SEO Tip #1: Title tag - make sure your title tags are 60-70 characters, or 6-9 words (no more than 10!) Coolors has a nice, simple, and short title tag:
screenshot of the title tags on Coolors.com
SEO Tip #2: Include a meta description tag. This determines what shows up about your page on the SERP. The Atlantic has a good meta description tag.
This is how it looks in the HTML:
an example a good description tag from The Atlantic
And here is how it looks in a SERP:
how The Atlantic's description tag looks on a SERP
SEO Tip #3: Use the alt tag for EVERY image on your site. It helps with SEO and is required by the American's with Disabilities Act. Trader Joe's uses the alt tag for every image on their homepage:
a good example of using the alt tag from Trader Joe's
SEO Tip #4: Use the meta robots tag. It helps web crawlers know how to index your page. Trader Joe's also uses a robots tag. They have content="nooodp" which means that a SERP will only display the meta description they have on their site instead of one from the SERP's directory.
a screenshot of a robots tag
SEO Tip #5: If you have a lot of JavaScript, use external files instead of internal. This is an example of what NOT to do. Scarpa uses too much internal JavaScript.
an example of too much internal javascript
SEO Tip #6: Optimize Your URL's. Make sure your site doesn't have bad links, and that your links are descriptive and don't look too spammy. Nordstrom Rack has very simple, descriptive links on their site. In the image below, you can tell that you're on the women's activewear clothing page.
a good url example from Nordstrom Rack.com
SEO Tip #7: Use Social meta Tags to enhance your content on social media sites. REI uses OG (open graph) tags as well as the twitter: tag to enhance their social content.
SEO Tip #8: Arrange heading tags hierarchically (h1, h2, h3, etc) Trader Joe's doesn't follow this rule. In the below image, the h3 tag comes before the h1 tag.
screenshot of Trader Joe's not using heading hierarchy
SEO Tip #9: Include a Call to Action (CTA) when necessary. Backcountry has a good CTA. An incentive to subscribe to their mailing list pops up first thing when you enter the site.
SEO Tip #10: Keep Static Content on your Homepage. You can (and should) refresh the content on your site but you need to keep something consistent to your site's identity, especially on your homepage REI does a good job of this. They change the content on their site all the time, but the homepage always has their logo and maintains the same basic structure.
rei's homepage is a good example of static content on your homepage
SEO Tip #11: Have a Custom 404 Error Page CSS Tricks has a good example of a 404 error page:
img example of a 404 error page
SEO Tip #12: Have a robots.txt file Workday has a good example of a robots.txt file here
a robots.txt file from Workday.com/robots.txt