There is a huge list of things you can do to optimise your website for search engine optimisation (SEO) - which is effectively 'things that help people find your website'. Here are the top 9 that most people with a content management system (CMS) can do on their own to help enhance 'organic' (as opposed to paid) SEO:
- Check for duplicate page titles - give each page a unique and descriptive name.
- Meta Descriptions - ensure all pages have Meta descriptions and keywords.
- Descriptive page titles - add a couple of keywords to each page title as well as your business name but keep it 64 characters or less.
- Keyword density - some template systems automatically calculate the keyword density of a page for - what it means is the number of times a word appears on a page. The goal is to increase the number of words that relate to your business and its services. This involves writing the content of your page in a way that mentions these words as many times as possible but still makes sense.
- Make page headings descriptive - make them descriptive and specific keywords. When you create headings, pages, content etc always be thinking 'what would someone type into a search engine to find me'?
- Ensure content headings have your keywords in them - when you format a piece of text as Heading 1, 2 or 3 on a page, ensure that it is descriptive of the page information and includes some of your keywords.
- Get lots of links - have plenty of links to pages on your website and external to your website. For example, if you display the logo of an association you are a member of, make sure you add a link to the image leading back to the association's website.
- List your website in directories - It is very important to also list yourself in as many directories as you can e.g. Google Local Places, TrueLocal, StartLocal, Aussie Local etc as this creates links back to your website.
- Submit your site to search engines - Bing, Yahoo, Google are the main ones to submit your website to. This will ensure your website is indexed (i.e. scanned for keywords and content) faster.
A good free tool that will help guide you is The Reaction Engine.
