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On Page Website Optimization
Performing keyword research on the topic of
your website is the first step in optimizing a website for search. Without
knowing what keywords people use when they search, you cannot shape and
mold your website around these keywords. For more information about
keyword research, refer to our section on keyword research.
Once you have performed the necessary
keyword research and have a list of keywords to target, it’s important to
focus on one keyword or one keyword phrase per page. Once you have a
keyword in mind, you need to gather or write at least a few paragraphs of
content (text) that contain that keyword. It’s important to have at least
a few paragraphs of text available to work with because search engines
only read text (not images) and you do not want any other web page on your
website to be a duplicate of the current page you’re working optimizing.
There are two parts of a web page. One is
what the user sees when visit your web page and what the search engine
spider sees when they visit your web page. The visitors see a combination
of images and text, while the search engine sees everything on the
page—the text on the web page that the visitor sees as well as the
underlying code of your web page (search engine spiders don’t see images).
When optimizing a web page, it’s important to have access to both the text
that the visitor sees as well as the underlying code that the search
engine spiders see called the html code. Without access to the html code,
you cannot edit the important areas of the code, including the title of
the page and the meta tags that describe with the web page is about.
Title Tag
The title tag is a very part of on-page optimization. Edit or create the
title tag in the html code area of your web page. The title tag should be
as short as possible while accurately describing the content of the
current web page. For example, if the primary keyword that you’re focusing
on is “red widgets in Dallas”, then the title tag should include the term
“red widgets”. There’s nothing wrong with creating your title tag that
contains the keyword and only the keyword you’re targeting. However, this
is the first thing the searcher will see when they search for your
keyword, so you’ll want a title tag good enough to entice them to visit
your web page but not too creative. The important part of the title tag is
to accurately describe the content of your web page. The title tag of this
page should be unique—no other page on the website should have this same
title tag.
Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag is also important. Some search engines use
the meta description tag in their search results, and some directory
editors prefer to use it, as well. This tag should include your primary
keyword for that page and be at least one sentence long. It should
accurately describe the content of the page, and it should not be
duplicated on any other web page or used to describe any other web page on
your website. Although users do not see the information in this tag when
they visit a web page, most search engine spiders see this tag and
recognize it.
Meta Keywords Tag
The meta keywords tag includes all the keywords included on your page.
While not duplicating any words, include most or all the important nouns
and proper nouns that appear on you web page, as well as the primary
keyword that your web page is about. It’s important not to include any
keywords that do not appear in the text of your web page. However, if a
keyword or phrase doesn’t appear on the page but is important for your
website’s topic, then it’s okay to include it. The meta keywords tag
should not be duplicated on any other page of your website—it should be
unique. Although users do not see the information in this tag when they
visit a web page, some search engine spiders see this tag and recognize
it. Other search engines signore this tag altogether. In any case, it’s
important to include this tag on your page.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are the H1, H2, and H3 tags. The user sees these tags on the
web page and they are used as subtitles on the web page. Your web page
should include an H1 tag, although it does not have to include only the
exact keyword phrase that you’re targeting for that web page—it can
include other words, as necessary. The heading tags should not be too
long—they should be used as subtitles to describe paragraphs or sections
of the web page.
Alt tags
Alt tags are used to describe an image on your web page. If your web page
includes pictures or illustrative examples, then use alt tags to describe
those images. If those images are photos of products or pictures of the
keyword you’re targeting for that page, then it’s important to include the
keyword you’re targeting in the alt tag. It is not recommended that you
inaccurately describe images just to add your keyword into the alt tag. It
is also not recommended that you include alt tags that are unnecessary,
such as alt tags with images that common to your website in general such
as navigation bars and logos that appear on every page of your site.
On-page Content
As mentioned earlier, search engines don’t read images. More importantly,
they don’t read images contained in text. So, it’s necessary to include at
least a few paragraphs of text on the page so that it cannot be considered
a duplicate of any other web page on your website. It’s also important to
include enough text so that it can be reasonably edited or changed to
reflect any necessary changes when manipulating the page’s keyword
density.
Keyword Density
Keyword density is the measurement /ratio of the number of keywords on a
page in relation to the total number of words on that page. Once you have
created your web page, you can use a keyword density analyzer to analyze
the page’s keyword density for the keyword or phrase you’re targeting on
that page. Keyword density analyzers can be used online or offline. There
are several free online keyword density analyzers available, so it’s
necessary to make sure your web page is live and accessible on your
website in order to be analyzed. You can also use an application to
analyze keyword density, and there are third party software products
available.
Keyword density is a percentage. Generally
speaking, you do not want your keyword density percentage to be too high,
then the search engines tend to think that you are purposely trying to use
your keyword phrase too much in order to manipulate the search engine
rankings. If the percentage is too low, then the search engines may not
understand that your web page is truly about the keyword you’re targeting
for that page.
First, perform a search on a search engine
for the keyword you’re targeting. Make a list of the top several web pages
that appear in the top results. The first five or so web pages is a good
number of pages to analyze. Use your keyword density analyzer to analyze
the keyword density of the top-ranking web pages. Write down each web
page’s keyword density percentage and get an average keyword density for
the keyword phrase you’re targeting. In some cases, the average may be
around 3-5 percent. In other cases, it might be as high as 8-10 percent or
as low as 1-2 percent. In any case, it’s important to have the keyword
density of the page you’re optimizing in the range of the web pages that
currently rank well for that keyword. Once you’re in the targeted range,
start adding or subtracting that keyword phrase on your page until you’re
in the proper range but just a little bit above it. For example, if the
average of all those pages that rank well is 4.5 percent, you would want
to be a little bit higher, perhaps 4.6 to 5.0 percent. If you can
manipulate your page enough so that the page’s keyword density is just
above the average, then that’s preferable.
Keyword Prominence
Keyword prominence is a measurement of how close to the start of an area
of a page that a keyword appears. Free online tools are available that
measure keyword prominence.
Like keyword density, it’s important to get
the average keyword prominence of the web pages that appears in the top of
the search results and manipulate your page so that the keyword prominence
is a little bit higher than the average. . If you can manipulate your page
enough so that the page’s keyword prominence is just above the average,
then that’s preferable.
CSS Cascading Style Sheet
Using a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS file) is and advanced search engine
optimization technique. Generally speaking, the more you can remove code
off of your html page and into a separate CSS file the better.
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