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Beginner’s Guide to SEO

The SEO BasicsOn-Site Search Engine Optimization: The Basics

We provide this information for those new to, or dabbling in search engine optimization (SEO). In this section we outline some of the basic tenants of on-site optimization. All websites contain standard elements that can and should be optimized, otherwise known as core SEO elements, and these are it. Feel free to print this out, take it with you, study, or whatever your heart desires.

Page Title Tags

Sample Page Title Tag

“title” and “/title” The text placed in the title tag (between the portions) will appear in the title bar of someone’s browser when they view the web page.

  • Viewed as one of the most important factors in on-site SEO
  • Each page should have unique title, using a keyword(s) or keyword phrase(s) to describe what the page is about
  • Search Engines will display up anywhere from 68 to 70 characters of the title tag

Meta-Page Descriptions

Sample Meta Description

A Meta-Page Description is a short blurb with targeted keywords and phrases that will entice users to click through to the website when it displays in the search engine results pages (SERPs)

  • Viewed as another one of the most important factors in on-site SEO
  • The information in these tags can influence how search engines rank your site for relevance.
  • The description that is written should show up in search engine results on Google

Meta-Page Keywords

Viewed as one of the least important factors in on-site optimization, as visitors cannot see these keywords on the website or SERPs; however, they should still be included, even as a formality.

Meta-Keyword Descriptions help identify what the page is all about, and how to categorize it when a search is done by a user, to bring the user the most relevant pages according to the keyword query string typed in by the user.
Most search engines have limits as to how many meta-keywords are taken into account. It is a good idea to review keywords and make sure that they are as concise and specific as possible.
Keywords should be in order of importance, in other words, what keywords/phrases are most important to rank for on that page.

Alt-Tags on Images

The Alt-Tag is an attribute of a HTML tag that provides alternative text when non-textual elements, typically images, cannot be displayed.

  • Per the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), all websites should be using Alt-Tags, as a means for these users to navigate and interact with the website. Moreover, these tags can provide extra information about services or products
  • Alt-Tags should first describe the image and secondarily use keywords inside HTML tags and image title tags
  • This provides a simple, easy, and effective way to add value to the website when robots/spiders index the website and its images
  • We believe this can be the difference between ranking in the Top 10 of results and being in the Top 20 or 30

On-Page (HTML) Website Content:

Search Engines, as discussed previously, rank websites for importance and relevance in relation to given keywords and phrases. They do this by assessing not only the meta-data but also through HTML content on the website.

Content should be in HTML text, not in images, or written out with JavaScript, or embedded in Flash. However, there are ways to make text visually pleasing using CSS standards in conjunction with HTML text.
There is a phrase that is used in the SEO community, “Content is King”. And, it’s not a lie. The content on a client website should contain keywords and phrases littered within.
There is an obvious art to writing content: it has to be user-friendly and search-friendly. Finding the balance is important.
It is one of the main ways search engines calculate the webpage’s relevance, importance, and expertise in relation to the keywords and phrases.

What to do About Duplicate Content on Your Website?

Having duplicate content, whether intra-site or “scraping” it from other sources on the internet, may cause search engines to “penalize” the website. Penalize is a relative term; search engines won’t black list you, but it will certainly effect the placement of a website and pages in the SERPs, most likely banishing them to the supplemental section.

Supplemental Section (A.K.A. The Sub-Index)?

Supplemental results usually only show up in the search index after the normal results. They are a way for Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other engines to extend their search database while also preventing questionable pages from getting massive exposure.
The definitive best practice is to create unique content for the website and each page. This content should be relevant to the website and concentrate on giving clear, concise descriptions of what the website, page, service, or product is about.

Why Does My Site Rank Differently on Other Search Engines?

When gauging relevance, not all search engines give the same weight to on-page elements and off-page elements to assess importance and relevance of a page in relation to specific keywords and phrases.

So what one search engine uses to assess the relevance of a given website or page can be completely different for another search engine. If www.anywebsite.com ranks #5 in Google for keyword “X”, this does not necessarily translate into the same rank on Yahoo! and Bing, where www.anywebsite.com might rank higher or lower based on the search engine’s algorithm.