Content Is King

You must have unique, interesting and "fresh" content. Search engines run sophisticated duplicate content filters, so coppied or non-unique content will simple not drive results.

All your content should be to some extent optimised for SEO, is called "On page" optimisation.

Each of your pages needs to be clearly and consisly written about a specific subject, the subject should be clearly defined.

Every page needs a purpose and a goal, and the search engines need to be able to make a "best guess" at understanding this purpose.

The way to help the search engines do this is by careful use of keywords and key terms.

Make a clear list of your targeted keywords and key terms, and then use them in the ways listed below:

1) Give every page a unique and targeted title

Use a short descriptive title for each page - this is very important - each page should be titled using the <title> tag that includes keywords for that page.

Title tags are a strict requirement of valid HTML, every page must have a title tag so use it well. Make each page with a UNIQY title!! If you have a page about holidays in Venice, make sure that your title tag says: "Holidays in Venice" or something similar. A cardinal sin of website design is to use the same title for every page! It doesn't help one bit with your SEO efforts.

2) Don't neglect your Meta Tags

Meta Tags are a component of webpage design that allows you to add information about a web page without it being shown to the user. For example a Meta Tag could contain a copyright message, or the designers name or contact details as well as a brief description or set of keywords.

You can regard them as "additional data" tags that are used to convey information about your web pages to other web services such as search engines.

Meta tags are depreciated these days - they are not used as much in terms of relevance but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't make good use of them.

Google for example often uses the description tag in it's search results under the page title.

Each page should have at least a description and a keywords tag, this will help direct the search engines to "discovering" the purpose of your page. It will also be useful in the management of your pages and neatly "complete" each page.

Meta tags may also be used for other web services that analyse your pages and help with directory submissions.

3) Keep pages on subject

Your on page text and links must be relevant to that page. Don't wander off onto different subjects on the same page or cover loosely associated subjects.

HTML is designed for linking relevant pieces of information together, so if you want to move onto a different subject create a new page and then link to it from your current page.

Of course try to use and make your keywords stand out; for example on a page about holidays in Venice, you want to use the words "Holiday", "Holidays" and "Venice" on a regualer basis. Use them in section headers and section titles, use them as alt tags in your images. But don't go overboard, your page needs to read well and look good - just keep in mind that it needs to be very obvious what the subject is!

Use variations on your keywords. Search engines will make assumptions about your pages based on groups of keywords not individual keywords.

4) The more pages the better

This is very simple, and that is; all things being equal a larger site is better than a smaller one. So don't be afraid to separate things out and create as many pages as you have good content for.

5) Make sure that you have something to say

When it comes down to it, there are many, many websites and the chances are that there will be many, many websites that are very similar to yours. You must create or buy or magic up good unique content, "Content Is King" is a bit of a Cliché these days, but it still makes a very good point.

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