On-Page Optimization

On-Page Optimization Factors

On-page factors:

• Keywords
• HTML tags
• Content
• CSS
• URL rewrites

These factors can all be changed and modified by the user.  For example, I am writing this blog and I can include certain keywords or specific content to ensure that my page is being optimized.  As we learned in Week 1, each page on the internet is indexed by the crawlers.  These crawlers use all these on-page optimization factors to determine the purpose of sites so they can be found when a user searches the web.  

Keywords

Keywords are an informative word used in an information retrieval system to indicate the content of a document.  There are four tools that can be used to do Keyword Research.  This is important because you want to use keywords on-page that users most likely type into the search bar.  The four tools are Wordtracker, Yahoo, Google Suggest, and Digital Point Tool.  While doing a bit of my own research, I found Google Trends.  This could also be helpful to choose content.  

HTML tags

Crawlers can only read text.  When they crawl the html tags, they must be optimized as well to tell the users the purpose of the page.  Title tags, alt tags, meta description tags are all important to use.  These tags are important because they will appear on the SERP.  The tags will tell the crawler the significance of all the words and content on the page and be able to index it properly.

Content

“Content is King”  

Great content alone will lead people to your website.  Search engines determine whether or not your page will benefit the visitor.  New and original content will be probably rank higher because the search engine wants to offer them new content rather than content that is many years old.  The reason for this is because that information may no longer be relevant.  Heading tags, special text (bold, colored, etc.), inline text links, and keyword density hold high priority when the crawlers do their searching.  So they must not be forgotten when on-page optimization is being done!

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets are used to separate content from document presentation.  For example, what you’re currently viewing is much different than the behind the scenes HTML.  It would be distracting to view both at the same time, so CSS helps to filter and hide the formatting and other various code that makes this blog run.  

URL Rewrites

Many URLs can be bulky and easily forgettable.  We want the user to remember them and come back again and again.  It’s hard to remember all the numbers, letters, and forward slashes.  If we rewrite the URL to be more clear and concise, we will be more easily found.  

This is a great resource for how to URL rewrite:  URL Rewriting for Beginners