Five Tips for On-Page Search Engine Optimisation

Broadly speaking, any serviceable search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign should be comprised of two parts: on-page and off-page. Off-page SEO requires a significant and consistent investment of time and effort to produce results, but a little time and understanding can greatly boost your on-page SEO.

Things that make your web site easier for search engine crawlers to navigate will improve your on-page SEO. If crawlers can easily navigate and understand the structure and content of your web site, your relevance and value scores will benefit - and more importantly, so will your readers. Here are some useful tips that can produce rapid results with minimum fuss.

1. Use Header Tagsr
Using header tags will make your web site easier for search engine crawlers to navigate. Essentially a header tag will tell the crawlers (just as it will tell your readers) that the text contained within it places the rest of the article in context. If you are targeting specific keywords or phrases, getting these or variants thereof into your header tags will improve the chances of your page ranking for those terms.

2. Look Out For Dead Linksr
There is nothing search engine crawlers despise more than dead links: dead links are virtual dead ends. Readers and search engines alike find them a frustrating waste of time. Regularly checking the links on your web site is important - make it your job to perform a monthly check on any outbound links to ensure the content still exists and be careful to check your internal links after any site maintenance.

3. Use Words in URLsr
Using words in the URLs of your web site will make it easier for search engine crawlers to get around your site and for your readers to remember your pages. Treat your URLs much like your header tags: they should be focused on or around your targeted key terms wherever appropriate, but above all, relevant to the content associated with that URL.

4. Use a Reliable Hostr
Make sure that your web site is hosting with a reliable provider. Search engine crawlers do not like downtime so it is important to ensure that your hosting provider has more than 97-98% uptime. In most cases this will not be a problem but remember that extremely cheap providers may prove to be a false economy if your web site ranking suffers.

5. Avoid Flash Home Pages Like the Plaguer
Once upon a time, flash home pages were in vogue. Thankfully they seem to crop up less and less frequently now as they are a nightmare from an SEO standpoint. If you must feature extensive flash sections on your web site, be sure to offer an HTML alte
ative or you will be committing one of SEO's cardinal sins. Search engine crawlers do not respond well to flash and some studies suggest that readers don't either.

Above all, remember the golden rule: changes to your site that are good for your readers are usually good for your search engine rankings.