A basic template for website Search Engine Optimisation

Here are some basic tips on optimising your site for Google and other search engines.

Use keywords:

• in your META keywords (128 characters max)


• in your META description (keep keyword close to the left but in a fill sentence).


• in the page title at the far left but possibly not as the first word


• in the first portion of the page (first sentence of the first full paragraph)


• in an H3 or larger tag heading


• in bold in the lower half of the page (anywhere but the first usage on page)


• in italic in the lower half of the page (anywhere but the first usage on page)


• in the URL (directory name, filename or domain name). Do not duplicate the keyword in the URL


• in an image filename useed on the page


• in image ALT attribute


• in image TITLE attribute


• in link TITLE attribute


• in the filename of your external CSS javascript files


• in a link to a site that has a PageRank of 8 or better

Other optimisation tips:

• Use "last modified" headers if you can


• Validate your HTML. Google's parser will miss parts of web pages if they contain simple HTML errors


• Wherever possible keep the page as .html or .htm extension


• Keep the HTML below 20K. 5-15K is the ideal range


• Keep the ratio of text to HTML very high. Text should outweight HTML by significant amounts