Website content and structure

Google uses hypertext-matching analysis to examine every aspect of your site. This includes headings and sub-headings. It includes formatting and location of words. Even spelling, grammar and sentence structure.

It doesn't stop there. The pages linking to and from each page are also considered to find the context of each page within a site. The URL of the page is looked at. The alternative text given to images. The age of the page. All are important.

Basic guidelines

Google loves content. Relevant content.

• Write timely, topical, relevant, useful articles
• Use short sentences - dashes - breaks
• Check spelling and grammar
• Provide a page title a description and proper meta tags
• Provide meaningful alternative text for images
• Make good use of key phrases (see below)

Key phrase placement

Key phrase placement makes a huge difference to the relevance of your page in a search. The page title and first heading should be the same and include your key phrase. The content should also contain the phrase. Making one (and only one) instance bold or italic will also help. Sub headings should not be identical to the page title, but should also contain the phrase.

Optimize one phrase per page. Too many phrases may dilute each other. Add individual pages for each related phrase and link them together, ensuring that the links to the page contain the key phase.

Website structure

Structure your website to ensure that related pages fit into a logical hierarchy. Although not essential, try to avoid very deep site structures and always provide clear, useful navigation.

Add pages with useful names containing your keywords. The name in the URL is important for search engines, visitor book marking and inbound links.

Your main domain name however is not important. Use this to identify your site and promote your brand.