On-Page Search Engine optimisation

 

SEO has traditionally divided into two main areas; on-page optimisation which covers what can be done on the pages of the website itself, and off-page optimisation which covers activity that takes place elsewhere (e.g. link-building campaign).

The most effective strategy however requires an integrated approach, on-page content promoted with an off-page link building campaign within the main social media channels. If you are more interested in on-page SEO, we should probably warn you that, although it’s still very important to optimise on-page factors, it’s extremely unlikely to work on its own unless your market is particularly niche.

What areas should be optimised?

 

The body copy, URL, images, page title, meta description and headers on your page can all be optimised for SEO.

The page title is the important one – the search engines put a lot of focus on this and it’s the bit that comes up above the URL in the search results, with the meta description appearing underneath. However, the quickest way to hit the over optimisation penalty is by simply filling this with keywords.

Images can’t be seen by the search engine robots scanning your webpage, so tagging these up correctly is vital. Appropriate file names and image descriptions will help, but remember that the descriptions are also used by people too.

Optimising the URL brings a number of benefits, as well as increasing your chances of ranking. Including the appropriate keywords in the URL gives anyone looking at the URL a better understanding of what page it’ll go to. Example below: