Search engine optimisation (SEO) is something of a dark art practised only by highly trained ninja web gurus. We call them SEO consultants. Due to the highly secretive nature of their work, ordinary mortals often don’t know where to start when it comes to SEO.
A good SEO consultant can turn an obscure website buried in Google’s supplemental index into a money making enterprise. At a cost. However, there are many easy hits that web designers like you and I can and should be doing to their websites to improve search engine positioning.
1. Keywords in title tags
This is the single most powerful way to take your website to page one, and it only takes five minutes to do. Use targeted and relevant keywords in the HTML title tags on every page on your website. Use descriptive titles and be careful not to use duplicate titles across multiple pages.
2. Keywords in heading tags
Each page on your site should have a good semantic heading structure. Each page should have no more than one H1 tag and a well-structured hierarchy of H2, H3, etc tags. Search engines use headings to identify relevancy, so it is wise to place keywords in your headings where it makes sense to do so.
3. Keywords throughout the body of the text
If you are writing good quality relevant content then you are already doing great work in terms of SEO. Search engines use increasingly sophisticated algorithms that analyse the entire content of your website. Every word you write contributes to SEO, so write some more.
4. Link to your own popular content
An incredibly powerful way to drive your content to better search engine positions is to link to it yourself. Link to your popular or most relevant content from your homepage and from the rest of your site, and make sure you use appropriate keywords in the anchor text.
5. Relevant inbound links
I lied when I talked about five easy ways to improve SEO, because this last one is not easy. However, it is essential you generate good links to your content from relevant sources with targeted keywords in the anchor text. Easy ways to contribute to your inbound links include tweaking your signature in forum and blog posts.
Bonus tip: don’t cheat the system
Search engines aren’t stupid. Or particularly forgiving.
If you want to find out more make sure you read SEOmoz’s detailed analysis of the various factors affecting search engine rankings.
How do you search engine optimise your sites?
Search engine optimisation strategies are highly contentious because no-one really knows how the things work. So, what strategies do you use for improving your sites’ position in search engine results?
3 fantastic comments
Good tips, Aaron.
I used to try quite a few ‘tricks’, some Google didn’t take kindly too. The best method, ultimately, is to concentrate on writing good content, relevant to your target market.
Have a great weekend mate.
Ah, yeah I think I heard somewhere about you having one or two problems with Google? 
You’re absolutely right though – if you create great content, you’re doing everything Google wants you to do.
Hi Aaron
i am interested on your thoughts about googles ability to seach iframe content.
i use them on all sites as i like the control over the page they give me and have read google has no problem indexing and searching them but through much searching i have found some conflicting reports.
would be intersted if you have any information on this subject.
im on your site becuase one of my clients a salon owner has the same name as you and although the site is only about 3 months old i cannot get his site up even with a direct name entry, cant seem to get past your site, so figured you know a thing or two about SEO.
hope you can help
What are your thoughts?
