Over the last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about SEO and how it directly affects my business. I was thinking about the foreseeable future of search engine optimization and how there’s a big possibility that on page optimization will become increasingly more important. While some may beg to differ, I believe it’s totally possible. At the same time, it’s highly likely that off page optimization will remain king and on page queen.

Anyway, to help you make the most of on page SEO, I decided to make a sort of checklist. So incorporate the following on page SEO factors into your overall SEO strategy and you’ll be positioning yourself to receive traffic before you even start link building.

1. Keyword Density

Starting with the most obvious and well known one, you must use keyword density to your advantage. You don’t want to stuff your content full of keywords as it just makes you look like a spammer. While there isn’t exactly a rule as to the exact keyword density you’re allowed, most experts are saying 5% is good. I’ve written and published hundreds of pieces of content using anywhere between 1 and 20% keyword density. I didn’t really see any difference apart from the 20% looked really dumb. So try and get your keyword density to around 3-6% tops.

2. Keyword In URL

Always, always incorporate your keyword into your URL. Doing this can actually make a big difference. I’ve seen it proven time and time again, it really helps.

3. Keyword In Title

I really don’t need to write a paragraph on this as it’s obvious. Your title explains what your page is about. By including your keyword in your title, it straight away tells the search engines exactly what your page is about.

4. Keyword In Description

Another obvious one, always include your keyword in the description. With the description, you can generally include multiple keywords. I always say make use of the description and include several keywords as long as it doesn’t look spammy.

5. Header Tags, H1, H2 & H3

Using header tags has been proven to work very well. While most people only use the H1 tag, I’ve definitely noticed a small difference when using all three. Really simple to do, make use of it and you’ll notice a slight benefit.

6. Image alt tag

Images aren’t like normal content. Search engines can’t actually analyze them or even figure out what they’re about. So you need to tell them by using an image alt tag. Using alt tags used to be really beneficial, the importance of them has slowly deteriorated. Although, it’s still a good idea to include your keyword in an image alt tag. If you’re using WordPress, you’ll be able to enter an alt tag upon inserting your image.

7. Extras

Just a few extras you might want to make use of. Include your keyword in your first and last sentence. Also include it in 2 links to other pages. External and internal. Why do it? I have no idea… experts say it’s good for on page SEO.

8. 301 Redirects 

This is actually vital as it can impact your site more than anything else. It can, but it probably won’t. If you’re using domain.com, you should setup a redirect for www.domain.com as you you’ll get people linking to the wrong domain. If you get say 50 webmasters linking to your site each week, half of them might link to www.yourdomain.com instead of just yourdomain.com. If you don’t setup a redirect, you’ll lose out on backlinks.

8. No-follow tags

Using no-follow tags for external linking is a great idea. Linking out to dodgy sites can actually damage your rankings, but that’s not the main reason. The main reason is that it keeps your page rank. You don’t want to let any page rank out of your site. So use no-follow tags for external links and do-follow for internal. Some may tell you differently, but it’s just a good idea. There are some benefits of using do-follow, but I choose not to. For comments, that’s a different story.

9. XML Site Map

If you’re running a site on WordPress, you’ll be able to use a plugin for generating a sitemap. There are plenty around; I personally use the Google XML Sitemap plugin. Just install it, generate your sitemap and add it to the footer of your website. It’s good for internal SEO and allows the search engines to better index your website.

So that pretty much sums up my on page SEO checklist. I bet that 95% of people reading this can make use of at least a few on there. Making sure your site is optimized on page isn’t going to sned you a load of traffic. While that would be nice and everything, on page SEO doesn’t really generate you traffic. Unless you’re in a dead beat niche where there’s literally no competition, off page SEO will always win the game.

With that being said, making good use of on page SEO will allow you to rank well with far less off page promotion (link building). It’s just good to do so make use of the list and hopefully you’ll be able to see the results first hand. I know this wasn’t exactly a thrilling article, but this stuff is good to know. We all use the search engines to generate traffic right? So study SEO, make use of everything you learn and rise above the competition!

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Feel free to leave your thoughts, comments and questions in the box below. Let me know if you found this stuff useful. Also, put your email in the form on the right for more jedi ninja SEO and traffic generation tips, tricks & secrets!