Controversial? Not really.

In my experience there are a few aspects of a page that have a great positive effect on the position of your site in search engine results, and then there are lots of others that have a smaller effect and are only worth bothering about if you can spare the time. For those of you who can’t spare the time, here is my none SEO guide to great search engine results for your pages. They are listed in my order of importance:

Page Title

The Page Title is the text that appears at the very top of the browser when you are viewing a page. It also appears in any tabs you have open of the page in modern browsers, and most importantly it is used by search engines when your page appears in their results as the link text you click to view the page. Here is an image of a PagePlay result in Google. The purple text matches the pages Page Title:

Imagine your Page Title to be a few words which explain the whole content of the page. You want to explain, using the most relevant words what people will find if they view the page.

Optional Geeky Bit:

html code:
<title>You don't need SEO</title>

Try and keep your page titles to 70 characters or less so they aren’t cropped by search engines.

Main Heading

The first heading on your page is special to search engines and your visitors alike. Think of it as a description of what people will find further down the page. Introduce the page and not just the first section with it. Similar to the Page Title it should contain all the most relevant words to describe the page content.

Optional Geeky Bit:

html code:
<h1>SEO isn't something you should need to think about</h1>

Your main heading can be longer than 70 characters, but don’t go too crazy.

Page Url (address)

The address, or url of your page is the next on the list. It should also contain a few relevant words in a nice clean lowercase form. The url of this page is http://modlia.com/you-dont-need-seo and is a perfect example. Short, relevant, clean. A file name like http://modlia.com/you-dont-need-seo.html would work just as well.

Optional Geeky Bit:
Stick to 0-9, lowercase a-z and hyphens for your urls

Image file names alt attributes and title attributes

When you add an image to any page of your website you should always include title and alt (or alternative) text. Some content management systems offer you the option to include it, do!. Always make the alternative text a description of what you can actually see in the image. The title should be additional information that the image does not explain. The file name of the image should follow the same rules as your pages url, very clean but including words relevant to what the image is showing.

Optional Geeky Bit:

html code:
<img src="pageplay-website-management-system-logo.jpg"
alt="PagePlay Website Management System Logo"
title="PagePlay makes managing website simple enough for anyone" />

Content

When you write content for a page, pick a few words and phrases that are most relevant to it’s subject and use them often. Make sure your content is readable to human, but that it is obvious what the page is about by choosing any paragraph on the page at random. Use the most relevant phrase for the page in bold somewhere. Use the most relevant phrase in the first and last paragraph of the page.

Conclusion

If you write content regularly, the above suggestions just come naturally, but if you need a refresher here is the same advice condensed into one paragraph:

Use relevant words in your Page Title and Main Heading. Include descriptive image file names, title and alt attributes. Write content which reads well, but use your chosen words and phrases regularly, in the first and last paragraph and at least once in bold.

- Harry