On Page Optimization Elements
Search Engine Optimization encompasses many different methods of obtaining higher rankings, from on-site optimization (code optimization, internal linking, inbound linking from other sites etc.) to off-site optimization (link building). What I want to do for this post is focus strictly on on page optimization elements.
1. Header tags
These tags are very important to establishing the theme or relevance of your page. They take the form of H1, H2, and H3 tags. So, if your theme or primary keyword is about Anaheim Real Estate, then you want that keyword to appear in the H1 tag of your page. Then, if you have supporting articles, you’ll want to title them with H2 tags, or even H3s if you have that many articles on your page. The whole point is to tell the search engines (and your readers) what the page is about. Here’s what typical, optimized Header tag code might look like in XHTML:
<h1 class=”style1″>Anaheim Real Estate</h1><br />
<h2 class=”style2″>Orange Real Estate</h2><br />
The class declaration is an inline style sheet declaration that, assuming the styles are called from a style sheet in the headers or an external style sheet, simply calls the styles for that class and applies them to the Header tags. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that you use minimal code. You do NOT want something as silly as 1,000 extra lines of code to drop your rankings.
2. Anchor text
Anchor text optimization is SOOO important. It helps the search engines find and rank the pages of your site based off of what is in the anchor text. So, you really need to make sure that the anchor text accurately describes the page the link is going to. If you have a page titled Fountain Valley Real Estate, then you want to have the anchor text accurately reflect that page. Let’s use the following example:
All of the real estate in Fountain Valley tends to be mid-end to higher end luxury homes. With the standards of quality rising, many home owners simply are not able to afford the most impressive Fountain Valley Real Estate.
The underlined text is known as the anchor text. This text goes to a page that’s titled Fountain Valley Real Estate, and has a ton of content about Fountain Valley. However, you can over optimize text and you don’t want to use Fountain Valley Real Estate repetitively throughout your document. You want to write your text as naturally as possible so that it’s not confusing for the user. In short, do NOT write your text strictly for search engines! You could cause your rankings to drop because of it.
3. Keyword usage
That being said, you still want to use your main keywords that you’re targeting throughout your text. Use them sparingly, though. And do NOT give in to the myth of keyword density. I have never really given much credence to the whole keyword density thing, simply because I’ve seen higher rankings achieved on sites barely any keyword density at ALL. However, keywords do matter when used within Anchor text and can help increase your rankings. But, don’t give in to over optimization. Use keywords naturally and sparingly. Don’t add 7,000 repetitions of your keywords to one paragraph. And, for Pete’s sake, do NOT make a paragraph of keywords and make them the same color of your page. That is spamming and a black hat method and Google will penalize you for it once they find out about it.
4. Linking
When setting up the home page for linking to your internal pages, you want to pay attention to how you link out to other pages. Internal linking from the home page to interior pages is important for search engine spiders to determine the kind of content that’s in your site, and how to rank those pages once they’re spidered. Link your anchor text containing your keywords to other pages that include relevant information about that text. Plus, it’s just good usability sense as well. You don’t want to use text links that are confusing and lead to pages that are not relevant to those text links. There is no need to confuse your visitor or confuse the search engines.
5. Bolding and emphasizing text
You also want to pick and choose the keywords in your text to bold and emphasize to help with relevance. Don’t go overboard, though. Do NOT bold entire paragraphs. Instead, bold keywords within anchor text, or bold keywords that are within the standard text.
That’s pretty much it for on page ranking factors. Remember to write your content to be as natural and relevant as possible, though. Write for your user, NOT the search engines, and THEN optimize your content keeping these on page elements in mind. People will naturally want to link to your content when it is really great content, which will make it that much easier to obtain those quality one way inbound links that are soooo essential for higher rankings!!