For this TechTuesday article we’ll focus on the technical aspects of SEO related to site structure, link format and page layout. By applying these tips you will set your site up to increase both traffic and awareness in search engines.
One of the most important rules is to make your site for humans, not a search engine bot.
SEO is an ongoing commitment and all new content much be checked as it is added. If you don’t want to worry about this, remember that Site Management clients benefit from a monthly SEO health check of new content and site setup.
SEO Setup Checklist
- Add your keyword to your site title tag. Try and make the title meaningful and relevant. Also add your keyword to your site meta description and again, make it compelling
- Ensure every page has only one H1 tag and ensure that it sits above any H2 / H3 tags
- Use a reasonable page length – aim for over 100 words. Use plain english and write for your audience, not a search engine bot
- Add descriptive ALT tags and filenames to all images
- Make sure your site is mobile friendly – use Google’s mobile test tool
- Install Google Analytics and create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console
- If you have a WordPress site you can get analytics in your dashboard by installing Google Analytics for WordPress plugin
- Install an SEO helper plugin. Our favourite is Yoast SEO
- Check Google’s Search Console, Screaming Frog and Browseo to find crawl, duplicate content, missing titles and other errors
- Create a robots.txt file and submit it to Google Search Console
