TOOLKIT 1 - Getting the most out of your website.

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Getting the most out of your website Tips on Search Engine Optimisation

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What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

How do search engines work?

SEO is the process of making your site easy for search engines

Search engines try to find appropriate content for people. They

like Google to find and index. If your site content is easy for

do this by looking for relevancy. There are billions of web pages

Google to find, more people will visit your site.

so how do they know what is relevant and what is not?

There are many search engines but Google is the most well-

Primarily they do this by looking to see how many incoming

known and widely used. In fact Google accounted for nearly

links there are for any given search term (or keyword).

90 per cent of UK search in September 2013.

An incoming link is a link to your site from another website.

An example of a Google Search Results Page (SERP):

For example say someone searches for ‘Bananas’, a search engine will check how many incoming links there are for that term. If Site 1 has 12 incoming links and Site 2 only has 3, Google assumes Site 1 is more relevant and will list it higher on its search results pages.

Site 1

Site 2

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Google is focused on providing good search results to its users.

Remember that SEO isn’t just about increasing visitors but about getting targeted visitors to your site.

This means that search engines send the best traffic as people are already looking for you. So it is sometimes a case of quality versus quantity.

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Information that search engines want Incoming links

Keywords

Google essentially sees these as a vote for the site they link to:

These are the terms that people may search for using a search

the more votes, the more Google trusts the page. However it

engine, for example ‘Cheap flights to Rome’. So it is important to

isn’t just about quantity: a link say from the BBC site is more

put yourself in your audience’s position and to think about what

valuable than a link from a rarely visited blog. There are bad links

they are trying to find (and also what you want them to find).

too: link farms (pages with long lists of links to various sites) and

Make sure keywords are included on your page but don’t go

other paid-for linking can actually get you blacklisted by Google.

overboard as using them too much is known as ‘Keyword

Although you can’t control incoming links directly you can

stuffing’ and is penalised by Google (they may even unlist you).

try to foster relationships with other sites and encourage

It is best to write using clear language and include your

reciprocal links.

keywords naturally: remember to write for people, not for

Quality content If your site is full of quality content, then it is much more likely

search engines. Use headings to structure the content and try to include your important keywords near the top of the page.

Create specific pages to target specific keyword areas.

other sites will link to you. You need to write pages that are interesting, engaging, insightful or useful and that set you apart

Single keywords are unlikely to give good results because

from your competitors.

so many other sites will use them. It is best to concentrate on phrases (and locations if applicable), for example ‘Reliable

Try and write original content and not duplicate it on your site or elsewhere (unless the site your content appears on is a higher

decorators in Reading’. More specific keyword phrases may result in fewer visitors but they will be more targeted.

value site, ie: one that has mire visited and is more respected).

Google has a good tool to help research keywords which can estimate the number of monthly searches (see page 7).

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Information that search engines want Title tags A page’s title tag is one of the most important aspects for SEO.

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Used by Google on results pages

This is the title tag www.example.com/about-seo/title-tags

The title tag isn’t to be confused with a page’s title (although these can often be the same). A title tag is the HTML tag for the page’s title and appears in the browser’s title bar. Some contentmanagement-systems (such as WordPress) allow you to edit this independently of the page title.

Title tags are the titles listed in Google’s results pages so are really importantas these are the first things sarchers will see.

As search engines display the first 65 or so characters (about 12 words) of a title in the search results, good titles can result

Friendly URL with good structure

This is the page title This is some introductory copy using a keyword phrase early in the page Picture with ALT tag describing what it is Helps with SEO and helps Google identify images for Google Image Search

in more click-throughs.

Titles should be an informative and concise description of the page’s content and should be unique within your site. If possible

Good keyword use but not overdone

place important keywords near to the front as these are ranked

or:

Here is some text with a keyword phrase. But the rest of it is dummy text. Chupa chups macaroon fruitcake tiramisu marshmallow gummi bears.

Marshmallow lemon drops pie dragée carrot cake.

Bonbon keyword phrase topping icing lollipop.

Bananas – the world’s best fruit

Relevant sub-heading to break up text

The latter being more interesting and enticing and likely to result

Gingerbread lollipop carrot cake cake. Pudding sugar plum cake cotton candy sweet roll applicake marzipan. Marshmallow lemon drops pie dragée.

higher. For example a page about ‘Bananas’ could be listed as: Bananas

in click-throughs.

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Information that search engines want Friendly URLs

ALT tags and image names

These are the web addresses of the pages on your site. URLs

Images are often overlooked for SEO but can have a big impact

should make some sense and follow the structure of your site.

on results. ALT tags are HTML codes that sit with images and

Ideally they should contain keywords of the page as this can

can be used to describe what the image is: this is useful for

improve search engine ranking. Good URLs are easier to

screen-readers used by disabled users and for search engines.

understand for people and search engines. Some examples

You can also optimise your images by using targeted keywords

would be:

in your image filenames: this helps Google find images for

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Bad: www.bananas.com/web/231/finder.aspx?t=689

Google Image Search and also adds extra descriptive

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Good: www.bananas.com/products/brands/fyffes

information to your page. Make ALT tags and titles descriptive,

The good example makes sense and you can guess what you

for example an image of a red Mini car would be better as

might find on that page.

red-mini-white-roof.jpg than DC_04332.jpg (which is typically what cameras use as filenames).

Another very important factor is what is known as canonicalization. Simply put Google can treat:

Ensure images are near the top of your pages and are contextual, for example if the page is about iPads use a picture

http://www.bananas.com and http://bananas.com

of an iPad rather than say, an apple.

as different content, even though they are the same page.

It is important to redirect the non-www to www so that Google

Meta descriptions

doesn’t penalise your site for duplicate content.

These are HTML tags of the page descriptions and our used

by Google to display a summary on search results pages. It is mostly useful to people, rather than search engines so make sure it reads well and is a good description of what can be found on that page. As with title tags make the meta description unique per page within your site.

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Some SEO dos and don’ts…

Further reading and resources

Do

Beginner’s guide to SEO Use keywords and research them Create pages for specific subjects

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Google webmaster guidelines https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en

Make title tags specific to the page Use friendly URLs

Keyword research https://adwords.google.com/keywordtool

Write concise meta descriptions Testing page speed Describe images with ALT tags

http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Make your site mobile-friendly

Broken links

Ensure your site loads quickly Check and fix broken links

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Measuring site statistics https://analytics.google.com

Don’t Overuse keywords on pages Pay for incoming links Write short pages (under 300 words) Expect quick results or that SEO will be a magic fix

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