On Page
On page optimisation is the action you can take to improve your search engine rankings. Here are the most important points that you should consider but before you go on there is one word of warning do not over do it.
URL
The URL or web address is the most important aspect of on page optimisation It should whenever possible contain the top few keywords related to that page.
meta title top search terms
Your Meta title is of great importance as it is read as a high priority by search engine bots it should contain your top 2 or 3 keywords.
The Meta title is in the head section of your page.
Do not write long titles this can be detrimental to your search rankings.
meta description
Your meta description should contain your top keywords but should in no way be a list of keywords
It should descriptively summarize the page for which it represents.
header tags
Header tags should start with <h1> for the most important keyword all the way down to <h6> for the 6th most important keywords</h6> it is important to note that the over use of header tags can be detrimental to your sites rankings. You should never wrap your whole text in header tags.
Keyword Density
Keyword density is the percentage that any given keyword occurs within a web page we recommend not exceeding 6% of your page with any keyword and not less than 2% for any keyword that you may deem important.
Content
Content is the text and pictures that you have on your page; it should be on topic always matching your Meta tags.
In fact it makes most sense to produce your page of content first and then tailor your Meta tags to meet the page.
Ideally you should have between 350 and 500 words on your page.
This is not always possible but if you are building a site the landing pages should be text rich.
Photos are often overlooked but naming your photos with descriptive keywords is helpful as is the proper use of alt tags this is also important for people who have certain disabilities.
It is important to note that original content is what is required, you get very little kudos for using someone elses content.
Internal linking
Internal linking is the linking structure within your website;
The better it is the more of your pages will be found by the bots and just as important by your readers.
No page should be than 3 clicks away from any given point.
You may link from a menu or menus within your site and you may also link from within your page content to other relevant articles or content within that site or indeed other sites that may be deemed relevant.
Off Page
Off page optimisation is a set of actions you can encourage that improve your search engine rankings.
External Linking
External Linking is the other websites that point to your site by using hyperlinks, these are counted as votes for your site.
You do not always have any power over who links to you and in what manner, however whenever possible
Avoid links from non relevant sites and definitely from sites who may be controversial in nature Pornography and other Adult sites in general top this list.
Relevancy is the key and you may be quite broad with your relevancy although of course the more relevant the link the more importance search engines are going to attach to it.
Link Baiting
Link baiting is a way of attracting links to your site, the best form of link bait is to have high quality content on your site make other websites blogs and social networkers want to link to your site.
These links are most often relevant and are easily the most valuable.
Other forms of link bait include widgets and gadgets that are made freely available providing service to other website owners this encourages them to link to you.
Reciprocal linking
Reciprocal Linking is when you exchange links with another website or blog.
This no longer has the potency that it once enjoyed however when first starting off a website it is still a valuable exercise to get your rankings on the correct track.
It is largely achieved by contacting other websites and simply asking if they would like to exchange links.
It is useful to note that you should not have links to your page on a webpage that contains more than twenty links, as the whole affect becomes diluted.
The websites that you should approach or accept should be relevant and hard working sites do not accept links from websites that have as their main content links to other sites.
Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is very useful SEO indeed it drives traffic to your website in a number of ways.
By contributing usefully to other peoples blogs and getting a link back to your site for your efforts can increase your direct traffic.
By people clicking on the link, that is there or providing that the blog does not have the no follow attribute it can also provide good SEO benefits.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites are widely used by people to keep track of the web pages they are using.
Of course this is best achieved once again by providing top quality content that people will want to bookmark.
However you can use your friends and clients to get the ball rolling by bookmarking your site.
This will get you direct traffic but most of them now use the no follow attribute so has little use for SEO at least for Google.
Article directories
Article directories, if you like to write articles about the subject matter of your website it is well worth submitting them to article directories.
Providing they are original they will help you with SEO by providing back links to your site from relevant pages.
Remember that you should be placing this information on your own website first and then completely rewriting it for the article directories.
Some of these directories allow redistribution of the article providing you get a back link to tour site therefore one really top quality article could get you many hundreds of back links.
Directory submit
Submitting your site to directories: it is still worth submitting your website to relevant directories we recommend using only free directories as Google no longer count paid links as a source of importance.
