On-Page Website Optimization
TweetAfter you choose your keywords and map them to pages it's time to go to work to make sure those pages are optimized for the terms you want to rank for. You want to design and structure your site with your visitors in mind, but there are a few things you need to do to keep the search engines happy and ranking your pages.
Title
Page titles are the most important part of on-page SEO. They tell the spiders and your visitors what the page is about. Titles are the text you see at the top of a browser window when you are looking at a page. They are the clearly displayed, links to your page in the results given by the search engines.
You can edit your page's title in the <title> tag of the HTML code. If you are using WordPress or another content management system the title will be easily editable in the backend.
Some tips for writing an effective page title:
- Use your keywords near the beginning of your title - these words will be highlighted on the results page by the search engine.
- Use less than 70 characters - this is all a browser and a results page will display. Use that space effectively and avoid running your title over the edge.
- Entice a click through - great headlines encourage user's to click through by getting them interested. Stuffing keywords in the title doesn't get the user excited to see what's on the page.
- Use different titles on each page - you are mapping each keyword to a single page so this shouldn't be a problem. Don't create several pages that rehash the same idea as this is seen as spammy and doesn't add anything to your site. If you have more to say just create a longer page.
Headings
If a piece of text appears larger than the rest of the text on the page, it's more than likely included inside a heading. These are the <h1> (or 2,3,4 or 5) tags included on the page. Search engines look at headings for another clue as to what the page is about and give them more weight. Use the <h1> tag only once per page, and include <h2> tags if you have a couple of sub-headings in your post that you want to stand out.
URL Structure
A URL gives an exact location of a page, for instance this page is located at http://www.jamiefaidley.com/on-page-website-optimization/ . You want to name your page after the keyword you are targeting. With WordPress you change the permalink structure under settings to "%postname%". Here are some more tips on quality URL structures:
- Keep them short and sweet. Longer URLs are no good. Don't create a lot of directories and sub-directories extending out the URL.
- Separate words with dashes (-). Don't just run words together. Some people use the underscore (_) instead but stick with what's common.
- You don't want to have your URL's be numbers or a date. Instead use your keywords.
Load Time
Users want their information fast. If your page is taking too long to load then it's likely the visitor will just hit the back button and look for another site. I wrote an article on how to speed up your WordPress blog if you want a few tips on increasing your site's speed. Basically, the less code, images, widgets, and plugins you use the better. Think simple. Also, go with a quality hosting provider as that alone can show significant improvements in your site's speed.
Keyword Stuffing
Don't stuff your keywords in the body of your text! This might seem counter intuitive since we have talked about the importance of having your keywords located on the page, but trust me it won't work.
Write the body of your article with the end user in mind. You want your content to be readable and to solve the user's problems. Even if you were to rank for a page that is stuffed with keywords, the visitor would quickly bounce off of the page if it didn't answer their question.