On Page Optimization

The Page Title is Probably the Most Important On-Page SEO
Aspect, Create Unique, Accurate Page Titles

On Page Optimization is quite mechanical really. There are certain places on the page where the language is critically important if you want the page to rank. Keep in mind that when you put your On Page information in the correct places, you are really talking to a very sophisticated computer algorithm. One of the most helpful publications is Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

Ideally you should have a unique title for each page on your site, as pages with identical titles tend to be treated as “duplicates” by Google as the search engine will only display one of the pages in its results, indexing the duplicates as “supplemental results.”

The best practices for page title tags are common sense: choose a title that communicates the content of the page and avoid using titles that have nothing to do with the content. Avoid stuffing keywords in your title tags, and avoid ALL CAPS titles. Keep titles short and the fewer keywords the better. Google will truncate anything longer than 60 characters. If you look at the title tag for this page you are reading you will see:

SEO Services Company | On Page Optimization

We look at this as the perfect title tag for the page. It has 2 and only 2 important keywords that fit the subject of the page and is short enough to get easily read and ranked by the search engines. Short and sweet is the way, resist putting too many keywords into your title tag.

Make use of the “description” meta tag

This is the second most important On Page SEO element, when it comes to what is getting indexed by the search engines. Google might use this as a snippet for your page in the search results, or sometimes Google may choose to use a snippet from your page’s visible text if it matches better the user’s query. Alternatively, if your site is listed in the Open Directory Project, Google might use the description provided there.

Meta descriptions should summarize accurately the page’s content, and you should avoid writing descriptions that are unrelated to the content of the page. You should also avoid using descriptions like “this is a webpage”, too short descriptions and keyword-stuffed descriptions. Copying the entire content of the visible text of your page into the description meta tag is a undesired as well: descriptions should usually be less than 160 characters. As with page titles, meta descriptions should be unique for each page of the site too. Be sure to repeat the keywords for that page in your meta description. Using the same meta descriptions “site-wide” or for a large number of pages could force Google to show only one page in the results, sending the rest in the supplemental results index. The meta description for the page you are reading with the 2 keywords repeated and in red is:

SEO Services Company provides results based Search Engine Optimization Services. Guaranteed first page rankings or your money back. On Page Optimization and our SEO/SEM services are featured on this page. Call Jeff Persons, 617-512-3443.

Do not mix www and non-www versions of URLs in your internal linking structure. It is also very important to provide a single version of a URL to reach a document to prevent users from linking to one URL, and others linking to a different version, thus splitting the reputation of the content between the URLs. Decide if you want the www version or not. Whichever version you want, create a 301 redirect to send the other version to the same place. This can be done by your webmaster or if you are tuned into Google Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics, you can do it yourself there.

More SEO Techniques from Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

This guide describes all major onsite techniques, including site navigation, content, onsite links and best practices for anchor texts, using heading tags appropriately (do not confuse with HTML tags or HTTP headers), image optimization, making use of robots.txt, how and when to use rel=”nofollow” attributes for links, how to promote your site the right way and so on. The guide is particularly important because it can save a lot of time, trouble and even money for those who are looking for the “right answers” when it comes to On Page SEO. There are no secret formulas, as you will see when reading the guide. In addition to the guide, I recommend that you use Google’s Website Optimizer to check your pages to see what on-page changes will produce the best conversion rates with visitors.

Although the guide doesn’t go in-depth describing how to write catchy page titles, and how to write content that sells, the tips provided by Google are what they say they want but are at the same time what they say is suspect as Google changes the rules constantly. On Page optimization is very simple really, not always easy but given the true labor of thought you can be fairly certain that you have followed all the rules.

Every site owner who cares about the content of his/her site, about the navigation and the site structure, about how the images harmonize with the text, and so on, does this type of SEO, although some prefer not to call it that. Regardless of terminology, there can be no better source for information about what a search engine wants from your pages than from the source itself. Using the simple techniques provided in these, combined with easy references like the one you are reading, can only lead to better indexing for your sites. It’s as simple as that! At least for the beginner, it is a great place to start.

For more On Page Optimization check out Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide as well as our own 7 Part Thumbnail SEO Course.

SEO Services Company can do all your On Page Optimization. We have a staff of 15 writers and linkbuilders who can build out your pages without you quitting your job to do it. Give us a try and like our guarantee says, if we don’t get you first page rankings we will just give you your money back.

More Help:

How To Hire An SEO Company Without Losing Your Shirt

25 Ways To Increase Lead Generation and Sales

For more information call Jeff Persons – 617-512-3443