Thread: On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is often forgotten these days, as we focus more and more of our time in getting inbound links with targeted anchor text.

On-page optimization, however, is something you can do quickly to give yourself an extra boost in the SERPS.

These tips will help you to optimize your web pages to make the most out of your inbound links.


One Page - One Target

Each page should be optimized for only one search term. If you are targeting two search terms, make pages for each term.

If your search term has a synonym, make separate pages for each synonym. For example, if you are targeting "drywall" and "sheetrock", make separate pages to target each term.

One Target - Two Pages

The preceding tip only tells half of the story. You don't actually want to be #1 in the SERPS for each of your search terms -- you want to be #1 and #2.

Google and some other search engines will display two listings from a web site together if both are relevant to the users search. Therefore, for each of your important keywords, you want to build two web pages which are both optimized for that search.

The URL

Search engines tend to rank pages well when the URL contains the search term.

If your page is about drywall, call your page drywall.html, not page-1.html.

If your content management system (CMS) uses autogenerated URL's, use 301 Redirects to turn those URL's into highly optimized URL's.

Use Hyphens, not Underscores

Google and most other search engines treat hyphens as spaces, but do not treat underscores as spaces.

If your URL is robert-duvall.html, your page will rank well if someone searches for "robert duvall".

If your URL is robert_duvall.html, your page will rank well if someone searches for "robert_duvall".

Which do you think is searched for more often, "robert duvall" or "robert_duvall"?

Optimize the Page Title

The page title should contain the keywords for which you are optimizing, and little or nothing else.

Many sites prepend the site name to every page title, like this:

<title>Smith Drywall -- Sheetrock Delivery</title>

A more optimized title would simply look like this:

<title>Sheetrock Delivery</title>

Leave the company name for the title of the main page of your web site.

Optimize the Description Tag

Not many search engines utilize the description tag anymore, but it's best to set it properly just in case.

<meta name="description" content="Drywall Delivery">

Optimize the Keywords Tag

Even fewer search engines utilize the keywords tag, but it's best to set it properly just in case.

<meta name="keywords" content="Drywall Delivery">

Use Headings

Use the <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> heading tags to define your important content sections, and put your keywords at least once in each heading style.

Use CSS to set the fonts and sizes of the h-tags to something pleasing to your visitors.

Add an Image with ALT Text

Use an image of your page with a filename which contains your chosen keywords, such as drywall-delivery.jpg.

The ALT text for this image should include the keywords for which you are optimizing.

<img src="drywall-delivery.jpg" width=75 height=90 alt="Drywall Delivery">

Validate the HTML

Use the W3C HTML validator to validate the HTML of your page.

Very few HTML errors will cause a web page not to rank well in the SERPS, but you don't want your page to be that page.

In addition, validating the HTML will help to ensure that your page will look reasonably well in the wide variety of web browsers used on the Internet.

Keep Your Body Text Readable

Use your keywords in the body text, but keep your body text readable.

Don't drywall stuff drywall your drywall keywords drywall into your drywall text until it is unreadable by humans.

Make Reasonably Sized Pages

The search engines seem to prefer pages which have at least 500 words of text. Give your visitors something to read!

Summary

If you follow these simple tips, you will get better SERPS with fewer inbound links.

On-page search engine optimization is the first step towards good search engine rankings.

Great post Will!
People tend to forget many of these (in fact I forget some most of the time...), and they don't even notice the difference there is between optimized and non-optimized pages.

Thanks, Will.

I had not considered making multiple pages for each keyword. I wonder how far you can push it. Does Google limit the number of results for each domain?

Originally Posted by Cash Nebula

I had not considered making multiple pages for each keyword. I wonder how far you can push it. Does Google limit the number of results for each domain?

Normally you can only get one regular listing and one indented listing.

Extremely authoritative domains can use subdomains to add further listings, but that's not very common.

Also in the copyright info, I believe it carries additional weight to add keywords you are after.

Thanks for Great Post.

Normally you can only get one regular listing and one indented listing.

Extremely authoritative domains can use subdomains to add further listings, but that's not very common.

Ah, ok. Cheers!

"Indented listing" - my new term for the day. I've seen that many times but never realized it was important.

Originally Posted by Cash Nebula

Ah, ok. Cheers!

"Indented listing" - my new term for the day. I've seen that many times but never realized it was important.

It is.
In fact a couple of weeks ago I've added a mere ~4000 posts to 1 of my sites and since then I always have 2 links per page (1 is indented)

Who said content isn't king?

Btw... let me add...

Long Tail Keywords are Queens

I like indented listings because the visual effect really stands out on the results pages.

I think they also make the site look more authoritative, which also increases click-throughs.

Thanks for the tip.. really helpful.. currently I am using 2 keywords in one page, for example "This is a new glype theme called XXX. It uses so and so bla bla bla it's a free glype template to share bla bla bla..

This way allow me to have that page ranked for both keywords... although not at the same position...