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UK.
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MfP
Website Marketing Services - based in Bournemouth, serving Poole & Christchurch, Dorset and Hampshire
Search Engine Optimization | on-page optimization
Search engines look at in excess of 200 factors when analysing your website/webpage before it arrives at a ranking on the Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERPs) for your page for any given search phrase. I have set out the major on-page factors below.
Head
This is the area at the top of the page where the Title and META tags reside. Example:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My Page Title Here</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="My description here.">
<META name="keywords" content="blue widgets">
</HEAD>
Make sure your Title tag is the first tag in the <HEAD> section of your page, followed by the META description tag and the META keywords tag, in that order.
Title
The <TITLE> tag of your Web page is arguably the most important HTML tag or element. All the search engines consider the keywords in this tag and generally give those keywords a lot of importance in their ranking system. Therefore, if you were to create one page with a keyword in the title tag and another page with the same keyword in the body tag, the one with the keyword in the title will generally rank higher in most engines.
Many search engines use the HTML <TITLE> tag as the title of your page in the search results that appear to the user. What this means to you is that this HTML tag must not only work to your advantage for keyword scoring but also must be compelling to the reader.
Example of a title tag:
<TITLE>Blue widgets sold here at rock bottom prices!</TITLE>
There are at least two elements to every Web page listing in the search engines' results:
1. Page title, which will be blue and an activated link to the site
2. Page summary description
Of course both must be compelling, but the <TITLE> tag has a special relevance if only because so many search engines use it exactly as it appears on your page. The page description you offer in the META description tag will be used by some search engines but not by others. For this reason, the <TITLE> of the page is simply more important than the META description.
· Use "Clicking Triggers" in your Titles and Descriptions
Consider using your keyword phrase mixed with a "reason to click" or a "clicking trigger" in your title and/or description tag. Many of the reasons why people will buy a product are also "clicking triggers." A "clicking trigger" in other words, is a reason why people will click on your search results over others. Here are 14 reasons or clicking triggers why people will choose your search results over others:
1. People will click to save money
2. People will click to make money
3. People will click if it saves them time
4. People will click to make life easier
5. People will click if it improves their safety
6. People will click on a specific brand
7. People will click to educate themselves
8. People will click to improve health
9. People will click to settle their fears
10. People will click to have fun
11. People will click to satisfy curiosity
12. People will click to streamline processes
13. People will click to prove they were right
14. People will click to improve their image
META Keyword
The purpose of this tag is to define what keywords apply to your page. However, only some search engines will read this tag, and those that do often do not place as great importance on it as keywords found in other areas of the page. Still, you should generally include a META keyword tag on your page within the <HEAD> area.
Example of a META keyword tag:
<META name="keywords" content="blue widgets,green widgets,red widgets, Jerry's Widget Emporium">
You can choose to use commas or not to separate each keyword or keyword phrase in a META keyword tag. You can also use spaces to separate the words, or even commas and spaces.
Since none of the major engines are case sensitive, you are safe to list keywords in lower case only. Avoid repeating keywords more than two or three times, and never list the same keyword twice in a row.
META Description
The text found in the META Description tag will be displayed to the user in the search results for many engines. Therefore, it pays to craft a good description so that you not only rank well, but so people will actually click on your link once they see it.
Example of a META Description tag:
<META name="description" content="Place descriptive text here.">
The above tag, like all META tags, would appear within the <HEAD> section of your page.
Use "Clicking Triggers" in your Meta Descriptions. Consider using your keyword phrase mixed with a "reason to click" or a "clicking trigger" in your title and/or description tag. Many of the reasons why people will buy a product are also "clicking triggers." A "clicking trigger" in other words, is a reason why people will click on your search results over others. Here are 14 reasons or clicking triggers why people will choose your search results over others:
1. People will click to save money
2. People will click to make money
3. People will click if it saves them time
4. People will click to make life easier
5. People will click if it improves their safety
6. People will click on a specific brand
7. People will click to educate themselves
8. People will click to improve health
9. People will click to settle their fears
10. People will click to have fun
11. People will click to satisfy curiosity
12. People will click to streamline processes
13. People will click to prove they were right
14. People will click to improve their image
Think about how you can use your targeted keyword phrase within the title tag and/or description along with one of these ideas to create a stronger reason why people will click on your search results over others. Be sure the page they land on contains quality content that satisfies the trigger and meets the customers' needs with some aspect of your business or service or by simply offering a good article on the topic. Note: These ideas work equally well when creating titles and descriptions for pay-per-click ads.
Heading
Headings are generally the larger print on a page used to emphasize or introduce new topics. A heading often appears at the very top of the page. Headings come in various sizes represented by tags like <H1>, <H2>, <H3>, etc. Some of the search engines give extra relevance to keywords that appear within a heading tag. So, be sure to try to use your important keyword phrase in one or two heading tags on each page.For more information on using heading tags, read this article.
Example of a heading tag:
<H1>Blue and Green Widgets</H1>
Link Text
A page's relevance to a given search can be improved by taking advantage of another scoring technique highly favored by some engines. The text within a LINK is sometimes weighed more heavily than words found in the regular body text.
Example of a link tag:
<A HREF="blue-widgets.htm">Blue Widgets</A>
Example of a page, which emphasizes the keyword Widgets in the Link Text:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Widgets and More!</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="Widgets by Jerry's Widget Emporium are the best widgets money can buy.">
<META name="keywords" content="blue widgets,green widgets,red widgets, Jerry's Widget Emporium">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Widgets Explained:</H1>
<P>Widgets by Jerry's Widget Emporium are the best widgets money can buy.</P>
To learn about our widgets, choose one of the following: <BR>
<A HREF="blue-widgets.htm">Blue Widgets</A> <BR>
<A HREF="red-widgets.htm">Red Widgets</A> <BR>
<A HREF="green-widgets.htm">Green Widgets</A> <BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The above example again emphasizes the keyword "widget" but also includes other PHRASES people might search on such as blue widget, green widget, and so forth. Statistically, most people search on two or more words to narrow the scope of their search, so always include related keywords together whenever possible.
The VISIBLE text of the links above are where you primarily want to include your keywords. It's also a good idea to create your page names based on your best keywords. That way you score a few more keyword points for the occasional search engine that indexes the page name portion of the link tag as well.
Link Text Tips:
- · Always use your primary keywords in the visible link tag area of at least one or more links on the page.
- · Try to place your primary keywords at the start of the link when possible. In fact, it’s a good idea to try to use your keyword phrase as the only text that is hyperlinked.
- · If generating or creating an optimized page, always link to another page on your site, which includes more detail about the keyword topic.
- · Avoid listing the same word multiple times in a row, since some engines may penalize for this. Instead, if you must include the keyword multiple times, be sure to separate them by other words in your text.
- · Use the longer form and the plural form of a keyword when possible. For example, if you use marketing in your Title tag, a search on marketing or market will yield a match on most engines. However, words like companies will not always yield a match on company since company is not an exact "substring" of companies. In these cases you'll want to try and use both forms of the word.
- · Use Upper/Lower-case lettering for keywords in general. Example: Blue Widgets are sold here!
Hyperlink URL
Keywords within the URL itself (the name of the page) are given extra relevancy by some search engines. Therefore, it pays to name your pages after your important keyword phrase.
Example:
<A HREF="my-url-keyword-here.htm">My Link Text Here</A> <BR>
Body
The BODY area is where the bulk of the text on a page generally resides. The ALT, COMMENT, AND LINK tags all can appear within the body area. When they do, they are counted as part of that particular area, rather than the BODY area, on the Page Critic report. The only words counted in the body are those that do not fall in some other more specific area.
Example of a complete page which includes the BODY area and tags within it:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Widgets and More!</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="Widgets by Jerry's Widget Emporium are the best widgets money can buy.">
<META name="keywords" content="blue widgets,green widgets,red widgets, Jerry's Widget Emporium">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>Widgets by Jerry's Widget Emporium are the best widgets money can buy.</P>
To learn about our widgets, choose one of the following: <BR>
<A HREF="blue-widgets.htm">Blue Widgets</A> <BR>
<A HREF="red-widgets.htm">Red Widgets</A> <BR>
<A HREF="green-widgets.htm">Green Widgets</A> <BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
QUICK TIPS:
- · Always use your primary keywords in the body text area at least one or more times.
- · Try to place your primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the body text.
- · Try to repeat the keyword phrase near the beginning and the end of each paragraph in the body and near the end of the body area itself. In other words, prove to the search engines without a shadow of a doubt that your page is about that particular keyword phrase, because you’ve used it in all of your keyword-containing tags and have sprinkled it throughout the contents (body text) of the page.
- · Avoid listing the same word multiple times in a row since some engines may penalize for this. Instead, use the keyword multiple times, but separate them by other words in your text.
- · Use the longer form and the plural form of a keyword when possible. For example, if you use marketing in your body text, a search on marketing or market will yield a match on most engines. However, words like companies will not always yield a match on company since company is not an exact "substring" of companies. In these cases, you'll want to try and use both forms of the word.
ALT
The ALT text of an image tag is used to describe a graphic for those users who surf with the graphics turned off. It is also useful for those who are sight impaired and have software that reads the contents of Web pages to them. To see ALT text on a page, put your cursor over an image. If there's ALT text, it will show up in a box beside the image. Some search engines will index the contents of ALT text and use it when determining relevancy and ranking. However, be sure to describe the image first while also including your keyword phrase. Use moderation by using your keyword phrase only one time in the ALT text of an image tag. Don't use the ALT text area as a place to stuff your keywords since this is considered spam by the search engines.
Example:
<IMG SRC="myimage.gif" ALT="Blue Widgets, Red Widgets, and Green Widgets pictured in a basket">
