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Basic On-page Search Engine Optimisation

Posted Fri, February 26, 2010 — by Paul Russell

Believe it or not, SEO is a marketing initiative!

Sure the implementation requires programmers, but the overall objective is to generate traffic to your site that you can then convert into leads or sales. On-page SEO is just one component in the larger search engine optimisation discipline, but its important to get these basics right first.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a marketing initiative

If done well, on-page SEO achieves two things 1) it will help to put your website in front of your target audience when they are searching the web, and 2) it will communicate in a way that will make them want to click.

To deliver the first outcome, you first need to tell Google what exactly your pages are about so that they can be accurately indexed (like books in a library that are well organised using the index card system). Pages that are tightly aligned with the words and phrases your target audience use when they are searching for the products or services you sell will rank highly on Google Search Results pages. And the higher your site appears, the more traffic you will generate, and therefore the more opportunities you have to make sales. Secondly, to "attract" clicks, your search result listing needs to be a compelling marketing message.

Both of the above are achieved by "crafting" the following seven web page components (in this example, we would be targeting the keywords "window repair"):

1. URLs must be "clean" and contain the targeted keywords separated by hyphens not underscores e.g.www.abc.co.nz/window-repair

2. Page titles must start with the targeted keywords, be no more than 65 characters, and each page title must be unique e.g. Window Repair Specialists - ABC Limited

3. Meta Descriptions must contain the targeted keywords, be no more than 150 characters, and be unique to each page e.g. ABC Limited specializes in window repair with all work completed by certified
technicians. Contact us for a free quote today! Remember, this is the marketing message part of the equation - make your meta descriptions succinct, interesting and communicate a call to action that tells searchers what they should do.

4. Meta keywords used to be important in on-page SEO, but these days they don't carry much weight. So you only need to include a short list of the targeted keywords separated by commas e.g. window, repair

5. Every web page should have a clear bolded headline to tell the visitor where they are, it should be coded as an H1, and must contain the targeted keywords e.g. Window Repair Specialists

6. The targeted keywords (and variations) should be used in the first paragraph of the page copy

7. The targeted keywords should be used in the file name and alt tag of any images on the page e.g. window-repair.jpg and Window Repair by ABC Limited

These are listed in order of importance and getting URL's, page titles, and meta descriptions right is the most critical. Lastly, each page should only be optimised for one or at most two keyword themes to ensure Google is 100% clear what the page is about when they index it.

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