SEO

on-page search engine optimisation

For most people, working with SEO (search engine optimisation) is something involved and complex. It is an umbrella term for a selection of methods and techniques that go into reaching for the top of search results across search engines such as Google. There are multiple ways of optimising your website. It could be through on-page optimisation, on-site optimisation or off-page optimisation, but we will start with on-page optimisation (structuring of text and other content). For you to succeed with search engine optimisation, you will essentially need a user-friendly website with unique, high-quality content. Just keep in mind that search engine optimisation requires time, patience and a structured effort - to really make a difference. But you should not feel intimidated by the amount of tech jargon - we will help you on your way to the top! By following some simple steps listed below, you will soon get started optimising on your own. Without any prior experience. That’s on-page optimisation, i.e. text and content structure.

As was previously stated, it is the text and content structure of your website that really influences your rank in Google search results.

Where do I start?

To make sure you are heading in the right direction, you should make clear what your target audience is: Who are you trying to reach? Get to know them. Try to visualise what your potential customers are searching for to reach your website. Through careful analysis of your website, you can retrieve information that can explain how the search behaviour of your customers looks.
There are a multitude of tools for this job, choose one that you are comfortable with. If you are looking for a decent tool that informs you of the usage pattern of your site visitors, Google Analytics is a great choice. This type of analysis will help you get started and aid you with future expansions. With the help of a comprehensive analysis, the following steps will be easier to follow.

What keywords should I use?

When you have successfully identified your target audience and retrieved their search behaviours, it will be easier for you to know which search terms you should focus on - a task made simpler now that you know what your potential customers are searching for! By using the Keyword Planner provided by Google Ads you will be able to single-out popular searches and compare clicks to your site with your competition, on a per-keyword basis. Tools like this will tell you what keywords you should work on to maximise traffic influx to your website or webshop. Remember to keep your keywords relevant to your site contents. Now that you have performed a keyword analysis and made it this far, the real work begins!

Where do I place my keywords? 

Now that you have your keywords, it is important to know how to use them. Will lacing every sentence with keywords work? -No, Google can see past that. You are supposed to act upon the interests of your visitors, not Google’s search algorithms. It all boils down to having a website with informative content - try giving your visitors the best experience possible!

But what is the difference between writing an SEO-optimised text compared to a normal one? That is a commonly asked question, but what should you do? If you intend for your texts to address your visitors directly and be informative, you have already come a long way. But make sure to include your keywords wherever is apt.  

Below, are some simple points to keep in mind as you are optimising your website:

• Use the different types of headings that are specified in HTML (H1 - H6). By adhering to them for structuring your texts, you make the site more accessible, both for humans and SEO robots.Keep in mind to only use a single level one heading (H1) per page.
• Use your keywords by integrating them into your texts. Feel free to use synonyms and different stresses to your liking. Remember to have intervals between keywords, the texts should be easily read.
• The texts should be properly formatted, format bodies of texts using paragraphs, headings and proper spacing. Also stress words by using underlines and writing them in bold or cursive font weights. All for the sake of readability.
• From an SEO point of view, Google prefers long sections of text, but do not write more than is necessary to get your points across.
• Avoid repetition. Reusing your texts across pages is discouraged, write new content that has not been previously cached by Google.

Meta descriptions and title tags

Each page on your website should have a unique title tag and meta description. Below is a screenshot of Google search results, each result represents the title tag and meta description of said page. This is important!

We recommend keeping a unique title and description for each individual page on your website. If you abstain from doing this, Google will automatically pick keywords they think are relevant.

Follow the tips below whilst choosing title tags:

• Make tags descriptive of said web page
• Submit your keywords as early in the texts as possible
  Do not let keywords compromise the fluidity of your sentences.
• Try not to repeat keywords
• The visitor should want to click on your search result, make it attractive and “clickable”
• Use a maximum of 60 letters, spanning your tags
• Make each description unique

In September of 2009 Google announced they would cease ranking search results by the contents of their meta descriptions - however, we still think it is important to put some time into writing good, clickable descriptions. A website that generates clicks is one that ranks well in search results.

Take these following tips into account when writing meta descriptions:

• Remeber that the description should be a summary of the contents of the page
• It should be between 50 and 300 letters
• Write inviting texts that include your keywords
• Make each description unique

Pictures and alt-texts

Alt-texts are descriptive snippets of text for your images, meant for Google’s robots.
Should the images not display, the alt-text is shown instead. It is much easier for a computer to interpret plain text as opposed to scanning an image using deep learning algorithms. Alt-texts will help your SEO rating, as will changing the filenames to something relevant, not “DC0056.jpg” or similar. Names like those will not help google interpret the content of them.

Why do we optimise images?

• Your images may show up in searches using Google Images
• Google will be able to contextualise your images

A brief look into SEO work...

We hope this debrief has shone some light of what SEO work entails… Of course there are more technologies that go into improving your ranks in search results, but this should go a long way in helping you up to speed with search engine optimisation.

Should you need more information regarding search engine optimisation, do not hesitate to call WEB AT ONCE, we will gladly answer your questions!

Good luck!