SEO 101.2 | On Page Factors
by Marc on June 30, 2009
Slight change to what was originally planned. Whilst researching your competition is an important and integral part of Search Engine Optimisation, we first need to understand what we’ll be analysing.
Last week we looked at keyword research, its importance as a foundation for everything you do SEO-wise and how to use Google’s search based keyword tool to find keywords in your market/niche.
So now that you have your list of keywords, what are you supposed to do with them?
Two Sides of the SEO Coin
Broadly speaking, SEO can be split into two main groups; on-page and off-page. Each group is made up of a number of individual elements or factors which, by themselves, may not count for much but when combined, can significantly impact your position in the search engines.
I cannot overemphasise this fact. People are either unaware of these factors or just plain ignore them, leaving the door wide open for someone to come in and steal their position in Google.
Just ask Eric. After optimising his post to include all the on-page factors, his post went from 9th to 4th in a very short period of time.
Before we take a look at the on-page stuff, there’s one more thing you need to know.
Not All Factors Were Created Equally
A factor will contribute to the score or “weight” of a web page when search engines determine how to rank it. This weighting, however, hasn’t been uniformly distributed; some factors weigh more than others. Just to complicate things, there are factors at play that we don’t know anything about. They’re invisible, known only to the upper echelons of Google.
Add to this the fact that Google can and has altered factor weights on a whim, you can see why it is nigh on impossible to determine the exact weightings .
So what does this mean for you?
Well actually, it’s not that bad. Sure Google has changed its algorithms, but the only ones that have suffered to date have been the ones trying to game the system.
If you think about all the factors I’m about to teach you as little checkboxes, ticking each one can only result in a net positive effect on your overall rankings. You won’t get punished for including all these factors and you certainly won’t be punished for *not* including them either. You may lose out on ranking, but that’s all.
On Page Factors
We’re starting with the on-page factors because these are the things you have direct control over. In no particular order they are:
- Title: Do the keywords appear in the HTML title of the webpage; i.e. the text that appears between the <title> and </title> tags?
- URL: Do the keywords appear anywhere in the URL (preferably the domain itself)?
- Header: Do the keywords appear inside any HTML header elements (H1, H2, H3)?
- Description: Do the keywords appear in the meta description for the web page?
And that’s it.
Yes, really. That’s all there is to know about on page SEO factors. A nice and easy topic I think
Thursday we’ll take a look at the off-page factors, but until then, any questions?
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Previous post: How to Conduct Keyword Research and Pick the Right Words for Your Site
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish you were an SEO plumber or painter and decorator, you know, those guys who come to the house and say “That needs fixing, missus. What you really want is a ……That needs cleaning out. How long have you had this bloomin’ thing?” then they bring round all the new boilers and paint or whatever and just fix it all.
I know I need to learn it all and I’ll learn through doing, but there’s just so much! Thank God for Thesis. It’s helping me do it a wee bit at a time.
This is great stuff, Marc; it really is. Thank you.
janice´s last blog ..Take Time to Treasure What’s Important
That would be pretty cool wouldn’t it? I can just imagine me going around to people’s homes givin’ advice and speakin’ with a thick East End accent
I’d have to learn all the terminology though. I mean, “Wot’s slang fer ‘advice’?”
Since I know you love answering questions Marc, here’s a few for you:
1. Does on-page SEO apply to blog post pages as well as static pages? Is there any difference in the SEO between these two types of pages?
2. I read once that for blog posts, the permalink should be made up of “site url/category/post title” where the category is a keyword. Since my blog post titles tend not to contain keywords (except where I’m writing a tongue-in-cheek post on keywords) that’d work to include keywords, yes?
3. Where do I find the Meta Description for the page, and how do I add to it or change it?
Please feel free to pretend I’m about eight years old when explaining this. Although kids these days would probably know the answers already…. Maybe you should pretend I’m 80yo….
Melinda | WAHM Biz Builder´s last blog ..Monthly Book Giveaway – “Why We Buy”
(@Mel, This is me whispering and passing a note and a sweet to you in the back of the class while we’re waiting for the teacher; I just wanted to say it’s nice to be together in his boxes again.
)
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@Mel Great questions, thanks for taking the time to ask.
1. SEO applies to all web pages. There’s no difference in the SEO either. All of the on (and off) page factors apply and will assist with the ranking of both types. There are some subtle things you need to be aware of when using Wordpress with the All in One SEO, or Thesis, but that is something I will go over in a future post.
2.Very good question. I don’t know if you noticed, but in the keyword research article, on the second screenshot, I teased about the categories section on the Google tool.
Well Google adores categorisation. So if you match your categories with one of the categories Google has chosen, then pleasant things will occur to your rankings
So in answer to your question. No, I don’t believe the category should be a keyword. It should be the same category Google has assigned your keyword to. Does that make sense?
3. In the HEAD section of the HTML for your page should be a tag: < meta name="description" content="..." >. The meta description goes inside the content=”…” bit. Since I know you are using the All in One SEO plugin, it’s even easier for you. When writing a post scroll down through the options and you should find a section titled “All in One SEO Pack”. The content you want for your Meta Description goes in the Description box.
@Janice I hope you brought enough sweets to share with everyone young lady!
You get a whole handful of sweets for the excellent homework you handed in for my ‘Comma 101′ class!
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