Just before I walk out the door and leave for work every morning, I always grab the same five things: my jacket, cell phone, wallet, Chap Stick and Clocktower Media man bag. Aka, my accessories. And if I forget to grab any of these things, I feel naked…

Now before you judge me, think about your own accessories. What can’t YOU leave the house without? Everyone has accessories - some are just a little “more unique” than others. My Chap Stick, for example, is a strange accessory that I’ve kept on hand since my teenage years. I brought it with me whenever I went skiing, and I’ve just kept a tube in my pocket ever since.

So guess what? Your website has accessories too! A perfectly optimized web page should never leave the house without nine very important SEO accessories. Nine accessories that will help the individual pages of your website take on the web world with its figurative “game face on.” What are these nine life changing accessories? I’m glad you asked:

1. Title Tags: Your site should never walk out the front door without putting on its Title Tags. These are still a vital piece of the on-page must haves, so don’t even think about walking out the front door without them.
2. Description Tag: Your sales pitch. The one or two sentence (155 characters) description that you create for each individual page within your site. Although search engines don’t always use your descriptions, it’s important to create something that accurately describes each page to avoid a high bounce rate and a potential penalty for manipulation.
3. Social Buttons: Social Buttons are HUGE!!! Listen, if your site has left its homestead without Social Buttons it needs to turn around, go home and grab its buttons. In case you didn’t know, social connectivity is an absolute must in the SEO world. It allows visitors to share your info and spread your content around the world.
4. Analytics: This is like walking out the front door without your cell phone. Friends, family and others are trying to get in touch with you, they’re looking through your site, but you don’t know they’re their or what they’re doing because you were in a hurry and left without properly installing analytics. Personally, I recommend using Google Analytics. Take a peek at this Google Analytics post if you haven’t already.
5. Webmaster Tools: Both Google and Bing/Yahoo offer webmaster tools which allow website owners to see HOW the search engines are crawling your content. Each will have to be installed separately, but the information provided is priceless.
6. Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are a fashion must. Not the navigation or footer variety, those are simply out of style. I’m talking keyword rich, body hyperlinks that shoot off to relevant internal or external web pages.
7. Site Search: Google’s Site Search is an excellent accessory. Site Search enables prospective visitors and customers to find information instantly. A must for an eCommerce website, or any site for that matter, in need of long-tail keyword data or navigation pitfalls.
8. Contact Info: I think it’s best to include your contact information on as many pages as possible. Why force visitors to your contact page for a phone number? They might be ready to talk to you after viewing your homepage.
9. Content: Solid content with REAL voice is an absolute must. Your site, your product and/or your service are all unique to you, so be sure to communicate as though you were speaking one-on-one with each of your visitors.

One more thing, if your current “accessories” include Meta Keywords, I would encourage you to update your style to match those listed above. At this point Meta Keywords are completely out of date.

Alright, that’s all I have for you today. As always, please share your thoughts and questions below.

By: Andrew Neal Jenkins