Jeremy Morgan is an SEO / Internet Marketer from Portland Oregon. Here I leave my tips, tricks and advice related to good marketing and promotion of your websites. Bookmark us, and if you like add me as a friend!
Basic Page Optimization Checklist
Posted 03-27-2010 at 11:33 AM by Jeremy Morgan
Updated 03-27-2010 at 11:34 AM by Jeremy Morgan (speling errors)
Updated 03-27-2010 at 11:34 AM by Jeremy Morgan (speling errors)
Every SEO campaign starts with a very basic level of optimization. Experienced SEO pros won't learn much from this article, but if you're just starting out, this could help you quite a bit.
1. Title Tag
Your page title is very important (goes between <title> tags) for SEO. The title tag is ranked among the top factors for SEO ranking. So what should your title have?
Make sure your title has your keywords in it. Don't use your company name unless it is pertinent to what people are searching for. Don't load the title with keywords, but make sure your most important keyword for that page is included.
Make sure your titles are unique for each page, and relevant to the content on that page. Don't be deceptive!
Put the most important keywords close to the front of the title, and keep it as short as possible. Shorter is better!
2. Meta Tags
No matter how much pushback I'll get on this, I'll still post it. Meta Tags are still important.
Search Engines, including Google, use the description tag for your result text most of the time. Whatever you put in there will usually be seen by surfers when they see your listing.
If you want to have a little more control over your listing, create a description tag with the text you want people to see when your listing comes up. Do not load this tag with keywords! Make it human readable text that will entice visitors to click on YOUR search result. Keep it relevant, and make it interesting.
Almost all search engines still read this tag. Optimize this tag, but for humans not search engines. And you can ignore the keywords meta tag because most large search engines do, too.
3. Headings
Use one descriptive H1 heading that is similar to the page title, that covers what the whole page is about. Make it descriptive, but not too long and include your target keywords.
For separate paragraphs, group them with H2 and H3 tags accordingly. Optimize them for the keywords that the articles are about. Remember outlining in High School? This is very similar. Make your subheadings count.
Try to organize your paragraphs and use the right headings in the right areas. This kind of organization helps your indexing. This helps the readability of your page also, as a side benefit.
4. Text
Optimize your text as much as possible. Keep similar ideas together, and sprinkle in your desired keywords as much as possible.
But optimize this text for humans, not search engines. You want to put as many of your keywords in as you can without it sounding funny. Read it out loud and see if it sounds ok. If you feel funny saying it, don't put it on your page. For example:
Good:
Note how I'm mentioning the keyword, but not overdoing it?
Bad:
If you mention the keyword too many times, you'll overload the text and search engines will penalize you. The reader (an actual human) will read it and think it either doesn't make sense or looks really tacky. There is no benefit to keyword stuffing anymore.
Write for humans, not search engines!
And make sure and break up information into manageable chunks, and use lists when possible. Look at this article as an example. If it were all crammed into three huge paragraphs you wouldn't be reading it right now, and I wouldn't blame you.
5. Organize your pages wisely
Your pages should be organized semantically, just like the headings. On your main page optimize for the main keyword terms, and then branch the smaller pages off of that, with more focused terms.
For example, if you're selling faucets, start the main page off with content about bathroom fixtures and faucets, then build subpages like kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, and outdoor faucets. Then off those pages build subpages for economy faucets, brass faucets, ornamental, etc. Again use outlining techniques to build a "tree" that makes sense.
When you organize things like this you help rank the micro pages much better, and also you help the user navigate your site better as well.
Conclusion
Most of your on page optimization has to do with organization. Luckily this type of organization not only benefits your rankings, but your customer. Use text navigation, and make sure everything is linked properly. Build a site map and make it available so search engines can crawl all of your pages, and humans can find their way around.
This small part of SEO ends up being pretty big in the end. Look at your competitors with good rankings and you'll see they're following good organization guidelines most of the time.
Good luck! Feel free to comment if you have any questions or would like to add to this.
1. Title Tag
Your page title is very important (goes between <title> tags) for SEO. The title tag is ranked among the top factors for SEO ranking. So what should your title have?
Make sure your title has your keywords in it. Don't use your company name unless it is pertinent to what people are searching for. Don't load the title with keywords, but make sure your most important keyword for that page is included.
Make sure your titles are unique for each page, and relevant to the content on that page. Don't be deceptive!
Put the most important keywords close to the front of the title, and keep it as short as possible. Shorter is better!
2. Meta Tags
No matter how much pushback I'll get on this, I'll still post it. Meta Tags are still important.
Search Engines, including Google, use the description tag for your result text most of the time. Whatever you put in there will usually be seen by surfers when they see your listing.
If you want to have a little more control over your listing, create a description tag with the text you want people to see when your listing comes up. Do not load this tag with keywords! Make it human readable text that will entice visitors to click on YOUR search result. Keep it relevant, and make it interesting.
Almost all search engines still read this tag. Optimize this tag, but for humans not search engines. And you can ignore the keywords meta tag because most large search engines do, too.
3. Headings
Use one descriptive H1 heading that is similar to the page title, that covers what the whole page is about. Make it descriptive, but not too long and include your target keywords.
For separate paragraphs, group them with H2 and H3 tags accordingly. Optimize them for the keywords that the articles are about. Remember outlining in High School? This is very similar. Make your subheadings count.
Try to organize your paragraphs and use the right headings in the right areas. This kind of organization helps your indexing. This helps the readability of your page also, as a side benefit.
4. Text
Optimize your text as much as possible. Keep similar ideas together, and sprinkle in your desired keywords as much as possible.
But optimize this text for humans, not search engines. You want to put as many of your keywords in as you can without it sounding funny. Read it out loud and see if it sounds ok. If you feel funny saying it, don't put it on your page. For example:
Good:
Quote:
Our premium faucets are built to the highest quality standards. We guarantee our premium faucets will function properly, won't leak, and will look great in your bathroom. We take pride in our faucets and it shows.
Bad:
Quote:
Our premium faucets are the best premium faucets money can buy. We guarantee our premium faucets are better than other premium faucets because these premium faucets don't leak like other premium faucets and look better than other premium faucets. We take pride in our premium faucets and it shows.
Write for humans, not search engines!
And make sure and break up information into manageable chunks, and use lists when possible. Look at this article as an example. If it were all crammed into three huge paragraphs you wouldn't be reading it right now, and I wouldn't blame you.
5. Organize your pages wisely
Your pages should be organized semantically, just like the headings. On your main page optimize for the main keyword terms, and then branch the smaller pages off of that, with more focused terms.
For example, if you're selling faucets, start the main page off with content about bathroom fixtures and faucets, then build subpages like kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, and outdoor faucets. Then off those pages build subpages for economy faucets, brass faucets, ornamental, etc. Again use outlining techniques to build a "tree" that makes sense.
When you organize things like this you help rank the micro pages much better, and also you help the user navigate your site better as well.
Conclusion
Most of your on page optimization has to do with organization. Luckily this type of organization not only benefits your rankings, but your customer. Use text navigation, and make sure everything is linked properly. Build a site map and make it available so search engines can crawl all of your pages, and humans can find their way around.
This small part of SEO ends up being pretty big in the end. Look at your competitors with good rankings and you'll see they're following good organization guidelines most of the time.
Good luck! Feel free to comment if you have any questions or would like to add to this.
Total Comments 0
