3 imperative SEO steps

3 Crucial Details for Great SEO

DianaBlog, Online Marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, Website SEO

Does Google Love Your Website?  3 Crucial Details for Great SEO

Follow these steps to improve the quality of your website, and earn yourself a thumbs-up from Google in the process!   Get started now with these 3 fundamentals:


 

Contact book icon   Give each page a name!  

DO:  Create unique and accurate page titles

A title tag tells your potential visitors (and search engines) what a page on your website is about.   Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site, making title specific to it’s page.  Think of these like titles to a chapter in a book; be brief, but descriptive.    

DO:  Remember- Page titles are displayed in search results!

The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and could include other bits of important information (business location or short tag-line).

DON’T:  Leave a title blank, or use something generic (like Page 1 or  New Page)

DON’T:  Choose a title that could be misleading about the page- accuracy is key!


Make use of descriptions icon    Make use of Descriptions!    

DO:  Give them a quick pitch.

Give potential customers a reason to come to your site by properly describing it.  Use the “description”  meta tag to elaborate on your page title, describing the page in 1-2 sentences.  

DO:  Make each page description unique.

Avoid the lazy route of copying one page description for each page on your website- you’ll feel the wrath from Google, as duplicate content is huge no-no.

DON’T:  Fill up a description with just keywords; write in sentence form, adding accurate keywords in naturally.  

DON’T:  Make it a novel.  Google wants a quick and accurate description to show your potential visitors, not a short story.


Icon showing magic cleaning wand   Keep your URL’s clean!

DO:  Use the ol’ K.I.S.S. system.  Simple and accurate are the name of the game (see a pattern here?).  

Each page on your website should have the most concise and clear address possible.  Which of the following 2 pages looks more trustworthy and relevant (not to mention, professional)?

www.example.com/page_details.aspx?ID=0b88c

  • or    –  www.example.com/learn-more

DO:  Check your links after making changes!

Let’s say you change your “About” page URL from:

www.example.com/about_us_page_1   

  • to   –   www.example.com/about  

This is great- but your work isn’t done.  Comb through your website menus, side-bars, footer, and pages to make sure EVERY link to that “About” page goes to the NEW page URL, not the old one (which would be a broken link- another big no-no.)

DON’T:  Forget to use dashes/hyphens (-) to separate words in your URL’s. Google prefers hyphens over underscores, and you should NEVER place words together with no separating punctuation.  

DON’T:  Use capitalization, numbers, or punctuation marks other than hyphens.  Keep. It. Simple.


Helpful pages to learn more:

If you haven’t already, you can (and should) view or download the complete Google SEO Starter Guide HERE


Need a hand with your website SEO, or want to delegate these tasks?  Contact us for a complimentary SEO review and consultation, and we’ll take the weight off your shoulders!