Good basic on-page SEO

The most effective elements of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are simple layout and structure concepts, that make each page easier to read and understand. SEO is a much talked about subject. There is lots of SEO information available, much of it contradictory and confusing. Some information even recommends doing things that will damage your website in the eyes of a search engine. This article explains the good basic SEO elements that will give you good results quickly.

Do

Structure

Use good basic HTML. Don't use unnecessary elements such as Flash, JavaScript, etc. Search engines cannot read these elements. Most users dislike them.

Keywords and keyword phrases

Select your keyword and keywords phrases for each page carefully. Each page should be targeted to specific keywords or keyword phrases. This page is targeted towards 'good basic SEO'. Search engines will determine what a page is about by the keywords and keyword phrases found on the page.

Page title tag

Choose your page title tag well. The page title (found in the <title> header tags) is the most important element a search engines uses in determining what the page is about. The title tag must include your main keywords, but must also describe your business well, and enocurage readers to click on it.

• Include your keyword phrases at the beginning of the title page. This adds maximum weight to those keywords, which is called keyphrase prominence.
• Don't use "and", do use "|" to separate keywords where necessary.
• Unless your business is a big well known brand (such as Microsoft of Coca Cola) don't start your page title with the name of your company. Start the title with your keywords.
• Put your keywords at the beginning of your page title, this is called keyword prominence. Keep your keywords together, this is called keyword proximity.
• Consider that search engines, on a search results page, will show the page title tag in bold. People will read this before decided whether to click the link or not.
• If you have a second keyphrase for the page, add is somewhere in the page title, after the primary keyphrase.
• Try and keep the page title short, 8 words or less.
• Each page should have a unique title tag.

Example: <title>primary keywords | secondary keywords</title>

Description meta tag

The Meta description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders a summary filled with multiple keywords. Some search engines use this information, others ignore it.

• Use a descriptive paragraph or sentence that is relevant to your page, don't just list keyphrases
• If possible, use a sentence or paragraph that is present in the content of your page
• Include your primary and secondary keyphrases
• Keep it 25 words or less
• Keep your keyphrases together

Example: <meta name="description" content="use a sentance or paragraph from your body text" />

Keyword meta tag

Almost all search engines currently ignore the keyword meta tag. However it is still good practice to include a keyword meta tag. Add you primary and secondary keywords and keyphrases to the tag, seperated by a commas. Some search engines do use this tag, and others may use it again in the future.

Example: <meta name="keywords" content="primary keywords, secondary keywords" />

Heading tags

Use the heading tags (<h1>, <h2>, etc.). Search engines consider the words found in the heading tags as important.

• Use a single <h1> tag, for your page title. Include your primary keyphrase
• Use <h2>, and subsequent tags (<h3>, <h4>, etc.) to nest and structure your page. Include you secondary keyphrases in these tags

This page has a single <h1> tag. The Do and Don't titles are <h2> and each recommendation uses a <h3> for its title. This is good structure for the user to follow, but also emphasises keywords for the search engines.

Page text

One of the most important tasks is to include your keywords and keyphrases heavily in your page text, as this will help seaech engines determine the topic of your webpage. Ensure your keywords and keyphrases are including several times, but do not overdo it. If you do you will incur a penalty.

• Include your keyphrases several times, try and place them as close to the top of the page as possible, as these carry the most weight.
• Include at least one of the keywords per 1-2 paragraphs, depending on how large your page is.
• Make sure you mention your main keyphrase at the very top left and the very bottom right hand side of the web page
• Repeat your keyphrases between 5 and 10 times per every 100 words.
• Always keep your text readable and easy to understand. Do not over optimize, so that it reads illogically.
• Ensuring the text is of a high quality is more important than the SEO effort.

Read the guide to optimizing keywords.

Bold and italics

Use bold and italic typeface for important keywords and phrases. People rarely read web pages. Instead they scan them. There eyes stop on keywords that are bold.

• Use bold words to catch a scanners eye.
• Use italic words when you want to emphasise a word, but you don't want to catch the scanners eye.

Search engines look for bold and italic words. Do not overdo it though, this will incur a search engine penalty.

Image 'alt' properties

Use the alt property of images. Not only does it give the visitor a better experience, but some search engines will consider the keywords.

• Ensure all images on a page have a descriptive entry for the alt property.
• Use your keywords where possible.

Internal links

Internally cross-link your pages. This adds a much better experience for your visitors, but also gives search engines a better understanding of which pages, and keywords, are related.

Hyperlink text

Choose hyperlink text well. Whether the link is to an internal or external page, search engines will use the anchor text in determining the value of a web page. Be careful not to link to external pages that will lose your visitors though.

Don't

Structure

Don't use unnecessary graphical elements such as Flash, JavaScript, image maps, or images for links. Keep it simple. Use basic HTML.

Dynamic pages

Dynamic pages are OK, but don't use dynamic pages with more than one parameter. Don't use 'id' as a parameter. Google doesn't like this.

Frames

Don't use frames. Search engines can't always index of all the pages. Users find frames difficult to use. Frames can be loaded into the wrong sections of a frame set, which is confusing.

Hidden text

Don't use hidden text. Search engines consider this cheating.

Doorway pages

Doorway pages are discouraged by most search engines.

Spam

Don't spam. Don't include long lists of words to try and increase keyword counts or density. Search engines will penalise for this.

Cheating

Don't cheat. Whatever tricks you know or have read about, the search engines know them all. Any new tricks that have been discovered will soon be news to the search engines, and they will penalise for them also. You need to avoid penalties. You also do not want to implement a cheat, get some benefit, then lose the benefit when the search engine rumbles you, and then have to remove the cheat. Its a waste of time.

Quality

Don't do anything that reduces the quality of your site, information, or visitor experience.