3 Important Elements of On-Page SEO

Everyone knows that there is value in search engine rankings.  They are the best way to get found, gain customers and grow your subscriber base. There are all sorts of benefits to channels like social media, online communities and traditional advertising that can be used to promote a web site. And the concept of internet marketing is a broad concept covering a number of different online strategies.  But when it comes to bringing traffic and attention there’s nothing quite like dominating the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)

Titles 

A title sets the tone for newspaper articles, books, and movies. It’s not so different with websites, except the audience is a little more literal.  Title tags appeal to users in SERPS helping them choose who to click on. But once they reach a site, page titles fade into the top of the screen.
But for search engines, title tags are the biggest on-page indicator of topical relevance.  The 50 or so characters that occupy your title tags should always be use d to express your most important concepts.  The words you use in a title tag should above all else reflect phrases that people are searching for.  The language you think describes your products or services may be completely different from what is actually being searched for.  That’s why keyword research an proper structure is essential if you are writing or re-writing your title tags.

• Look for long-tail (3 or 4 word) phrases that encapsulate primary short-tail keywords.
• Words like “Best” “Sale” or “Quality” can be useful if they are part of well searched long-tail queries. But otherwise they are just taking up space that more targeted, less descriptive words could fill.
• Business names or person’s names may have a place, but only at the end of a title tag. Those first few words should reflect your top priority keywords.

Interlinking

The way a site organizes itself through links can make a big impact on how different pages are perceived by search engines. .  A site’s navigation is one thing. The site-wide links that people will use to move around play a major role to users, and search engines. But when you approach interlinking strategically, internal links serve functions far beyond the main nav.

• In order to bring more attention to sub-pages outside of the main nav, there’s nothing better than in-content links. Not only does it send multiple relevance signals to the search engines, it can help users who actually read content.
• The anchor text used on a link is a big deal, on or off-site.  Anchor text should be accurate but it should also be keyword targeted.  That’s true of both the main nav and internal links.
• When it comes to page-depth, the more accessible a sub-page is from the home page, ostensibly, the more important it is. So all of the pages linked from your main nave are generally covered.  A page that is buried 3 or 4 clicks deep on a site might be evaluated as less important.  Bringing deep pages closer to the home page can help them gain power.
• On blogs this is even more important as once a post is off the home page it often is only linked to from a category or archive page. Interlinking blog posts through relevant phrases in content or “Related Posts” plug in’s, can help bring new attention to older posts.

Content

Ask anyone whose site took a hit in the wake of Panda about the importance of on-page content. Odds are they’ve been reading up on it like crazy.  The truth is it is more important now than ever to have content of real substance where it’s an articles section or your product pages.

• Search engines are openly looking for trust and authority. That counts with content too. The more well-written, credible and substantial your content is the better off you’ll be.
• Duplicate content is one of the major reasons any site got slapped by Panda. Unique content is more important now than ever. Not every product page needs its own dedicated 1000 word essay. But a few hundred unique words can go a long way.  It’s hard to do with sites with 10’s of thousands of product pages, so start with your priorities and work on it slowly over time.
• Now that we’ve covered the importance of merit and originality, let’s not forget about the technical components. Yes, content should read well to human eyes. Yes, it should be unique wherever possible. But it should also contain logical references to your products and services. Those uses of keywords can also be used for inter linking.

There’s a lot more to SEO on-page and off than this simple over view. But 3 of the most important on-page factors anyone can look at are their title-tags, interlinking and content.  It’s important to remember though that on-site optimization can only take a website so far. Even the most well-optimized, streamlined site will eventually have to venture out into the web to continue growing. But you will be much more prepared for success out there when you build a solid foundation at home.

Tagged as: building, elements, links, on-page seo, online communities, quality backlinks, SEO, serps, subscribers