Basic on-page SEO Tips for success.

There are at least 200 different factors that Google uses to determine the position of your website in its search engine results page (SERP). Many of these 200 factors are secret and known only to Google.  But there are plenty that we DO know about that can be used to improve your Google position. First and foremost are the on-page optimization techniques.

1. Research the best keywords
2. Pick a good domain name
3. Don't hide behind anonymity
4. Age matters - older is better
5. Show commitment to your website
6. Choose your hosting company carefully
7. Have a unique title for every page in your website
8. Be open and transparent
9. Don't bother with META keywords
10. Help Google to choose the right description snippet
11. Use Heading 1 text, with key phrases, at top of the page

1) Research the right keywords or key phrases.

Choosing the correct works to optimize for is our first task. You may thing you already know what words you want to use, but have you chosen the right ones. Let's say, that you offer "dreamweaver training courses" you might assume that you should optimize for the key phrase "dreamweaver training courses" or maybe if you want to localize it to your own town with the key phrase "dreamweaver training courses london"

But what to your potential clients actually search for? They might actually be searching for "adobe dreamweaver courses" or "learn adobe dreamweaver".  Use the Google Adwords keyword tool to find out exactly what your target audience are searching for

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2) Choose your domain name (and sub-domain names) carefully

Keeping with the "dreamweaver training" example, a good domain name would contain both those key words.

So a domain of dreamweavertraining.com would be ideal. You might consider also getting the domain
dreamweaver-training.com as well, and make it an alias to the one without the hyphen.  This would help protect your branding and corporate identity. There was a time when having a hyphen in a domain name, to separate the two key words, would actually provide an advantage and boost your Google ranking and position.  But these days, Google can easily pick out the two well known words "dreamweaver" and "training"  from the domain name dreamweavertraining.com . 

It has been shown that having a hyphen in a domain name can actually reduce it's click-through rate. Having multiple hyphens in a domain name gives an impression of "spamyness" which you would definitely want to avoid.

If you want to localize your product, (let's say for example you are offering dreamweaver training courses in London) then the domain name of dreamweavertraininglondon.com might be better.

However, if you can, then sub-domains would give you more flexibility.  If you have been lucky enough to get the main domain of dreamweavertraining.com the the sub domains of

• london.dreamweavertraining.com
• manchester.dreamweavertraining.com
• birmingham.dreamweavertraining.com
• bristol.dreamweavertraining.com

will give you the flexibility to expand into different cities, without having to purchase and manage new domains.

3) Do NOT try to remain anonymous

You want to be legitimate and honest when dealing with Google So check your whois records and ensure there's a visible record of the person or company which owns the domain, address, telephone number and email address. Update it if necessary. If you try to hide yourself and remain anonymous, Google might not trust you and might not rank you as highly as you would like.

4) Age matters - older domains are considered more important

So when buying you domain name, you might do better to buy one that has already been registered and preferably bee registered for a long time.  Of course the costs of doing this, and finding a domain name that you like, within you budget, might make this impossible.

5) Show that you are in it for the long run

Google is assumed that if you've started your online business you are going to be around for a long time. So go for a longer renewal period of 2 plus years - it makes you look more respectable and less "fly-by-night".

6) Avoid "bad neighbourhoods" for your web hosting

Get a fixed clean IP address with a reputable, reliable and well established hosting company and stick with it. Steer clear of hosting companies that also host disreputable websites such as gambling or adult sites.

7) Have a unique title for every page in your website

make sure that the title of the page, that is contained in the <title> tag within the <head> tag at the top of the HTML file, contains a different title to every other page on your website.

Google changes the rules about how many words it recognises, but typically it needs to be more than 9 words long.

Make sure that your keywords or key phrase is close to the beginning of the title.

The word in the title have an influence of the search engine results. They also affect your click-though rate.  If a user sees words that they have just searched for, they are more likely to click on the link.

That is why I ALWAYS have the keywords or key phrase prominently displayed in the title. No matter how exciting you web page is, it will be the title that potential customers see first. Potential customers see the page title in the Google search engine results page (SERP). So make you title count, because that what they will be clicking on.

 

The title of the website www.advance-training.co.uk is just one of the many reasons why it scores so well for "dreamweaver training" on google.co.uk

It even beats Adobe, and they actually make Dreamweaver!

8) Be open and transparent

Have your privacy policy and terms or conditions clearly visible on every page if possible and add them to your site maps. Also show you address and phone number and, if possible, a photo of your offices and even a profile picture of the CEO.

9) META keywords tags are not worth bothering with, but META description tags are

META tags will not improve your ranking on Google. In fact, on some search engine a META Keywords tag may actually harm your ranking. If you have a META keywords tag which includes words that are not mentioned anywhere on that page, the search engine may accuse you keyword stuffing your META keywords tag. That is, stuffing key words into your META keywords tag in the hope of getting found with those words, even though your page does not contains any of those words. So you might actually be penalized for those words instead of boosted.

You best option is not to have a META keywords tag at all because it does not improve your Google position. It also gives your competitors a list of what keywords you are interested in, and may give them some ideas that they haven't yet thought of.

However, a good META description tag is essential. The snippet of text that appears below the page title in the search engine results page (SERP) is controlled by the META Description tag.

So META tags do not improve your SERP position, but they do improve you click-through rate.  And that, by a tiny margin, does improve your position in the Google results. The more people click to visit your page, the better.

Every page MUST HAVE A UNIQUE DESCRIPTION.

10) Using your own description instead of the one from dmoz

If you are lucky enough to have your website listed in the Open Directory Project (ODP) http://www.dmoz.org/ you may find that Google is using the description from ODP  rather than the snippet you have specified on your META Description tag, which may be more up to date.

Include this META tag in the HEAD part of your page to prevent

<meta name="robots" content="noopd" />

or use this (below) to prevent Google from using up the Yahoo directory description

<meta name="robots" content="noydir" />

or this (below) to advise Google to ignore both OPD and yahoo descriptions.

<meta name="robots" content="noopd,noydir" />

11) Use Heading 1 at the top of the page

This page has the phrase "The coolest guy on the planet's on-page SEO tips" in H1 text, close to the top of the page.  In fact, close to the top of the HTML file is more accurate. Look at the source of this page and notice that there are very few lines of HTML before the start of the <BODY> tag and that this H1 text is almost the first first string of text inside that body tag.

With the right on-page SEO techniques it is possible to score well on Google and maybe, just maybe, get to the top of Google for the phrase "the coolest guy on the planet".

 

• Get the on-page optimization correct first
• Get relevants links to the site
• Submit the sitemap to Google

Share