Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Onsite SEO Strategies

In an earlier post, "Onsite SEO vs. Offsite SEO (Search Engine Optimization)," there are two main ways to make your site more likely to be found on the free side (organic search results) on a search engine: Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO.

To quickly remind you...
  • Onsite SEO is when you adjust YOUR website to make it easier for people to find you.
  • Offsite SEO is when you leave your site to attract people to your site.
This post will focus on Onsite SEO.

Since Onsite SEO is meant to make it easier for people to find you through using the search engines (opposed to simply telling people that you meet to go to a particular website address), it is a good thing to understand what things you can do to your website to improve your chances of "being found."

This is called optimizing your website to get the highest Search Engine Result Page (SERP) ranking as possible.

Here are some of the key things:
  • URL: Try to include the keywords that you want to target in your URL (domain name). Ideally, those keywords are in the main part of your domain. The next best thing is to have it within a subdirectory or possibly within the name of a page. Basically, the further your keywords are from the main part of the directory, the less weight search engines seem to place on the keywords being there.
  • Page Title: Include the keywords in your page title, if possible. This, too, shows the search engines that you are probably very dedicated to that particular keyword phrase.
  • H1, H2, and H3 Headers: There is regular text, and there are different types of Headers: H1 through H6.
    • The H1 Header is the most like a mini-title header. Most search engines really like to see your keywords within this header.
    • The H2 Header is sort of like a major sub-category. If possible, it is nice to have your main keywords and related keywords here. This shows that you are dedicated to the keyword, but by including other related keywords, you are supporting that main keyword with applicable material.
    • The H3 Header is sort of a smaller lever category heading. Different people have different opinions on how important this H3 Header really is for onsite SEO. My suggestion is that if you can naturally include related keywords here, great. If not, do not force yourself.
    • The H4, H5, and H6 Headers do not seem to be much of anything for SEO. However, they help the reader enjoy what you are writing, keeping them on the page longer.
  • Text: Here is where you can separate yourself from the pack. Here are some general suggestions:
    • Main Keyword Usage: Use your main keyword phrase once at the beginning, once in the middle, and one time toward the end of what you are writing.
    • Supporting Keywords: It is important that you write naturally so that your reader appreciates what you are writing so that he or she (a) stays on the page (helping keep your bounce rate low), and (b) that your words support your main keyword. Otherwise, the search engines might think that your page is an artificially keyword stuffed website, which is not usually rewarded very well by search engine results.
    • Special Formatting: If several keywords are in bold or italics, this will show further emphasis on the relationship between the material on your page and the keywords that you are targeting.
  • Files: All files (mostly pictures) should have keywords as part of the title.
  • Pictures: Pictures should have Alt Tags with keywords. (Alt tags are what you see when the picture images do not load properly--Alternate Tags.)
  • Links:
    • Links should have keywords in the Title (this is the message that you see when you move your mouse over the link).
    • There should be internal links, especially with keyword related anchor text (clickable text that you actually see but really anchors a link)
There might be plenty of things that I'm overlooking, but if you do these things, your chances of ranking for the keywords you are targeting are pretty good, especially if you do this over time.  (It might take a while after you first launch your website.  Don't get discouraged.)

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