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Simple And Successful
SEO Strategies - On Page Optimization
By Matt Jackson (c) 2009
SEO doesn't have to be complex and by following these simple
on-page optimization techniques you can give your SEO campaign
the perfect start.
SEO is often seen as being a difficult and in-depth process, but
the reality is that by following some reasonably common sense
guidelines it is possible to get good rankings. That's not to
say that optimization is a simple or quick process; there are,
unfortunately, no short cuts. Your SEO efforts should be a
concerted and long term endeavour, in order for you to enjoy the
best possible results, and should incorporate both on-page and
off-page optimization techniques. By following the on-page SEO
strategies below you can set a strong foundation for all your SEO
work.
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Keyword Research
Before you begin penning content and writing title and meta tags
you first need to research the keywords you will use on each of
your pages. Using the wrong keywords can negatively impact your
entire campaign, causing you to lose untold hours and days of
work and eventually forcing you to concede that you made the
wrong decision and start all over again.
The most appropriate and most beneficial keywords are popular
enough that they will enjoy regular searches but without being
prohibitively competitive or overly generic. A number of keyword
research tools exist and your competitors' websites are a good
place to start your early research. Ensure keywords are targeted
specifically to the type of content you will provide as well as
the service or product you will be selling. More targeted
keywords will result in more targeted visitors and targeted
visitors mean greater conversion rates and an improved return on
your efforts.
Niche And Semantically Related Keywords
A good strategy is to incorporate a reasonable list of
competitive keywords with less competitive ones. The more niche
keywords will serve you well during the early days of your
website and over time you should be able to start competing for
the more challenging of the keywords you use. Also incorporate
semantically or topically related keywords into your keyword
list because the search engines are placing more and more
emphasis on those pages that use related keywords as well as
primary keywords.
Accessibility And Standards
Site accessibility is an integral part of good website design,
but it should also be considered an important factor in any SEO
strategy. Using standards based code for your website will help
to ensure that anybody that wishes to access and view your
website will be able to do so. It will also mean that the
spiders used by search engines will be able to access and index
your pages effectively ensuring that you get the full credit for
your site.
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Navigation And Intra-Linking
Your navigation menu and internal links should be prominently
placed, easy to see, and easy to follow for the spiders. It is
good practice to include a text link from the home page to a
compliant sitemap on your site, alleviating any potential
problems that might arise from broken links or the use of
graphical or flash based navigation menus. You can also consider
adding links into the main body of your content, although too
many will make the page difficult to read and therefore diminish
the overall effectiveness so don't get too carried away.
Title And Meta Tags
While search engines do not specifically use the meta tags to
help assess the value of a page like they once did, meta tags
are still critical to good SEO performance. The title and
description tags that you add at the top of a page are used in
various ways including in the compiling and display of Search
Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is the first thing a potential
site visitor will see from your site so this mini listing needs
to be as effective as any paid advert or PPC ad. Poorly written
titles and descriptions can put many readers off viewing your
pages so a little time and effort here can have a very positive
effect.
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Using your keywords in the title and the description is good
practice because these will be highlighted in the search results
if they were used in the search query itself. This will make
your result more prominent and instantly identify your page as
being relevant to the user. Don't needlessly use keywords,
however, and don't throw extra keywords into the description at
the cost of a well written, short ad.
Other Formatting Tags
On-page content should always be written with the visitor in
mind, although obviously it can still be optimized for search
engines. As such, proper page structure is important to your
reader as well as to the engines. H1 and H2 tags are an
effective way of breaking up page content, and give readers the
chance to skim through a page and determine its relevance.
A page should only contain a single H1 tag at the top of the
content but can include multiple H2 and H3 tags. Alt tags on
images should also be included and these as well as the actual
file path to the image itself can include important keywords
(but do make sure that they actually make sense and are more
than just a keyword thrown in for the sake of SEO).
Page Content Optimization
Finally, we get to the heart of the page - the content itself.
Use the keywords you researched for a page, including
semantically related keywords. Write as naturally and
appealingly as possible while keeping those keywords in mind and
don't get carried away stuffing or cramming them into the body
of the text. Not only is this unappealing to readers but is
seriously frowned upon by the search engines.
The reader really is the most important aspect of your content.
If the majority of your visitors are coming from the search
engines, remember that they arrived using specific keywords. This
means that they are searching for equally specific information
relating to those keywords - make sure you deliver on the
promise that you made in your title and description tags.
About The Author
Matt Jackson - WebWiseWords is a content writing service enabling website owners and online
business owners to buy web content
tailored to their needs. Services include affordable and high quality SEO
content writing and more.
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