Good SEO – My top 10 on-page factors

The internet is almost saturated with on-page tips and tricks and how one should build your pages so that Google likes them. What’s important and what is not. What should you do and what should you avoid. I will attempt to write it in my own words because I really feel that so many webmasters do not grasp what seems to be good on-page optimization.

Let’s start from the top with the most important factors. (just a note to the other professional SEO’s, i write this for the laymen out there who would like to learn more. The examples I use are purely fictional (although the domain www.mcgregor.co.za does exist) I used the examples below to better support my demonstration.

The Domain Name
Have you seen those domains (especially universities and science websites) that look like this “www.usv.ac.gov.us” – wow! What on earth does that mean? How will i remember that? How will i FIND that?

Make it as descriptive as possible (short and sweet). Let us for argument sake call it www.mcgregor.co.za. This domain name tells me that this website contains some info about McGregor. With a .co.za domain i know that this website is most likely about the town of Mcgregor and any subsequent search for anything “McGregor” in South Africa is bound to bring up this website in the SERPS given that the rest of my 10 on-page factors were implemented correctly.

The Page URL
This for me is the back-bone of any website. WordPress has caught on nicely but here is an example of how you design your SEO friendly file and folder structure.

Something like this: www.mcgregor.co.za/breede-river-accommodation.html or www.mcgregor.co.za/wedding-venues.html or www.mcgregor.co.za/restaurants-breede-river-valley.html. Follow all these steps and you cannot go wrong from a search engine perspective. (Craig are you reading this?)

The Page Title
How many websites out there still have “Untitled”, “Home”, “Default” or “Mary’s Home Page” as a title? C’mon, make it descriptive for heavens sake! Describe your pages to humans and search engines! They both love it! A page without a title is like trying to find a book without a cover in a library.

An example of a good title: Accommodation in McGregor – Breede River Valley Bed and Breakfasts (note: Matt Cutts says it doesn’t matter if you use a pipe (|) or dash (-) in the title contrary to popular belief) In the above example i have catered for both the highly competitive search phrase “Accommodation in McGregor” AND i combined it with another great search term “Breede River Valley Bed and Breakfasts”.

This way i cover the town of McGregor, I cover the Breede River Valley in which this town is nestled and i mention Bed and Breakfast. (I must say, that’s a great title) Remember that Google cuts your title off in the SERPS after 66 characters, so plan it carefully and make it super descriptive without keyword spamming the living daylights out of it Penny. Got it? That’s an easy one.

The META Description
What? OK, it’s the paragraph that you see in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). You first see a link which contains your newly crafted and awesome title and then a little paragraph with well written “marketing” copy in it. (most of the time not)

The META Description tag is where you give a short and sweet synopsis of what your page is about. You have 150 characters to pull off this amazing feat. Do it well! This doesn’t do much for your rankings BUT, it does wonders for your CTR (click through rate).

Why? Because, potential visitors click on the link and text that reflects most with the search they did! The more it grabs their attention the better. An example of good META Description is something like this; “Fine accommodation inspired by Scottish passion. This exquisite Guest Lodge overlooks the expanse of the Breede River Valley and the blue mountains beyond.” – What’s wrong with that? Wow. Love it.

The H1 heading tag
See the big red heading at the top of this page? Nice hey? That’s it. Give your page a cool description that will tell your readers and Google exactly what this page is about. So far Google can see via my domain, my page URL, my META data and my H1 heading tag that this page is most definitely about McGregor and accommodation in this area of the Breede River Valley and I don’t blame it. We basically forced it down Google’s throat. (which is, a good thing)

(five to go…hang in there Craig)

Descriptive and relevant Content
Get a copywriter and write some good copy for your site. (not like me, English is not even my 1st language) You went through all the trouble of getting that sought after domain, then you built a great file and folder structure (not gonna link to it again) and you’ve made pretty sure Google and humans understand what this website is about. No?

Pay that guy or girl to write some beautiful poetry for your website. Make it count! There’s nothing worse than a website that leaves you feeling empty and frustrated because it did not deliver on it’s initial promise. You’ve got all the time in the world. This can make or break your site. Give each page as much attention to detail as possible. Try and preempt the visitor’s questions. Write as much as you can on each topic.

Before I carry on. Remember this (even if you forget everything else including your own name). Each page in your website needs a unique page URL, a unique page title, a unique Meta Description, a unique H1 header and last and most importantly – unique content! Write unique content for each of your pages.

Navigation
Do not use Flash or funky buttons for your nav! Make it text-based people! Google loves reading text and it understands text better than Flash or images. Refrain from using images as a means of navigation! It’s as good as telling Google you’re going to make it as difficult as possible to crawl your site.

Include the title=”" tag in your links as it not only helps to describe the link better for humans, but also tells Google a bit more about the specific link. An example of the title=”" in action: Weddings in McGregor. Hover your mouse over the two links in the article a little higher up, see? Ok.

Anchor text as your contextual links
You are merrily writing away paragraph upon paragraph. Include links to some of your other pages in your text! Why not?

It not only helps the reader navigate to other pages but Google REALLY loves this one. Reading, reading, reading –> Bam! New page! Reading, reading, reading –> Bam! Another new page! Get it? It’s awesome.

Example of linking via your copy: “The Breede River Valley offers some great wine tasting. Spend a day in the sun under the willow trees while indulging in our delectable picnic baskets! (i know, i know) But that’s how you do it.

The footer
Yes, add all your most important pages in the footer navigation. It looks good and it works for the reader because he can skip right to the next page he’s interested in once he reaches the bottom of any page. Another way for Google to crawl the site.

The Sitemap
Call it sitemap.html. Simple. Create a page where you list a kind of a organigram of your site layout listing all your pages.

Benefits include:
Google can crawl and index your entire site in one go by only visiting this page! Awesome hey?

Ok! Hope this helps!
Till next time ciao!
goodseo