Structure

How to improve your website's Search Engine Optimisation(SEO)

The way a web page is structured determines how search engines index the page. The following elements should be used when adding pages:

  • Headings
  • Bullet points
  • Meta Description
  • Keywords
  • Important links on every page

Headings

In HTML there are six levels of headings. H1 is the most important heading on a page and it is the first thing that a search engine will crawl. 

The Caerphilly Council website automatically generates the <H1> heading. This is taken from the section name in the Content Management System (CMS).  This heading should only be entered once on a page.

Then, as you write your content, you can use H2 and H3 subheadings to introduce different sections.

It’s rare for most content to get ‘deep’ enough to need to use H4 tags and beyond unless you’re writing long, or technical content. H5 and H6 are rarely used and are the least important. 

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions provide explanations of the contents of a web page and are commonly used on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) to display preview snippets for a given page. 

Although Google no longer considers Meta descriptions when ranking pages, they are important in gaining visitors from SERPs. The description should be between 150-160 characters and should contain compelling content which is related to the page that a searcher will want to click.

You should double check Meta descriptions when editing web pages and update them as appropriate.

Keywords

Content should include frequently searched keywords or phrases.

Choose keywords that most accurately reflect your web page's content. For example, on a page about School Closures, ‘Schools’ and ‘Closures’ would both are important keywords. Use keywords as much as possible within the following elements on the web page:

  • Page title
  • Headings
  • Body content, particularly within the first paragraph
  • Meaningful links

Using meaningful words for your section/page and media-file names will also improve page rankings, eg use 'Caerphilly County Borough Council' rather than an abbreviations such as 'CCBC'.

Links

Google (and other search engines) rank web pages higher when they have more external links pointing to them. They assume that if third parties are linking to a website, they must contain something of value.

If Caerphilly Council has one hundred external links pointing to the resident webpage and another webpage has only ten, Caerphilly Council will be ranked much more highly. Linking websites must be quality websites, for example, a link from the Welsh Gov or BBC is worth much more than a link from a small organisation.

Other means to boost your website

  • Include your URL on leaflets/flyers/publications
  • Use social media
  • Distribute your URL on relevant mailing lists.
  • Include your URL in email signatures