Has your SEO been done by a monkey with a hammer?

We’ve been going through a number of sites this past week and are just amazed at how badly some bloggers are going wrong when it comes to ranking measures.

They’re wondering why readers aren’t coming to their sites but a quick look at their SEO shows a huge mess.

The lack of talent involved can make sites look they were made by a monkey with a hammer.

The first place to look when trying to increase your rank is your meta data. Google claims that they don’t count the meta descriptions when it comes to ranking, but that’s a little bit of a false statement.

A good meta description will bring in more clicks, which Google does pay attention to. So, in a roundabout way, the meta description is really one of the details that can make or break your site’s rankings.

It’s the same with most details on your site. You’ve got to get the SEO on point or you’ll never see the rankings you want on Google.

I’ve changed one page title before and caused a site’s rankings to rise from page 10 to page three, just with that one simple act.

But the page title is only one of the details you’ve got to pay attention to. See what is being indexed on your blog. If you’re trying to rank for a certain keyword, make sure you use it in page titles and blog posts.

Take a look at the size of your images; super-huge pictures slow a page down, which cuts down on the number of people who’ll wait around for it to load.

The bottom line is, go through the basics before trying to tweak smaller details on your site.

If you’re ranking on page 10 or lower, there’s something definitely off. Once you’ve got solid SEO details and your site ranks on page two or three, then you can work on fine-tuning.

Jim Stewart is a leading expert in search engine optimisation. His business StewArt Media has worked with clients including Mars, M2 and the City of Melbourne.