Step by step SEO guide
The content of your website determines how often you are found on Google and on which searches you are found. Good, well-crafted content, tailored to your target audience's Google search habits, is therefore a top priority when you're optimising your website for search engines. Working with content involves eight areas, which this guide addresses. We have tried to keep the guide as short and practical as possible.
Remember that SEO is more than content, and that working on content can therefore only get you so far (but in some cases so far if competition on Google is low). Any successful SEO strategy also includes work with technical SEO (the technical platform behind the website), linkbuilding and user signals (users' behaviour on the website).
If you're interested in a more in-depth guide to SEO, you can get a free copy of our new SEO book.
CONTENTS
1. Keyword
The foundation for a successful content strategy is that you know your target audience's search habits on Google. Both because it gives you an insight into what content can attract and engage your audience, and because it gives you an insight into where the greatest economic potential lies. Writing content blindly without knowing your target audience is like throwing money out the window.
The search habits of your target group on Google are uncovered through a so-called keyword analysis. Keyword analysis gives you knowledge about what your target audience is looking for (challenges, needs and intentions that you can offer a solution to) and what your target audience is looking for most (i.e. what content can attract the most visitors and the most potential customers to the website).
The keyword analysis results in a long list of searchword and keywordson which it is more or less relevant for you to be visible. Select and prioritise the most relevant keywords based on a consideration of why the keywords are relevant, how many people are searching for each keyword (the more the better) and how the keywords can support your business objectives.
Read more about keyword analysis.
2. Landing pages
The task of making your website visible starts with a distribution of the keywords from the keyword analysis to a number of landing pages. A landing page is a sub-page (a product category, a product page, an information page, a blog post or similar) on your website that is optimised for one or more related keywords in order to make the page visible for those keywords.
A landing page should be optimised for a defined group of keywords. Related keywords (e.g. "garden tables", "round garden table" and "cheap garden table") can be linked to the same landing page - the user's intention with the three keywords is the same. Different keywords (e.g. "garden table" and "dining table") should be linked to different landing pages.
The more relevant and optimised landing pages you have on your website, the more likely it is that your website will be found on Google when your target audience makes a relevant search. Some landing pages you may already have on your website, others are new and need to be created on your website if you want to gain visibility for those keywords.
Be aware that two landing pages should not be optimised for the same keywords. By optimising multiple pages for the same keywords, you are spreading the SEO value over multiple pages instead of building one strong page. This is inappropriate. At the same time, you make it unclear to Google which of the landing pages Google should display when the user makes a relevant search.
If you associate several keywords with the same landing page - you probably will in many cases - choose one of them as primary keyword (typically the keyword most people are searching for). This is the keyword you should focus your efforts on. The other keywords are secondary keywordsthat you should include on the page, but weight it lower than the primary keyword.
Make sure your main pages are accessible from the main menu, so site users can find them easily. Less relevant landing pages that are primarily SEO pages - i.e. pages that are meant to catch users on Google and are not very relevant to other users on your website - can be hidden away via links in the footer so that they don't take the focus away from the important pages.
Prioritisation of landing pages
- Existence. Start by optimising existing landing pages on your website. It's easier to build on something you've already done than to start from scratch.
- Search volume. Start by optimising the landing pages where the associated keywords have the highest combined number of searches and are therefore the most economically interesting.
- Potentials. Start by optimising the landing pages that have the greatest commercial potential, i.e. the pages where visitors are most likely to convert to customers.
- Visibility. Start by optimising existing landing pages that are already visible on Google. You will get more traffic by increasing a position 8 to a position 3 than by increasing a position 50 to a position 10!
3. Web addresses
En web address (also called a internet address and a URL) is the unique address of a landing page on your website, which the user can enter in the address bar of the browser to access the page. An example of a web address is: https://inboundcph.dk/bureau/seo-bureau/.
We recommend that a URL:
- is short and easily recognizable
- contains the primary keyword associated with the landing page
- does not contain æ, ø and å, but instead ae, oe and aa
- does not contain special characters (@, !, $ and similar)
- contains lower case letters only
- uses hyphens (-) and not underscores (_) to separate words
- is made up of subfolders reflecting the landing page's position in the page structure (e.g. website.dk/category name/product name).
The latter - subdirectories in the URL - can be omitted in favour of a short URL.
URLs that follow the recommendations tell both Google and users what they can expect to find on the page. At the same time, the address is easier for users to remember and they are more likely to link to the page if the address is short and recognisable.
Read more about URLs.
4. Titles and descriptions
Each page on your website must contain one Title Tag and one Meta Description. It is a summary of each page's content that appears in Google search results. Here's an example of what a Google search result might look like:
The Title Tag and Meta Description of a page are very important for click rates, i.e. the percentage of users who click on your page in the search results. Think of them as sales copy to encourage users to click on your page rather than one of your competitors.
The title tag and the words it contains also have a certain impact on the page's position on Google. The Meta Description of the page has no impact on its position on Google. When writing Title Tags and Meta Descriptions, you can get inspiration by doing a Google search for the topic you are writing about. Use our online tool to help you when you write.
Title Tags
And Title Tag is the title of the search result. It should:
- be unique, appealing and reflect the content of the page
- have a length of 45-65 characters including spaces
- contain the main keyword 1-2 times, possibly in different inflections
- have the main keyword as far left as possible
- if possible, include a secondary keyword 1 time
- contain, as far as possible, a promotional word such as buy, order, get or book
- use dashes (-) and vertical lines (|) for sentence separation (not full stops)
- include your company name at the end (e.g. " - InboundCPH" or " | InboundCPH").
It's an advantage if your Title Tags are uniform, so you build a recognisability and uniform identity in the search engines. For example, you can use one of the following two structures:
- Commercial premises and commercial leases - ATP Ejendomme
- Accident insurance | Buy your accident insurance here - Codan
Sometimes Google automatically adds your company name to the Title Tag. This typically happens if you haven't added it yourself, and if there's room for it to be there. If Google adds the name even though you did it yourself, remove your addition to avoid duplicate names.
Meta Descriptions
En Meta Description is the description of the search result. It should:
- be unique, appealing and reflect the content of the page
- have a maximum length of 120-160 characters including spaces
- contain the primary keyword 1-3 times, possibly in different inflections
- have the primary keyword included in the first sentence
- include a secondary keyword 1-2 times
- include promotional words such as buy, order, get or book where possible.
Be aware that Google does not always show your Meta Description. If Google can find more relevant text from your website - that better matches the user's search - Google will display it instead. Google may also vary your Title Tag.
5. Bread texts
The Bread Text on a landing page should be at least 500 words long - and should generally be longer than the text your competitors have on their corresponding landing pages. Do a Google search for the keyword you are optimising your landing page for to find out how long the text on your competitors' landing pages is. The body text of a product page need not be longer than 50-100 words (but if you can write more, that's an advantage).
The text on the landing page should be written using the keyword(s) you have associated with that landing page. A 500-word text should contain the main keyword 8-12 times and any related keywords 1-6 times. A 1,000 word text should contain the keywords a few more times. Include the keywords in a natural way, and use conjugations and synonyms as appropriate.
On product pages, the body text can usefully include information about the physical characteristics of the product (shape, size, materials, colours and design) and the usability characteristics of the product (i.e. the need the product meets or the problem the product solves).
Long texts on category pages can be placed at the bottom of the page if there are products or other things you want to show at the top and don't want the text to take the focus. Alternatively, a snippet of text can be displayed at the top and the rest tucked away behind a "Read more" button that unfolds the whole text. Long chunks of text should be structured into smaller, readable sections. Use bullet points and tables as appropriate - these all help to make the text more readable.
Although the purpose of the texts is to increase your visibility in the search engines, the texts must first and foremost be written for people. This means using vivid, flawless language that is consistent with the way you communicate online, appeals to your audience and conveys an understanding of the product or service you offer. Read more about content optimization.
Avoid duplicate content
Duplicated content occurs if the same break text or parts of the break text exist in two different places (i.e. on two different URLs). It can occur if the same content is found in two different places on your website, or if content on your website is also found on another website (because it has been legally or illegally copied).
Duplicate content hurts your visibility on Google, in part because Google doesn't want to show the same content multiple times in search results. Duplicate content also applies to Title Tags and Meta Descriptions (but not, for example, menus, which are naturally included on all pages). You can check if your content is duplicated by searching for it in quotes on Google.
Read more about duplicate content.
6. Headlines
Each text should have a heading and should also be structured in a series of sections with short subheadings. However, on product pages with a short body text, subheadings are not necessarily required. The heading should consist of the primary keyword and possibly a secondary keyword (i.e. if the landing page targets the keyword "garden tables", the heading of the text should be "Garden tables"). For product pages, the heading should simply consist of the product name.
Where possible, subheadings should contain the primary keyword or one of the secondary keywords. However, if the text contains many subheadings, not all of them need to contain a keyword. The subheadings should be meaningful for the section of the text and should be descriptive without being too long.
For technical reasons, you must enclose all headings in a tag. Here's how:
- <h1>Heading</h1>
- <h2>Subheading</h2>
- <h3>Under subheading</h3>
- <h3>Under subheading</h3>
- <h2>Subheading</h2>
Most CMS systems (WordPress, Joomla etc.) automatically inserts <h>-tags around headings and subheadings. There can - and must - be only one <h1>-heading on each page. There may well be more <h2>- and <h3>-headlines.
7. Internal links
Internal links are links in the body of a landing page that link to another landing page. Examples of internal links: "See also our selection of garden chairs." and "...a garden chair made of FSC-certified wood is a sustainable furniture, because.... ".
Internal links are used for:
- to help users to other pages that are also likely to be relevant
- to help search engines understand the structure of the site's main pages.
Less important pages should link to important pages. In addition, it is a good idea to link to related categories and products. Contextual links (i.e. text links related to some content) have more value in Google's algorithm than buttons and menu links.
Use three different types of link text for internal links:
- Keyword linked to the page = "garden tables".
- Longer phrases including the keyword = "see our cheap garden tables here".
- Generic texts = "click here" or "on this page".
Read more about internal link building.
Pictures
Images can engage and retain users and make your products more visible in Google Image Search. Google needs help understanding images. Help Google by:
- give the images a short, relevant file name that describes what the image shows
- give the images a short, relevant alt-textthat describes what the image shows.
The alt text is important both because it helps Google understand the content of the image and because it is used by blind people (who cannot see the image, but instead have the alt text read aloud by the computer).
Use relevant and unique images. Google doesn't want to show the same image multiple times in image search, so if you use stock photos, Google is unlikely to show your particular image. Compress images using, for example Kraken.io or TinyJPGso that they take up as little space as possible and the page loads as quickly as possible.
Read more about image optimization.
