Get your basics covered first

Izabela says: "Cover your basics before attempting anything fancy. I've seen so many companies and brands try to do new, great things whilst they don't have their basics covered. They don't have their own page content or their technical aspects covered, like getting rid of old code or updating something that's not being used anymore. Then, when they try to implement the 'fancy' new stuff, it doesn't work. They might start to question why they are not ranking, or why their pages are dropping, when they upload a new blog post. You need to prioritise your growth and your technical updates, and you need to make sure that your tech is up-to-date first of all.

I understand there's probably no CMS that can handle all SEO recommendations, but you need to make sure you are doing what you can. I do a lot of SEO updates, and I still see unused JavaScript, or unused CSS, in pretty much every single update I do. You should be getting rid of this before you push the website live. Similarly, if you don't have H1s, or your titles are not optimised, you need to start there. These are the basics - this is SEO 101 - and for some reason, people have stopped doing them. We have to walk before we can start running.

I think this is what people are beginning to struggle with because they want to do everything new. Make sure you have your basics covered and educate your staff, not only your SEO colleagues, because everyone in your team should know how these things work. In this way, you will avoid simple mistakes and you won't have to go back and redo your pages."

You talk about H1s and titles, are there any other key on-page elements that are part of the basics and need to be right at the beginning?

"Besides H1s and titles, you need to look at content on the page. This is often the missing key. Brands tend to have headlines and titles, and maybe even alt tags, but usually they are missing content. You don't want to push a page without anything on it, or with only pictures, unless it's vital for the brand."

What's the minimum amount of content for each page? 200 words?

"It depends on what kind of business you are running and what kind of page you are talking about. In a category page, 200 words is probably going to be enough - you need to think about what people are expecting and what they want to see. If you write an article, for example, or a research piece, then obviously you want more words. How many words also depends on the industry and the subject matter. Make sure it makes sense and looks natural - try to show what people are expecting to see. It has to be appropriate for the page type, but you need some content on every page."

What's your standard structure for H1s and titles? Do you have a go-to length or format?

"For titles, you want to keep to under 60 characters. Some crawlers tend to identify H1s as too long, so if you use a blog title, or an article title, make sure it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, make it shorter. You want it to display properly in Google. However, you don't want it too short either. You have to remember that the title is what people see in Google's search results. We want the title and the meta description to actually describe what they're getting into.

These things influence click-through rate because this is the first thing that people will read on your website. If 30 characters make sense, then 30 characters is fine. It is about what makes sense - if you think of the user first, then Google will probably be happy. If you try to think of the search engine first, and forget about the user, then they won't be."

What sort of unused JavaScript and CSS do you think needs to be addressed?

"It might be anything. One common example is tracking codes for software that's not used anymore. I find them through crawls and the technical things I do. You need to start with your crawl and make sure, because you might have already gotten rid of your unused JavaScript, but you might have something else."

What's your favourite software for doing crawls at the moment?

"My favourite is Sitebulb - I'm in love with that tool. You really get value for what you pay for, and visually it is amazing. I like Screaming Frog as well, because they tend to give a different view on the website. It depends on what type of client you have or how you work. If you are a more visual person then Sitebulb is great.

Also, it is good for people just starting out in the industry, and in technical, because they've got an amazing library. If you're not sure what type of error you're dealing with, you can just click through the library from the crawler and there's a huge list of articles and resources you can reference. Even if you've been in SEO for ages, this is an industry that is always changing. You might not have worked with that particular type of client before or seen that particular type of error.

If you're looking for a web-based crawler, then my go-to is DeepCrawl. It is slightly more expensive, but you can get it going on the web, forget about it, and come back to it later."

Is there a general rule in terms of the size of a site, and if it's over a certain number of pages, you'd go for DeepCrawl instead?

"I haven't had a problem with the size, but if a website was on Shopify, I've had to move from SiteBulb to DeepCrawl because Shopify is blocking crawlers. Also, if the settings are not set properly then it can take ages on a computer-based program, but Sitebulb has mostly dealt with this now. Perhaps if the site was huge, and you needed to have your machine turned on for days, you may encounter issues, like internet connection outages. In this situation, I would go for something web-based, like DeepCrawl, just in case."

What should you teach your PR people about SEO, and how do you efficiently educate team members?

"Obviously you can't make everybody a specialist in SEO, but you have to understand that it is all part of digital marketing - it has to work together. You may have different channels, but these channels all have the same goal. With PR, for example, you want the content on your page to rank and you want it to be optimised but you also want it to work from a PR perspective so journalists are interested, and it will be promoted elsewhere. If the PR and content teams don't know the SEO basics, and don't consult with SEOs, the content won't add up and you end up with things that Google hates, like keyword confusion.

In a digital marketing agency, for example, all of the staff should at least have a basic understanding of SEO. I'm not saying they need the ability to do it, but they need to know what they are working towards, and how they are going to achieve it. Everybody needs to understand, for example, that you need quality, optimised content to rank in SEO so you can't pack the content with keywords.

This is also true the other way around. SEOs need at least a basic overview of what kind of content the PR team needs. That way, you don't end up going back and forth between the two teams to achieve the right content. It is similar with development teams. If they are educated on the technical side of how good SEO works, they would understand why it is needed, and implement it in the first place."

Are the basics of SEO likely to change moving forward?

"Everything can change. We had title and meta description updates, but the core of what we need will remain. We will always need keywords somewhere, and we will need quality content. Since I started working in SEO in 2014, I've been hearing they're not going to look at links, or they're going to find something else to focus on - but they haven't. The quality metrics are changing. They want more quality, but they still want good links and good websites talking about you. The core basics are not likely to go away. They might be changing, but they will not disappear."

What's one ineffective activity that an SEO can stop doing to focus on the basics?

"Some people believe that pushing out as much content as possible is the way to go. We have shouted about quality content, and how Google likes fresh content, but that takes time. If you have time to create quality content every month, go ahead and do it. But it is a cost in terms of time and ideas. You are better off doing one great piece of quality content every quarter, rather than trying to push 500 words every week just to put out some content. Everybody used to do it, but it no longer matches the quality that users and search engines are looking for.

We have to remember that great pieces of content need research and more people involved. A great piece will have graphics, and maybe videos, and not just come from a copywriter writing 500 words. It's better to take more time so you can publish something great."

You can find Izabela Wisniewska over at CreatosMedia.co.uk.