Search Engine Optimization

On-Page SEO
Search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, refers to those techniques which can be employed with the ultimate aim of supplying a platform on the internet with top search engine rankings. These rankings will, for a set of keywords, ensure that new customers successfully navigate toward the website in question.

A more in-depth look at SEO reveals that it consists of two main parts: off-page and on-page SEO. Where the former refers to a number of external marketing proficiencies, the latter requires careful page optimization and is regarded as the more important of the two. In fact, its importance can't be stressed enough and, as such, requires a careful scrutiny of all the page elements as well as their contextual relationship.

For those with little or no on-page SEO knowledge, the following should supply a basic overview of the all the key elements:

Keyword Analysis
Keywords are those phrases used by average web users to navigate their way from a search engine to a specific online entity.

From the point of view of the webmaster or website owner, keywords should be chosen according to the results of industry-related research. Once chosen, these keywords should be placed throughout the entire website as well as every page with a certain density. In addition to keyword density, keyword proximity plays a key role.

Keyword forms the core of SEO and is therefore a ubiquitous element.

Tags
SEO revolves around the web user and, as such, search engines favor those websites who supply easily accessible and rich content. This entails the detailed optimization of even the smallest parts of a particular web page, such as the tags. Some of the tags with the most relevance are discussed below:

ALT tags
Are used to supply an alternative description to images. These are important to individuals who use text-based browsers such as Lynx or whose browsers are not capable of displaying the image for whatever reason.

TITLE tags
Are primarily used to give individual web pages a title, but are also employed to give links, tables, table elements, forms and a variety of other HTML components a name or description. As said before, search engines love detail, and each title added and optimized with keywords will increase the chance of a successful page rank.

NOEMBED tags
Are used to describe content, much like the ALT tags, which are enclosed within EMBED tags. Should a particular browser be unable to open the content contained within the EMBED tags, it will display the content of the NOEMBED tags instead.

META tags
Also known as "Metadata Elements" forms perhaps one of the more important parts of on-page search engine optimization. The contents between the META tags aren't visible to the user and are of relevance to search engines. Here a website owner or webmaster will be able to state Meta elements such as the site description, keywords and language.

Internal Linking
Quite simply, internal linking refers to a technique where links within the platform or website itself points to the pages with the most relevant content. The more important a page, the more links should point to it. This is not only for the benefit of the web user, but will also give search engines an idea as to which pages are to be regarded as a top priority.

Although these form only some of the elements of on-page SEO, they are some of the most important. Their success depends on the ratio with which they are employed too much of a good thing can indeed be a bad thing.