Thursday, January 10, 2008

Essential Onpage Optimization Tips

When the majority of people think of search engine optimization they often only consider things like meta tags, keyword density and doorway pages.

However, as with many things when it comes to SEO, what worked a few years ago no longer applies in todays search engine algorithms.

Take meta-tags for example. Way back when the internet was still in it's infancy, meta tags were introduced to help search engines (at the time the big search engine was AltaVista, Google hadn't even been invented) work out what the theme or topic of the site was. Naturally it wasn't too long before spammers started abusing the Meta Tags and after the next generation of search engines arrived the importance and value of the meta tags has declined.

There are still a few self styled gurus out there that will tell you that you need the optimum keyword density to rank well in the search engines; "get a keyword density of 2.48% and achieve higher rankings!". The truth of the matter is if there were an optimum density then it would be very easy for people to rank their sites in the search engines. The best advice I can give you is to keep your writing natural and focus on providing great content to the reader first and treating the search engine second.

Now onpage optimization doesn't count for too much nowadays. The way a search engine (at least the most up to date ones like Google, Yahoo and Live) ranks your site is to record how many inbound links your site has and assign a certain weight to each of these links. A search engine is focusing on making sure that your site is relevant to what the user searched for and if there are plenty of inbound links, chances are your site is providing good content that the user is searching for.

The classic example that is used by SEO experts to prove to people that on site optimization now has a lower relevancy to the search engine optimization process is the "click here" result in Google. If you perform a search on Google for the phrase click here you will find that the number one result is for Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

If you check out Adobe's site you will find that the phrase "click here" does not appear anywhere in the title or the text. What can this mean? The site is getting it's high ranking not because of it's on page optimization (because there is noe), but because of it's off page optimization. In other words, there are thousands of inbound links to the Adobe page with the words "click here" in the link. Based on Googles current algorithm, it naturally assumes that this page is the most relevant for the phrase "click here".

Unfortunately, unlike Adobe, most of us don't have millions of inbound links to our site - and despite our best efforts, never will, so we have to use every resource available to us to make our site as search engine friendly as possible - and this does include onpage optimization to a certain extent.

But what are the most important factors to consider when optimizing your website? Let's take a look...

5. Keep the content tightly focused

Far too often webmasters will try and optimize their home page for every relevant keyword that they can think of. Ultimately this over-optimization works against you as you are diluting the relevancy of your main keywords. Try to keep the content of the page focused on a single keyword. If you are targeting multiple keywords then it is best to create individual pages for those keywords with the content tightly focused around them.

4. Use more than 500 words on your site

Way back in the 90's a technique called doorway pages were ultra fashionable. Webmasters would create doorway pages for each keyword they were targeting. All these doorway pages did was provide a short amount of text focused on a particular keyword and invited the user to enter the site. The search engines eventually got wise to this and as the algorithms were refined doorway pages were relegated to a thing of the past. When you are creating your laser focused page use more than 500 words to show the search engine that this page contains valuable and useful content to the user. Don't repeat words too often and certainly don't simply list keywords - search engines know that game too!

Try no to worry too much about keyword density, as long as you follow the rest of the instructions your page will rank well. No one can accurately tell you what the optimum keyword density is because quite frankly nobody knows!

3. Create a good internal linking structure

The power of good inbound links to your site cannot be underestimated in SEO, nor can the power of using keyword rich anchor texts. Well guess what? Your internal link structure counts towards your SEO rankings too! So why try using your main keyword instead of using the text "Home" in a link to take people back to the home page. This way Google (and other search engines) know that it is going to a page that is all about your keyword.

Follow this internal linking structure throughout your site - but always remember to keep your links readable and understandable to humans too! Using the correct internal link structure is a little known and underused SEO method that really pays off in the SEO game.

2. H1 tags

I have a feeling that as the word gets out about the power of H1 tags then the impact that they have with search engines will diminish. The main reason a lot of webmasters don't use H1 tags is because it creates very large text and creates a big gap underneath the text. However, using simple CSS we can change the style of a H1 tag to anything we want.

For example this code shows you how to make your H1 tag really small:

Try and get your main keywords within the h1 tag but remember to keep it readable! Don't simply list your keywords.

1. Your Page Title

Finally, your page title is possibly the most important factor of onpage SEO. Whenever you do a search on Google or any of the big search engines the results always highlights the keyword in the title. Far too often webmasters and online businesses misuse their title tag by writing something like:

Welcome To XYZ Company Ltd!

Now if this company sold widgets, there would be no highlighting in the search engine results page if someone searched for widgets. The truth is no one really cares about the company name. When a user clicks on a link in the search engine results page they do so because they think the site might solve their problem (in this case a severe widget problem!).

Therefore, don't use the company name in the title, but include your primary keywords. Don't over do it either, the more keywords you use the less effective they become. If you are targeting a dozen keywords then consider creating 12 individual pages targeted around each keyword.

Conclusion

There are dozens of other factors involved in onpage optimization such as file naming, alt tags, title tags and your domain name, but the factors above are amongst the most important that you need to consider when optimizing your website

Monday, January 7, 2008

How To Do On-Page Optimization For Your Web Site

On-Page Optimization / On Page SEOOn-page optimization, the original form of search engine optimization, is one of the main requirements necessary to improve website ranking in leading search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, and Askjeeves. On-page Optimization is the process by which elements of a website are so designed such the website qualifies for a high ranking when specific keyword(s) or keyword phrases are typed. On-page optimization is often overlooked by many webmasters, who tend to spend most of their time trying to get links to their site. It’s true, off-page has more importance when it comes to SEO, but it’s a lot harder than on-page optimization. Seo keywords tags is a critical element of seo on-page optimization. Some people say that off-page optimization is more important than on-page optimization. You should consider two factors before choosing On-page Optimization or off- page Optimization.

Optimization

Those results are there simply by a combination of several mathematical formulas including On Page Optimization. If you want to maintain a successful web presence you need our on page optimization services. Many website owners need just a bit of On Page Optimization, some need more such as directory submissions and links. You can have a rich site and rank great, it's all about the methods you use to achieve the best possible On page Optimization you can.

Of course, you should still be paying a great deal of attention to link-building, but the key is this – link-building is a long-term process, whereas on-page optimization a short, one-time thing. True is that for on-page optimization you just need have keyword in title tag and a few times on page (best in links too). Here is my opinion on the most important elements in on-page optimization and some brief information about them.