On site or on page optimisation is the foundation of any SEO strategy. Just like the foundations of your home it’s important to have a solid base from which to start. On site SEO covers basic elements that have been around a while; these are well proven SEO techniques that should be applied to all websites.
Structure.
Meta-data creation.
The title tag is usually the first thing the search engines find when indexing a website and is the first thing users see in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The title tag should deliver a clear message about the page, use key phrases, and entice users to click. Keep the length to around 70 characters including spaces.
<title>SEO just the facts</title>
The description tag is sometimes used by the search engines, if used it’s this tag that’s displayed under the title tag in the SERPs. If it’s not used then a relevant snippet of text from somewhere on the page is used instead. The description tag should include the most important key phrases and be written as a short and compelling advertisement. Keep the length to around 160 characters to be fully displayed in Googles’ SERPs. Since September 2009 Google no longer uses this tag to influence ranking, although other search engines do.
<meta name="description" content="Power your website up the ranking with Search Engine Optimisation from Sussex Marketing">
The keywords tag is largely ignored by the major search engines these days – but I’ve included it here for completeness. Some people still use the keyword tags, you could use it variations on your keywords or perhaps for different spellings or misspellings.
<meta name="keywords" content="seo,search engine optimization,search engine optimisation,meta tags,sussex-marketing">
Content.
Headings.
The first heading on your web page should use the <h1> tag. There are six heading tags that can be used throughout the page, they are <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>. Usually the <h1> tags give the largest heading – decreasing in size accordingly with <h6> being the smallest heading. The headings are used to break you content into sections and subsections. This makes scanning a page easier for users by telling them what each section of content is about. Use your key phrases in the heading – but make sure it still reads well and doesn’t feel clumsy.
Headings look like this;
<h1>All about Search Engine Optimisation</h1> A section of this might start with; <h2>On page Search Engine Optimisation</h2> A subsection of this might begin with; <h3>First principles of On page SEO</h3> Then another section might start with; <h2>Off site Search Engine Optimisation</h2>
Body text.
Your main keywords are the ones that you are targeting in order to get traffic from the search engines. Supporting keywords are words that are related or synonymous to the main keywords.
If your web page was mainly targeting “Search Engine Optimisation” as the main key keywords then the supporting keywords might include SEO, search, indexing, google etc., these are all related keywords that you’d expect to find in the content when talking about search engine optimisation.
Weaving your target key phrases into the body text of your page needs to be correctly; using too many key-phrases and the text ends up clumsy and unreadable, use too few and the search engines will struggle to see your page as relevant.
Images.
There are three components that should be used when performing SEO on images.
The file name of your image should contain your target key words.
Image Alt tags are used to describe the content of an image or photograph. These tags serve two purposes; for visually impaired users with screen readers it will describe the images, while search engines will also take notice of it for the same reason. Use your target key words – but carefully.
Image Title tag is another place to add your description, this is usually displayed as a tooltip when a user hovers over an image. Use your target key words – but carefully.
<img src="my-great-keyworded-filename.jpg" title="The Title of my image" alt="The description of my image" />
Internal linking.
Key-phrased links.
Using text links within the web page is often overlooked, but is great for guiding users (and search engine spiders) around the content of your website. Avoid using the classic “Click here” for your anchors; use a set of terms that describe the linked page so users know what to expect when these click the link.