SEO guidelines and tips
There are key factors that drive the success of your SEO campaigns. Please refer to the below as a guideline for each of these key areas and start boosting your SEO today!
Page Name - Make it relevant to the content and if possible relevant to a keyword.
Page Title - Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name. Google typically displays the first 50-60 characters of a title tag. Examples of this would be "Plumbers In Sydney | Specializing In Gas Fitting | 24/7 Service"
Meta description - Optimal Length - Roughly 155 Characters. As with title tags, it is important that meta descriptions on each page be unique per page. Duplicate meta descriptions will be frowned upon by Google. A quality meta description can help the organic CTR %. Examples of this would be "Looking for an Affordable, Reliable Plumber in Sydney? Our expert plumbers are available 24 hours for all your blocked drains and emergency plumbing needs."
Headings (H1, H2, H3) - It is recommended to only have one H1 element on any page. Don't waste it with a Welcome message.
Alt Tags - A must for every image, describe what it is - and if possible add in relevant keywords. It would be ideal to have this at about 60 characters. This does not to be structured in to a sentence it can be listed as keywords and commas.
Home Page - For your key heading on the home page - Make it count (remove welcome) from SEO perspective, and more importantly from a visitor's perspective. Add in what you do, where you do it, and if not too long your name (although that can be an h2)
Contextual Links - Adding links in your text that link to pages with the title or headings with similar wording (especially around keywords you would like the site to rank for) is worthwhile.
Location Links - This is a time consuming process however really helps with internal linking. It would be recommended for clients that are in the trade business. For example plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc. The main goal here is to have a unique page per every location that you service. There could be over 50 suburbs however having them all linked internally on the website will help tenfold when trying to improve on Google search.
Back Links - Top tip. Give your client a Google doc to keep their listing details in (where they listed, what they listed, links and phone numbers, and date done)
NAP (Name, Address, Phone) - NAP consistency. Your Name, Address and Phone number (+ your web address) is your location fingerprint. You need this to be consistent around the web. That includes spacing, order, abbreviations, and words. What you have on your website needs to be replicated the same way for every other location it is listed.
Content - Keywords, per page - make sure you mention them exactly the same at least 3 times per page. Not to over stuff, but just so Google can recognise what your page is about... include one of those in a heading tag, and at the top of the page (Google quietly puts more weight on keywords that appear at the top of that page).