Our previous SEO articles have focused on off page factors that improve your SEO opportunities. In this week’s article, we’re going to switch the focus and talk about on page factors.

Keep in mind that no matter how attractive a website may be it must also be search engine optimized if users are going to be able to find it. Optimization is more than submitting your site to search engines. It’s about optimizing your site to appeal to those engines and more importantly to qualified traffic, who are those users who have a vestment in using your products or services.  

The Keyword
When you approach a web design team it’s extremely helpful to have a list of keywords. These keywords can be extremely helpful in helping to set the over all visual theme of your site. More importantly, they will allow your web developers the opportunity to construct a search engine friendly website at the code level.

Your keyword choices are essential to your website success; choose wisely. In fact, it’s a good idea to get your web design and development team to get involved and have them run an analysis on your keyword choices in relation to the competition and actual usage in search engines.  

One thing we have noticed is that website owners often get confused about what a keyword is. We’re often given a set of thematic keywords. To be clear, keywords are those words and phrases relevant to your industry that you believe users will use to find you in a search engine.

• Each page of your website is a separate entity and should be optimized with its own title and target keywords.
• Because search engines look at the file name, each page should be named with a targeted keyword relevant to that page’s content.
• It’s essential that the keyword and its variants be on the page in the text.
• Watch keyword density.
• Too little means you won’t be found.
• Too much and you will be penalized

Title Tags
The second most crucial on page SEO factor is the title tag. Again, consider keyword inclusion mandatory.  Title tags are not for branding your company.

Headers
In code headings are designated with specific tags. These tags run the gamut from h1 to h6. Search engines take particular notice of this code. It is in fact, a red flag signaling the search bot that the information contained within this code is highly significant to the page.

It’s best to have a singular h1 tag that contains your main keyword. H2 through h6 tags are used to signal your secondary keywords.

These are three simple on page factors to increase your SEO opportunities. As a website owner, it is essential that you not only talk to your web team but listen as well. We are here to help you build a better website.