Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions
Recently, Google confirmed that it doesn’t consider meta keywords and descriptions
as ranking factors. Nevertheless, meta keywords and meta descriptions are cached,
so it would not be a best practice to ignore them. Although they are not consequential
in determining search engine results, meta descriptions can be an excellent way of
advertising; they may or may not be displayed in the search results.
provides an example of a meta description. It is a good practice to limit
the meta description to 155–170 characters. It provides a preview of the content or
information on that page and should contain the gist of the entire page. If the description
is apt, informative, and meets the needs of the user, it may work like free
advertising: the user may be compelled to click that site link to view the content.
The meta description must be unique for each page on a website, like the page title.
Avoid stuffing the description with keywords, and remove all special characters. Using
multiple meta keywords can have a negative influence on search engines.
The meta robots attribute is increasingly being used by web designers. It tells
crawlers whether the page should be displayed in SERPs (index/noindex) or whether you
should depend on the links on the page (follow/nofollow).
Heading Tags (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6)
Heading tags are an important on-page factor. The <h1> (heading 1) tag is crucial and
must be relevant to the topic discussed on the web page. It educates readers about the
topic on that page. Instead of filling a page with clutter, it is a good practice to stick to a
single topic; the heading 1 tag is imperative, because it indicates the page’s topic. Use
relevant words in the heading to help users and also spiders understand the page’s
content. Google adheres to text semantics and emphasizes its use for better results.
Avoid skipping heading levels on a web page. <h1> should be followed by <h2> , which
in turn may have a <h3> , and so on. You may have multiple <h2> tags or subsequent tags, if
needed. Your web page must display a systematic pattern or consistency. If the formatting
or styling of the headings is not to your liking, you can use CSS styling to alter it.
Include keywords, but do not repeat them in the heading. Keywords used at the
beginning of a heading yield better results. Avoid spamming or using irrelevant words in
headings, because doing so may have a negative effect.
Engaging Content
Using meaningful and pertinent content in the body section of the site is vital. Relevant
content is king. The content should not be irrelevant or stuffed with keywords—the
search engines may penalize you for it. However, you can use keywords or close variations
of them twice or three times on a page in a logical way. The content should be informative
and engage the user, encouraging them to return to check out the site regularly. It is a
good practice to update the content (such as technology topics) at least every six months,
because Google has a penchant for updated or fresh content. (News channel sites update
their content on a daily basis. Here, we are referring to product pages or informative
sites, and updating or adding content for a product or topic.) Blogs must be updated on a
regular basis. Use interactive media such as images, videos, and audio files on your web
pages; they are intuitive and engage users, and may make the site more popular. Always
spell-check and proofread your content, because incorrect grammar or spelling errors
can reflect negatively on your site.
In addition to having meaningful content, quantity of content matters. You cannot
use a keywords 3 times in 140 characters—that is keyword stuffing. In-depth, detail-
oriented, relevant content helps you space out keywords evenly. It also helps users to
understand the logic of the content, especially if the topic is informative and educates
the user significantly. However, do not use 2,000 words just to fill the page; low-quality
content results in bad UX. Remember, less is more, because quality is more important
than quantity—function over form.
Bounce rate reflects the number of users who visit a web page and then leave. It
doesn’t matter how much time they spend on the page; it focuses on whether users leave
the site after viewing just one page. Low-quality content results in higher bounce rates
and will eventually affect the site’s visibility.
Do not copy content from another website or use boilerplate content. Google search
engines have been known to penalize sites that use duplicate content. Focus on user
satisfaction and not on fooling the search engines. At times there are legitimate reasons
for duplicate content: for example, an e-commerce site will have the same content on
different pages with different URLs due to filters such as size, color, and price. Some
websites have the same content on different web pages with the prefixes HTTP and HTTPS ;
although the rest of the URLs are the same, the prefixes mean they are treated as separate
pages. Sometimes the watered-down mobile version of a website has the same content
as the desktop version, resulting in duplication. Localization may also be a factor: for
example, www.google.com may appear as as www.google.co.in for India. The content
may be the same, but the URLS are different. In such cases, search engines may not
allocate as high a ranking, because two different URLs have the same or similar content.
You can resolve these issues by using either a canonical tag or a 301 direct. A 301
redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another that helps users reach the new
address. It can also be used for “404 Page not found” errors where content has been
moved to a different web page.
A canonical tag is an alternative where you apply a rel=canonical attribute
to tell search engines the original or preferred content and the URL to be indexed for
display in SERPs. For example, suppose these two websites have the same content:
http://example97653.com and http://example234.com/seo12345/56473 . The first
URL is the original, getting the maximum number of hits. You want this site address to be
indexed. To implement the canonical tag, you go the HTML code for the second URL and,
in the <head> element, add the following:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://example97653.com"/>
You use the canonical attribute in the head element of the HTML markup for the
URL containing the duplicate content and link it to the original or preferred URL.
Image Optimization and Interactive Media
Earlier SEO was text-based, but this has changed significantly. You should use interactive
media such as audio, video, images, and infographics to connect with your users. Use
captions and alternate text for media, and build relevant content around these media.
You can use a single key phrase in the alt text if it is relevant to that image. You can
interchange images based on the screen size, with heavy-duty images for desktop sites
and lightweight images for mobile sites. Try to limit the image file size to less than 80–90
KB for optimal page-loading time. Use PNG or JPEG image formats wherever possible,
because they are robust and have more visual properties. Using thumbnails and different
angles for a product can be very handy, especially on e-commerce sites.
Using videos explaining a product or marketing a certain entity is a good practice. Google
owns YouTube, and it can be a game-changing means of branding your product. Infographics
are an excellent way to provide information or create timelines with relevant content.
Outbound and Internal Links
Internal links are a key feature of SEO. These are links on web pages that point to another
page in the site or domain. SEO-related research suggests that no page on your website
should be more than three clicks from the home page, meaning all pages should be
easily accessible. You can use relevant anchor text to point to different pages on your site.
Breadcrumbs are an efficient way to provide site navigation using links. Having a good
link structure makes it easy for search engines to crawl your entire website, and easy
accessibility also leads to an awesome UX.
Outbound links point to another domain or site. They are a good feature for
informative or niche topics. Sometimes a page includes jargon or topic-specific terms;
instead of wasting time explaining supplementary information on the page, you can use
URLs or anchor text as outbound links to locations that explain the information in depth.
SEO experts tend to doubt the content found on Wikipedia, but it is actually an excellent
source of free, relevant, detail-oriented information. For example, suppose you are
explaining web servers, and you use the word server in your content. Instead of explaining
what a server is, you can use the word as anchor text to link to a wiki site that explains the
meaning and use of servers. Linking specific terms to wiki sites such as Wikipedia andWebopedia may boost your SEO process. Not only is doing so relevant, but it also lends a
certain amount of trust and credibility to your site. You can use outbound links to social
media sites or blogs to help reach out to a larger audience. Just be sure you do not link to
spammy or illegal sites—doing so may negate your SEO efforts, because search engines will
penalize your site. Also do not link to sites that are not relevant to the topic, because two-
way linking or link farming can be detrimental.
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