I promised yesterday that I will discuss On-Page and Off-Page optimization today. This morning I decided to talk about them in two separate posts not to overwhelm you with too much info. I will provide the Best resources and tools to make your work a heck of a lot easier!
So lets Begin with On-Page Optimization!
First I would like to talk about On-Page Optimization. Do not worry! I made it as easy to understand as I could!
At first what the hell is On-Page Optimization?-you would ask. On-Page Optimization means that your site design and more important, your CONTENT should be easily readable by the search engine bots, and the keywords for which you optimize your site should be placed correctly. Search Engine bots are programs who will come to your site and read it's content.
What does a search engine bot see? Nice question. The answer is: Text, Links, Image Alt text, meta tags etc.
If you don't know what are meta tags; they are placed in the Head section in your site's HTML code. Two kinds of them exist. The Meta Keyword tag which should contain the most important keywords you would like to optimize for. The second is the Meta Description Tag which should contain a brief info about your site's content, and this tag should contain few important keywords too if you want to rank well.
So how should I start the optimization process?
1. Keyword Research
You have to start a research for the keywords you would like to optimize your site for.
The most effective and probably the most profitable ways to do this are:
Wordtracker
Wordtracker is a service which provide you the most popular keywords at the moment. I highly recommend to subscribe to their newsletter and they will send you the most popular keywords periodically.
Keyword Elite
Keyword Elite is a Brilliant Software created by SEO Guru Brad Callen. I think this is the best choice for those who are just starting in SEO because the cost-value balance is perfect.
Axandra Search Engine Optimization Software
The third I recommend is a software also which is created by Axandra. They are in SEO Business since 1997 so they know what they are doing. The software's name is IBP which stands for Internet Business Promoter which now includes a lighter version of Arelis which is Axandra's link popularity improver software. This software is not cheap but if you are serious about SEO you have to get it. It is a very easy to use and highly effective solution and has lot more features than keyword research! You can try it for free and you can subscribe to Axandra's SEO newsletter, which I highly recommend also.
2.Keyword placement and format
When you have the keywords you would like to use, you have to place and format them the right way. If you use IBP then this process will be much easier because it will analyze your site and your competitors websites and it will tell you how you can beat them!
My suggestion: Place the keywords you chose in the H1 tag and the H2 tag. Place them in 1-2 image alt tags, in the actual content make some of them bold and some of them italic. The keywords should appear in the few first and few last sentences in your content. The density of this process depends on how long is your site's content.
I recommend you to visit Brad Callen's website and subscribe to his E-Mail SEO course. Heres the link to his site:
SEO ELITE
3.What you shouldn't do if you want to rank well:
Do not place Flash on your website. The Search Engine bots doesn't like it. Do not place too much of the same keywords on your site because search engines will ban you.
Do not make your content too long on one page because it will affect your ranking. Don't use too much keywords in the Meta Description and Meta Keywords Tag.
4. Sitemap
This webpage should be implemented in your site to make the search engine bots easier to monitor your webpages. If you have a good sitemap it can be a huge help to rank better than your competition!
One more last thought! Remember every time that CONTENT is KING in On-Page optimization, so be sure to put interesting articles and content on your site which is related to the topic, your whole site discuss.
Thats it for today. I hope I could help to give you some insight and thoughts about how On-Page optimization works.
We will meet tomorrow and discuss Off-Page optimization. So be prepared!
