How to SEO your website in 2024 (10 steps)

• If you haven't registered a domain yet look for one that contains at least one of the keywords you want to rank for but is also unique so Google can see if you get brand mentions around the web.
• In most cases go for a .com even if it costs a little more as most people assume .com and you could miss out on getting links if you choose something else.
• Don't expect Exact match domain names to help.
• If you already have a website established consider skipping this, it's only for an ideal world and has a minimal SEO effect.

• Your URL should match, or be a very close match to, your <title> tag contents and your h1 heading tag contents but you can strip 'dead words' out of it such as "and", "or", "the".
• Search engines look at your url as one of many signals to confirm what the page is about. It confirms your content, it does not define it, so make sure you are sending this important signal.
• When your URL shows in the search results it will inspire more confidence with Internet users and improve your Click Through Rate.

• Your page title tells search engines what your content is about (and they will believe you if the content matches) so you should be looking to get one or two of the keywords you want to rank for in here.
• Your title tag should match, or closely match, your url and the contents of your h1 tag so that they all confirm back to Google and other search engines the main subject area of your page.
• The page title is also the blue text users click on in the search results of Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. so it should be interesting and engaging to encourage visitors to click through.
• Every page on your site should have a unique title of no more than 70 characters (or it won't show fully in the search results).

• Every page should have a unique meta description of up to 190 characters which provides an accurate summary of the page.
• Meta descriptions often (but not always) shown as the black text in search engine search results so they should be attractive and motivate internet users to click through.
• Meta descriptions are ignored by search engines but as they can appear in the search results optimizing them is essential.
• If in doubt use the first 190 characters from the pages visible content (not including the title) because this should also be an attractive summary that will make visitor want to read more.
• Do not list keywords or use entire paragraphs - keep it short, punchy and attractive if you want to have a strong Click Through Rate.

If you have keyword meta tags get rid of them. They are ignored by search engines and only assist your competitors in telling them what you are trying to rank for.

• If your keyword density is over 4% your content will be difficult to read and may be considered spammy by search engines.
• Use words that mean the same rather than the same phrase over and over.
• Make sure you are using words which are related to the main keyword phrase you are trying to rank for.
• Always ask yourself "What related words should be on this page?"

• Whenever possible make sure your links are text (rather than graphics) and make that text descriptive (see examples below).
• Where you have no choice but to use 'click here' or 'see more' consider changing them into graphics so their text is ignored and then use the title tag within the link code to be descriptive.
• Use breadcrumbs with structured data markup.

• To check your HTML coding use the W3C HTML Validator service.
• To check your CSS coding use the W3C CSS Validator service.
• Note you may not be able to reduce your errors to zero (some additions such as Facebook can cause issues) but you should look to minimize any mistakes within your control.

• Make sure you have Google Analytics and Google Search Console set up correctly for your website.
• Set up Goals and sub Goals in Google Analytics so you can see how many of your visitors are doing what you hope they will do (convert) and how many are getting close but not converting.
• Learn to analyze the successful pages and the not so successful pages by considering the click through rates, bounce rates, time on site, exit pages, visitor flow, etc.
• Experiment with calls to action and even small things like button colors.

• Do not engage in any link building 'programmes' or software. These are the fastest way to getting you banned from Google.
• Think quality, not quantity. One good backlink is worth 10,000 poor quality ones.
• Remember links from social media such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. bring traffic even if they don't directly affect your rankings so make it easy for your visitors to share your content.
• Consider well tested link building methods like the Skyscraper technique or broken link searching.