Robots.txt

Google indexes websites by sending bots to "crawl" through pages, stopping at content checkpoints and collecting pieces of data. Robots.txt acts like a tour guide, telling the bots which pieces of content are the most important and steering them away from parts that may negatively impact the site's ranking. We build functionality into your CMS to automatically generate robots and noindex metatags, so you can choose which pages are indexed and which are ignored.

Canonical tags

As the name suggests, canonical tags help search engine bots to know which page is canon, meaning the official or true version of a page. This comes in handy when there are duplicate pages floating about that you don't want search engines to waste time indexing. We build your site with a sensible default and with a canonical tag override function, so you can be sure it will always display the correct page.

Descriptions

Descriptions are like a mini advertisement for your content. When a user conducts a search and the search engine presents your website as a result, description tags describe the content on the page in a couple of short, snappy sentences. This added context gives users confidence that your website is relevant and helpful and encourages them to click your URL over someone else's.

Headings and page structure/indexing

Giving pages a logical structure with headings and subheadings is just as important as the content itself. It not only makes it easier for search engines to "read" and index your page – it's an important accessibility tool, too. A visually impaired person can use a screen reader to easily identify relevant content by scanning headings instead of having to read huge chunks of text. We build best-practice hierarchies into your CMS, so you can create optimised pages every time without even having to think about it. You put the content in and it just works.

Structured data

Structured data offers us the opportunity to classify content types at a deeper level. Instead of being limited to simply heading/subheading/body text, you can describe the content's context. For example, you can tell search engine bots that a piece of content is an article, an event, a recipe, even a person. Structured data can help budding chefs find ratatouille the recipe and not Ratatouille the movie. And guess what? We do that for you.

Socials

Despite existing outside the jurisdiction of website SEO, social media does play an important part in the overall SEO effort. It drives traffic to the site, raises the profile of the brand, and also provides backlinks. A backlink occurs when someone posts a link to your site on their site, essentially signalling to search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable. We set you up for social success by adding all the appropriate meta data to your pages.

Content

We also help our clients to optimise their written content in a user-friendly and searchable way, with the help of our in-house copywriter. The days of loading pages with keyword-heavy nonsense are long gone – in 2021, we write concise copy in plain english with strategically selected keywords threaded naturally throughout. After all, content is king.