Search engine optimisation - page elements

61% of clicks go to organic search results (as opposed to paid), and people use your brand's search ranking as an indicator of it's credibility.

Of course, search has become ultra specialised (128+ variables in Google algorithm), so sometimes you'll need help. But, if you call yourself a marketer, you really need to understand first principals - your entire digital strategy should be founded on it. So here's the basics.

HTML tags and stuff

Basic HTML is easy, and will get you 90% of the way there - so don't be put off. Here's some simple checklists for structuring your approach and making sure the web developers get it right (click image to enlarge).

Title tag First inside the HEAD tag 6 - 12 words 62-70 characters Keywords towards the beginning No repeated words Unique for every page Should make sense to a human	Description tag 2nd in the HEAD tag 12 - 24 words Include all words in the Title tag Insert keywords towards the beginning Complete sentences Repeat words a maximum of 2 times Unique for every page Make sense to a human
Keywords tag 3rd in the HEAD tag 24 - 48 words Use phrases (non-repeated, longest first) Initial cap each word (i.e. "Digital Marketing") Separate phrases with commas Repeat any word a max of 4 times Unique for every page Make sense to a human Include words in Title and Description	Headings (H1, H2) Appear throughout body Contain Keyword phrases Repeat no complete phrases Styles should be CSS-controlled Read like headline with 2 - 4 words Relevant to text below Only 2 levels (H2 and H2)
Image ALT tag 1 word for each 16 x 40 pixel block 1 - 12 words Describe the image / any words it contains Unique for each image Include Keywords	Links Use throughout body Use Keywords in the URL Internal format (i.e. "/linkedPage") Fully qualified in sitemap No more than 100 links / page Use Keywords in anchor text Use keywords from target page in text around the link Make sense to a human

More on keywords

Take every opportunity to use Keywords effectively throughout your website. Try to maximise the following metrics - generally the higher / bigger / clearer the better:

• Density - How much of the page's text is made up of Keywords
• Frequency - How often Keywords are used on a page
• Distribution - The placement of Keywords (linear / even distribution is best)
• Intent - Develop strong themes in your site, and surround Keywords with copy that provides clarification, meaning and context

Body text

The first 200 words on a page set the context of the page and are critical for supporting the other SEO elements mentioned above. Don't waste them - get straight to the point! 

And don't forget, normal web copywriting rules still apply.

• Use Keywords from Title, Description, H1, H2, ALTs, Links etc - they need to filter consistently through all levels
• 250 - 500 words per page
• Distribute Keywords richly and evenly throughout
• Contain important Keywords from Title, Description, and Keywords tags
• Make sense to a human
• Clean, well-formatted code - make it easy for the search engine spider
• Use separate CSS files - brings content higher up on page

That's enough to dramatically improve your search performance. More to come!