About Search Engine Optimisation
I professionaly encountered the SEO concept 2 years ago when I got accepted for an internship at Gift-tours.com. There I developed a project Online Internship International Community and one of my post on “Why I joined the programme“.
It was thus normal to me to make extra effort on my personal site to make myself visible on the Search Engine world we are facing. It is useful for networking and for business development.
The main rule about SEO is to provide contents which are relevant to Internet users interested in the same field. Starting from this, there are many tips and tricks that will help you to make Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, map your web content and make it available to the millions daily users. A knowledge of HTML is definitely a plus.
Here are my SEO TOP 10 tips!
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Choose Keywords
When choosing the orientation of your website, you should take some time to think about the message you want to send and also make a search on related keywords. If your site is business oriented, it’s highly important.
When possible, choose the domain name of your website according to these main keywords. -
Define Title and Description on every page
Next step is to create optimised title and description for your web pages. These information are the first displayed when you make a search. Title size should be maximum 70 characters and Description size maximum 150 characters to be displayed completely on Search Engine results.
- Describe every image with title and alt attributes
Images are also searched and pertinent ones might be even mapped before your site page. They can thus be a relay to bring people back to your website.
Pay attention to copyright issues, select pertinent images and display them with the attributes presented above.
The title attribute is the content displayed when your mouse is over the picture. It can be useful to add extra meaning to the picture.
The alt attribute is the text displayed if for any reason the link to the image is not working. It is also a usability tool as some software for blind people use the information to describe to them what you intend your visitor to see. -
Design a clear and simple navigation throughout your website
The main travel mean throughout internet is teleportation. One makes a search, appears on your page and according to the information displayed, one decides whether to stay or not.
By having a clear ergonomic web site will allow your visitor to see on which site he is, where on the website, what he can do, what he can still see and will come back for further investigations. -
Use pertinent links
Being for internal or external purpose, links are powerful tools which allows you to navigate throughout the web(remember the teleportation 😉 ). They should be thus used with care and precision to support your website development on the Internet.
Strive to link to content rich website which are recognised on the internet. Their notoriety may help you promote your content and attract some traffic.
Link to specific pages which are related to the content you want to highlight. For instance if you are linking to a specific book to Amazon, link to the Amazon specific page of the book, not the home page.
Define the title attribute of your link to tell people what they can except to see on the destination. -
Organise your content structure
In order to be understood, the clearer and better your message is organised, the more reader you will attract. How long would you stay on the website which looks like a mess?
Use content titles (hx), parapgrahs (p), bold (strong) or italic (i) to structure your page content and make it more readable.
Create a simple hierachy of pages, a sitemap, for user to more easily understand and remember how to navigate on your site.
Test and use all interactive elements (buttons, links, videos) and make them look the same throughout the site (either all images clicables either none). -
Integrate various medias
One element you want for your site is for people to spend time there, to develop an attachement to its content, to make them come back. By adding videos, software suggestions, games and other interactive gimmicks, you may create this bond which wil turn your visitors into regulars.
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Set website measures
Without measures there is no development. How to know who is interested by my site? How often do they come? what information do they enjoy the most? And many more… It’s possible to know and it’s very simple.
By scouting the web you can find free and merchant tools to monitor the activity on your website. Whether your go for Google Analytic or any other SEO toolkit, you will have the possibility to know your visitors habits and react accordingly. You may even be proactive, try new things, and see how your audience is reacting to it. -
Scout the web to find ally
Many people prefer to see the web as an hostile environment though the 2.0 spirit is the opposite of that. Internet is turning more and more into communities and knowledge sharing area.
You can find who might be your competitor though it’ll be more productive and rewarding to develop a positive approach and look for people with who you will collaborate. These can be other webmasters, your friends, any visitors of your website leaving comments. You are looking for content rich website… Nobody said you have to be its only source. -
Become a source of information
If your dedication and time allows it, by applying the tips aboved and many others, you will piece by piece become a source of knowledge. People interacting with you will be using you as the reference of their content. You might even develop a niche in which you are the main source of information being business or not for profit oriented.
Hopefully, there are tools that makes this seemingly heavy work easier to manage. For this blog, I am using WordPress SEO developped by yoast and SEO Friendly Images by Prelovac.