SEO (“Search Engine Optimisation”) matters, I think most self resecting web developers know this. Below are some simple things you can do to improve your ranking (you might need a developer to update your website!). One thing that strikes me about this list is that it is based on the notion that it’s doing your customer or user a favor by allowing them to find you. When they are on your website, do they really need or notice all the work that has been done so they can find you? Most of these changes are transparent, but some interfere with the design of your website and the excuse of doing it “because of SEO”.
Not all of us agree in this philosophy as it means you’re building a website for Google instead of your target audience (although many would argue it’s for your customer THROUGH Google). So just remember, whilst SEO might be EVERYTHING in your mind, it might not matter when your website starts having content for Googles sake and not your customer.
So without no further adeu, the top 9 ways to improve your SEO Ranking thanks to Alex Cleanthous and Six Revisions:
- Add a Blog
- Add Google Analytics to every page
- Reduce code bloat
- Make each page unique
- Use META description tags
- Remove repetitive wording from the website layout
- Add footer links to every page
- Create a separate web page for each keyword or keyword phrase
- Use keyword rich title tags on each page
Follow the link above for some basic explanations of each and while reading, think to yourself “Who is for? Google or my Customer?“. Of course, some things Google needs, and a visitor is not aware of them as they’re embedded in the HTML of the page, but some things are visible to us… ;-)
More on SEO-101 coming soon!