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The definition
of SEO from Wikipedia is:
“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving
the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines
via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic")
search results.”
In the past few years, nothing has been more commonly asked of a
web developer than "How do I get my web site to the top of the
search results in Google?" - if I had a dollar for every
time I've heard that question....
At Chilli Websites we have spent many hours studying and discussing
SEO over the past years and are continuously researching the latest
best practice techniques. Before launching the Chilli Websites product
a year ago, one of the highest priorities was ensuring all of the
web sites built using our system adhere to these best practice SEO
techniques now and into the future.
Search Engine Optimisation is as much an art
as it is a science -
but the following paragraphs will explain the basic technical qualities
your website should possess in order to be search engine friendly.
All websites built using the Chilli Websites system do possess these
characteristics and we also explain below how you can
best utilise them on your web site.
On Page Characteristics refer to characteristics
of your actual website and include:
– The
most important aspect in SEO is the actual content of your web
site.
This refers to all text you have on your site. The more great content,
interesting articles, FAQ’s,
stories, etc. you have on your site the more people will want to
read it and the higher your page will rank in the search engines. Remember
- the more you write, the better your chance of being found by
people searching for your products or services. |
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When writing your content for each page, you
need to consider all key phrases which a potential customer might
type into a search engine in search of your products or services and fit these key
phrases into your content. Then you will want to repeat these
key phrases through your heading tags, page
title, meta keywords and meta
description tags.
** Application to Your Website -
With Chilli Websites Content Management System (CMS) you have complete
control over the content of every page of your website so can easily
affect this element of SEO. Start writing and continue to revise
and improve your content!
– make sure
you are writing your specific keywords and more importantly key
phrases throughout all the copy in your site.
Most searches today are done using more than one word and so it is
important that you consider what your potential customers may be
typing into a search engine when they want to find your business.
When writing your key phrases to your copy you should consider their
density and relevance. Do not overuse phrases or keywords as this
will be seen as "spamming" by the search engines and may
count against you. Use different key phrases on the different pages
of your web site.
When considering your key phrases, it is often best
to be specific and not try to optimise for highly competitive and/or
general key phrases. For example if you are a real estate agency
in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, it is better to optimise your page
for "real estate Sydney western suburbs" than just for "real estate".
The reasons for this are two fold - you don't necessarily want all
of the internet traffic searching for real estate throughout the
world and secondly there would be millions of web sites throughout
the world trying to reach the top of search results for real estate
while there will only be perhaps a few hundred wanting to reach the
top for real estate in the Western Suburbs of Sydney.
** Application to Your Website -
With Chilli Websites Content Management System (CMS)
you have complete control over the content of every page of your
website so can easily affect this element of SEO.
– The page
heading is the main heading on each page describing what the page
is about. This should be relevant to the content on the page and
also relate to the page title. Again using this page for an exampleyou
see that the main title at the top of the page is "Basic Search
Engine Optimisation for my website (SEO)". In a technical
sense you should make sure your main heading is using an H1 tag.
** Application to Your Website -
When editting any page on your Chilli Websites site you can select your page
heading (by running your cursor over the text while holding down the left button
on your mouse). Then, with the text selected, click on the drop down box titled "Style" and
select
"Header 1". This applies the H1 tag and the relevant colour
and font size to the text.
– This is referring
to the name of each web page. Page titles show up on the top of the
internet browser window and should be relevant to the content on
the page. Typically you would want to use a combination of your most
relevant key phrases from the content of the page. For example, the
page title of this page is “Basic search engine optimisation
for my website SEO best practice techniques” (you
can see this at the very top of your browser).
** Application to Your Website -
When editting any individual page on your Chilli Websites site you
will see an area below the main page editor titled "Search Engine
Optimisation". In this area, there is a field titled "Page Title"
where you can enter your relevant page title for each page individually.
– This
refers to the tags that are inserted into the Header section of your
website. There are two main meta tags – Keyword and Description.
In the keyword meta tag you would insert all the
key phrases relevant to the individual page. This includes words
that prospective customers would type when using a search engine
to find your website. Ensure that all your key phrases also appear
at least once in the content of your page - otherwise you may be
judged to be "spamming" by the search engines!
The description meta tag is where you would enter a description
of each page. This shows up in a search engine when someone searches for your
site. Each page description should reflect the content on the page and use the
key phrases from your copy. For example if you type Chilli Websites into Google
you will see that the description “Northern Beaches Sydney Web site designers.
Instant template sites easy to maintain with our user friendly content management
system CMS.” shows up right underneath the link. That is the description
we used in the description meta tag for our home page.
** Application to Your Website -
When editting any individual page on your Chilli Websites site
you will see an area below the main page editor titled "Search
Engine Optimisation". In this area, there are fields titled "Page
Description" and "Page Keywords "
where you can enter your relevant description and keywords for each
page individually.
– This refers to all the links
on your site and what text they include. If you need to link text to another
page on your site you should write a descriptive link, not just “click
here.” For example, "Click
here for a Free Trial of Chilli Websites Content Management System".
** Application to Your Website -
With Chilli Websites Content Management System (CMS) you have complete
control over the content of every page of your website so can easily
affect this element of SEO when adding links to your website.
– This refers to the “alt” text
you give images when inserting them into your site. The Alt text
is basically a description of the image. This helps make your website
accessible for people who have disabilities. This text is also
useful for search engines to categorise your images so that people may find them
when conducting an image search (which may lead them to your web site!) Again
you should use key phrases which are relevant to the content on your page. For
example the puzzle piece image in the upper right of this page has an Alt tag
of "Search Engine Optimisation for my website" - you can see this by hovering
your cursor over the image.
** Application to Your Website -
With adding/changing an image using Chilli Websites CMS you can add
the image's Alt tag in the field titled "Alternative Text" in the
pop up window where you select the image to be displayed.
Off Page Characteristics include characteristics that are
not on your actual website pages such as:
. When a search engine
finds a link to your site from another site, it checks to see how
relevant the link text is, the quality or page rank of the site
that links to you and the keywords that are included in that site,
and more.
** Application to Your Website -
You will need to approach owners of web sites relevant to your
business and/or complimentary to your business who may agree to
provide a link to your web site in exchange for a link from your
web site to theirs - this is called "reciprocal links". Alternatively
you may purchase links from other web sites such as a local industry
directory or similar. Also, you can purchase advertising on other
web sites (i.e. banner ads, etc).
and what the link text says, etc.
If you want to truly understand Search Engine Optimisation and
Search Engine Marketing I suggest you read the entire Wikipedia
article on Search Engine Optimisation.
We encourage you to contact
us with any questions or to take
a FREE Trial of our Search Engine Optimised self managed web sites!
Chilli Websites can Search Engine Optimise your web site for you
whether it is one of our web sites or on any other server. Contact
us to discuss having us Search Engine Optimise your web site.
Last updated on December 18, 2008
by JJ Meredith.
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