Search Engine Optimisation – On-Page Optimisation

If your opinion about on page optimization is like a large percentage of others, you will probably be thinking that having a meta title and meta description with keywords is enough to get you to the top of the search engines. Well, we're sorry to say you couldn't be further from the truth.

Having good meta data is very good, but only counts for a small amount of the overall on-page optimization. Now that has been clarified, here is a quick overview of what on-page optimization your website should include.

A snapshot of the HTML code from our website

Content is key

You have probably been told before, but your own unique content is essential, having content which is relevant to your products and services will be the perfect foundation to your on-page factors. The right amount of content is also part of the process, simply having thousands and thousands of words all about the subject you want to target is not enough, there needs to be relevant content throughout your site. If you have a page about a specific topic, there needs to be various links included within the content linking to other pages which content related and relevant content to strengthen the overall keywords you are optimizing for.

Within your content, you should always try to use the correct 'html tag' sequence with the following:

• H1
• H2
• Paragraph Tags
• Strong / Bold
• Linkage

In addition to this, you should begin to think about where your keywords are positioned within the content, having too many can be harmful and not having enough may result in the page having a weak keyword presence. You can also have a negative impact by trying to optimize the site or individual pages for too many key terms / phrases.

Something you can refer to as 'keyword density' will play a big part in the overall strategy, we find far too often, before clients come to us, they have been found guilty of trying to overpower there website with keywords. The first task is always to correct this by altering the content and reducing what can be classed as 'spam', even if it is accidental.

Another area of your site which is essential with the on page optimization is the website navigation. We always try to avoid flash or images, although the latter is better. Having an well structured and easily indexable (by search engines) is critical. Almost all navigations, no matter how they look can be styled in a user friendly and search engine friendly format, leaving your website optimized at its core.

Lots of websites use images to gain the look and feel they want to achieve, don't let this be an obstacle, using well structured code and styles you can build your website exactly how you want it, but also how the search engines and accessible screen readers need to view your site. Think if it this way, if you use images within the main content of your site which include content within them, you should have optional content sat behind the image. Please be aware, this is in addition to your image alt tags.

Hopefully the details above have given you a basic idea of what on-page factors you need to consider. If you feel you want a professional company to optimize your site or even help you to optimize it yourself, give us a call today or fill in our contact form to find out how we can help you.

• Search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing, display and consultancy - Attain Digital