General SEO Guidelines for Websites

This document provides a high-level overview of essential SEO practices for websites, including content, technical SEO, and metadata recommendations.

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1. Content Guidelines

Word Counts

• Homepage: 300–700 words (concise yet informative, highlight your brand/value).
• Landing Pages / Product Pages: 500–1200 words.
• Blog Posts / Articles: 1000–2000+ words for in-depth content.
• Include primary keywords naturally (avoid keyword stuffing).
• Use H1 for main titles, H2/H3 for subheadings.

Readability

• Use short paragraphs and sentences.
• Bullet points, numbered lists, and visuals improve engagement.
• Include internal and external links where relevant.

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2. Google Search Console

• Register your website with Google Search Console.
• Submit your sitemap.xml to help Google crawl your pages.
• Monitor:
  • Index coverage (errors, excluded pages)
  • Performance (CTR, impressions, clicks)
  • Mobile usability
  • Core Web Vitals (page speed and user experience)

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3. robots.txt

• Control what search engines can crawl.
• Example:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /private/

Sitemap: https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml
Host: https://yourwebsite.com

4. Sitemap Guidelines

Sitemaps help search engines crawl and index your website efficiently.

• Use an XML sitemap to list all important pages of your site.
• Include the following elements for each page:
  • <loc> – Page URL
  • <lastmod> – Last modified date
  • <changefreq> – How often the page is updated (daily, weekly, monthly)
  • <priority> – Importance of the page (0.1 to 1.0)

Example XML Sitemap

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-11-04</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-11-04</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

5. Open Graph Guidelines

Open Graph tags control how your website appears when shared on social media.

Essential OG Tags

• og:title – The title of your page.
• og:description – A short description of the page.
• og:image – The main image for sharing.
• og:url – The canonical URL of the page.
• og:type – The type of object (usually website or article).
• twitter:card – Defines the card type for Twitter (summary_large_image recommended).

Example Open Graph Meta Tags

<meta property="og:title" content="Ocean Pearl Villa | Luxury Beachfront Stay" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Experience luxury living by the sea at Ocean Pearl Villa Galle." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/assets/villa.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />

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6 Additional SEO Tips

These are extra SEO practices that improve ranking, user experience, and crawlability.

• Unique title and meta description for each page.
• Title length: 50–60 characters.
• Description length: 150–160 characters.
• Include main keywords naturally.

URLs

• Keep URLs short, descriptive, and keyword-rich.
• Use hyphens to separate words: /luxury-beachfront-villa/.

Images

• Use alt attributes for accessibility and SEO.
• Optimize image size to improve page load speed.
• Use descriptive filenames: beachfront-villa-pool.jpg.

Page Speed

• Minify CSS, JS, and HTML.
• Use caching and a CDN.
• Compress images and enable lazy-loading.

Mobile Usability

• Use a responsive design.
• Ensure text is readable without zooming.
• Buttons and links should be easily clickable.

Structured Data (JSON-LD)

• Use schema markup to enhance search results.
• Example for a villa: LodgingBusiness, Product, or LocalBusiness schema.
• Helps display rich snippets (ratings, availability, price).

Internal Linking

• Link to related pages naturally within content.
• Helps search engines understand site structure.

Monitoring

• Use Google Search Console to track indexing, errors, and performance.
• Submit sitemaps and monitor coverage regularly.
• Track Core Web Vitals for UX improvements.