There are hundreds and hundreds of different SEO strategies available. Some of them are considered “off-site,” meaning the work you are doing to promote your web site isn’t actually being done to your site like link building and advertising. The other type of SEO strategy, “on-site SEO,” refers to different tactics and practices you use on your actual web site like headers, content, etc. While both are very important for your overall SEO goals, on-site optimization gives you more control over your efforts since it is being done to your own web site. Depending on your reasons for beginning an SEO campaign for your site, you may need to do all or some of these tips. Regardless of your motives, all of these SEO strategies are proven to be important for SEO and the overall look and feel of your web site.
- Title and Description Tags - This is one of the easiest and most important things that you must do for your web site. Currently, the titles of your web pages are having a great impact on your search engine rankings. Many of the top SEO professionals agree that this might be the biggest factor in search engine results right now. The description tags won’t have quite as much effect as the title tags but it’s important to write a nice, 2-4 line description about your web site and what its purpose is. It is also important that you have unique titles for all of your different web pages that describe the content on the page. Using your targeted keywords in both your title and description tags will help you rank for those words.
- Content Titles and Subtitles – Search engines will recognize the H1 and H2 tags in your source code. Use CSS files to set the font, color, etc. of your titles and subtitle so you can take advantage of the H1 and H2 tags. The search engines will find those tags and place an importance on the words within them so it makes sense to use some of your targeted keywords within your titles and subtitles. Search engine place a bigger emphasis on these because they believe that people use their title and subtitles to describe the content of the page. If you match some of the keywords in your H1 and H2 content titles as well as your web page titles, you will rank higher for the keywords you are using.
- Use Text Links - JavaScript and other recent programming codes have made the appearance of web site more sleek and interactive for the users. Many people are using JavaScript for their web site headers and navigational buttons. The problem with JavaScript is that it is basically useless for search engine bots. They are unable to read the text (which may be important keywords) or follow any of the links you have set to your other pages which may result in few of your pages being indexed. If you can avoid using JavaScript for navigation, it will help more and more of your web pages make it into the search engine’s index. If you can’t avoid using JavaScript, place navigation text links at the bottom of your screen. When linking on your site, use informative anchor text like “Product XYZ” instead of “click here”.
- Content – The days of keyword stuffing are long gone. Overloading your page copy with your targeted keywords is going to hurt you more than help you. Use your keywords naturally as if you didn’t know they were keywords. Internet users will recognize when you’re overloading your text with keywords. The most important part about your content is that it’s informative, well-written and reads naturally.
- Use Static Pages - It is very important that all the information that you would like indexed in the search engines is on a static page. The search engines have much harder time locating and indexing dynamic pages. This will also help you when you are doing off-site SEO like link building. You are also much more likely to receive links from other pages if your URL is not excessively long and easy to remember.
- Robots.txt – Use the robots.txt file to prevent the search engine bots from indexing content that you don’t want indexed. The robots.txt file gives you the most control over the search engine spiders and lets you guide them through your site.
- Links Page – If you trade links or just like to link to lots of other web sites, it looks better for users and search engine bots if you group them into a directory on a separate Links page that is accessible from your main page or site map.
- Site Map – A site map is a quick fix to getting more pages indexed. Make sure you link to your site map from your main page, typically in the footer. While you are creating your site map, always use text links to help the search engine spider go where you want it to. If you have hundreds of web pages, create your site map in a hierarchal form with only your higher level web pages. Many search engines also support the use of a sitemap.xml at the root of your site. In your sitemap.xml file you can do all the things you do in a static sitemap page but also give the spider some more information like how often each page is updated.
- Alt Tags – When you put an image on your web site, you have the option of using ALT tags to describe the image. ALT tags are beneficial because if your image doesn’t load, it will display the ALT tag text instead of a blank box. Internet software for the visually impaired also uses this text to help describe what is on your web site.
- 404 Page – Include links to your homepage, main categories and possibly a search box on your 404 page so lost visitors can find what they are looking for instead of leavings your site.
