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Learning Proper On Page SEO!

by Thrazgard
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Greetings Warriors!

As an affiliate marketer building new websites there is value to be gained by optimizing your pages for the search engines. However I have found conflicting information, and could use some input from the more advanced and knowledgeable warriors.

What I know about On Page SEO I have learned form various WSO's. But reading information from more experienced sources, it seems I've learned a few bad things.

This is what I've learned:

- Early Keyword in page title, gives a good ranking boost.

- Keyword in H1 tag, gives a tiny tiny ranking boost.

Question: For a WordPress post, is the post title actually an H1 tag, or should I add an additional H1 inside the post?

- I've been taught to include H2 and H3 tags with keywords, but I just read they give negligible rank boost, and are not needed.

- Image alt attribute gives good ranking boost and should be utilized along side naming your image with your keyword.

- I've been taught to bold, emphasize and underline keywords, but it seems only bolding and emphasis gives a slight ranking boost, and underlining does nothing.

- Keyword Density. Oh wow. I'm embarrassed. I thought it was a thing! It turns out its just another way of saying "keyword stuffing".

Its important to mention your targeting keyword only a few times, example 2-3 for short text and 4-6 for longer text, and even more important to make it read natural! (This is less than half of what many WSO tell you to stuff in your content.) Mention your keyword early in your copy, and near the end.

Your LSI keywords will form naturally with good copy.

- Bind an external link to an authority site on one of your keywords. I have no clue about this one.

- Bind an internal link to another page on your website. This is probably more beneficial than linking to a random authority site, because good internal linking improves your indexing/site visibility.

Please comment and tell me if I missed something critical while I go and undo my over-optimization on my blogs.
#learning #page #proper #seo
  • Profile picture of the author tylerherman
    Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

    Question: For a WordPress post, is the post title actually an H1 tag, or should I add an additional H1 inside the post?
    Post title is the h1, or should be. View source on your site and check to make sure.

    Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

    - I've been taught to include H2 and H3 tags with keywords, but I just read they give negligible rank boost, and are not needed.

    - Image alt attribute gives good ranking boost and should be utilized along side naming your image with your keyword.

    - I've been taught to bold, emphasize and underline keywords, but it seems only bolding and emphasis gives a slight ranking boost, and underlining does nothing.

    - Keyword Density. Oh wow. I'm embarrassed. I thought it was a thing! It turns out its just another way of saying "keyword stuffing".

    Its important to mention your targeting keyword only a few times, example 2-3 for short text and 4-6 for longer text, and even more important to make it read natural! (This is less than half of what many WSO tell you to stuff in your content.) Mention your keyword early in your copy, and near the end.

    Your LSI keywords will form naturally with good copy.

    - Bind an external link to an authority site on one of your keywords. I have no clue about this one.

    - Bind an internal link to another page on your website. This is probably more beneficial than linking to a random authority site, because good internal linking improves your indexing/site visibility.
    That is all more or less correct.

    Linking out to external sites in the niche is to show Google that you belong in that niche.

    You should have as many internal links as you can fit in naturally within the body of the page. Keep visitors moving around your site as much as possible. 2-3 page views per visitor is a good thing for an authority site especially.

    You don't really need to worry about on-page optimization that much. Just write naturally about the topic for your users and Google will see what the topic is. Great content trumps keyword stuffed SEO drivel every time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
      On-page SEO is pretty simple stuff, since there's only so many ways you can add your keyword into a page without completely spamming it.

      Here's my general guidelines:

      1. Put your keyword in the file name. For example, [domain name].com/keyword.html

      2. Keyword in the <title> tags.

      3. Keyword in the <h1> tags.

      4. Keyword in the opening paragraph or the first sentence of the content. You can bold or italicize this if you want.

      5. A few more instances of the keyword throughout your content, not spammed into the content but a little more often than you would normally mention it if writing naturally.

      6. Keyword in link text at the end or somewhere within your content, linking to another page (on your site or an external site) that is focused on the same topic.

      That's about all I use for on-page SEO. Also important is the site structure and link structure. In general, you just want to have a lot of pages about similar keywords all linked together on your website, to help them all rank higher for their keywords.
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      • Profile picture of the author Thrazgard
        The external "niche" link (lets call it that) should it be "hidden", recolored to black because "I don't want people to click on it?"

        I've remember a few more things I didn't write in my first post,

        Meta keywords are of no value. Meta description is not for the spiders, its for humans to read.

        What about Wordpress tags and categories? I've read your main keyword is your category, and your tags your keywords and LSI keywords.
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        • Profile picture of the author UpzeeDotCom
          Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

          The external "niche" link (lets call it that) should it be "hidden", recolored to black because "I don't want people to click on it?"
          No. Follow the logic. The reason you're linking to authority websites is to increase the user experience and fulfill user intent. If you're making the link the same color as the background you're trying to trick the search engine into thinking you're providing the link when you're really not. Chances are the algorithm would know what you're doing and (a) not give you credit for the link or (b) penalize you for being sneaky. Make the link open in a new window and make sure the content you're linking to isn't better than your content - by improving your own content, not by linking to sub par content - and you'll be fine.

          Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

          Meta keywords are of no value. Meta description is not for the spiders, its for humans to read.
          True. Google and other search engines have made this public information. Keyword tag is not used by algorithms of popular search engines. Meta descriptions are used as the snippet displayed under your link in the SERPs but not used in the algorithm. Because meta descriptions take up such a large part of the listing, they do heavily effect your CTR (click through rate).

          Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

          What about Wordpress tags and categories? I've read your main keyword is your category, and your tags your keywords and LSI keywords.
          Tags and categories are redundant. You should chose which one you want to use as your site's structure and block the other from being indexed. It's easier to create a good website architecture using categories and so I would recommend using categories and blocking your tags from being indexed or not use them at all if possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author retsek
    Question: For a WordPress post, is the post title actually an H1 tag, or should I add an additional H1 inside the post?
    There should only be 1 H1 tag per page. Wordpress themes are not all the same. Some theme authors use H1 for the Site Logo/Title and H2 on the article pages.

    You want to use H1, once per page, as the Article Title.


    - Bind an external link to an authority site on one of your keywords. I have no clue about this one.
    This is true and is a good to do.

    But:

    • Don't link out in every single post or article.
    • Don't use the nofollow tag on links which are obviously on sites which should trusted. I'm talking wikipedia, .gov's, etc.
    • Don't just link to the homepage of these sites. For example, don't link to fda.gov. Link to fda.gov/internal-section/internal-page. That internal page should be relevant to your topic.
    - Bind an internal link to another page on your website. This is probably more beneficial than linking to a random authority site, because good internal linking improves your indexing/site visibility.
    Yes definitely do this.
    But don't use automatic programs to do it. I'm seen people linking to single words which really have no relevance to anything. It just happens to automatically match, because the program they're using is dumb. That is also over-optimisation.

    Instead, link naturally to old pages when writing new posts. Go back to old posts, link to newer ones whenever it feels right. Use a related posts widget, that is smart and that can calculate "relatedness" based on the post content and NOT just the post tags.

    - I've been taught to bold, emphasize and underline keywords, but it seems only bolding and emphasis gives a slight ranking boost, and underlining does nothing.
    Don't fall for this. You do not need to bold, underline and emphasize in every post. Another example of over-optimization.

    Use bold, but do it where it looks appropriate.


    And here's a popular combination that screams ..hey look I'm over-optimized. None of these things individually is bad, but when use them over and over in this exact combination, it's not recommended or smart or natural.

    I feel having 3 or all four of these inline would be the type of page that this upcoming optimization filter will weed out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leo Wadsworth
    Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

    Keyword Density. Oh wow. I'm embarrassed. I thought it was a thing! It turns out its just another way of saying "keyword stuffing".

    Its important to mention your targeting keyword only a few times, example 2-3 for short text and 4-6 for longer text, and even more important to make it read natural! (This is less than half of what many WSO tell you to stuff in your content.)
    Actually, on a practical basis what you recommend in the 2nd paragraph corresponds to a keyword density of about 2% or so, which is what I recommend. Keyword density is just a number. Too high of a keyword density relates to keyword stuffing. On the other hand Google itself has said that it is good to use the keyword in the article a bit - just keep it natural.

    Originally Posted by Thrazgard View Post

    Your LSI keywords will form naturally with good copy.
    This is usually true, and typically fine for most people. However, if you are really intently trying to make a page as good as it can be for SEO, I recommend double-checking your usage versus the top sites. You may find that you are using a synonym where a closely related word would match better algorithmically. I recommend LSIKeywords.com - a free site - to get a list of LSI terms from the top sites in Google.

    The REAL key is to write such that the keyword and the LSI terms read naturally for humans, while maintaining flags/hints that will appear natural to Google. This can take some real writing skill to pull off well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leo Wadsworth
    As mentioned by others -- the page title is VERY important, both for Google because they use it strongly AND because that's what Google typically uses for your link in the search results.

    One more item - the URL. It is extremely good to have the keyword in the URL. I would NOT say twice, like some folks say, or necessarily put it near the front, but it is important. If the site is targeted at a particular niche, then it should be in the domain name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Charley Brown
    Some good information in here. As mentioned, on-page SEO takes care of itself with quality content/copy. Your content should read naturally, but also incorporate necessary keywords.

    Connecting internal pages is huge, but don't overdo it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thrazgard
    I'm using WordPress exclusively, does this have good automatic internal linking or does it depend on the theme? (I'm using the WooFramework.)
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