On Page Factors

Seeing as we want our website to go well in the Search Engines we will have to look at some of the factors that will help us to achieve this end goal. There are two main sections to this endeavor which is called search engine optimization or SEO for short. They are On Page optimization as well as Off Page optimization.

On page Optimization is talking about how your actual web page is structured and how you use the elements of your web page. It is that simple.

The part most people struggle with at first is that not everything to do with on page optimization can be seen on the page like the text you are reading right now. So for arguments sake lets add an extra definition to it. When we are talking about on page optimization we will be talking about what makes up a page that appears on the internet.

So that includes the words you are reading now as well as the words behind this page which makes it so these words can be read. Which is called the code. Also how any good book has a title as well as a description inside it's jacket, so can every web page. Also like a good book it should have chapters and be easy to find things within its covers, yet that has more to do with the book than one of it's pages, so I will get back to the page at hand.

Seeing as this is written in English and we read from the top of the page, then from left to right as we work our way down the page we may as well follow that blueprint. Seeing as we are just starting lets begin with what we can see.

You will want a heading to start with.

Next you will want to add what you want to say as well as any images, videos or audio you may want to use.

This should be written an laid out for your human visitors with no regard to what the Search Engines may think of it.

In fact, it may help if you think that Google will be sending millions of people to your web page. Thinking that way will help you to focus on your message as well as your presentation. After all, people are who you are writing it for, so this is a good habit to get into from the very beginning.

Now that you have your page written and are happy with the way it reads and looks for a human visitor, let's do the same thing for the Spiders or Robots. That got you thinking.

A Robot is code or a script which is used by Search Engines to go around the internet and reads and records what is on the various pages on the internet. Seeing as the internet is also referred to as the Web, the robots have been affectionately called Spiders, as they crawl the web looking for and keeping track of all the information on the internet, which is taken back and sorted out in a Data centre. One page at a time. That is not saying they are slow or will only read one page each time they come to your website. It is saying each page is read entirely and a record kept for that page. Once that page's information is stored in the Data centre it is referred to as being indexed, just think of it as being on file. Once your web page appears in the results the Search Engine offers to it's end users, your page is then counted as being in the index.

Ok so I knew what to say to our human visitors, what am I going to tell the Spider when it comes to our web page and how do I tell it anything anyway, you may be wondering.

Thank fully this is the easy part as there is a system in place or protocol if you will. These are called Meta tags and same as with our normal page we want to convey a message, yet in a brief format.

Starting at the top again we want a heading, this is called the Page Title Tag. If you remember back to our picture of how Google displays a listing the Page Title Tag is what is first displayed for each listing and is an exact replica of what you use, it is also the blue link in your listing that Google displays.

Next we want to our message, this is called the Page Description Tag. It should be no more than about three short sentences that capture what your page is about, yet in a condensed version. Thinking back to how Google displays a listing, this is the black text beneath the Page Title Tag. Also if you remember I said that Google may use your description if it is accurate and relevant to the term your page is ranking for, well this is that description I was referring to. Also if you think back I said a page can sometimes appear for more than one different term in the Search Engine results and as such they may make their own description instead of using yours, so if you don't use this Tag it is ok as they know how to write one.

Next we have the Keywords Meta Tag.

Think of these as bullet points of the most important words on your page if you were giving a presentation. This tag was heavily abused by people so is not counted that much anymore if at all, yet so you know what it is we will cover it a little bit. If you had a diamond ring store and specialized in diamond engagement rings, then you would use diamond rings, diamond engagement rings as your 2 main keyword terms. I use to use upto 8 different words or terms and as little as 1, depending on my pages content as that is what it should be based on. Keywords as you will discover are very important, yet not in this area. We will cover how to use them as we go but lets finish this page first.

Seeing as we are dealing with words we will leave the Meta Tags there at the moment, as we still need to place some emphasis on our page and help it out a little bit so we will address the most important Meta Tag and then move back to polish up our readable page.

The most important Meta Tag and the only one I fill in any more is the Page Title Tag

This is one of those On Page aspects that you actually can't see on page, yet you will see it in your browser.

Notice how I also have named the page the same as my Page title Tag. If you have a look at that page you will see that the heading on the page will be the same. If you look at this page it will work identically yet for On Page Factors.

There are 3 main reasons.

It looks tidier to the website visitor. Would you expect a page about Babies Bottles to be called Turpentine or Babies Bottle? and which would give you more cause to leave in a panic?
It helps with the Search Engine rankings a little bit as it is properly named.
It helps me stay focused and organized and makes my life easier if I have to edit a page latter on.

As with our Page Meta Description if we had of written one that is to help the Spider tell what the main point of the page is. Here we are doing exactly the same thing. Also for our human visitor the heading is like a Headline from a newspaper or magazine and from reading it they should have a very good idea about what the rest of our page's content is about.

The same thing goes for any sub headings we may use, they should encapsulate the theme of the following text.

I usually will use a Heading 1 Tag for my first heading on the page as the Heading 1 tag is the most powerful of the heading tags so it makes sense to use it there as that is where I want my most important message, rather than hidden amongst a paragraph at the bottom of the page.

With your Heading tags a H1 tag is the most important and carries the most weight, it is also the largest in size and then it works down from there to a heading 6 tag as the smallest in size by default as you can see below.

Yet you are not restricted to those sizes, colors or fonts as you can see below, yet getting your message across clearly, should always be your main objective.

"your message should be more important than what it is wrapped in"
Unless you have a Graphics site.

I heard something about Keywords