On Page Optimization – The 5 Areas You Need To Focus On
January 18th, 2008
Here is a definition of SEO taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia…
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
There are basically two aspects to SEO you need to be aware of:
1. On Page Optimization, and
2. Off Page Optimization.
This post will discuss about On Page Optimization, we will touch on Off Page Optimization in another post.
Let’s get started….
First a definition: On Page Optimization is basically the process of tweaking and fine-tuning the HTML source code of a web-page so that it’s CONSISTENT with the algorithm of the search engines (or SEs). It’s not about tricking the algorithm! In fact, nobody should try to trick or outsmart the SEs because no one except the SEs themselves really know how their algorithms work. Furthermore, the major SE (such as Google) has the best and smartest people working for them whose day-to-day activities are to improve the SE’s algorithm. So, it’s a waste of time if you’re trying to outsmart them!
What we can do is just follow the “best-practice” and perform some fine-tuning and testing to get the best result.
So, the IMPORTANT RULE #1 for On Page Optimization is NOT trying to trick the SEs.
Following are the FIVE areas in your HTML source code that you NEED to pay attention to…
1. TITLE Tag: <title></title>
The title tag is a very important on-page optimization factor. The title is used in the search engine results as the text that is linked to your web-page. This is also what the visitor will first see in the search results. Therefore, you should try to have your targeted keyword in the title tag.
2. Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags:
These parts had long been ignored by Google’s SE so don’t spend too much time here. Just make sure you put in a short but compelling descriptions to attract readers. Google does use the Meta Description tag to display the descriptions of your web-page. The title and meta tags look something like this…
<title>INSERT YOUR TARGETED KEYWORDS HERE</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”PUT IN A SHORT AND COMPELLING DESCRIPTIONS HERE” />
<meta name=”keywords” content=”YOU CAN PUT IN SOME OF YOUR TARGETED KEYWORDS HERE BUT GOOGLE HAS SINCE INGNORE THIS PART, SO DON’T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON IT” />
3. HEADER Tags: <h1></h2>
There are many different header tags, from h1 up to h6. These tags create different levels of headlines, so for example your site’s main headline would use the H1 tag, while a subheading would use a lower number such as a H2 or H3. Don’t bother with H4, H5 or H6 tags. Just make sure that you use your targeted keywords in the main headline.
4. BODY Tag: <body></body>
The main content of your page goes between the <body></body> tags. Many people focus on keyword density here. Few years ago you could have your keyword at the end of every sentence and that would work well for your site rankings. Today that is not the case anymore. The SE (especially Google) is smarter and smarter each day. Google is so advanced that their SE is now behaving more like a normal human reader. If you stuff your web-page with keywords, they will know it and your page will be penalized or given a low ranking.
Again, always remember RULE #1: Never try to trick the SE. The rule of thumb here is to go natural. Think of how a natural conversation would be, would you repeat your keywords over and over again? NO, right? So when you write your content, it is best to keep the conversation on a natural level. Do not worry or spend too much time trying to optimize your page by calculating the keyword density. As long as the page is focused on the topic and the keywords are used naturally, you will be fine. Also make sure to use synonyms of your main keywords through out the content.
5. ALT Tag: <img src=”http://www.yourdomain.com/image.jpg” alt=”THIS IS THE NAME OF MY IMAGE”>
Most people ignore the ALT tag because it has little use for the SE ranking. But I highly recommend you to use it (for your human readers). ALT tag is used to describe an image you’re inserting in your web-page. If you put a description or name in this tag, it will be displayed when a user is pointing his/her mouse on the image. The name/description will be visible to your visitors if the image doesn’t appear on your page for any reason.
That’s all you need to know about On-Page Optimization. We will talk about Off-Page Optimization in the next post.
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I know i am so late to read this post.. I think now this time SEO playing important role for any website either is portal, informative or E-Commerce website. I think this is better information for on page optimization and i also read other blog post for how to optimize website. SO i think this is really very useful for me and at last after reading this post i feel very proud because at least i know how to optimize my site without help of any SEO consultant… So thanks for sharing wonderful post.