On Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There are a few common characteristics that all good SEO (search engine optimized) websites have.  We are going to go through them briefly in a checklist format. By the time we are done, your website will be in tip-top shape waiting to climb the search engine rankings.

Keywords in URL:

When originally choosing the domain name for your website try to incorporate your keywords into the domain name. For example, if my keywords are “mouse pad”, the domain names mousepads.com, mouse-pad.com, bestmousepads.com, and buymousepads.com would all be great choices. I have found that getting ranked for the keywords you are targeting is a lot easier when you do this. If you already have a less-than-efficient domain name, it’s not too late to optimize your individual pages. Make sure and name each page or post in a way that incorporates your keywords into the page name. Another example: pink-mouse-pads.html

Title:

You’ll also want to make sure that your keywords are in the title of your websites individual pages. Having the keywords towards the beginning of the title is ideal if you can manage it, but having them anywhere in the title is better than not. Using the same keyword example as above, a page title could be “Mouse Pads for the Mac Lover”

Keywords in Description:

The description is the small paragraph of text that shows up after the title on search engines. It is what draws a visitor to your site next to the title. Make sure you are using your keywords in your description, but also make it enticing. Think about what your target audience would want to know about that page and then work your keyword into it for the best search engine optimization (SEO).

H1, H2, H3 Tags:

You will also want to have an H1 tag with your keyword in it at the very top of your page. Your sub-headline should be inside an H2 tag and the sentence that contains your keyword at the very end of your page should be wrapped in an H3 tag.

Image Alt Tags:

Any images that you have inserted on your page should have an alt tag that incorporates your keyword or a LSI keyword. The alt tag looks like this: alt=”your keyword and or your LSI keyword”. These alt tags and the surrounding text also tell Google what the picture is about so that they can properly index your images.

Keywords in first and last paragraph:

Make sure your keywords are in the first and last paragraphs of your webpages.

You’ll also want to sprinkle them around in a couple of places in the middle of the page as well.Each page on your site should be made specifically for a keyword or keyword phrase for the absolute most power in your (SEO) search engine optimization efforts.