Web Page Optimization

How you rank in the search engines starts with good web page optimization which means carefully and methodically optimizing each page of your website individually.

The search engines rank pages, not websites, so every page of your website that you want to rank well for needs to be individually optimized.  For example, if your site has 50 well optimized web pages you're also giving your site 50 chances to rank well naturally within the search engines.

Basically there are two web page optimization factors that play key roles in optimizing your site's pages. They are typically referred to as 'on-page optimization' and 'off-page optimization'.

On-page optimization refers to the elements of your web page that you can optimize yourself, including good page optimization as well as your internal linking structure.  Off-page optimization refers to the links coming into your site's pages. 

Let's discuss each of them...

On-page optimization - Web Page Optimization

- Each page of your site should have its own descriptive title tag, description tag and keywords. The keywords tag is seldom used nowadays, however each page should be optimized for a maximum of 3 per page, preferably one keyword per page.

- Be sure your title tag contains your best keyword or keyword phrase.

- Use header tags (h1, h2...) in the body of your page text. Search engines look for structure and organization. Using header tags indicates good outline form.

- Bold your keyword or keyword phrase once. It's also a good idea to italicize and underline them once as well.

- Use keyword alt tags to describe an image used on your page. Since search engines don't index images, alt tags allow the search engines to recognize all your content. Be sure not to stuff them with lots of useless
information. Use your best keyword or keyword phrase and keep it short.

- Include quality, informative content on each page and keep your content fresh and updated.

- Pepper each page of your site with your keywords. Use your keywords in the first paragraph, the last paragraph and sprinkle them in between. Keep your keyword saturation at about 1-2%.

-Cross link each of your site pages by placing a navigation bar on each page. Be sure the title of each page contains what the page is about. For example, if a page is about “jewelry beads,” the page name should be “jewelry-beads.html” or “jewelry_beads.html” and all the links to that page should be named 'jewelry beads' and
set up as:

jewelry beads
  or
jewelry beads

- Create a site map. Site maps act like a table of contents. Site maps can help search engines find, crawl and index all the pages in a website ensuring that no page is left behind.

Off page optimization - linking strategies

Linking plays a large part in the optimization of your site so don't just link to any site. You should adopt a methodology in obtaining useful, quality links. Here's a few tips:

- Keep the majority of your links to sites that have a similar theme as your site. Be sure the site complements your site. It should be one that you would use and recommend.

- Links should be slow and gradual. A sudden burst of links could indicate spam to a search engine.

- The higher the page rank of the page your link is on, the better. This doesn't mean you shouldn't link to pages with a low page rank, however the higher the page rank the better it is for you.

- The title of the page your link is on should be something other than 'links.html'. If possible try to ensure it has some relevance in meaning to your site.

- When exchanging links, be sure to submit your best keyword in the anchor text. The link you submit should look something like this:
Your keyword Your site description.

See also Web page Optimization - 9 Surefire Strategies