Search Engine Optimisation 101 – On-Page SEO Part 1

Search engine optimisation isn’t as hard as you may think, if you design and develop your website with users in mind then you should already have a great foundation to build on.

Most changes which are good for users will also have an impact on your search rankings, for example changing your Title attribute to something that will provoke users to click on your result for the selected search terms will most likely give you a small advantage in the rankings.

There are many on-page and off-page factors that come into consideration when a websites position within the results is decided, fine tuning a majority of the on-page factors could be the difference between first and fifth place. In this Post I am going to talk about one of these factors, meta data.

Meta Data

Meta data can be split up into 3 sections, Title, Description and Keywords. Both the Description and Keywords attribute are not used as ranking factors within Google but if your description is good enough then it may provoke users to click your listing over a competitors, this makes the Description meta attribute a very important factor as you not only want to rank higher but you want users to click on your result also.

The secret to a good description attribute is to write as if it was an advert and contain a long tail keyword, remembering to contain a reason to pick your listing (using a special deal usually works).

When it comes tranking factors the Title attribute is the most important section of your meta data, this must not only contain selected keywords but it must provoke user clicks also. In the past people used to keyword spam the title attribute with good results, but these days keyword spam gets you nowhere.

A good example of a well formed title for a shop selling digital cameras would be:

Digital Cameras | Get Great Deals on [Brand] Cameras | [Your Brand]

The example title above not only contains your main keyword but contains a selling point and your brand name (bigger brands get better results) which will give users more reason to click on your listing.

Over the next few posts I will discuss other on-page ranking factors so keep an eye out for them

Part 2 – URL Structure

Part 3 – Content

Part 4 – Images

Part 5 – Header Structure