Last November, Google released a starter guide for search engine optimization (SEO). While it was initially meant for internal teams, Google decided it would be a good best-practice guide for everyone on the web. There is nothing brand new in this guide, but it reinforces some important points which are often overlooked in web development.

An example of how a title and meta description are rendered in a result page.

Create unique, accurate page titles

Your website’s <title> tag is arguably your most important piece of on-site SEO; it should describe what the particular page is about. It’s also one of the first items search engines see, and a descriptive <title> can persuade users. Make sure you as the client have the ability to change your pages’ titles with ease.

Use of the meta description tag

You may have heard that meta tags are no longer important for SEO. Well, this is true, but the meta description tag is still important for your users. It’s the paragraph that appears below your <title> on a search engine result page (SERP). Use it to tell users what they can expect from visiting this page.

Use “friendlier” URLs

Having “friendly” URLs on your site can help search engines figure out what your page’s content is all about and is less intimidating for users when linking to your site. Most CMS packages can help maintain this for you.

For example, http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/folder1/1089258/w1/0000023s.html is not nearly as streamlined as http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/articles/ten-rarest-baseball-cards/

Create useful, high quality content

Google makes the argument that the more useful and engaging your site’s content is, the more likely users will want to share that content (through blogging, social media sites, email, forums, word of mouth, etc). If your budget persists, look into revamping your content strategy rather than re-writing portions of pages for search engines. Google has always said “write for the user, not the search engine.”

Promote your website

Google recommends some good tactics when promoting your website:

• Blog about new content or services
• Engage in social media sites; share your content with like-minded groups
• Reach out to those in your site’s related community
• Don’t forget about offline promotion (include your URL on collateral, mention where information resides on your website in your newsletters and the kind)

Photo by Robert Donovan

Measure and make use of tools

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all provide tools to get you started with diagnosing any SEO pitfalls. Google’s Webmaster Tools account is definitely very useful and provides information like:

• Crawl info: make sure engines can access your site.
• Indexing stats: are all your pages at Google’s disposal? If not, why?
• Top queries: what words are users using to find your site?
• XML sitemap: submit your sitemap and make sure it is valid.

Written by Marcel Moreau