Basic On-Page Organic Search Engine Optimization

Since many sites could increase their rankings significantly just by implementing the basics, I thought I'd start this blog off by posting the fundamentals.

Plan your Optimization

I've always believed the best time to optimize a site is then it's being planned out or re-designed.? The architecture of a site has everything to do with it's ability to perform. When deciding on categories of information for the site, use Wordtracker to decide exactly which keyword phrases to use when you name your categories.? For each page you should plan on deciding what is the one most important concept of this page?? Then find out which form that concept is searched on and that's the keyword phrase you use in title tags, meta tags, link text and so on.

Header of the HTML Document:

Title Tag ? 8 to 10 words, most important keywords first. Must be relevant to page, readable and keyword rich. Focus on 1-3 concepts and no more.
If the brand of the site is strong, then put the brand/company/product name first, then your keyword rich text.?
Ex:? "Brand Name - Keyword concept, keyword, keyword, keyword"
Otherwise, just use: "Keyword concept, keyword, keyword, keyword - Brand Name".? The reason to do this is because recognized brand names are clicked on more often.

Meta Description Tag ? 20 to 25 words with most important keywords first. Must be relevant to page, readable and keyword rich. Focus on 1-3 concepts and no more. It should be an elaboration of the Title tag.

Meta Keyword Tag ? 1 to 40+ keywords in a comma delimited list. These phrases should exist in the title, or on the page. Most important phrases first. Misspellings should be included here, even if not on the viewable page.

JavaScript and CSS ? Put them in external files to reduce the amount of data the search engine spider has to go through before arriving at the on-page text.

Viewable Page

Most important keywords should be placed high up on the viewable page. Ideally a tag is used to determine a page or paragraph heading. Search engines do not recognize CSS defined font sizes the same as tags.

Logo ? Should always link to the site home page and include an alt tag with the site?s most important keyword phrase.

Text ? The following example works well particularly on engines like Google.

Paragraph Heading (keyword rich, bold and linked to a detail page)
Most important keyword concept followed by supporting concepts with an occasional link to a supporting detail, example, case study, product, testimonial, press release, glossary or newsletter page. Google uses snippets from the page, so be sure to include related keywords near your target keywords in paragraphs.

Image Alt text ? These are most useful for SEO when the alt text is meaningful for the page being linked to. Alt text: ?red ducks? which links to the page, red-ducks.htm and where ?Red Ducks? is in the Title tag, the page heading, Meta tags, on-page text, etc.. Keep it simple. Do NOT stuff multiple keyword concepts into an image Alt attribute.

Internal Links ? Search engine spiders do not generally follow JavaScript links used in mouseovers or links in image maps. They do not follow links from dropdown menus. Use plain text links. Appearance can be modified through CSS. Placing a few keyword rich text links in the footer of each page can also build internal link popularity.

Site map - Link to a site map page from your home page and from other pages. The site map is a collection of static text links to all other pages of your web site. Do not place more than 100 links on any one page. More info on site maps.

Validate - Search engine spiders may not index a page fully or at all if it encounters certain types of HTML errors. Run your pages through an HTML validator such as http://validator.w3.org/

Link Building - On page keyword optimization and inclusion in a search engine?s database used to be sufficient for high ranking on competitive phrases. Do not underestimate the need for one way links into your site from authoritative sites. Quality is more important than quantity, although they are both important. Link building is an ongoing task that you should allocate time to in proportion to the aggressiveness of your campaign and competitiveness of your category.

Create a resources page with links to .org, .edu, .gov, trade associations and other information rich web sites that are relevant to your industry. Categorize them according to your primary keyword concepts.

Focus on one-way links to your site from other sites with a similar topic. When you get links from other sites, the page that links to you would ideally not have very many outbound links on it. Of the links that are there, they should be to other high quality sites in your industry. Focus on quality. More info on link building.

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http://www.esuccesstraining.com/pixmeup/
Originally Posted on 5/21/2006 3:19:02 PM
Content source: http://www.seo-blog.org/2987_1_seo_blog/archive/8915_basic_on-page_organic_search_engine_optimization.html