On Page SEO Tips - A Short Guide
When it comes to getting your website seen in the search engines, a little on page SEO can go a long way to getting better rankings.
Why?
Because by doing on page SEO and the best practices that accompany it, you are effectively telling the search engines what a specific page on your website is about. Plus, it provides the user with a better experience, because they can (based on the text produced in the search results) instantly tell whether or not your page is worth their time due to its relevancy to their query.
In the past, "black hat" SEO folks would do all kinds of tricks to game the search engines by doing on page SEO techniques that were questionable at best. Luckily the search engines caught on to this and have leveled the playing field by making those techniques useless.
While on page SEO alone won't boost your rankings as much as link building and other off page SEO factors will, it's still important and is something that CAN give you a boost, all other things considered equal.
So what are the things that you absolutely MUST do when it comes to on page SEO? Here they are:
1. Title tag - This tag is found in the HTML section <head></head>. Basically a title tag does what it says... it gives your site a title that's displayed in the browser window. More importantly, however, is that the title you use will appear in the search results as the "clickable" link that is displayed. So make sure your title contains at least one instance of your keyword. If your particular page is all about women's winter boots, then make sure your title contains the term, "women's winter boots." But don't just use the keyword. Make your title descriptive and useful, in as few words as possible.
2. Meta description tag - This is the second most important tag that needs to be optimized for your on page SEO efforts. This tag tells the search engines what your page is about, in a few sentences. This description is also used in the search results to expand upon the title of your page. In this description, give a short blurb about your particular page and what it is about. Also, make sure to include your particular keyword at least once.
3. Meta keywords tag - This is not as important as the other two tags, but it still can't hurt to include and optimize on your pages. Basically, this includes any keywords that are related to a particular page on your site. So if on a page you mention, "women's boots, winter gloves, and elegant purses" you'll want to include those main terms in your meta keywords tag.
Well, that about covers the most important aspects of on page SEO. There are other things you can do in the main content of a page as well, but that's a whole different article. For now, just start with these foundational on page SEO tips to start improving your rankings.
And one more thing - these on page SEO "best practices" should be done for every page on your site. You don't want every single page on your site to have the same title, meta description, and meta keywords, because not every page on your site is the same.
This is something the search engines WILL look at, so make sure you take the time and effort to do your on page SEO properly from the start.
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