Well actually it’s not, but there is a fair bit to think about so make yourself a cup of tea and settle down – this could take a while (well, about 700 words anyway).

Last week I introduced the topic of SEO and whether it was something that your business needs.  For many the answer is yes, and this brings about a whole new set of questions to think about.  In this post I hope to give you a good understanding of the basics of SEO.

1. Research your keywords

Use Google's Keyword Tool to research keywords

This is vital and should be done before anything else.  Your entire search engine optimisation programme will revolve around your selected keywords.

Which search terms do you want your website to be found under?  Sometimes the phrases you think will be best are not the most searched.  Instead of just guessing, by doing some research you will know for sure.

• Come up with an initial list of *say* 10 phrases that you’d like to be found under
• BY using keyword research tools such as Google’s Keyword Tool, you can find out how many searches are performed for those words, plus some alternatives that you might not have thought of
• Take out any altermatives that aren’t relevant and put together a list of all the good ones
• Run a check to see how many search results come up for each phrase – some well-searched phrases may have a lot less competition than others and be easier to target

2.   Select your keywords

• Look for phrases that are both well-searched and not too competitive
• Select one or two of these phrases for each page and optimise your pages around just these.  Choosing too many phrases means you dilute the relevance of the page; and relevance to the search phrase is what the search engines are looking for

3. Optimisation

What is optimisation?  Search engines look at each of your individual web pages and looks for what the page is about.  It looks for keywords in certain places (this is known as their algorithm – a closely guarded secret that ranks alongside the Coca Cola recipe) so by including your select keywords in the right places, you can demonstrate to Google et al what phrases your page is relevant to.

Where do you need to put your keywords?

a. Page URLs and site structure

Include your keywords in your URLs (page names).  A URL like “laptop-computer-repairs.htm” is better than “repairs.htm”.  However, there are some rules to follow:

• Don’t make your URLs (page names) too long
• Don’t use caps
• Don’t over use your keywords (i.e. laptop-computer-laptop-pc-computer-repairs.htm)

b. Titles

Titles and Descriptions appear on search engine results

Each web page has a Title.  It appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser window, as well as on the search results page.  The classic mistake is to use a title like “Home” or “About”.  Including your keywords in your title is really important.  The rules here are:

• Keep Titles to around 80 characters
• Don’t just include keywords – they need to make some kind of sense
• Use different Titles on each and every page, with each one containing different keywords

c. Descriptions

Descriptions are shown on some search engine results pages and usually appear below the Title.  Search engines will look for your keywords here, but place less emphasis on the Description than other areas.  Instead, your Description should be the salesy bit that persuades the visitor to click on your link.  Be sure to stick to these rules:

• Keep Descriptions to around 180 characters
• Descriptions need to make sense and be more salesy
• Use a different description on each page

d. Content

Now you have researched and selected the keywords you’re targeting, you need to include them in the content you write for your web pages.

Keyword density is the measure of how many times a keyword is repeated compared to the overall content of a web page.  If a keyword appears five times out of a word count of 100 the keyword density is 5%.

Aim for a keyword density of around 3 – 5%.  Anything more could be seen as spamming and search engines could actuall penalise your site.

If you can include your keywords in the Headings on your page, even better.

e. Alt tags

Alt tags are the Alternative Text tags that are attached to images.  On some browsers, these show up when you move your mouse over the image.  Although less important than other areas, you ought to include some keywords in  your alt tags where possible.  Here are the rules to follow for alt tags:

• Keep the Alt tag relevant to the image where possible
• Alt tags shouldn’t be too long
• Use different alt tags for different images and on different pages