writtenstyle

Once you have your content planned out, it is time to think about the formatting of your website to ensure proper on page SEO. I always write my content in Word, transfer it to WordPad, then input the content into my editor. This way, it is properly formatted and spell checked.

Structure takes on many forms:

• URL’s
• Links
• Pictures
• Content
  

Content

We discussed content earlier, but I thought it was best to save one final aspect of content for the structure post. That aspect is keyword placement. It does appear that the placement of your keywords does has a substantial effect on your on page SEO. Stay calm, this is simple stuff. Your keywords should already be naturally sprinkled around the body of your content. However, there are two places your keyword should be in every piece of content you write.

Make it a habit of including your main keyword phrase in the first sentence of the first paragraph and in the last paragraph. In my tests, it seems google loves this format. You might have to think a little harder about how to write your first sentence to make sense, but it is worth it. In the last paragraph, I don’t see any significant placement of first sentence or last, but for offsite content I like to use the keyword phrase in the last sentence as anchor textto the page I am SEO’ing.

Also, I link my internal pages back to my main page using the keyword in the last paragraph. You will see this in every post I write. This is called internal linking, and we will discuss that a little later.

URL’s

Your URL’s do have an effect on your rankings. Long url’s do not perform as well as short url’s. I use optimized URL’s for my sites.

A good example of a SEO’d URL is yoursite.com/keyword. Pretty simple, huh? Again, SEO isn’t rocket science. I prefer a little longer URL, but one that is highly optimized. I use Wordpress. Wordpress comes with standard permalinks (URL’s) that are ugly. This page URL would look like writtenstyle.com/p=153 or something like that. Notice there are no keywords? How would search engines know what your URL was about?

I set my sites up to use the category and post name in the URL. So, this URL is writtenstlye.com/seo/on-page-seo-content-structure. Notice, it is a little longer. However, it has SEO in the URL twice, and it has the targeted keyword for which I am targeting. If you are just starting out, go for the shorter URL. sitename.com/keyword works GREAT! If you are using Wordpress, go to permalinks. Choose custom, and enter this /%postname%/ Assuming your posts are short and keyword rich, that will give you short SEO’d URLS. I use /%category%/%postname%/

 Links

Links within your site also carry SEO weight. In the past, links in the sidebar navigation and footers have been standard on page SEO. Things appear to be changing. A lot of black hatters use the footers of websites to stuff links (especially with Wordpress). It appears that links in the footers of websites are actually having a negative effect on SEO. As such, it makes sense that links in the sidebars also have less weight than they once did.

I have always been a proponent of links within the content. Look at wikipedia. Where are their links? They are in the body. (See what I did there?) Taking them as an authority on how to get ranked, it would serve the rest of us well to study what they do.

In my affiliate sites, I always use links with in the body. Outbound links are important, even though they send visitors to other sites. My outbound links are usually affiliate links, but I throw a regular link in every once in a while. Outbound links with in a site are important. The best way to do this is to have the links open in a new browser window. That way, your website is still open if they click on the link.

The HTML for that is <a href=”http://www.yoursite.com” target=”_blank”>Click here<a> Always link your outbound links with that structure.

Inbound links for SEO are up for grabs. They don’t hurt your site, but the verdict is still out as to whether they help. I use them. All of my internal posts on this website link beck to my main site. I do this in the last paragraph. I believe it helps. In my micro niche sites, I have great success getting favorable rankings, and I always include internal links.

Pictures

Pictures also need to be formatted correctly. The best way to do this is by using this HTML <img src=”yourpic.gif” alt=”Keyword” /> This allows you to optimize the picture to the keyword. I was shocked with some of my niche amazon sites. Every listing on my sites has pictures that are optimized with the keyword. I get 40-50 visitors a day to some of my sites from google images.

If you take the posts on page SEO and start implementing them on your site, you will see immediate SEO benefits. On page SEO is important, and it isn’t real difficult to put into action. It seems like a lot of work, but once you start doing them you will find that they will come natural to you. 

Pictures also need to be formatted correctly. The best way to do this is by using this HTML <img src=”yourpic.gif” alt=”Keyword” /> This allows you to optimize the picture to the keyword. I was shocked with some of my niche amazon sites. Every listing on my sites has pictures that are optimized with the keyword. I get 40-50 visitors a day to some of my sites from google images.

If you take the posts on page SEO and start implementing them on your site, you will see immediate SEO benefits. On page SEO is important, and it isn’t real difficult to put into action. It seems like a lot of work, but once you start doing them you will find that thy will come natural to you.

Comments are closed.