SEO is a massive subject and the possibilities and techniques endless. The following is a short starter guide to setting up you web pages to be Google friendly. The guide will also help you use our favorite SEO package “WordPress SEO by Yoast”.
SEO and Content
The first thing you need to do before even writing the content for the page is think about what the keywords are for the page in question. Once you have decided this you can write the content and then tweak as required.
Page Title
It is important to ensure that your keyword is in the page title and try to keep it short if possible. Remember that the maximum page title(from an SEO point of view) is 70 characters.
Page URL
Also ensure that your keyword is in the page URL. This can be in the full structure (sub directories) or just the main page URL.
Meta Data
Meta data used to be vital to on-page SEO and whilst it is still important, it is considerably less now. There is a maximum length of 156 characters.
Header Text
The header or H1 text is usually the title of the page and should stand out from the rest of the text. Google will look at the page H1 tag to decide what the page is all about so ensuring the keyword is in the header is very important.
Content Keywords
When it comes to SEO, keyword density is a hotly debated topic but generally keywords should be used between 4-6 and 10-12 times. Google now tries to rate sites high if they are designed for the reader (and not forced to make Google happy). For that reason our advice is to write naturally and then check the keywords. Too many and Google may penalise you and too few and they may miss what the keyword is.
Image Title
The image ALT tag is also important so whenever you use an image, make sure the ALT text is the keyword so Google can “read” the mage.
Call to Action
It is always good to have calls to action on your webpage. These are important to get the visitor to undertake an action and also for Google to see an external link on the page. If the CTA is an image do not forget to use the ALT text as well.
External Links
Google uses a vast range of criteria to rate your site and external links are very important. These are however difficult to get but you should nonetheless try to get some quality links. I should stress the quality point as there are many cheap link farms which will do little good and may even harm your rating. One useful point is that if you are targeting a UK audience, use UK domains i.e. .co.uk
Content
It is also important to write interesting content that is relevant to your website audience. This is important to keep the readers interest and encourage comments as well as encourage sharing by your reader. As a rough guide a page should have around 500 words and should be written naturally and avoid keyword stuffing i.e. overloading the page with the keyword.
Guest Blogs
One great way to get your message onto other sites is to write a guest blog. Make sure that you choose niche blogs in your sector and start by writing interesting and useful comments. Once you have written a few good comments, ask if you can write a full blow article. Make sure the blog is interesting and new (try to avoid just recycling old content) and do not miss the opportunity to include a few subtle links back to your site using suitable keywords.