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On-page SEO basics
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of selecting targeted keyword phrases related to your business, and ensuring that your site ranks highly when potential buyers are searching for products and services related to these keywords. The process of optimizing a Website for the search engines ensures that Web pages are readable to search engines, place the appropriate emphasis on the key information and ultimately get indexed favorably into the search engines’ databases.
There are many variables that determine where and how a Website will be positioned in the search engine results pages. Below I have listed some search engine indicators which are the most practical changes that can be made to a Website for more favorable search engine positioning.
Domain Name – A sure fire way to rank for a particular keyword or phrase is to include that word or phrase in your domain name (i.e. www.keywordphrase.com). Of course this is not always possible as domain names are often the company name or a derivative thereof. In this case, it is possible to use a sub-domain for separating different groups of products or services (i.e. http://keyword.companyname.com).
URL – When creating the files/pages within a Website, keep your keywords in mind. Instead of naming a page products.html, call it something related to your most important product keyword like stress_relief_products.html. For pages listed underneath the main product page use actual product names. Your complete URL will look like this: http://relaxation.CompanyXYZ.com/stress_relief_products/portable_neck_massage.html
Title Tag – The title tag creates the words that you see at the very top of the browser window. For each page on your Website, use the most important and relevant keyword phrases for that page in the title tag. As such, every page in the site should have a different title tag. Title tags should be no more than 60 characters and should not contain any special characters.
Header Tag – Header, or ‘H’ tags are pieces of HTML code that control the style and formatting on a Web page. They typically make the text appear larger and bolder than the rest of the content on the page. Keywords should be used as Header tags. Use something that is similar to, but not exact as, the title tag.
Meta-Keywords – Even though Google purportedly no longer puts value in the keyword Meta tags, other search engines still do. In either event, using it helps show a consistent theme for the Web page. The tag should contain no more than 9 words/phrase separated by commas. It is important that every word in the keywords Meta tag also appear somewhere in the body text for that page.
Meta-Description – Similar to the keywords tag, Google no longer relies on this tag for creating the description under your Website listing in the search engine’s results page. However, sometimes it still does. Therefore, it is good to create a description that contains the main keywords for the page. Keep the description under 200 characters.
Image Names – A common mistake, in terms of SEO, is with respect to naming the images that are used in the Website. Instead of saving the file as image32.jpg, why not call it what it is and name it something like portable_neck_massage.jpg?
ALT Tag – ALT tags are a piece of HTML code that creates a small pop-up window containing text when you hover over a link or image on a Website. Use keywords and phrases in the ALT tags as well.
Body Content Text – Making sure that the keywords appear in the actual body text of the page is also very important. There is some debate as to what the proper keyword density (percentage of keyword vs. rest of text) should be. Use the keyword phrases where they make sense and substitute them for more generic words like product, it, unit, service etc. Making sure that the most important keyword phrase is somewhere toward the beginning and the end of the body content is a good rule of thumb.
Remember that search engines use a software program (spider) to go out and read these pieces of information on every Website. Making sure that these factors are addressed using the most relevant, and lucrative, keyword phrases for each individual page of a Website is the best way to tell the search engines what that page is about. The more consistent and relevant these search engine indicators are to the actual content of a Web page, the higher that page will rank in the organic search results.
Best of Luck!
