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3 SEO improvements to boost your website's ranking
3 SEO improvements to boost your website's ranking
September 30, 2011
People can find your website in a variety of ways, but few are more important than being found ‘naturally’ via a search engine. Why? Because using a search engine is the most common way for people to find websites. Appearing in search results can cost nothing as opposed to paying to promote your website in print or through online adverts – and the higher you rank in the search engine results, the more traffic you get!
So, here are three tips to improve your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) and boost your ranking…
Choose your keywords wisely
It’s important to choose the right keywords for every page on your site. These are words that relate to your field or topic and are likely to be used in searches.
Focus on different keywords for each page. This way, each keyword has its own unique value to a particular page, rather than the same set of keywords on every page competing against each other to do the same job, resulting in your SEO being less effective.
Try to place your keywords in the URL, headings, in image tags, and in the content, but don’t overdo it. If you cram in too many keywords or repeat the same ones endlessly, it will impact negatively on your search engine ranking and won’t read as well, lessening the quality of your content.
You can enhance your SEO and have great content by striking a good balance.
Create a blog
A key part of effective SEO is adding new and original content. If a search engine spider checks your site, it will be looking for fresh content or changes to existing content, so it’s important to ensure that your site gets updated frequently.
A great way to add new content is via a blog because it’s so easy to update regularly and perfect for adding unique content.
And it’s not only search engines that find new content on a blog appealing. Visitors to your site will be craving new information – and the blog on your website is exactly where they’ll find it.
Amongst this new information there may be links to articles on other websites. And if your content is good enough, those websites might return the favour and link back to your site, improving SEO and generating traffic for you – see the results for yourself.
Use meta description tags
It’s not just the information on your web pages that will affect your search engine optimisation. You can improve SEO by giving the search engine spider a taste of your website before it has even got to your homepage, with a meta description tag…
This is the short paragraph that appears in the search engine’s listings and gives a brief overview of your site. It’s also your first opportunity to attract potential visitors, as well as the search engine spider, so it’s important to give an accurate representation of your business and relate to the information on your site.
As with your website’s content, don’t fill the description, which should only be around 30 words, with only keywords in the hope of boosting your SEO. Again, you’ve got to find the right balance between effective keywords and marketing yourself to potential customers.
And just like keywords, be sure to use a different meta description tag for each page of your site, so as not to lessen its impact.
Improve your SEO in no time
There are lots of other ways to improve SEO. It’s one of the broadest topics when talking about websites, and the goal posts are changing all the time. You’ll see arguments for site maps, link building, analytics and more – they are all valid – but these three tips are a great place for you to start shooting up the rankings and generating traffic on your website!
Dale Cook, Serif. For more information on Serif and its products including WebPlus website design software, visit the Serif website
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Comments
I was in general agreement with the advice until I hit upon the point to optimise the description tag for search engines. You should be aware that search engines, whilst indexing the content in the meta description, place no value in it for ranking purposes. It's still an important tag, mind you, because the description is what influences people to click through to the web site, so it should be well written, engaging and relevant to the web page it represents. The TITLE TAG, however, DOES influence search engines, so make sure it contains your main keywords (towards the front if possible) and if your brand is well established, get that in the title too. It also has to appeal to humans, after all! The Title tag should not exceed around 65-70 characters. The Title tag, not the Description tag is definitely of most influence for SEO. This tutorial from SEOMoz, SEO gurus in my book, gives more information about the meta title tag: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
I agree with Ms.Brittany. Most of the webmasters nowadays just add their keywords in every place they can think of. Maybe, the term "keyword density" has another meaning in the back of their heads. One must think of a better way to add their keywords in their content. Also, with the Panda update, one must be careful on where to add their articles or comments. Most blogs have been penalized after the said Google patch released and thus made most us feel more careful in doing things. For keywords again, maybe adding the keywords on the first, middle and last part of your content is better rather than adding it in every place you can think of. Keyword stuffing has been one of the main topics when it comes to SEO. Whether you add it into your meta tags, categories or such, one must still be knowledgeable on how will this affect your site if you're not thinking the turn out of things.
I think you definitely hit on three of the most important SEO tactics, Dale. Also am glad that you advised to not go overboard with keywords or meta descriptions. Especially with the Panda updates earlier this year, "keyword stuffing" will do your website more harm than good. A lot of business owners (doing their own SEO) think more is merrier, but I think it's definitely better to be precise and targeted than try to cast a wide net!
Brittany Morse
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