The 3 Most Important SEO Elements

When I review a new client’s site, I look first to see how the current optimization stands. Within 3 seconds I can tell if there was a previous SEO involved, what keywords are being targeted, and how good the overall optimization is. I am able to do this quick analysis because I look for 3 key elements. Most good SEOs will make certain these most important elements contain the target keywords.

The most important site elements that will get you top rankings:

1) Title Meta tag: The title meta tag is the part that appears in the blue navigation bar at top of your browser window. It should contain the main keywords the page wishes to target. If it doesn’t then is very likely the site was never optimized because most SEOs will stuff keywords there. You are working with only a limited amount of text about 60-100 chars so choose your words wisely.

2) H1 heading tag: This is a popular SEO trick. One of the first things that SEOs noticed about Google was its love for the H1 tag and big text. The idea behind it is: H1 tags are very large pieces of text so if keywords appear there, then the site must really be about that topic. With css style sheets you can make the H1 tag look a little better so you can maintain the SEO benefit and aesthetics as well. H1 tags are good design practice as well because they give users headings for the topics covered on a page.

3) Site Navigation: This element is usually over looked by both SEOs and site developers alike. However, a skilled SEO will make sure the site’s navigation is optimized with strong keywords. The formation of the navigational links’ anchor text should be the exact term you are targeting. For example “Toronto real estate” as a link would be good, where as, “Our Toronto real estate services” would not be. Google is very precise about how anchor text is written. So make sure you target the exact term people would type when searching for your particular topic.