What Is On Page SEO?

With search engine optimization there are two types of SEO you need to consider: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. Today we define “what is On Page SEO?”

Defining On Page SEO?

“Its the process of optimizing the individual pages on your website to rank higher for specific keywords in order to drive relevant traffic.” You have complete control over on-page factors so its important that you take the time to get them right.

Top Three On-Page SEO Factors

The Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors defines 20 different on-page seo factors. Here are the three that will have the highest SEO impact on your website and pages.

1. Quality Content

Defining what is “quality content” can be somewhat difficult when you think about the competing interests. On one side you want to publish content that your reader will find relevant and informative. On the other side you want to make sure that the search engines also like your content and find it relevant for a specific set of keywords. After all, you want Google to index your content so that potential readers will find it based on certain keyword searches.

Google doesn’t provide an actual definition to Quality Content but they do provide some basic principles:

• Create pages and content for users, not search engines
• Don’t trick or deceive your users
• Don’t manipulate the page to improve search rankings
• Be unique

The take away is that your content should create content for your reader; not search engines. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t optimize web pages, but just don’t do so at the expense of the readers experience.

2. Search Engine Crawlability

Crawlability is the ability for search engines to go through and index the assets of your site. These assets include:

• Pages
• CSS
• Images; and
• Javascript

Search engines should be able to index your site without session id’s or arguments to track the bots crawl path.

Other ways you can improve crawlability include the use of:

• A robot.txt file
• Have readable site navigation
• Have a submitted xml sitemap
• A html sitemap; and
• Utilize internal links.

3. Relevant Keyword In Page Titles

One of the most important elements on any web page is your Title Tag. The title of each page should include your most relevant keyword for the content on the page. Your page title will also be likely shown in:

• The title of the tab in your browser.
• On Search engine results pages
• On external sites such as Twitter or Facebook as anchor text

To optimize your title tag do the following:

• Use only one per page and place it in the site head tag.
• Use your best keyword or keyword phrase.
• Don’t use a bunch of different keywords to form your title.
• Put your best keywords in the title and secondary keywords in body tags.
• Keep the title length to 50-60 characters when possible.
• If you have your company name in each page title make sure it comes after the keywords (the exception is where the brand is really strong and will make a difference in the number of clicks you would receive).
• Each page on your site should have a unique page title.

Both On and Off-page SEO are important, so its not a case of one or the other. In terms of control, though, it’s easier to control on-page factors as all of the work takes place within the code and content of your website. With some planning and execution you can ensure that you maximize your search engine optimization efforts and put your self in a position to capture attention from search engines and searchers.