Conceptually straightforward and an absolute pre-requisite when it comes to successful SEO (search engine optimisation), on page optimisation is no more, no less than well conceived and applied web page construction, placing your keywords and keywords phrases at forefront of the process.
Of course, the end game when conducting any SEO is to increase targeted traffic to your web site. Before you can successfully accomplish this though there is some initial ground that needs to be covered.
We’ll shortly give you our Top Tips for On Page SEO but before then we need to take a brief look at the background to your On Page SEO
On Page SEO
On Page SEO is a discipline that covers coding, content and the structure of the content. It’s a process of defining and honing those aspects of your web presence directly under your control making sure that your website is as search engine friendly as possible.
Applied holistically On Page SEO a product of the definitive SEO development stage.
The SEO Development Stage
Determining keywords and key phrases – defining your semantic space and the terms you will be targeting for engine indexing is a vital first step in the SEO process. This is a task that needs to be tightly integrated with the business objectives. Getting the keyword selection aligned with business objectives is an absolute must. Failure to do this thoroughly and correctly could undermine the whole SEO process from day one potentially leading you up a blind, expensive and time consuming alley. The effective definition of your semantic space will drive visitors and convert prospects to leads into customers.
There are a variety of powerful keyword research tools, Wordtracker for example shows crossovers between products and services and the search terms of a prospective audience. We identify audience behaviour and how they apply language to search for the types of product and service that our clients offer. Research not only reveals the obvious and important keywords, but also the more obscure terms and even misspellings that can also prove profitable in delivering visitors to your site.
Clean code
Search engines and their spiders adore light, tight and clean code that lets then burn through sites pulling out all the relevance and indexing it ready for retrieval. It’s important that the site can be easily crawled and indexed by search engine bots. From a search engine perspective, the best site in the world is unlikely to rank if the crawlers struggle to extract any content from it. Make sure that your code is valid, bad code can lead to search engines not being able to properly read a page. You’ve gone to the trouble to define your keywords and keyword phrases, now feed them to the spiders. Make it easy for them. Use the W3C validator to check your markup.
Remember, each page on your website is a potential landing page, it’s its own entity offering its own ranking potential. Keyword analysis and tight coding don’t just apply to your home page. Neglect the rest of your site and your missing out on massive SEO and conversion opportunities.
Now that we’ve covered the foundations of your On Page SEO it’s time to focus in on the ways to make it really effective. Read on…
Top On Page SEO Tips
1. Keyword in title – This tip was in fact cited as the number one on page factor by SEOmoz.org when their team of SEO experts evaluated the ten factors with most effect on Google's ranking algorithm. Make sure that your keyword or phrase is contained in the page title. It’s your best chance to achieve a high ranking as well as your best chance to convert a searcher into a site customer.
2. Use H1 and H2 tags properly. Your H1 tag should be near the top of your web page and include your most important keywords. Your second most important level of keywords should be listed in your H2 tag. If you have a third level, place it in an H3 tag.
3. Keyword in Description - Write a concise, informative description of your website, using your selected keywords. This description will appear in search engine result pages and will attract to potential visitors.
4. Domain Name - A domain name that features your keyword(s) or at least closely related words will also help boost your rankings. Similarly, sub-domain names and other inner page URLs should also use words that are relevant to your keywords.
5. Meta Tags – All a little old school but still worth applying. Google is not the only search engine and meta tags can be more important factors for other search engines. Insert your keywords in all meta tags, but don’t over do it and risk penalization.
6. SEO Copywriting - Search engines rely on identifying relevance. It’s their currency, and the means by which they claim their competitive advantage over each other. They live for relevance. Nothing pleases them more than finding the most informative, appropriate and useful website to match a query. Make it easy for them. Professional SEO copywriting both nurtures relevance and then reveals it. Flags it up. Deliver it on a silver patter to readers and search engines alike. By developing topical relevance within your site with fresh, informative, interesting and stimulating written content and by cross-linking it with other useful and authoritative pages you start to close the gap between what people want and what you can offer.
Good SEO Copywriting also takes into account:
- page structure
- headings,
- italicising
- paragraph lengths
- bullet pointing information
7. Focus on internal linking - Link to your own pages from other pages in your site that have tremendous link weight. Internal link juice is critically important. As important as inbound links in fact. The nature and quality of internal links to a page says a lot about the page with contributory factors including the number of inbound links, placement of the inbound links within the linking pages, anchor text patterns, and the content of linking pages. This sends a clear signal to search engines that that phrase or group of semantically related material is a predominant theme on your site. Make sure that the links within your site are complete, there are no spider blocks in the system and that the links also have a semantic relevance.
Whereas simple ‘on page’ SEO was once sufficient to place websites high on search engine returns these days it takes far more than simply stuffing keywords into various HTML tags, knocking up half a page of mediocre copy then uploading the files.
On Page SEO is a thorough process that surprisingly few organisations pay as much attention to as they ought.
Following the tips above is a start and will see your ‘On Page’ SEO sharpening up no end.
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