GSD

SEO Best Practices

Page Titles and Heading Tags

The title on a page is incredibly important. It not only lets a user know the focus of the page, but it also plays a big role in SEO. Header tags communicate to a search engine what your website is about. Search engines recognize that the copy in the title and the headers is the most important. While the content within a header may not be very long, you still need to be strategic about what you put there.

An exact match of your primary keyword (the one that gets the highest search volume) should be in the page url, title tag, and h1 heading tag.

For even more SEO power, include the primary keyword in CTA links (e.g. Title of page is “Ski Rentals” then CTA should say “Book Ski Rentals”)

Use targeted secondary keywords in your h2-h6 tags that relate to the theme of the page and are relevant to the content.

These are strong keywords that may not have the same search volume as the primary keyword, but are still common queries.

Use tertiary keywords in the body copy. These are supportive long-tail search terms with lower—but still solid—search volume.

Meta Titles & Descriptions

Include a meta title and description on every page of your website. These elements help describe your page and appear in search engine results.

Length - Optimize meta descriptions to be up to 160 characters long, since this is the length that Google shows in the SERP.

Optimize - You must use this limited length wisely.

Use researched, targeted keywords.

Make sure descriptions are highly relevant to the content on each page (you never want to use the same meta description across several pages).

Use compelling language to show value and encourage users to click through.

Examples:

Book beginner, intermediate, or advanced ski/snowboard lessons at Winter Park Resort. Get personalized instruction to improve your skills on the mountain.

Discover family-friendly winter activities at Snowshoe Mountain, WV. Enjoy skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and more in a picturesque Appalachian setting.

Content Freshness

Google appreciates fresh content. We don’t want to build a page and never touch it again—especially pages that might help drive purchases. The recency of content publication and updates significantly influence search rankings. Google tracks publish dates, republish dates, and meaningful content revisions.

Update content regularly to maintain relevance. Changing content seasonally is a good way to keep things fresh and up-to-date.

Do not change the page title, url, or meta descriptions often, because those use primary keywords, and we don’t want to lose that search power.

If search analytics show a change in the top primary keyword, then a page title change may be warranted.

If a product name changes or the time of year effects the content of the page, then change the page title to accommodate.

Content changes need to be significant. Changing a word or two in the body copy is not meaningful enough for Google to adjust the content score.

The best thing to do is change the tertiary keywords and the supporting content around those to freshen up the copy.

Make updates to the secondary keywords in the 2-6 heading tags—if they are relevant and have good search volume. But if the keywords you’re already using are still really strong, there’s no need to change them just for the sake of changing them.

Other SEO Best Practices

Optimize your websites for mobile. Google prioritizes mobile first.

Add keywords to image alt text.

If possible, change the image name to include keywords.

Don’t go overboard on keyword use. If a page is “over-SEO-ed,” Google sees that and it will not do well in search. Google wants to find those keywords in your copy, but also rewards well-written, unique content that supports the focus of the page. Keyword stuffing is a tactic, and Google knows it.

AI Optimization

With the emergence—and influence—of AI, it’s essential to optimize our websites so bots can find and serve users our content.

Abide by all SEO best practices. This is a key part of getting picked up by AI.

Review content decay reports to find subdomains that require improvements. Your parent domain can be very strong, but if there are child domains that are not in good shape from a content or technical perspective, they can drain the life of the parent domain.

Based on the reports, remove content that is not focused on or supporting your core eCommerce pillars. And make improvements to pages and content that are supportive, but need some attention.

Research what people are asking or searching, and identify content gaps that you can add to your website or blog.

If any topics fit organically into your content plans, create a blog post about that topic and then link back to the product pages (e.g. How do I pick the right ski rental? Which ski rental is right for me?). Blogs add more relevant content that will not only come up in AI queries, but also support your main revenue drivers.

If creating a blog post is not possible, add content as an FAQ within relevant pages.

Make sure each FAQ you have on a page is product driven and hyper specific to that content. Do not use the same FAQ across multiple pages, this hurts both SEO and AI, because Google doesn’t like duplicate content.

Only add an FAQ if analytics shows a high volume query as a content gap. Be selective on which ones you add. We don’t want to have a long FAQ list just to address every possible question someone might ask.

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