Techniques to follow for on page search engine optimisation

Domain names:

  • It seems that having a domain name with a keyword may have a benefit.

File Names / File Paths / URLs:

  • As with Domain name used with keywords may have a benefit.

Header tags:

  • Page titles are one of the more influential things to use for SEO and should contain the keywords / phrase for that page. They should be unique for each page - do not use the same Title for multiple pages. Page titles should give a clear idea of what the page is going to be about.
  • Descriptions should be unique and Informative and further expand on the page title.
  • Keywords should only be relevant to the page they appear on and avoid using as many keywords in the tag as possible.

Content:

  • The H1 tag should only be used once per page and should be the most important text on the page.
  • H2 / H3 / H4 etc tags can be used to provide sub-headings, breaking up the content, again should be used once only on the page.

Navigation:

  • Use meaningful text, preferably keywords, for the link, don’t use “click here”.
  • Link title attribute should be used to describe and inform in a short sentence what will be found at the  destination page.

Images:

  • Alt attributes should convey the same message as the image.  If a product, for example, describe it as well as including the product title.

Links out:

  • Linking out may help get some recognition as an authority with Google based on the sites you link to.
  • Only link to relevant/topical/quality/useful sites.

Content:

  • Content is very important!  IF you don’t have something that can be read by visitors and bots, then you are basically wasting your time.
  • You should have unique, informative and well written content.

Do not:

  • keyword stuff any of the above.
  • copy other sites.
  • use junky or spammy content.
  • fill pages up with just images.
  • load content using JavaScript.
  • load pages in Frames.
  • have Flash only based content.

Background to this post:

The list above has come about through observation, testing and experimentation of what currently works best for the main search engines.  Results from forums and other blogs are also included once they have been tested.

If you have any observations you would like to make please comment.