Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of designing a web page according to current best practices, so that users are more likely to find it in natural (also called “organic”) search engine results. The idea is to send clear signals that define a page’s context and authority, so that it’s clear to search engines when they should display the page to a user.
While SEO is a vast topic that encompasses many techniques, it’s fair to say that content plays a critical role in driving search engine rankings. For that reason, every page on Rackspace.com must meet certain minimum standards to be considered “optimized.”
Keyword-rich Content
When you think about it, the concept of “content” encompasses basically every aspect of a web page—from on-screen text to images. For all text-based content (meta descriptions, headers, paragraph text, etc.), the following standards apply:
- Include target keywords in your content. For every web page, our SEO Manager provides a short list of keywords that the page content should target. When you can do so in a natural way, include those keywords throughout the content you write. For example, let’s say Rackspace decides to offer a new line of t-shirts that you think are awesome, but the SEO Manager tells you that the target keyword is “cool t-shirts.” Well, then don’t write about awesome t-shirts—write about cool t-shirts. Pretty simple, right?
- But don’t keyword stuff. “Keyword stuffing” is the practice of cramming a bunch of keywords into content just for search engine rankings. While it’s important to sprinkle your content with target keywords, be judicious. Search engines frown on keyword stuffing, and—more importantly—users don’t like it. Don’t do it.
- Always consider users first. SEO is important, but user experience is more important. When you can naturally work SEO techniques into your content in a way that supports users, do it—but never write content just for SEO purposes.
If you need more convincing that user experience is always the primary consideration in content development, then read this blog post by Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team.
Meta Description
A page’s meta description never shows up directly on the page, but it does often display beneath the page title in search engine results, like the highlighted text in Figure 1.
While search engines don’t consider a page’s meta descriptions when calculating rankings, this is still important content—after all, it’s what many users read when deciding whether to click on a page.
Keep these standards in mind when writing a page’s meta description:
- Always include a meta description. When a meta description isn’t available, search engines choose which page content to display in search results. It’s better to control that experience when you can.
- Be compelling. Think about the kind of content that makes you click into a search engine result. You probably don’t tend to click pages with sales-y descriptions that proclaim “FREE,” “CLICK HERE,” or “Best product EVER!” Instead, you click into content that looks like it will answer your questions. Write meta descriptions that offer useful insight into the content a user will find on the page.
- Use a natural voice. Write meta descriptions that are one or two short sentences (up to 150 characters) that describe the page content using natural language and the Rackspace voice and tone.
- Include target keywords. When a page’s meta description includes the keywords in a user’s search, those words display as bold in search engine results. Bold keywords make a search engine result stand out, because they are eye catching and help users to quickly see that the page’s content is relevant to their search.
Page Title
Most search engines consider page title heavily in ranking algorithms. That makes sense when you consider that a page’s title should directly describe what the page is about.
Our SEO Manager is responsible for writing every page title. When you create a new page, make sure to engage the SEO Manager to create a title that aligns with our strategic SEO goals. When you update an existing page, contact the SEO Manager for approval before making any changes to the page title.
Meaningful Headers
Just as with page titles, search engine algorithms assume that headers provide a good indication of a page’s focus. Keep these SEO standards in mind when writing headers:
- Be descriptive. Every header on a page should clearly describe the content that follows.
- Use keywords. When it makes sense and you can do so in a natural way, include target keywords in page headers. The main header at the top of the page (the “H1” header) should include the page’s primary keywords. Subheaders should include secondary keywords as defined by the SEO team.
Headers aren’t just important for SEO—they’re important for readability. Make sure to also consider our header content standards as you write.
Links
When you include a link within your text, try to make the link’s display text the primary keywords of the page to which it is linking. For example, the keyword phrase “web hosting” gets three times more search volume than the keyword phrase “website hosting,” so links to the Cloud Sites page should generally display as:
<a href="http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/sites/">web hosting</a>
If using the linked page’s primary keywords is not possible, then try to include the secondary keywords, instead. If you are unable to include primary or secondary keywords in the link itself, then try to include them in close proximity to the link.