SEO Basics: On Site Issues

Welcome to the second installment of SEO Basics (click here if you missed part 1). Today we will discuss steps that you can take to make your site more “SEO friendly.”

One of the determining factors of how your page ranks will be your on site optimization.  You must take into account the following basics to help your site not only rank, but rank well for target terms.  On site edits are only half the battle, by doing these changes it doesn’t guarantee you anything!  You will be on the right path to ranking though.

• Keyword Targeting
  • The basic rule of thumb for number of keywords to target would be 4-6. Use existing page search data and other keyword tools to determine opportunity. This combined with the on site copy, the title, the headers and image optimization will help increase your rankings in the eyes of the search engines.

Note: Check how competitive the space is while targeting keywords.  You might have to target one-offs and longer tail keywords to rank on the first page of the results.  Be able to determine trade-offs between high traffic & high converting terms.

• URL
  • This should be short and relevant to the keyword(s) you are targeting.

1. www.example.com/online-widgets
2. Note: Use hyphens & not underscores where applicable

• Title & Meta Tags
  • Title: The keywords that show up at the very top of your page

1. Should be less than 70 Characters and tell the spider what the page is about.
2. Note: Do not keyword spam.

o   Meta Keywords:

1. 4-6 keywords that your page is targeting, do not spam
2. Note: Yahoo weighs more heavily than the other engines

o   Meta Description:

1. Should be informative and include keywords that you are targeting so they bold on the SERP.  You want to sell your page/product here so the user clicks through to your site.
2. Note: Only seen by the users of the search engine.

• Content
  • Target your keywords in a reasonable and intuitive manner without mentioning the same keywords repetitively.

1. Note: Sync up the content with the title & meta tags to tie everything together
2. Note: The higher on the page and the bigger the text size (H1 vs. H2) the more weight the spider will give to your keyword(s).

• Images
  • Use the “Alt Tags” to name your images for the spider. Opportunity to show up for image searches on all the major engines.

1. Note: Keep file short & descriptive.

Be sure to keep up to date on changes by visiting other top SEO sites on the internet such as Google WebMaster Blog, SEOmoz, High Rankings, John Battelle’s Blog, and Search Engine Land.