How to Optimise Images

Image Optimisation became more important with introduction of Google Universal Search. Google Universal Search simply tries to combine the image, video, news, books, etc… results and present them together with the web search results. This is beneficial for the searchers as not only the web page text is considered when presenting search results, but other types of content as well. To mention some (potential) disadvantages -  in some cases, half of the results on the first page are Google related/owned websites such as YouTube, Google News, Google Books and Google Image Search.

Anyway, why is image optimisation important?

At first, people do use image search for certain searches, so please consider, if your images are something they may search for.

Second, already mentioned Universal Search – images play more important role in web search. Image can provided additional information about page it is published on.

So what can be done:

• Use ALT (alternative) tag – use descriptive name, try to utilise targeted keywords. The main objective of using the ALT text is to provide a description of the image so if the browser is unable to view it, there is a text based description of the image (certainly benefitial for visualy impaired people using readers). Search engine bot or spider is kind of blind, not being able to see whais an image about, so you have to help it by using the ALT – alternative tag.
• Use Title for the image. The title appears when you hover over the image. Againg, this is something search engines can see.
• Use descriptive file name – image name. Image names can also help search engines to understand what is the image about.

If your site’s content is image rich and yourr traffic comes (could come) from image search, consider using text around your images. The text around the images is very powerful in giving search engines additional information on what is the image about.

How to Optimise Footer

Footer optimisation simply means improving the footer on your web site to improve rankings. So how can this be done?

At first, the footer is quite unique element of a web site by being present on every page. To take advantage of this, thinkof (and research) keywords that would be beneficial to have present on every page. For example: Sydney, Australia, NSW. If you are offering your products or services in certain regions, mention them in the footer. By doing that, every page will be suddenly more relevant to your region and every page will more likely come up in search results for regional searches and especially long tail keyword searches that contain your location.

The second benefit can be in placing links to the most important pages of your site in the footer or to pages that do not really fit in the main navigation, but you consider them important. Utilise targeted keywords as a clickable text.

How to Optimise Metadata

Metadata Optimisation in simple terms means using targeted keywords in Page Titles, using targeted phrases and ‘catchy’ or ‘calls to action’ sentences in Meta Descriptions and (not really) including targeted keywords in Meta Keywords.

1. Page Titles (’Meta Titles’) are very important. Just by including targeted keywords in Page Titles you can significantly improve rankings in search engines (at least in Google).
2. Meta Description – while it is believed that keywords used in meta descriptions are not considered to be part of a page content (as they are not visible on a page), they are visible in search results and they do encourage or discourage searchers to click or not to click on your web site.
3. Meta Keywords – seem to play no role in rankings (at least not in major search engines), as they are neither visible in search results nor on the page.

How to optimise Page Titles

• Use the most relevant (to the page’s content) keyword phrases with the highest search volumes. Of course you need to consider competition, so if your website is not yet popular (external links, etc…) focus on phrases that contain multiple words (long tail), and have less competition. Once your website becomes more popular, you may consider ‘going after’ the most searched terms.
• Use unique Page Title on every page (if possible).
• Try to keep the number of characters below 70

How to optimise Meta Description

• Meta descriptions can help you to improve click through from search results. If the main targeted keywords are present in the description and you use calls to action or provide appealing description, searchers are more likely to click on your site. Does you description stand out in search results?
• Keep the number of character below 155 to make your listing look neat and clear.

How to Optimise Heading Tags

Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, …, H6) are used to structure content of a page. H1 tag makes the keywords stand our more (certainly it can be changed in CSS), so it is expected that keywords used in H1 tags are more important than the other keywords or phrases used on page. The similar applies to other H tags.

The idea is simple: structure your page and use targeted keywords in headings, with only one H1 tag per page. Place ‘the most important’ keyword phrase between H1 tag and use H2, H3 as subheadings.

While it is hard to measure the exact benefits of using the heading tags (as it is with most SEO ‘techniques’) , think also about user experience and benefts of having clearly structured page content.