Intro
SEO is a rabbit hole if you read too much about it, but basically, it boils down to a few simple things. Don't think of your whole website as the document, imagine that each page is its own little world, with (hopefully) a specific message that you want to convey to your visitors.
First port of call, can Search Engines actually see your webpage? If Google can't read it, it isn't going to include it in the search results page. Next comes intent - does your webpage deliver what it promises to deliver? I.e. is the message clear? Intent is closely linked to your Meta Title and Description - more on this later. Then we move on to some technical details, like is the content structured correctly? Does it link to other useful pages? Do other useful pages link to it? These links can be internal or external - you get bonus points for anyone who links to your page from a different website. Finally, the last thing to consider is also technical - Does it work for mobile users? Does it load fast enough? Is the content obscured by advertising popups and clickbait links? Are the images labelled correctly. Get all of this right and you'll be well on your way to getting in the coveted top 10 spot on the search results page.
Can Search Engines see your webpage
This part is most definitely #1 in importance. Imagine The Bot, out there in the digital netherworld, it doesn't have fingers to click the mouse, it doesn't have eyes, it just reads text and images. The Bot reads your webpage and tries to understand what's going on in a very non-human way so we have to make life easy for it. It's not going to login to your site, so anything that requires this is not going to get indexed, all it can see is what is publicly available. Did you tell Google about your page? You can do that by creating an account on Google Search. Once you have an account, you'll have to prove that the web domain is yours (another technical thing), then you can register your sitemap.xml and let Google do the rest. If you have your website and domain hosted with Digital Elevation, we can do this bit for you (and even if it's hosted elsewhere, but it makes our life easier if you host with us).
Does your webpage do what it says on the box?
Aside from the visible content, each webpage can be configured with a meta title and description. It is this title and description that you see in the search results whenever your webpage appears. Back in the mists of time it was possible to trick search engines into showing your page by manipulating these (a process called Keyword Stuffing), but we live in a modern age of AI and clever technical trickery - attempt this now and expect to be put in the Search Sin Bin for good. These days search engines will read your meta data and check the visible content to see if it lines up. It will prioritize with headings, links and image labels as well as looking at the paragraph text. Meta titles should be around 50-60 characters long, meta descriptions around 150-160. A good sales page should be around 500-1000 words and a blog or article should be more like 1000-2000 words. The Digital Elevation SEO Audit can help you get a global view of any pages that need attention in this respect.
Page Structure and Internal Linking
There are some technical best practices for this, but really the key is how you divide up your information - good headings and paragraphs. Writing a "good" page is a bit like going back to school and writing a good essay where Google is the teacher (but you don't get your essay back with a grade). It's also important to link to other relevant pages in your content and have those other relevant pages link back. The principle here is providing useful information to your visitors so that they can get the information they came for. Good linking also allows Search Engines to discover your content and understand how the pages related to each other. At Digital Elevation, we ensure good page structure from the get go so that you don't have to go back and re-work things just to appease The Digital Overlords.
Yet More (Important) Technical Tomfoolery
The rest is generally about providing a good user experience. Is your page easy to read (font sizes matter)? Does it work for mobile users (which, let's be honest is most people these days)? Does it load quickly? Big images that haven't been compressed for web use are penalized here, not to mention the page speed in general (yes, I'm looking at you Wix / Wordpress). Is your page served securely - this is huge, pages without basic web security are liable to be ignored. At Digital Elevation, we focus on Security and Performance from the get go ensuring that you will not be unfairly penalized for lazy technical implementation.
- Read more about Page Speed
- Read more about Website Security
SEO can get complicated fast. But in reality, most websites succeed or fail based on a handful of fundamentals. Those fundamentals revolve around Searchability, Intent / Structure and a few important technical details. For a more technical breakdown of what we have discussed here you can checkout our SEO Checklist. Alternatively, you can submit any web domain to the Digital Elevation SEO Audit to really get to grips with the nitty gritty.
Good Luck, and may the Search Gods be eternally at your side.
Published:March 9, 2026Updated:March 9, 2026