I’ve just been doing a bit of housekeeping and came across an introduction to web content I wrote to help explain the concepts to a client a little while ago. I thought it contained some pretty useful stuff, so I’ve adapted and updated it a bit and – voilà! Enjoy!
Search engine optimisation
This is the series of measures you take to maximise the chances of appearing high up in the results for your keywords (see below for more on keywords).
The only way to guarantee a top ranking is to pay. If you get the keywords right, sponsored links (e.g. Google AdWords) can be a cost-effective way of guaranteeing rankings.
Ranking “naturally” (i.e. without paying) basically depends on:
- including the keywords on the site (see below).
- the volume of content on your site: if you have a single page and only mention keywords once or twice, you’re unlikely to rank well (unless you’re in a very niche area with little or no competition).
- the frequency with which it is updated: if you update your site regularly, it shows you care about it and, by extension, care about your business and its customers.
- the number of links from other (relevant) sites to yours: the more links there are, the more important search engines think it is because a link is essentially a recommendation; this is an incentive to provide genuinely useful content that others think it worth flagging up; other ideas for links include manufacturers’ websites, association websites, partner company websites.
- competition from other websites: the more companies there are in your field, the harder it is to rank; choosing keywords wisely can mitigate against this.
- the length of time a site has been online: you’re unlikely to appear in search engine rankings for a few months because it’s still being assessed.
As a general rule, good ranking depends on a mixture of all of the above.
Keywords
Keywords or phrases are what people type into search engines (usually Google) to find what they’re looking for. For a website to stand a chance of ranking on a keyword, that keyword needs to feature in the content as often as is natural to have it.
For more on choosing your keywords, read Three steps to choosing your SEO keywords.
The basic rule is to include them wherever it makes sense and feels natural to do so – that is, don’t labour the point by writing ‘when you want a good plumber it’s important to research good plumbers so you can be sure you’ve found a good plumber who’ll do good plumbing in your home’.
That said, there are higher value places to use them than others.
In descending order of value, these are:
- the H1 heading (i.e. the main heading on the page)
- the metatags (see below)
- the opening paragraph
- the subheadings
- the body text
- the alt text of images.
Because the volume of content on a website can be an issue in ranking, my basic belief is, the more the better! Press releases, product guides, spec sheets, marketing collateral, articles, etc, etc – if it’s written, it needs to be on the site in the content or as a download. It isn’t like print – you’re not being charged per page (or if you are, it’s not much), so there’s no real cost implication in doing this. Plus the more info you have, the more useful a site will be to more people (e.g. if it’s got sales info and technical product guides, both prospective customers and current customers will visit it). It can always be prioritised and structured so the headline info is at the top of the site and the detail further down.
Metatags
Title and description metatags are needed for each page. They describe what is on that page so because each page is unique, the metatags for each page should be unique. Search engines pay particular attention to keywords in the metatags, so they need to focus on including those.
