SEO Part 1: On-Page Search Engine Optomisation

What is ‘SEO’ and why is everybody talking about it?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

Which essentially means the process of trying to improve your website rankings for particular keywords in search engines so that when people are searching for services that you provide – your website will appear as close to the top of the list as possible. Resulting in potentially more leads, sales and interest in your business – that’s why everybody is talking about it!

SEO is more of an art than a science and sometimes things you think will improve your rankings may in fact actually impair your rankings.  There are two parts to SEO: on-page and off-page.

This article covers on-page SEO - the process of applying SEO principals to your website pages at the time of development. 

How do I apply on-page SEO to my website?

Make sure your website setup covers these points:
  • Write great content – Google loves new and unique content – that’s why creating a blog is a great way to ensure that your website continually has fresh content rather than the content on your website remaining static all of the time.
  • Use keywords naturally in your page titles, content headings and website content.
  • Ensure images have alt text containing keywords.
  • Create a good internal linking system in your website, eg, navigation menus, sub-menus, website footer.
  • Make sure URLs have website hierarchy.
  • Use descriptive link text.
  • Set up unique meta-tags content for each page.
  • Make sure your website has fast loading pages.

There is a fine line between too much on-page SEO and too little SEO – at Creative Web Designs we use our knowledge and experience to get the balance right.  

However…that’s not all you need to do to get Google to notice your website.

You normally can’t get top rankings without applying off-page SEO practices as well.  But with on-page SEO applied to your website, the groundwork has been done and you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Read part 2 of this article: Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation