Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via natural organic search results.

Internal website ranking factors - SEO

Several choices will influence the ranking of your site in search engine results, especially in Google. Divided into internal and external ranking. Internal ranking is controlled by website owners who are aware of the implications of search engine optimisation. (text, layout,keyword density) information to follow.

Web page layout details relevant to search-engine-optimisation

The page textual content - SEO

A webpage with minimal sentences will be far less likely to reach the top page of a search engines listings. Search engines favour sites that have lots of content. Increase the size of the textual content to at least 480 to 2500 words or a maximum 18,000 character count.

Your visibility in the Search Engines is increased when your text level reaches the recommendations above. This will lead to more instances of your optimised text being picked up and also result in a wider audience for your web pages.

Keywords are the key to being found during searches amd it must be realised that different combinations of words will lead to more successful searches. Try to use long-tail keywords for your search-engine optimisation, consisting of three or more words example. Search engine optimisation as well as its shorter version SEO.

Search optimisation phrases should be displayed regularly throughout your webpage and not bunched up together and must be not only be what the search engine is looking for but make sense to the general public who will visit and have to read your ramblings.

Keyword density and SEO

Keyword density shows the word frequency of text as a percentage on the page. It is best to keep your SEO keyword density in the region of 5% - 7%

This means that the SEO optimised keyword can appear roughly 5 to 7 times in a 100 word document, any more and it could be frowned upon by both search engines and the reader as it may appear over stuffed and almost too repetitive.

The closer the keyword phrase or keyword is to the start of the webpage the better match it seems for the searc engine optimisation. We have also found that the last words on the page of your best keywords, right justified in strong and italic text works well too for excellent SEO.

Formatting your text for perfect SEO

Search engines give special attention to highlighted page text that is formatted in certain ways. We recommendthe following:

Use keywords in all headings. Use the «H» HTML tags. The «h1» to «h6» tags are available to you but normally just the «h1» and «h2»are most effective. You can redefine these with CSS tags if required. Use the «strong» tag when you need to higlight a word or phrase.

«TITLE» tag and SEO

The Title tag is a very important part of optimising each individual webpage. This tag should be between 50 and 80 characters in length, never any more than this and should contain all you major keywords in a flowing title separated if necessary by the - (dash sign or the | (pipe sign) Never use the same word more than twice in the title.

Keywords in your links - SEO

A simple rule for SEO - Use keywords, as many keywords as you can in your text links to other pages and also to external pages. It will help your page rank slightly.

«ALT» tags in images - SEO

It is always advisable to use ALT tags in your images because sometimes your graphics will not load on the page and if ALT tags are present it will give an indication to the reader what the particular item is about.
Currently, Google uses text in the ALT tags where the tags are to other pages but does not use any other ALT tags it finds for the purpose of ranking that page.

Meta tag Description - SEO

This tag is used by the search engines and should not usually be more than 200 characters. Always use content and keywords from the page laid out in a paragraph that makes sense, do not stuff with keywords.

Meta tag Keywords - SEO

Originally used by all search engines for defining the content of a site it has been largely dismissed by all the engines now because of abuse with keyword stuffing. It is still advisable to use keywords as it could be revived at any time by the search engines.

One final point on SEO

Incoming ONE WAY links are recommended and no SEO would be complete without taking into account 1 way links from similar sites. The days of the reciprocal link for SEO seem limited and one way links will increase your rankings.

If you don't feel confident about doing your own SEO and would prefer it done by an expert, just contact us by emailing sales@redhotwebhosting.co.uk and we will be very happy to help you through the search engine optimization maze.

 

SEO - Professional Search Engine Optimisation