, the most important, to , the least important. They are often used for section headings on a page.
Why are they important?
They are used to indicate to the search engines which part of the text has the most prominence on any given page. It’s important to not overuse header tags as this will devalue the authority they provide.
Tagging
Tagging is a vital part of the structure of any web page, ensuring both search engine and user understand what this page contains and how it fits within the rest of the site.
Meta Tags are used to tell search engines the content of a page and appear to users, either within the search engine results page, such as title or description tags, or on the page itself, in the form of header tags.
Body copy
Recommendations:
The various search engines consider keyword themes as part of their search. Each has a different mathematical equation regarding the use of keywords that is rewarded with higher search ranking placement. There is also a different level of tolerance between the different search engines as to the degree of repetition of keywords permitted before a penalty is imposed.
First 250 words: these are important both for SEO (search engines give more weight to first words) and usability (internet users will read the first words and continue only if these words have caught their interest).
Place keywords in paragraphs. You may also want to include your keywords in bulleted lists.
There will often be keyword targets associated to the SEO campaign – these keywords should ideally appear within the first 250 words and linked on at a further stage.
Variations: don’t use just one keyword over and over again: use many variations to avoid being penalised by search engines as a possible spammer.
Bold and italic: when the word is part of a statement making a specific point, bold it or italicise it.
Focus on readability: the focus of the page should be readability. If the page does not make sense to human eyes, then it is no good for a search engine and it will not benefit you. You want to use keywords often, but not to the point where it sounds like you are writing for the search engine and not the user.
Assets
What are they?
Assets are anything other than text on a page. Every website will have many images, as well as videos, audio, documents, downloadable tools, games etc, all of which are considered assets. And if they are tagged and named correctly, they can help increase visibility to search engines as well as the usability and enjoyment of users.
Why are they important?
Images may appear within search results; Google in particular presents the Search Images option very effectively.
They can help to increase click through rates from search engines.
They provide additional web site traffic.
They increase user engagement.
They may increase social media sharing.
Search engine crawlers cannot see images, so keywords need to be within the image ‘alt tag’ and image file name itself.
Recommendations (images):
Add relevant file names to the images and videos when uploading them to the CMS.
Use clear descriptions for image alt tags to help the search engines understand what the image is.
Recommendations (video):
Create a separate video XML sitemap.
Make sure all videos have keyword rich titles, descriptions and tags.
Make sure videos are hosted on their own, separate page, with keyword rich content.
Use internal links with keyword anchor text to link to the videos.
Don’t use pop-ups or iframes to display videos.
Robots.txt
What is it?
Search engines such as Google use web robots (also known as ‘spiders’) to index web content. A Robots Text File (robots.txt) allows you to specify any areas of the site you do not want crawled and blocks any spiders you do not want to crawl your website.
Why is it important?
A well-written and refreshed robots text file will keep Google from crawling pages you don’t want to appear in the search engine results. Pages that should be de-indexed are any pages that contain personal information, dynamic pages, password protected pages and any pages that don’t add value to the user’s journey on the site.
This is done by adding a ‘disallow’ command to the robots text file that tells them to ignore a particular page or folder. However, this can also be a ‘site killer’ because a misplaced ‘disallow’ tag can result in your site being de-indexed. It is best to write this carefully and then maintain the text file regularly.
Recommendations:
Implementation of robots.txt files, and then regular refreshing and maintenance of these files, are highly recommended. Your hosting service provider can do this.
Only pages that add value to users should be indexed.
‘Disallow’ any pages that shouldn’t be indexed such as password protected sections and admin areas of a website as well as dynamically generated URLs.
HTTP response codes
What are they?
HTTP status codes are response codes given by website servers. They identify the problem when a page does not load correctly so that it can be fixed. There are over 50 different server response codes: the most important status codes are explained below.
Why are they important?
Status codes help the owner understand and redirect any broken pages, thereby lowering the ‘bounce’ rate, or, rate of lost/broken pages.
Examples of http response codes
200 – OK: the ideal response code to receive; the page was correctly located and loaded with no issues for the server.
404 – page not found: this code is given when a user tries to access a page that doesn’t exist. This could be due to an incorrect URL or an old page that has been removed. When a user tries to access a page that cannot be found the server will produce this response code and can display a specific message to the user.
301 – permanently moved: when migrating your content to the new Drupal CMS it is important to assess what content will be moved. For users who have bookmarked their favourite pages to return to later, redirects need to be in place.
Recommendations:
Use 301 redirects rather than 302 (temporary) to ensure that link equity is passed between pages.
Create or commission a customised 404 page with recommended navigational options so users don’t leave the site.
Optimised 404 errors pages should contain:
Notification that the user has reached a page that does not exist.
A search box and a link to the home page.
Easy to understand navigation to help the user find their way back.
Examples of Custom 404 pages:
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Example 1: cute, not useful
Although this page design is visually pleasing, it offers no help to the user.
It simply says ‘404 robo no find’, which is of no value to a user who is expecting a page on the site.
It is particularly confusing to an inexperienced user – what do they do next? What happened?
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Example 2: decorative, useful
On this 404 page, the user is:
presented with the same brand as the rest of the site
told what is wrong (page ending/smashing_magazine is missing)
offered a positive message (‘don’t give up’)
presented with a link back to ‘homepage’ to start over
invited to email the site
offered a phone number (not recommended unless you have the resources for this)
offered a link to a similar category of information (link to the catalogue)
the tone and mood is light, positive and welcoming
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