ONPAGE OPTIMIZATION

The term On Page Optimization refers to just that: optimization that is done directly on a specific webpage to achieve better search engine rankings. This could mean on the visible parts of the page (what the viewer or customer can see) or in the code or invisible parts of the page. This is all done directly on the .html ‘file’ or ‘page’ which is the reason for the name On Page Optimization.On Page Optimization is basically the effort which you put on the website and is clearly visible, Like:
                 " Optimizing the existing content
                  " HTML code corrections
                  " remove broken / dead links
                  " Add Meta / Alt Tags
                  " Add Google and XML Site Map
                  " Analytic Setup
It is very important that On Page Optimization is done correctly for a website as this educated search engine crawlers and spiders about the theme of the website and which keywords you are targeting to rank on. On Page Optimization is usually done once on the website however SEO Agency does On Page Optimization after every 3 months to keep the site fresh for Search Engines.

•    Most important Methods for On Page Optimization

1. Keyword Research and Analysis
2. Page Specific Meta Tag Creation
3. Title Tag (Page Title Optimisation)
4. Alt Tag Optimization
5. Anchor Text Optimization
6. Content Placement
7. Keyword Density
8. Implementation of 301 Permanent Redirect
9. Implementation of Google Analytics
10. Search Engine Verification from Google, Yahoo and MSN
11. Submission of XML Sitemap
12. Creation of Proper Link Structure
13. Creation and Submission of ROR.xml
14. Optimization of Search Engine Essential Files (robots.txt, urllist.txt, sitemap.xml)
15. Creating microformats like hcard integration, hrview integration, vCard integration.

• Page Specific Meta Tag Creation

A META Tag is the hidden text placed in the HEAD section of your HTML page. META Tags are used by most major search engines to index websites based on their keywords and descriptions. It is very important to use META Tags as well as a good TITLE if you expect to be found in most search engines. However, META Tags are not the only thing search engines will look at when ranking sites. Some search engines will ignore META Tags completely. Most search engines will also index your body text.

Meta Tags are HTML tags used to control your site description in the search engines that support them: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, AOL Search, AltaVista, All TheWeb (FAST), HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek (Go), Excite, and Web Crawler. It is important to have well made meta tags because they can help increase your Search Engine Position. 

A site’s Meta tags may not be as important as it used to be before, however I feel that Meta Description is something you can’t just ignore. A site’s Meta description should contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet, if a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out more information. But if your Meta Description is too generic and isn’t written too well then there is a good chance that your site will simply be ignored.

Important things to include in your Meta Description:

• Include your Selling Point– Tell your customers what they want to hear through your site’s Meta    Description, and you will definitely get some advantage over others in the SERP. For instance – if you sell ‘cheap web hosting’ then including a phrase like “hosting starting from only $0.99” may result in more clicks and visitors because your description will exactly match the flavor of search performed by the user.

• Keywords – Including some of your keywords will give you some advantage in Google’s relevancy algorithm.

• 1-800 or other Toll Free Numbers – if you haven’t included this already in your title, you can rather include it in your Meta description. If the users have skype installed on their system, any number on their browser will become clickable which will result in a direct skype-out call. So basically, if your number appears in the Meta description some of your customers might just prefer to call you directly instead of going through your site

 Title Optimization

  A site’s title tag is by far the most important website optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. Title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. So naturally it is given a very high importance – out of thousands results that a searcher sees, your site’s title has to be appealing enough for him to want to find out more information. On the other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours.

·     Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name: This is very important for breading propose. If you feel that    your customers may search you by your brand name than it’s also useful to put it somewhere in your title.

• Keywords: If you want to rank for a certain keywords it is always good to place some of them in your title tag. A Title tag represents the whole flavor & content of your website. So if you are selling pizza online you can include keywords like – order pizza, home delivery pizza etc in your title tag. Don’t staff too many keywords in your title. Write a title which is readable to humans & also good for the search engine. (e.g. Domino’s Pizza, Order Pizza Online for Delivery – Dominos.com

• including your phone number in the title tag does help your visitors to take a direct action! It also makes your site look more professional and legit when it’s being displayed in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Include your 1-800 or other toll-free numbers: Some may not agree with me on this, but I think Searchers are likely to ‘click’ on the result that has a phone number attached to it because in their unconscious mind, they will have a good impression on the authenticity of the business and the level of support. If you prefer not to include your number in the title tag, you can alternatively include it in your Meta Description which will give you almost the same benefits.

Important HTML Tags:

It is necessary for you to highlight certain parts of your website that you want your readers to look at. There are several tags in html which allows you to do so. For instance – the header tags [h1] [h2] [h3], Bold [strong], Italic [em] etc. The text inside your header tags (e.g. [h1]) is given very high importance by the search engine. Usually you can use them to define the page/post titles or the important sections of your website.



• Header 1: Header 1 should be used to define the most important section of your page. Usually Header 1 is used for Site’s title or header text.

• Header 2 & 3: Header 2 and 3 can be used for Page/Post titles or important sections of your pages. Separating your content with headers is a good practice as it makes your site more readable and easy to navigate.Text Styles:

• Bold: You can bold (e.g. [strong]) certain words which are of high importance. Sometimes it’s good to bold your keywords where appropriate. However overdoing this may get you penalized.

• Italic: You can use the [em] tag to emphasize certain words which will appear in italic.

• Quote: This is very useful when you are quoting from someone.


Keyword Optimization:

Your site’s content needs to be optimized in such a way that it can suit both search engines & your readers. Stuffing your site with too many keywords can make your site unreadable. So you will need to have some sort of balance between your keywords & your content.



• Research: Do a proper research before you decide on your keywords. There are plenty of free tools out there that can help you to  do keyword research. Some of my personal favorites are: SEObook Keyword Suggestion tool, Google Adwords Keyword Tool & Overture Keyword Tool.

• Keyword Density: Try to have a moderate keyword density so that it can help the search engine to determine that your page is indeed related & relevant to the keyword that you are targeting.

• Synonyms & Related Keywords: I personally like to use synonyms instead of having a high keyword density. This helps to make my content sound natural but still helps in SEO.

• Long Tail Keywords: It’s often good to target some long tail keywords as they are comparatively easier to rank for. During your keyword research you should be able to gather some good long tail keywords that you can optimize your site for. But you can also come up with your own long tail keywords;

Link Optimization:

Search Link Optimization (SLO) is a process by which internal and external incoming links are optimized for search engine algorithms to determine the relevance of web page content. Relevant anchor text integration, text that contains keywords for optimizing a web page, is key to this process.


        Inbound and outbound links are those that hyperlink two independent web pages together whereas inbound links would hyperlink domain “A” to domain “B” and outbound links would hyperlink domain “B” to domain “A.”
                   Inbound and outbound links are essential to web page visibility often enhancing web page relevance, ranking, & placement. There are few instances where inbound links would be discouraged. Outbound links however should be given sparingly and should only link material to other material of same or similar relevance. Often, developers will utilize a nofollow tag used mostly to further optimize hyperlinks by “instructing” search engines not to distribute any PageRank from the hyperlink. An example of a nofollow tag might be: tag.



• Try using good Anchor Text when you are linking to other people. Include the appropriate keyword in the anchor text which gives the outbound link a ‘proper meaning’ and value.

• A good & clean Internal Link Structure with proper use of anchor text will definitely help. E.g. “Credit Card Application” is a better anchor text compared to “click here”

• If you are using a CMS, then try using permalinks. This way your keywords/post title will be on the link itself and thus it will valued more by the search engines.


Image Optimization:

If your site has lot of images, you need to optimize them too as they can’t be read by the search engines. It’s very easy for a human reader to interpret the image into its meaning. However for a Web crawler the whole interpreting process is completely different. Search Engine spiders can only read text but not images. So you need to use some special tags for your images in order to give them some meaning.

• Alt text : ALT text or Alternate Text is the text to describe your image when your mouse moves over an image on your web page. The text should be meaningful but short. You can use your relevant keywords as ALT text. If your browser can’t display the image for some reason, the alt text is used in place of that particular image.

• File name : always use meaningful file name for your images, use names like “apple-iphone-cover.jpg” instead of meaningless “DSC24045.jpg”. Keep image file name same or similar to the ALT text.

• Image Title : always use the title tag in images which will show the title as tool tip when a user moves his mouse over the image. Example of an image with title tag: [img src=”http://imagelocation.jpg” alt=”Image description” title=”Title of the Image”]

• Image Linking : Whenever you want to link to your image, use the image keywords in your link text. Example: use “view an Apple iPhone”, instead of “Click here to view” as the anchor text.