On Page Optimizations – SEO Tutorial

Before we dig into on page optimizations, we need to consider how the major search engines index pages. Major search engines use spiders (also called robots) to crawl (trace) the web and find pages by following links just like a human browser might. However, there are technical limitations to what spiders can do. Your site’s architecture can make a huge difference in a spider’s ability to read and index your pages.

An in-depth dissertation on site architecture is beyond the scope of this tutorial. However, if your site employs:

Mostly Flash content

Mostly graphic content

Dynamically rendered pages (PHP, ASP, etc.) with session IDs

Frames

Javascript menus

You need to investigate the potential problems spiders are going to have indexing your pages before the following SEO tutorial will be effective. A quick check on the Lynx Viewer will let you see your web site much like the search engine spiders do. Can they see your content and (navigation) links?

SEO lends itself to tunnel vision among the newcomers to the field. The gratification of seeing your pages rising in search engine results for your keyhrases can be addictive. Always keep your visitor in mind when performing your search engine optimizations. Achieving high rankings (and traffic) will only result in higher bandwidth bills if your site does not convert traffic to sales (whether direct or indirect). Never compromise the useability and copy of your site in favor of SEO – avoid SEO tunnel vision. Your conversions/ROI will likely suffer.

Title Tag

Google and most search engines place a lot of emphasis on the title tag for each page. Title tags should include the one or two keyphrases that you will be targeting with that page. The closer the keyphrase is to the beginning of the title, the more weight it carries. Thus keyphrase one, keyphrase two – business name will be more effective than business name – keyphrase one, keyphrase two.

It is a good idea to limit the number of keyphrases you target with any given page to two (three at the very most) per page. Trying to target more keyphrases results in diluted results for all phrases. It is better to add more pages to your site and target additional terms with additional pages and copy. Search engines will index all of your pages, so do not limit yourself to trying to optimize just your home (index) page.

(Meta) Description Tag

Most search engines ignore the description tag as far as keyword relevancy is concerned. It doesn’t hurt to work your keywords into the description tag, but if you include the description tag, write it to entice visitors to come to your page. Most search engines use the Description tag to some extent when displaying search results. This is your chance to differentiate your site from all the other results in a search.

(Meta) Keyword Tag

Most search engines completely ignore the keyword tag. Years ago, this tag was used by the search engines for determining relevancy, but it was abused. If you include a keyword tag, keep it short. There is not much point in listing anything other than the keyphrases you have included in the title tag.

Copy – Content

The single most important part of your on-page SEO effort is to ensure that your keyphrases are used within the copy (text) of your page. The keyphrases should be repeated as much as possible without compromising the text. Forcing the phrases into the text in choppy, stilted sentences may impress the search engines, but it will not impress your human visitors. It is counterproductive.

Keyphrases may (and should) be used in:

heading tags – Use h1, h2, h3, etc. tags to structure the main points on your pages. Use your keyphrases where appropriate.

main page text – Write about your subject matter. Use your keyphrases where appropriate.

strong, bold or italics tags – Use around your keyphrases where emphasis is warranted.

image alt tags – Each image on your page should have an alt tag for visitors with: text only browsers

graphics turned off (dial-up connections, overseas connections, etc.)

handicapped browsers (with text-to-speech for the sight impaired)

Your alt tag should describe the image using your keyphrases where appropriate.

filenames – choosing keyword or keyphrase rich folder/directory and file names gives you another avenue for introducing your keywords/keyphrases in your internal site links. Use hyphens (dashes) to separate words in keyphrases. Search engines parse hyphens as spaces.

Be sure not to abuse image alt tags or heading tags with keyword stuffing. Search engines may penalize your site for that.

This is all you need to do for basic on page optimizations to produce dramatic results for non-optimized sites. Acheiving the right balance of keyphrase repetition and copy that also sells is an art. If you are interested in learning more about SEO copywriting, Karon Thackston’s The Step-By-Step Copywriting Course is very good.

META Tags and Meta Tag Development

Did you know that key words in your meta tags (in the HTML script of your site) are an important reference that search engines use when ranking web sites for search relevancy? While not as important as they used to be, META keyword and description tags are still vital to include within your HTML code, to provide search engines with as much information as possible about your site content so they can index it correctly. Optimizing your site meta tags for search engines ensures that the site has a better chance of ranking highly for particular words or phrases that you would expect potential visitors to type in to search engines to find your site.

Consider This :
————————————————
It is estimated that only 30% of web sites make use of META tags to assist their search engine ranking*.
Does YOURS?

 

 
For example, if you are a florist, you should have logical search keywords such as “flowers”, “bouquet”, “roses” and even target search terms such as “weddings”, “Valentine’s Day” etc integrated in your META keyword tag. That way, if anyone types in those words in a search engine, your site is more likely to appear higher in the search results. Even more important these days is the META description tag. This is often what search engines will display in their index to describe your site to potential visitors, so it is worth taking the time to prepare carefully.

What do META tags look like? These tags usually appear under your page title between the <head> tags of your web site’s HTML code. Below is a fictional sample:

<head>

<title>Miami Florists – beautiful floral creations made to order.</title>

<meta name=”description” content=”Miami Florists create beautiful floral bouquets, arrangements, tributes and displays for all occasions, including weddings, Valentines Day, parties and corporate events. Deliveries throughout Florida.”>

<meta name=”keywords” content=”flowers, roses, weddings bouquets, florists, floral arrangements, flower deliveries, Valentines Day gifts, Christmas decorations, Mother’s Day, tributes, wreaths, clutches, sprays, in sympathy, funerals, corporate functions, parties, floral displays, Miami, Florida”>

</head>

To test the meta tags, we use specially designed analysis software that shows us how well your site will rank on various engines post-optimization. If you have existing meta tags that aren’t performing, we can even provide a search engine compatibility report or a free search engine ranking report and give you suggestions on how to improve your search ranking. Depending on how relevant your existing content is, we will also perform copywriting edits to the text on your site to include your target search terms. This would be performed by our experienced copywriters who are well trained in marketing techniques and would weave the terms carefully throughout your site so as not to disrupt the natural flow of writing.