One of the most important parts of search engine optimisation (SEO) is onpage optimisation - optimizing every aspect of a web property's design to make it as easy as possible for engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! etc., to crawl and index it properly. This article covers some basic tips you can follow when designing your pages so that they are easily crawled by spiders and indexed correctly by search engines. It also includes several additional techniques which will help boost your traffic even further if you want to take things up another notch.
The first step before any optimisations should be conducting an onsite analysis using tools such as Screaming Frog or MozBar. Once you have identified what needs work, then you need to decide how best to address them. There isn't one simple answer here; there's no "one size fits all" solution. Rather than trying to cram everything into one post I'm going to split this out over two separate posts. In part 1 we'll look at general guidelines for improving the overall accessibility of your site with good onpage SEO practices while part 2 will cover specific issues related to individual areas like images, videos, internal linking, external link building etc..
On Page Guidelines
1. Avoid keyword stuffing. If your goal is to rank well organically you must avoid spamming keywords across multiple places within a single page just because it makes you feel better about yourself. Search engines don't like it, neither do users and both will punish you accordingly. Instead try grouping related terms together and making use of natural language structure where appropriate. For example instead of writing something along the lines of “our range of products” write something more natural like “Our product line ranges from small household items to large industrial equipment”. The latter sentence has far less opportunity to be construed as spammy text since it doesn't contain many repeated words.
2. Use descriptive headers and H tags. Headers are used by crawlers to identify different sections of a document but human readers rely heavily upon headings to understand the flow of information. So keep your header tag names short and clear and include relevant subheadings. Also remember not to put too much emphasis on heading level 3s unless you're really desperate for extra clicks. Try to keep the number of levels down to a minimum.
3. Keep HTML clean and semantic. Make use of CSS classes rather than inline styles wherever applicable, especially for font sizes, colours etc. You could end up with a lot of duplicate style rules in your code which would slow down rendering time. Semantic markup helps ensure that your code is valid XHTML/CSS and follows standards set forth by W3c. Don't forget to add alt attributes to image files whenever possible. Alt attribute values allow screen reader software to provide alternative content describing visual objects on the page.
4. Include ALT text in video and audio embed codes. Many people who view these types of media assume that the default description provided automatically by YouTube or Vimeo is sufficient. However, that may not always be the case. When viewing embedded media, browsers often display tooltips providing alternate captions based on user settings. These tooltips appear below the actual caption area if available, however sometimes their appearance depends on browser type e.g. Firefox displays a popover box whereas Chrome does not. To solve this problem include a tooltip element inside the embed code itself containing the required ALT text.
5. Update metadata regularly. Metadata refers to data fields associated with digital assets including documents, photos, music, movies etc. MetaData can give searchers useful hints about what kind of file you're dealing with and provides context clues regarding its contents. Some common examples include title, author name, genre, creation date, resolution etc. As mentioned above keep your metadata updated frequently to prevent crawlers from having difficulty finding your content.
6. Remove unnecessary scripts. Scripts introduce new problems into the mix. They might cause unexpected behaviour between various versions of Internet Explorer. And although older versions of IE support JScript (a scripting technology popular among developers), newer ones do not. Even worse, script blocking extensions installed in IE8 block JavaScript from running entirely. Finally, scripts increase download times, slowing down load speed and potentially causing resource exhaustion errors. A few years ago, Google made it mandatory for websites to feature only essential scripts i.e. those needed for functionality purposes.
7. Ensure that your server returns correct HTTP status codes. Most modern servers return 200 OK responses regardless of whether the request was successful or not. But if you're unsure check with your host provider or contact technical support directly. 404 Not Found indicates that the requested file couldn't be found whilst 500 Internal Server Error means the server encountered an unrecoverable error during processing.
Specific Areas Of Focus
It goes without saying that you shouldn't go overboard with implementing changes to improve rankings in certain areas of your site. While every change you implement should ideally lead to increased organic traffic, the process of tweaking things around until you see results takes many months and involves making adjustments constantly. That said, here are a couple of key points to bear in mind when deciding exactly what improvements to focus on.
Images & Videos
You've probably heard the old adage "Content Is King". Well, if you agree then you know that quality content is absolutely necessary for ranking well in Google. Unfortunately, a huge amount of sites fail to produce anything resembling great content so you won't find yourself ranked very highly simply by virtue of being online. One way round this issue is to create original articles and publish them on blogs hosted elsewhere. Another option is to hire writers to churn out unique content for your site. Still others opt to buy prewritten blog posts from companies offering outsourcing services. Whatever route you choose to pursue, you still need to consider how you intend to get visitors to notice your content. One effective method is to place ads alongside your content which pay per click. Alternatively, you could promote affiliate offers through banners placed strategically on your homepage. Whichever approach you favour, placing relevant images and videos onto your site will greatly enhance your chances of getting noticed.
Links
If you haven't already done so, now is definitely the right time to start thinking seriously about link building strategies. Building backlinks is an integral component of achieving higher rankings in Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Baidu et al. Links are valuable resources which can either point towards your own domain or away from it. Generally speaking, you'd prefer to receive incoming links pointing towards your site. You can achieve this effect by creating compelling content worthy enough to attract attention. At a later stage you can ask potential partners to do reciprocal linking campaigns whereby they promote your content via email newsletters, social networks, guest blogging etc.
Keyword Research & Analysis Tools
To perform thorough research and find out which keywords drive traffic to your site, you should utilise free tools like Wordtracker and SEMRush. Both offer paid options which enable access to detailed reports covering keyword popularity worldwide, regional trends, industry specifics and competitive intelligence. Using these tools will let you learn more about what phrases people actually use to locate your business and whether you're missing out on opportunities due to poor targeting.