Before launching any new site there are certain SEO boxes that must be ticked to ensure that google will greet your site with open arms. ‘On-site’ SEO refers to what you can do directly to your site to make it more easily indexed by search engines.

I’m always being asked to take a glance at potential clients’ websites to see what could be improved and on occasion my jaw has dropped that even the simplest and quickest SEO-related tasks have not been carried out. Apart from being a foot in the door for myself it demonstrates a lack of understanding of so many designers out there who put their heart and soul into designing a website and on the home straight neglect to realise what great potential a few final tweaks can have.

The following list of tasks should be bread and butter for any seasoned web designer -

Page Title

The most important single thing that can make or break your search engine listing. This is the text that appears as the blue link in search results. If you want your website to appear in results for ‘Wedding Singer’ then have those words in your page title. The nearer the front the better. How long? The W3C recommend a 64 character limit. Every page on your site should have a unique page title.

Meta Description

META tags aren’t as much of an authority as they used to be. Keywords being my case in point, which are pretty much redundant these days. However the 2nd most important aspect to getting a decent search engine listing is the meta Description. This is the paragraph of text that appears under the blue link in search engine results. So be sure to cram it with your most obvious keywords. Have a different description for every page of your site to really make the most of it.

XML Site-map

Why not make google’s life a little easier by providing that all important site-map. Simply use one of the many XML Sitemap Generator websites out there and upload this XML file to your server. This site-map can be submitted to search engines to make them crawl your site more efficiently and not miss anything out.

Headings (H1, H2, H3…)

By using headings and subheadings throughout your page content not only are you making it easier for users to scan and read your text but you’re also providing the crawlers with context and hierarchy to your web page. Include all your keywords and key phrases within your headings and they will be treated with more importance. Not all words on the page are equal so this is the perfect opportunity to make the ones that matter stand out.

URLs

Crawlers look for keywords in your page URLs so in this case – more is more. If you’re using a content management system make sure search-engine-friendly (SEF) URLs are enabled rather than a long line of ugly url variables.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks make the web what it is – a vast networked web of pages. So interlink your pages using keyword links within your body text. As well as providing your users with more ways to navigate your content it gives context to crawlers when indexing your site.

IMG Alt tags

Crawlers can’t see images on your pages. It’s a simple as that. The ALT tag provides a way of describing these images to search engines. If there’s a picture of an apple on your web page then make sure you provide the descriptive alt tag. As well as being vital to screen readers and making your pages for accessible to visually impaired users, you never know, your image may pop up in google images giving you a few extra hits each month.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. It’s always interesting to run a few checks on your pages before launch to see how they fair. These days it looks like search engines are favouring sites with smaller keyword densities so don’t go overboard. 5-8% is roughly the figure you want to be after.

Are you looking to generate more traffic to your website? Not getting the quality hits you expect? No money to spend on adwords? Then your best bet is to get your business’s website listed on a number of the good quality free business directories out there. I have my own website (if you’re looking for a web designer in Cheshire) listed on these and can guarantee that you’ll get a few hits from these as clearly shown in my google analytics reports.

With every new site I launch I tell my clients of the benefits of getting signing up to and getting listed on these directories. As well as generating a few valuable inbound links to keep Google happy you’ll potentially generate quite a new bit of new traffic and ultimately business. And best of all it’s free and will only take a few minutes of your time setting up your various profiles.

Here is my preferred shortlist that i’m always telling clients to get listed on -

Free Index

http://www.freeindex.co.uk

Touch Local

http://www.touchlocal.com

Qype

http://www.qype.co.uk

BT Tradespace

http://www.bttradespace.com/

Thomsonlocal

Yell

Kyotee

http://kyotee.co.uk/

Scoot

http://www.scoot.co.uk/

UK Small Business Directory

http://www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk/

Business Line

http://www.businesslinedirectory.com/

Some of these such as Yell may contact you to sell you their commercial packages but unless you have the cash then simply tell them you’re not interested.

Got any personal tried and tested directories? Let me know.