This is the core of good search engine optimisation. You can have as many links as you like but unless your site is built with the search engines in mind, your site will never reach it’s potential within the search results.

Ensure that the technical on-site factors are well optimised. These are:

* File names
* Title tags
* Meta description tags
* Meta keywords tags

By doing this you are giving your site a helping hand from the very start of your SEO campaign.

You should also make good use of:

* Header tags
* Alt image tags
* Internal Linking

This will support your ongoing optimisation efforts. Whilst doing this make sure that you at least try to adhere to the standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium, as this will ensure your site is compatible across all the major web browsers.

File names

Choose correct file names for the pages within your site, as beside from the domain name this is the first thing that a search engine robot will discover when spidering through your site. Each page within your site is a different file, these can be written in HTML, PHP, ASP or any other web programming language. The file names should be a description of what the page is about, for example if the page is about search engine optimisation you may choose to call the file name ‘search-engine-optimisation.html’ or ‘searchengineoptimisation.html’ as this will give the search engines a clue, before they even open the file, as to what the page is about.

From an organisational point of view this also makes sense – if you have a site with hundreds of pages then how are you ever going to know what is in each page, if the file names are generic like, page1.html, page2html, and so on? It would be an incredibly difficult task to edit and update those pages.

Title Tags

The title tag is quite possibly the most important thing for you to consider when optimising your web pages for particular keywords. Search engines use the title tag text to determine what the page is about. The title tag is also the clickable link that typically appears on the search engine results page when your site appears on the rankings. For this reason it is very important that you not only take the search engine robots into consideration but also your human visitors too (which is after all who your site is intended for, right?).

You should limit your title tag to around 65 characters or fewer, as the search engines do not display more than this. As the title tag is shown to the user in the search engine results page you should try to make it compelling for searchers, but also keyword rich, which can be quite a difficult task. Another thing to consider is that your title tag should be closely related to the file name, as this reinforces what the page is about.

Meta Description Tags

Like the title tag, the Meta description tag is displayed on the search engine results page. The Meta description tag should contain a brief description of what your web page is about. In the past the Meta description tag has been used to stuff keywords in an attempt to trick the search engines into believing the page is more relevant than it really is. For this reason the search engines have advanced their ranking algorithms to such an extent that they don’t pay as much attention to Meta description tags as they once did. However, as the human visitors still see the meta description tag it is vitally important that you write it in a few compelling sentences to describe the page. Make sure the description is interesting enough for a potential site visitor to click on your link. As with the title tag your Meta description tag should be unique to each page to avoid duplicate content.

Meta Keywords Tags

This is now considered to be a largely redundant tag in optimisation. That is not to say you shouldn’t utilise it, as there is no knowing what benefits it may have in the future. The keyword description tag contains a list of keywords or phrases separated by commas, and should describe the subject matter of that particular page. Don’t be tempted to stuff as many keywords in there as possible as this can be seen as spamming by the search engines and your site will be penalised. Additionally, ensure each description tag is unique for each page.

Header Tags

HTML header tags can be used to apply significance to keywords or phrases within a webpage. By placing a selection of text within a header tag you are telling the search engine spiders that the text is of a certain level of importance. Search engine ranking algorithms place emphasis on header tag text when determining where the page should be ranked. The use of header tags is standard practice and should be viewed as a best-practice starting point. Header tags are organised in preset levels of importance, from h1 through to h6. Header tags can be used to organise the content of your webpage in hierarchical topics and subtopics. Don’t expect drastic increases in your rankings for keywords and phrases highlighted in header tags, but do try to use them wherever possible in your webpage wherever possible. This provides a service for both the search engines and your human visitors as it gives a visual emphasis of the importance of certain topics within your webpage.

Alt Image Tags

Some of your visitors cannot see images within your pages, so it is vitally important that you provide suitable alternative text for images. Search engine robots cannot see images either, and alt tags ensure that the robots understand what the image is about. Don’t be tempted to fill your alt tags with unnecessary keywords as they form a vital part of some visitors’ experience on your site. Those who use screen readers for example don’t want or need to hear a long list of spammy keywords every time they come across an image. You can use keywords if they are relevant to the image, and describe it correctly. Make sure that your alt tags make sense to a human before you publish them, as they are important for some web users.

Internal Linking

You should create an internal linking structure that allows search engine spiders and human visitors alike to navigate your site easily and quickly. Search engines use links to navigate the Internet, just like a human does. Although it can be difficult to control the links from outside your own website you can easily control the internal linking within your site. This may be a basic task, but it can be extremely influential to your overall search engine rankings. You should always ensure the link text (called anchor text) is descriptive. Use your keywords with anchor text and this will give the search engine robots a clue as to what the page is about.