Getting your website a good ranking in a search engine is not easy as search engines are getting smarter and more intelligent every day. Therefore, it takes more than just a good content to top your competitors.
On page optimization is one of the very first steps for effective SEO. A proper on page optimization can not only make you rank well in a search engine, but can also increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.
In this article, I will summarize two of the most important on page optimization techniques which include title optimization and meta tags optimization. Other useful techniques like important HTML tags, keyword optimization and synonyms, link optimization, and image optimization will be discussed in the next entry.
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Title Optimization
A site’s title tag is by far the most important on page optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. Title tag is the first thing that is shown and indexed by the search engines. Thus, it is naturally given a very high importance.
Your site’s title has to be appealing enough for visitors to want to find out more information. On the other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours. Important things to include in your title are as following;
- Your name: This is very important for branding propose. If you feel that your customers may search you by your brand name than it’s also useful to put it somewhere in your title.
- Keywords: If you want to rank for a certain keywords it is always good to place some of them in your title tag. A Title tag represents the whole content of your website, thus you can include keywords in your title tag. However, do not stuff too many keywords in your title. Write a title which is readable to humans and also good for search engines.
- Phone number: Including your phone number in the title tag helps your visitors to take a direct action. It also makes your site look more professional and legit when it is displayed in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Searchers are likely to click on the result that has a phone number attached to it because in their unconscious mind, they will have a good impression on the authenticity of the business and the level of support. If you prefer not to include your number in the title tag, you can alternatively include it in your Meta Description which will give you almost the same benefits.
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Meta Tags Optimization
A site’s Meta description should contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet.
If a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out more information. However, if your Meta Description is too generic and is weakly written then there is a chance that your site will simply be ignored. Important things to include in your Meta Description are as following;
- Your selling point: Tell your customers what they want to hear through your site’s Meta Description, and you will definitely get some advantage over others in the SERP. For instance - if you sell ‘cheap web hosting’ then including a phrase like “hosting starting from only $0.99” may result in more clicks and visitors because your description will exactly match the flavor of search performed by the user.
- Keywords: Including some of your keywords will give you an advantage in Google’s relevancy algorithm.
- Phone number: If you haven’t included your phone number in the title, you can rather include it in your Meta description. If the users have Skype installed on their system, any number on their browser will become clickable which will result in a direct Skype-out call. So basically, if your number appears in the Meta description some of your customers might just prefer to call you directly instead of going through your site.
