Good SEO has never been more important for business. With over 3.5 billion searches (yes, 3.5 billion!) being made on Google every day, if you're website, brand or organisation isn't appearing in a prominent position at the right time for the right search terms, not only are you losing out on leads and ultimately revenue, but you are literally handing it to your competitors who are doing some form of search engine optimisation and ranking higher in the search results than you are.

Effective SEO isn't what it once was. It used to be the case that you could throw keywords into a page, list your site in a few directories and you would magically appear. This is no longer the case and a well planned strategy is needed, not only to initially rank where it matters but also to hold onto if not increase search positions. There are currently over 250 individual indicators and factors that the almighty Google will use to rank any given piece of content on the web, and these are just the ones we know about! I use the term content, rather than pages as Google is listing much more than simple pages now including videos, images and other rich media, documents such as PDF's and thanks to an agreement with Twitter, the occasional tweet (if relevant to a users search) amongst other content. Even with a fantastic website, you will still need to reach out to new customers and audiences - the age old mantra of 'build it and they will come', doesn't really apply to online content, if no one knows it is there, why bother?

So, what can you do to ensure that your content is seen by the intended audience? If you're using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, you may already be familiar with SEO plugins, however, although they provide the tools and facilitate SEO, they don't get web content ranked well overnight on their own, as authors of web content, we still need to understand the basic principles of on-page optimisation from an SEO perspective in order to reach the desired audience to achieve our business or even personal goals.  

Blog or Page Title

Still as relevant as it has always been, the title (also called a 'Meta title') is a key factor in determining the theme or focus of a page or blog post. Search engines, such as Google, will look at the keywords and phrases used in the title tag to better understand what the blog or page is about. Always try to use keywords which accurately describe the main theme of the article. A well optimised title tag will also be used by Google in the search results so try to use phrases which will also invite those searching to click through to the post. If you're able to, without straying too far from the main theme and taking into account context, try to use something different than everyone else so you're listing stands out.

It's all about Quality Content

A common mistake is where content has been written or designed with the purpose to rank in search engines without thinking about the reader. SEO is a tool which can help get content noticed more by the right audience. Content needs to be both relevant as well as engaging for the reader. If it isn't, and I'm sure we have all searched for something, clicked through and almost immediately clicked back to try another result, Google and other search engines will pick up on this and could decide that the content served does not satisfy the search query. This is reflected in a page's bounce rate and may lead to lower rankings as it's a good sign that the content just isn't relevant for the user. Good content will also keep users engaged and on-site for longer and in this day and age of short attention spans, gives you the upper hand as you now have more time with your potential customer.

Header Tags

Headings not only help readers understand the flow of your content better by breaking it up into readable and digestible sections, it also helps search engines identify key areas and the focus of the blog content. Each sub-heading (h2, h3... h6) needs to support the main theme of the article without going off on too much of a tangent. If it's not related to the H1 heading and title of the post it may not be directly relevant and may also lower the page authority (leading to lower rankings). Try not to repeat headings too often and where possible stick to a logical hierarchy. Strictly speaking, the H1 should be reserved for the main theme of the content, however, contrary to popular belief, multiple H1's will not harm rankings directly but should be used sparingly and only if there is a strong case to do so.

Meta Description Tag

Similarly to the title tag above, the meta description tag is also used by Google and other search engines to understand what a blog post is about and it needs to contextually support both the main title and page content. It should contain your main keywords and if optimised, can be used as part of the search result listing. It's generally accepted that the meta description shouldn't be longer than 160 characters, however, the truth is that it is actually dependent on character width, i.e. the number of characters displayed in the given space will be determined by the width of each individual character combined. We also need to consider device type as mobile devices will display significantly fewer characters so always try to get the message across at the start of the description. 

There is another meta tag we frequently get asked about and that's the meta keyword tag. Although Google no longer considers the keywords entered here, other search engines, particularly those that serve a very niche purpose, do still look for this so making a decision on whether to use this or not will depend on your sector or industry. That being said, it's also a good way for competitors to check what keywords you're targeting.

Keyword Density