Search Engine Optimisation is the bain of my inbox. I can’t believe how many dodgy SEO emails I get in a week. That being said, actually having your website optimised for what the search engines are expecting is something that can’t be ignored if you expect your online presence to succeed.
If your business isn’t visible in the search engines, it’s one less avenue that your customers can use to find you. If you’re beginning your website design you need to make sure that your web development company is bulding your new website using best practice methods that will actually promote you in the major search engines.
It’s not difficult to implement the basics of search engine optimisation and they should be doing it by default but I’m continually suprised by how many web design businesses are pumping out client websites without giving them a chance in the search engines.
Here’s the basics of Search Engine Optimisation that you need to make sure you’re getting
- One single H1 element on the page which defines the subject of the page. This allows Google to easily identify the intention behind your page.
- The page URL is relevant to the topic of the page and what the intended audience is looking for.
- Use Multiple H2 – H5 elements to structure your content in a logical manner that allows the search egines to recognise how the various elements of the page fit together.
- Add images that are named with relevance to the page topic and to the pont you’re illustrating. For the sake of completeness they should have relevent ALT attributes added and if possible captions added.
- Make sure that the page title element is relevant and interesting. This is the blue title that you see in the search results, so your aim here is to give the user a reason to click your page title and not your competitors.
- Use a complete and compelling meta description. This is the longer text that appears under the blue page title in the search results. Your page title should be designed to capture your target audience’s attention and the meta description needs to make them click on the link to your website.
