You’ve been doing the SEO basics on your website. Now that you have simple features in place like keywords, header tags, and other basic elements, what else can you do?

When it comes to search engine optimization, it’s important that you take advantage of all the “behind the scenes” clues you can offer to a search engine. One thing you’ll want to do is to create a sitemap for your website. A sitemap is an overall map that works like an index. 

After you’ve created your site map, you’ll want to start to add special tags that can give you an edge. When you create a hyperlink on your site, you’ll want to also add in a title tag. A title tag goes after your link, before the closed bracket. It looks like this:

<a href=”yourlink.com” title=”my keyword”> Anchor Text</a>

Notice how directly after your link is placed in, there’s a title tag. If tells the search engine what your link is about. If your link is about spaghetti and meatballs, your title tag might say “spaghetti and meatballs” or it may say “pasta”. It’s a small description of the link. 

You’ll also notice the word “Anchor Text” above. Your anchor text is the word or words that are seen when you create a link. The part between the brackets becomes invisible, but your anchor text is what your readers see. Your anchor text should be keywords defining where the text goes. 

It’s better to do this:

<a href=”yoursite.com” title=”my keyword”>Spaghetti and Meatballs</a>

Thank to do this:

<a href=”yoursite.com” title=”my keyword”>My Site</a>

The first link tells you where the link goes, and the anchor text becomes important. The second link, while it will take you to the same location, does nothing to help you. 

When you add images to your webpage, you’ll want to tag them also, but this time you use the tag ALT. Your images will look like this:

<img src=”location of my picture” alt=”spaghetti”>Your picture would be here</a>

Do you see how the ALT tag says spaghetti? That’s because search engines can’t read pictures. They read the tags that describe the pictures. These small simple tips can help you make a difference when it comes to SEO.