SEO tips from Hantle Web Design  

Are you after some SEO tips because you are struggling to figure out how to scale the rankings in search engines? You are not alone. SEO is made up of a number of factors and off the top of my head I can think of at least 20 of them so below I am going to give you some of these SEO tips that have worked for us and our clients. This is by no means a comprehensive list but these SEO tips will get you started and hopefully it will whet your appetite to find out more and improve your search engine rankings.

SEO Tips #1: Use your keywords in your Title tags.

Title tags tell search engines the subject of your page so they should contain the keywords that you are competing for in the search engines rankings. Your keywords should only be mentioned once in the title and it can be a phrase.

For example, if your webpage is about Search Engine Optimization, then the page title might be “SEO tips to improve your ranking in Google”

The good news is that a lot of your competitors won’t be using title tags or they will have something like “Home page” so you will get an edge right off the bat with this one.

SEO Tips #2: Include your keywords in the H1 tag!

H1 tags are like a newspaper headline so they should contain your keywords. I have used the words “SEO tips” in the H1 tag of this page as H1 tags give the search engines an indication of what the page should be all about. Pages using H1 tags are considered by search engines to be more relevant and once again, most of your competitors won’t be using them, opting instead for the more easily editable big bold default font in the CMS. Don’t make the same mistake.

SEO Tips #3: Use original high quality website content.

When search engines see duplicate content it isn’t unusual for it to be virtually excluded from search engine results. High quality original content means mean’s 30%-50% different from any other content. The obvious benefit of high quality content is that it will keep visitors on your website for longer and some search engines give your pages credit for this and it may convert to better rankings.

SEO Tips #4: Your keyword must be used in the first 50 words.

The reason for this is because search engines are trying to establish a link between the title, the heading and the content on your page so it’s important that this section is particularly relevant and it is the reason you see “SEO tips” in the first paragraph on this page. By having our main keyword / keyword phrase (SEO tips) in the first 50 words of your article will help establish this link.

SEO Tips #5: Aim for a keyword density of 1-3%.

Like most of the SEO tips here, there can be some conjecture about what the optimal keywords density is. However, we have found that a frequency of one-three times every 100 words works (at the moment). Once again this just adds to the relevancy of your page from a search engine perspective as it builds on the other elements already mentioned in this article.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that high keyword density will increase your search engine rankings. On the contrary, will make you look like a keyword scammer and you’ll end up being penalized.

SEO Tips #6: Meta Keywords and Meta Description.

Meta keywords are hardly relevant to the search engines anymore but your main keywords along with relevant page information could be listed nonetheless if you want. The downside is that you are then telling your competitors what you think the right keyword’s are for your particular page or article for a possible gain of less than 0.5% so it probably isn’t worth it.

The meta description isn’t used by search engines for rankings but it is the little abstract that follows your listing in the search results and your keywords will be bolded so a compelling meta description could increase the click-through rate.

These SEO tips are just the tip of the ice-berg but if you want to know more feel free to Contact Hantle Web Design

Kind regards, Jody Lane