Onsite search engine optimisation makes it easy for the search engines to index and understand your website and of each of the pages within it. Here are the fundamentals of onsite SEO.
1. Page Title Tag
This is what appears at the very top of the browser when viewing a page. This title should not exceed 70 character and basically is a one-liner about content of that specific page. Ensure you work in at least 1 or 2 primary keywords as long as they are part of the overall content of that page.
2. Page Description
The page description is what you see when as a description on the google or yahoo results page. This is what is going to prompt your prospect to click through to you so:
> always ensure you have a description for each page. If you don't the likes of google will simply take an excerpt from you page relevant to the keyword used to search - sometimes this may not be ideal.
> ensure the description is one that will encourage click-throughs to your site.
> keep it to 150 characters. exceeding this can be detrimental to your search rankings.
Search for your keywords and check the descriptions you come across and the write a compelling description in order to stand out from the crowd. Hight light your unique value proposition/s.
3. Keywords
Search engine optimisation is all about relevant content. Your important keywords should have dedicated pages with page content that covers variations of that keyword. E.g.; if you own an italian restaurant "Italian restaurant" and variation "Italian restaurant in Boston".
When setting the keywords in the tags, you should:
> only include keywords that are a part of the content of that page. This allows search engines to display the correct page to whoever is searching. If you use same keywords tags in all your pages, it will confuse the search engines and you visitors could end up on the wrong page and you'll simply lose them.
> keep your keywords to 5 per page.
4. Image Alt Tags
In simple terms; these tags are used to tell the search the search engines what each of the images on your site are about because these search bots cannot read images. Its particularly relevant to anyone who wants the images to pop-up on image searches in the results for image searches.
5. Header Tags
We all use headers & sub-headers in our documents to draw attention to specific areas and for readability this can be achieved by the increasing the font size and "bolding" the relevant text. However, this does not work with search-engine bots so header tags are used to tell the search engines the significance of the page sections. The most important header tags are the h1 and h2 and the h3 tags. So be sure to split your content into sections and use the h-tags.
6. Site-Map
The Wikipedia definition of a "site-map" is: "A sitemap is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users". Basically its a guide to the structure of your website that search engines like Google use to find and index all the pages on your site. Having a site-map makes the indexing process more efficient and thorough, which helps your site's search-engine ranking.
7. Website Speed
The speed at which a site loads now plays an important role in the search engine rankings, not to mention testing your visitors patience. Its all too easy to hit the back button, return to search results and click on your competitors link. Here are some of the considerations to optimise page loading speed.
> avoid using flash on your page; not only does it slow your page loading, it actually harms search engine rankings. If your visitor is not expecting to see any flash presentation, it shouldn't be there - its just annoying!
> avoid any kind of video, audio or animation files from loading on a page; unless of course your visitor knows that they are clicking through to such an element.
> ensure your html code is written and optimized to load quick.
> ask your agency to use CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS ensures your design style remains consistent through out the site, optimises speed and in turn helps search ranking.
7. Internal Linking
Internal links are links between pages on you website and it can be part of the navigation or in the content of your page. This is important because it helps the search engines to decide and present the most relevant page for specific keywords.
For e.g by linking the term Mobile Website Design Company to the Mobile Website Design page on this website tells the search engines that the Mobile Website Design page is the most relevant for the search term Mobile Website Design Company.
8. URL
The URL of each website page should contain the the most desired keyword for that page. This doesn't have to be the most popular keyword because popular keywords tend to be highly contested.
For e.g; the URL for the Internet Marketing page on this website is http://www.siteu2.com/internet-marketing.html. The keyword is a prt of the URL.
1. Page Title Tag
This is what appears at the very top of the browser when viewing a page. This title should not exceed 70 character and basically is a one-liner about content of that specific page. Ensure you work in at least 1 or 2 primary keywords as long as they are part of the overall content of that page.
2. Page Description
The page description is what you see when as a description on the google or yahoo results page. This is what is going to prompt your prospect to click through to you so:
> always ensure you have a description for each page. If you don't the likes of google will simply take an excerpt from you page relevant to the keyword used to search - sometimes this may not be ideal.
> ensure the description is one that will encourage click-throughs to your site.
> keep it to 150 characters. exceeding this can be detrimental to your search rankings.
Search for your keywords and check the descriptions you come across and the write a compelling description in order to stand out from the crowd. Hight light your unique value proposition/s.
3. Keywords
Search engine optimisation is all about relevant content. Your important keywords should have dedicated pages with page content that covers variations of that keyword. E.g.; if you own an italian restaurant "Italian restaurant" and variation "Italian restaurant in Boston".
When setting the keywords in the tags, you should:
> only include keywords that are a part of the content of that page. This allows search engines to display the correct page to whoever is searching. If you use same keywords tags in all your pages, it will confuse the search engines and you visitors could end up on the wrong page and you'll simply lose them.
> keep your keywords to 5 per page.
4. Image Alt Tags
In simple terms; these tags are used to tell the search the search engines what each of the images on your site are about because these search bots cannot read images. Its particularly relevant to anyone who wants the images to pop-up on image searches in the results for image searches.
5. Header Tags
We all use headers & sub-headers in our documents to draw attention to specific areas and for readability this can be achieved by the increasing the font size and "bolding" the relevant text. However, this does not work with search-engine bots so header tags are used to tell the search engines the significance of the page sections. The most important header tags are the h1 and h2 and the h3 tags. So be sure to split your content into sections and use the h-tags.
6. Site-Map
The Wikipedia definition of a "site-map" is: "A sitemap is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users". Basically its a guide to the structure of your website that search engines like Google use to find and index all the pages on your site. Having a site-map makes the indexing process more efficient and thorough, which helps your site's search-engine ranking.
7. Website Speed
The speed at which a site loads now plays an important role in the search engine rankings, not to mention testing your visitors patience. Its all too easy to hit the back button, return to search results and click on your competitors link. Here are some of the considerations to optimise page loading speed.
> avoid using flash on your page; not only does it slow your page loading, it actually harms search engine rankings. If your visitor is not expecting to see any flash presentation, it shouldn't be there - its just annoying!
> avoid any kind of video, audio or animation files from loading on a page; unless of course your visitor knows that they are clicking through to such an element.
> ensure your html code is written and optimized to load quick.
> ask your agency to use CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS ensures your design style remains consistent through out the site, optimises speed and in turn helps search ranking.
7. Internal Linking
Internal links are links between pages on you website and it can be part of the navigation or in the content of your page. This is important because it helps the search engines to decide and present the most relevant page for specific keywords.
For e.g by linking the term Mobile Website Design Company to the Mobile Website Design page on this website tells the search engines that the Mobile Website Design page is the most relevant for the search term Mobile Website Design Company.
8. URL
The URL of each website page should contain the the most desired keyword for that page. This doesn't have to be the most popular keyword because popular keywords tend to be highly contested.
For e.g; the URL for the Internet Marketing page on this website is http://www.siteu2.com/internet-marketing.html. The keyword is a prt of the URL.
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We always enjoy hearing form you so please do leave a comment.
We always enjoy hearing form you so please do leave a comment.
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