Apart from writing lots and lots of interesting content / copywrite for your Website, your Page Title Meta tag is one of the most important. This Meta Tag is only viewable by Search Engines and, basically, tells the Search Engine what the page is about. You can see it at the top of your Browser Window (usually in the blue bar). Try and restrict your key search phrases to 65 characters (includes spaces). All pages in your Website should have it’s own unique Meta Tag Page Title and be based on phrases found in the body of your page. Where the keywords are placed in the Meta Title Tag and in relation to each other, is also very important.

When Search Engines show your Website in their results for particular search phrases, they will either, cut text from the body of your web page that includes the key words and show that, or they will display your Meta Description if it includes the phrase. Since Description tags give you more influence over Search Engines, it makes sense to include this tag in your web design. All pages in your Website should have it’s own unique Meta Tag Description and be based on phrases found in the Meta Title Tag and body of your page. Try and keep it to no more than 156 characters.

Every optimisation technique used, is an opportunity to earn “brownie points” from Search Engines and page URLs are no different. Instead of meaningless URLs, such as, /page1.html etc, try and name your pages with meaningful URLs. For example, as an  Accountant and if you had a page that described your Bookkeeping services, naming it /bookkeeping.html is more preferable to /page1.html. Apart from helping the visitor know what page they are on, it gives, Search Engines, clues regarding page content.

You can save yourself some time by ignoring this Meta Tag. It was highjacked by Spammers many years ago and is one of the main reasons why Search Engines place none or little importance against it.

When linking to other pages within your Website, it is always better, if possible, to create a context based link. For example, if I was to talk about our company specialising in developing Websites for Accountants, or Web Design for Accountants, then you will see that I have just created two internal links to two of our important web pages.

This gives the two pages, above, some additional “brownie points”  in the eyes of Search Engines, since the link text is the same as the key search phrases on each of the pages. This approach is much better than a “Please click here” text link. Be careful not to overdo it on any particular page. It can be viewed as spamming and may get you banned from Search Engines.

It is not a good design idea to make Search Engines browse through lots of default content before reaching the main content in the body of the page. Try and include your written content, specific to the page you are on, towards the start of your website code. If you use sub-menus in your design, try placing them to the right of the page. Make sure your key search phrase is also included in the first paragraph, if possible.

When using images on your Website, you should always include Alt Tags with images to help the visually impaired, who may be using Screen Readers. However, Search Engines also use the Alt Tag to rank your Website when the image has a link to another web page.

Written Website content / copywrite is King and will remain so, as far as Search Engines are concerned. The more written content you have, the more opportunities there will be for Search Engines to index your Website. Where possible, try and include your key search phrases for a particular page, at least two to three times. For more information on writing good Website copywrite, please follow the link.