The meta description tag does not directly affect ranking but a well written meta description can entice users to click on your link from within the search engine results page. Search engines will also bold any searched keywords found in your description. Highlighted search terms can act to your advantage as they could attract a user to click on your link over your competitor. Well written descriptions should also include a call to action i.e. include your telephone number, this could prompt a user to call you without visiting your website.

Each page of your website must have a unique description. Make sure that your content management system (CMS) enables you to have control over this. If it’s not a feature of your CMS talk to your developer about including this.

A link on your website tells the search engine and the user what they are about to see. Calling a link “click here” is a waste of time as search engines have no idea of what you are referring to. Make your links meaningful. For example, “Click here for more information about seo text links” or “seo text links” gets the message accross.

The same rule should apply to main page links like “Services” or “About us”, these headings are too general, you need to be specific e.g. “Web Design Services” or “Our Web Experts”.

A keyword rich domain is very good news when it comes to search engine optimisation. But what if you can’t get your hands on one? Don’t panic, there are other ways to help you add relevance to your domain  e.g. you can add relevance to your folder structure, please remember brevity is key.

Most websites have a page called site map and in there is a list of all the links that users can find on the site, like a site index. But does it help with SEO? The issue is that search engines typically ignore a page if it lists more than 10 links and no other content on the page.

If you have to include a site map put fewer links and include more descriptive text so that it becomes a directory and not just a list of links.

Google Places is changing how search results are displayed on Google.

It’s all about local search and if you’re not listed you are at risk of missing out on local traffic.
Google has improved its algorithm and this means that pages that were previously optimised will require reverse engineeering.

In a nutshell Google place pages are now being given more profile, and if your business is not listing on Google Places it means that you have a reduced opportunity of appearing in a top postion in the resutls.

So what’s the major knock on effect?
In my opinion it will mean more paid adwords for businesses wanting to compete for the top positions in Google results.

1. Crawling:
Do Search Engines know that your website exists?

2. Indexing:
Can your content be read by the search engine?

3. Search Engine Ranking:
Are you using the language of your user?