Essential web optimisation guide

When it comes to getting people to visit your site there is a lot of competition out there and building an audience can be tricky. Whats more search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and you can find yourself in a bit of a confusing muddle.

Always keep in mind, a search engine has been designed to serve humans and you should optimise your website for humans - don’t try and base your content and SEO decisions around an ever changing algorithm.

TOP SEO CONTENT TIP

Think of subjects people might search for about your products or services - the more useful and helpful you make that content, the more people will find your content via a search engine. Hopefully they may in turn want to share that information, helping your content reach.

Design skills and craft will remain a prerequisite to building a visually dynamic, coherent website. At Design Fibre, solid SEO is a fundamental part of each and every website build.

 

Here are the core elements we implement for websites we build and we offer training should you need help with your website SEO.

  • When you search for a company in Google. you may see their website link shown in the search listings in a panel on the right hand side that includes a logo, a map and contact details.

    Registering your business with Google is essential for improved SEO if you have a physical location you want shown in Google maps, like a store or an office, it will also show up on Google Maps.

    Creating as Google Business Profile is free and registering is a simple process allowing you to manage how your business information appears across Google, including Search and Maps.

    We can help manage your Google Business Profile account once you have registered.

  • Search engines can take time to update any changes you make to your website.

    You can request that a search engine re-index your content when you make significant changes by using Google and Bing search tools - we use them when we launch a website. Google can discover your website within the first four weeks of launch. If you have a lot of well structured, quality content, then your site may be indexed in significantly less time.

    Google Search Console

    Bing Webmaster Tools

  • Search engines prioritise content from your site in this order:

    Site title - this appears across the top of every web page and specifies the content of the web page. It is a short description (usually under 55 characters) that helps search engines to understand the website content and users to then reach answers to specific search queries. A general rule with keywords, is not to stuff them into the site as this may have a negative effect on your SEO.

    SEO titles - SEO titles can be added for blog posts, products, and your events. These are indexed by search engines and appear in search results and browser tabs. We recommend adding an an SEO title for each page.

    Page titles - a short description which should be applied to each page and include the specific keyword for the page.

    Blog post titles - a catchy title to draw people’s attention is best for blog articles, again with a keyword.

    Headings - use headings to structure content and make it easy for people to read your content. Make sure your headings include keywords and make your heading tags consistent. Try and use only one h1 tag per page if you can.

    Squarespace is built so that you can manage the site as you add more pages or articles. If you need help managing your Squarespace website, please contact us for a quote.

  • Adding keywords in a simple, natural fashion seems obvious.

    Think about including words and phrases that refer to the search terms people might use to find a business like yours. Don’t stuff articles with them though, as this can damage SEO.

    This helps search engines see the content as important and matches those search terms to your site.

  • Search engines use alt text to identify the content of a page, since bots can only read text. Adding alt text to images lets search engines understand what the image is so they can include it in relevant searches.

    Alt text is text associated with an image. This text displays when people hover over it, and makes your site more accessible.

    When adding alt text, it's best to use short, human-readable terms that describe the image and relate to your overall site content.

    To learn more, visit Adding alt text to images.

  • No its not about graffiti!

    Image tags and categories help search engines identify what your website is about, what products or services you offer. Tags and categories help visitors use your site and accurate descriptions will help them appear in search results.

  • It can be hard to find the time to update your website, but content is the real king for improving your websites search visibility.

    Keeping your blog or news channel active and building your brand values and helpful or useful information will over improve your SEO.

    Use tags and categories with keywords, and structure your posts with Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc). This helps not only your readers, but will also help web crawlers index your post.

    As you write blog posts, think about your target audience and what they might be searching for to find a site like yours. Add content that would appeal to them, and optimise the posts with keywords, especially in post titles and headings.

  • A site with uncompressed files really slows your site down and can hugely impact your search results. Use image optimisation tools for all the images uploaded to your site:

    Best Free Image Optimisation Tools for Image Compression:

    JPEG Optimizer
    Optimizilla
    Kraken.io
    ImageRecycle
    CompressNow
    TrimagE
    Online Image Optimizer
    Tiny PNG

  • If you have SSL enabled, your URL will starts with https. This means visitors will always have a secure connection for every page of your website. Search engines penalise sites that don't have it enabled.

    If your site is not SSL enabled, we are happy to advise.