While on-page optimization will only get you so far, it’s definitely something you should spend some time on to make sure that your site to setup to help your visitors and the search engine spiders find their way around. I say that it will only get you so far because if no one knows about your page, they won’t be able to read the great content that you have on it.
I think pretty much everyone has heard about keywords by now, and how it’s important to have them placed just so around your pages. Well it just so happens that they is a lot more to on-page optimization then just keywords, so in this post I would like to start out by telling you a little about setting up the rest of your page first and then we’ll get to keyword placement along with usage.
- Accessibility: You will want to make sure that your visitors as well as search engine spiders can easily find their way around your site. If your visitors cannot find what they are looking for quickly and easily they probably won’t be sticking around your site to long. Likewise if the search spiders cannot find their way around to all your pages, there is absolutely no way that they will show up in the search results pages. Also you should keep in mind that your code should be clean and minimal, if your pages have more code then content the spiders will probably not be happy about having to sift through all of that.
- Content: Of course you will need to have content on your pages as this is what your visitors want and the only reason they came to your site in the first place. The spiders also like content, this is how they determine what your site is about, and what is on those particular pages. As I mentioned earlier you will want to keep in mind the code to content ratio.
- User satisfaction: This of course goes hand in hand with the first two on this list. You will want to make your pages as easy to navigate as possible, and to find your great content. This will help when it comes to your visitors helping you to create “buzz” for your site.
Alright let’s move along and start talking about the rest of the page. More specifically the copy that you will be writing and your visitors will be reading. When creating the content that will be gracing your pages you will first want to conduct some keyword research to find out what people are searching, this will help to insure that you are trying to rank for words that will actually get you found. If you are writing a blog you don’t have to worry to much about optimizing every post you write but sprinkling a few keywords in wouldn’t be a bad idea. Without any farther ado let’s get started:
First up Page Title
This is one place you should definitely include some keywords, don’t over do it but pick a few of your must important one’s for that page and try to include them in the title. Studies have shown that the closer to the beginning of the title that the keywords ar located the more weight they will carry. However if you cannot fit them in until later in the title that’s just fine, as it’s more important to make sure that your title reads well, and those keywords will still carry some weight being including in the title.
You should try to pick out the keywords for your title before you post, but if you find that you would like to use another combination that you think will work better you can always change it later on. However if your often update your site with fresh content you may find that it will take quite sometime before it will be updated.
As you probably already know the title tag of your web page is what the search engines often use to link to your site in the search results. So of course you should try to create a title that will entice people to click on it and come and visit your site. Also when others link to that particular page they will often use your title tag as well, so keep this in mind as people may be submitting it to social bookmarking sites with that title and also using it to link to you from their own blog.
One last thing I would like to mention is that you should watch the length of your title tag. If it gets to long it will probably get cut off, so best practice would be to keep it under 65 characters long.
Meta description and keyword tags
It’s more important that you include the meta description tag than the keyword tag as it will be used much more often. Usually for the description tag you will want to include a brief snippet that outlines the basics of your content.
The meta description is also often used by the search engines in the results pages, and some social bookmarking sites may also use it as the default description. So you will want to once again use your copywriting skills and create some compelling content to include here that will entice and encourage people to click on it and visit your site. When writing the description your will want to try and keep it within 165 characters, this will ensure that your full description will be on display.
The meta keyword tag isn’t used very often anymore, the biggest reason to include it was Yahoo!. However with the recent search deal with Bing it’s unclear whether or not this tag will still matter for results in Yahoo!. It’s really up to you whether or not you want to include them. Some other webmasters have even said that it’s best not to include them at all, simply because your competitors will be able to easily find out which keywords you are targeting.
Content
Alright this is the part that makes both your visitors and the search engine spiders happy. You should keep it fresh and frequently updated for best results, and also of course make sure that it is unique. Make sure that you also keep it relevant and on topic with the rest of your site, and try to focus on a particular keyword phrase throughout.
As I have mentioned before that content to code ratio, you should make sure that your posts have some substance in them. By this I mean that you should write your posts so that they are of at least 300 words, any shorter and you may find that you will have a harder time pulling in any rank.
Keywords and frequency
When it comes to keywords there are some places you should include them for best results. Of course I already mentioned the importance of including them in the title of your page, you should also try to include some in the meta description tag.
When it comes to keyword density in your content, you should make sure to include your most important keywords within the first 100 words of the body.
You may have heard that there is some magical number that your keyword density should fit into, while this may have been the case a few years ago this does not still hold true today. The search engine spiders have come along way and have seen a great deal of improvement, meaning that you no longer have to beat them over the head with your keywords. If you have included your keywords in the places I mentioned above this should be enough for them to realize what they are.
You may also want to include them inside some strong tags, during the subheads of your content. This is a get way to include your keywords as they naturally fit right in there, so you don’t have to go about trying to wedge them in where they don’t belong making your content hard to read along and follow for your visitors.
Alright the final stop in this guide inner page links
Linking relevant web pages together is what makes the internet go ’round. This also works when it comes to linking your relevant posts together. As you may notice I include links to other posts where appropriate throughout my content, making it easier for you my visitors to find more information about a topic that you may be interested in.
This has an added benefit, linking your pages together will help the search spiders to find your pages and also to understand what they are about. When linking your pages together try to use the naturally flowing text that is already there in the content. Something that may help you understand this concept a little better, is to take a look at Wikipedia and notice how all their pages are linked together and how much easier and nicer it is for you to read and navigate around. Try to incorporate that into your site.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post and in the title:
A Quick On-Page SEO Copywriting Guide
This is just a quick little guide to get you started, and has already turned into quite a lengthy post. There is much more to cover on this topic, and I will try to work on putting together a complete guide to on page SEO. This however should get you off to a good start, and help you when it comes to ranking in the search results as well as making and keeping your visitors happy.