This section highlights key website design and promotion tips for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which should improve the ranking of a website in search engine results, primarily Google. Note: The exact 'magic' google uses is not published and it changes over time, but this is a start.

Page Content and Keywords

Google will return results that are most relevant to users based on the search terms/keywords or sentence used in the query. 

For your business, create a list of services provided. For each service list how users will search (e.g. “nanny agencies in London”). Highlight keywords where your business may have a niche or specialism (“nanny agencies in South West London”). There might be 100 similar businesses in London, but perhaps only a few focus on South West London. These are the keywords to focus on and use whenever possible in content, titles, metadata and links. 

The main area Google will look at is the website content, so make certain the titles and paragraphs contains keywords  (e.g. a “childcare agency in South London” query in google will match to website content “We are a specialist childcare search agency in London”). The content should try to refer to alternative words or synonyms (e.g. “We're a childcare recruitment agency that can help you recruit nannies, au pairs, child minders and baby sitters”). Try to repeat the content using different synonyms and other keywords, but do not duplicate chunks of text. 

Have different pages focused on certain keywords to improved chance of better matching a search. For example a carpenter may have a page for Kitchens and another page for Windows. This approach can be further enhanced by creating lower level pages focused on each possible query (e.g. “Handmade wood kitchens”, “Painted wood kitchens”). The lower level pages may provide a better match for a google search hence appear higher in the results list. Note: avoid duplicate content as the search engine may down prioritise the page in the results.

The page URL should be human readable and contain keywords (e.g. www.somesite.com/handmade-wood-kitchens.html rather than www.somesite.com/ktcens.html). This is default behaviour in SiteInABox and defaults to the section heading. 

Each page title should contain keywords. The <title> tag should show it's content when you hover the mouse over the top of the tab or page on the web browser. Alternatively use a menu option or right click to View->Page Source.  In SiteInABox the title defaults to the section heading.

Each page should contain a machine readable tag describing what it's addressing (e.g. <meta name=“description” content=“Herringport makes beautiful bespoke wood painted kitchens that win awards”>. Again the content should contain keywords and synonyms. Note this tag's content will appear in the google results so should be a sentence rather than an un-ordered list of terms. This can be manually set in SiteInABox.

Each page should contain a machine readable tag describing the keywords it's addressing (e.g. <meta name=“keywords” content=“wood kitchens painted”>. 

The headings within the page content should also use the keywords.

Links within your site and links from other sites to yours should use keywords with sentances (e.g. “see our range of wood kitchens” rather than “click-here”). Again try to vary the words used in links. 

Taking your business keywords and the seeing how your competitor's (those who rank above you in google) use keywords will help focus of a full set of keywords to use in improving page content and structure. Competitor analysis of the above tags will help identify which keywords to target.

Mobile First

Mobile First Website built with Bootstrap

Mobile First Website built with Bootstrap

The majority of website access is now via smartphones. Google gives preference to Mobile friendly websites which resize/re-structure the content to make it easier to view on a small screen (test your website here ). SiteInABox websites are automatically built for mobile first. The photo above shows the same website on a desktop, iPad and iPhone. Bootstrap is a great library to help achieve a responsive website.

Certificate - Secure Site

When a site is secured by a certificate a padlock should appear (on address bar for most browsers). The website address will also show https:// rather than the normal http://. A website with a certificate encrypts everything sent between the browser and web server preventing someone from seeing data (e.g., credit card details and passwords).

Google has posted that going HTTPS — adding a SSL 2048-bit key certificate on your site — will (ok - may) give you a ranking boost.

Certificates can be purchased from hosting providers (e.g., Heart Internet or Go Daddy). Lets Encrypt is another good option to consider with a process to regularly update the certificates for greater security.

Google+ Local

Google+ entry in Google results

Google+ entry in Google results

Registering you company on Google+ Local will improve how you company appears in the results (picture and summary on right plus improved map results).

Video

Create an introductory video of your company. Google likes video and pictures on a Website, plus it may keep someone on your website for a few more minutes which again may increase Google ranking of the website. The video should also be uploaded to sites like Youtube, Metacafe and Dailymotion Include. In the title and description fields on these video websites use your website and keywords.

Email Address

Any email address used on the website (and any other link to the website) should ideally use the same domain. The website will appear more genuine if it doesn't have gmail, yahoo, hotmail emaill addresses. Google Apps for Work‎ or Microsoft 365 Email and Calender can manage email accounts for a small subscription.

Site Links (or Backlinks), Blogs & Forums

Google ranks a website based on links to your website. The higher the “quality” of the site (e.g. “The Times”) that links to your site, the better. Ideally the link should be your business name and keywords in a paragraph describing your business and not in a list of other similar sites (e.g. not on a links page with your competitors). Contact details (website, email, telephone, address, postcode etc.) must be consistent across all links, The Google Webmaster Tools (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools ) shows a list of backlinks.

Using free and low cost directories (www.yelp.co.uk, tripadvisor, ) can help to link back to your website. It's worth focussing on high 'quality' directory / review sites rather than a large quantity of lower quality sites which may lead Goggle to think that spamming is occurring.

An alternative approach might be to write and submit an article about your business (e.g. “how starting a business worked out). This may offer an opportunity to link back to your website from a respectable website without links to your competitors being on the same page. A similar approach might to take part on online blogs and forums.

Regularly Updated Content

Having content that regularly updates will get google to regularly update it's indexing of your site. 

Domain Name & Company Name

Could consider having a few domain names that matches the keywords (e.g. www.nanniesinsouthlondon.com and www.southlondonnannies.com). Domain names are cheap to buy. Ideally the 'keyword matching domain' would be the master site, a business name website could simply redirect.

Naming the domain and website/company using keywords such as "East Norfolk Electricians" / www.norfolkelectrian.com may get more hits that "James Smart" / www.jamessmart.com.  (note this would be business trading name rather than the name logged on the companies register).

Sitemap

To help google automatically index a website and users to navigate a website there should be a sitemap or index list of pages on the site. SiteInABox will automatically create sitemap s and build an xml tagged file for upload to Google.   

Images

Great Picture For a Dog Website?

Great Picture For a Dog Website?

The image tag in the code allows for an alternative text to be displayed when the picture does not load. This text should ideally contain keywords relevant to the page and image.    

Example

<img alt="Great Picture For a Dog Website?" src="medium_That_Dog_Again.jpg" >:  

 

Customer Reviews

Reviews showing in Google results

Reviews showing in Google results

Google can recognise reviews (Rich Snippets) on a website and highlight them in search results. 

Social Media

Common social media sites worth joining include: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Foursquare.