How to Make SEO Work – 5 Steps to Better Search Rankings
There are many factors that play a role in search engine rankings [some mentioned in our summary introduction to SEO "The Basics of Search Engine Optimisation"]. Here are a few "on-site" optimization factors that are critical for better search engine rankings that could help you increase your chances of success.
The Title Tag
The title tag plays one of the most important roles in search results at Google, and is almost always the heading Google chooses for each of its listings. Placement of your target phrase is best used near the start of the tag and repeated again in the middle or near the end. For best results each page on your site should have a totally unique title tag.
Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description tag is still occasionally used by Google as the description which appears in the search results themselves. Adding your keyword/s at the beginning of the description can help to attract a new visitor.
Meta Keyword Tag
When it comes to Google this tag is not really considered that much, and won´t influence your rankings too much. But still needs to be there for other Search Engines and it is best to keep it clean. When adding keywords to this tag, do not SPAM it, just add enough relative keywords that relate to the content of your page.
Heading Tags
Placement of target phrases within heading tags helps to establish the importance of those given phrases. Only place target phrases within a heading tag if it makes sense to do so, and don´t flood a page with numerous tags.
Image Alt Text
While image alt text still plays a minor role, its biggest part is within the use of image based navigation. If you have an image linked to another page, the alt text will be attributed much the same way as standard link anchor text is.
Getting these 5 onsite factors right, is a good starting point. However there are a number of other factors to consider - check out the eMarketing Trends blog for more on this and regular updates about Search Engine Optimisation.
