SEO Best Practices Part 1

Search engine optimization, or SEO as it is most commonly referred to by, is by far one of the most important things involved with a web sites design, and more importantly, its content. I have spent some time compiling my research and experience into what best practices should be followed with SEO, as well as several examples of what should and shouldn’t be done.

Page Title

A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site. Creating keyword/key phrase-rich text for your page title is critically important, because nearly all search engines give the title element’s text a lot of weight. Create each page’s title to reflect the specific content of that page, using key phrases that people might type into search engines to find your web site.

Accurately describe the page’s content

Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page’s content.

• Example: Rare Vintage Stamps
• Avoid: Choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page
• Never: Use default or vague titles like “Untitled” or “New Page 1″

Create unique title tags for each page

Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.

• Example:
  • 1st Page – Rare Vintage Stamps
  • 2nd Page – Misprinted Stamps
• Avoid: Choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page

Use brief, but descriptive titles

Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.

• Avoid:
  • Using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users
  • Stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags

Display page description first then company/site name second

Because search engines only show so many characters in the page title (first 30 characters or so), it is important to let your user know what the page is about more so than your long company/site name. If the company/site name is first and happens to be long, you could be missing out on potential traffic due to your keywords/key phrases not being spidered because they are beyond the threshold of what can be displayed in the search results.

• Example: Rare Vintage Stamps | Leroy’s Stamp Collecting Site
• Never: Leroy’s Stamp Collecting Site | Rare Vintage Stamps