SEO Best Practice – On Page Relevancy
I have been practicing SEO since 1998. Since my first site I have always practiced a very basic On Page SEO formula, and it is based upon the simple concept of relevancy.
My theory is based on the reasoning that if all of the elements which make up On Page SEO are relevant then you will get a good ranking. These elements consist of the appropriate absolute path, Meta Tags and content. For 10 years now this theory has held up. Today it is the cornerstone of my SEO consulting practice.
How this theory works is like this.
The absolute path should contain the main topic for the page. The absolute path is of course the file name in the page URL. Instead of naming your page something like page1.html; call it what the main topic of the page is. If the page is talking about the Season 2 ending for MadMen then the absolute URL should be something like /MadMen-Season-2-final-episode.html. This is the foundation for the rest of the On Page SEO. You can use dashes or underscores to separate words, don’t leave spaces in the absolute path.
After the absolute path, look at your page title. Give the page a title! There are approximately 167 MILLION pages on Google that are Untitled. Sticking with our foundation absolute path, the correct SEO title meta tag for this page would be “MadMen Season 2 Final Episode”
Next look at the description meta tag. Most search engines display meta descriptions of pages as it gives users a clear idea of the URL’s content. This directs them to good results faster and reduces the click-and-backtrack behavior that frustrates visitors and inflates web traffic metrics. Accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, but they won’t affect your ranking within search results. Also write your description for a HUMAN audience. The description is what shows up on the search engine results page, you want it to be descriptive enough to cut through all the other sites on the results page. Keeping with our MadMen theme – a good description for this page would be:
“The Final Episode for Season 2 of AMC multi Emmy nominated TV series MadMen will leave viewers with more questions about Sterling Cooper and the life in an advertising agency on Madison Avenue in the 1960’s.”
Brief and above all descriptive!
Now we get to the Keywords. Once the darling of the SEO set, keywords cachet was squandered by “Black Hat SEOs” who used all sorts of nefarious means to increase page ranks. Keywords still carry weight with some of the search engines, so it’s still important to include them. Again, keep them relevant. On our MadMen page don’t have keywords in there in the hopes the search engines will pick them up. Don’t stuff too many keywords into the tag either. The most you should place in the keyword meta tag is 10. Our MadMen page should have these keywords:
MadMen, Season 2, Final Episode, Sterling Cooper, TV series, AMC, Emmy nominee, Madison Avenue, Advertising Agency, 1960’s
Remember the early days of the Web, when the rallying cry was that “Content was King?”. It still holds true today. Make sure your content is relevant to all of the other elements you have just worked on. If the page is going to be about the Season 2 Final Episode of MadMen, don’t start talking about the long shot possibility of a Sopranos movie!
If you follow these basic steps with your on page SEO you will be well on your way to increased Search Engine Rankings.
Is SEO still too daunting a task for you? Give me a call and I will give your site a free SEO evaluation and give you suggestions on how to improve your ranking and a no obligation estimate. My contact information is available in the tab above.
