Search Engine Optimization Tips | Prominent SEO – St. Louis, Missouri

15 On-Site SEO Tips

On-site search engine optimization consists of controlling the content and code of your site in a search-engine friendly manner designed to improve organic traffic. Understanding how a search engine spider reads and interprets your site is the backbone of an on-site SEO plan. The utilization of keyword research ensures that your content is optimized to improve your site’s search engine rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo, local searches, and meta search engines. If your search traffic is not as high as you would like, review the 15 basic on-site SEO tips listed below from the experts at Prominent SEO:

1. Solve any Canonicalization Issues

Canonicalization sounds complicated, but it simply refers to picking the best URL for a site and then being consistent with that URL with your links. If this site had a canonicalization issue, visitors could reach the home page by typing in www.Prominent SEO.com, Prominent SEO.com. www.Prominent SEO.com/index.html, www.Prominent SEO.com/index.asp, or even other URLs. While a vistior could reach the same version of the home page, for purposes of optimization, the search engines would be confused and the SEO benefit of incoming links could be diluted. Sites need to pick one URL and use 301 redirects back to the main URL for alternative URLs, as well as maintain URL consistency throughout the site. Social media content and other off-site promotion of your main URL should also be consistent.

2. Keyword Research

Analyzing what are the most important keywords used on the search engines to find your site and your competitor’s sites is essential to on-site search engine optimization. Online keyword tracking tools, Google Insights, and Google Analytics are just some of the available resources which can be used to research the keywords and the keyword phrases most important to your site. On-site SEO is a moving target so keyword research has to be ongoing to adapt to new search trends and find competitive advantages,

3. Keywords in Site Navigation

After identifying the most important keywords, it is productive to implement the keywords themselves into your site navigation. URL’s should always be optimized to include the important keywords most relevant to the content on the page. Navigation which is Flash-based or is a graphic image should be changed or at the very least include spider-friendly text.

4. Fresh Content

A static web site with content that does not change will not rank as well as sites with fresh and relevant content. Find a way to introduce fresh and topical content to create a more dynamic site both for your visitors and for search engine spiders. The use of a blog has particularly high SEO benefits, but should remain hosted on-site by the use of a blogging platform plug-in.

5. Avoid Black-Hat SEO

Hiring a company that employs black-hat SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, improper redirects, link farm exchanges, mass e-mail, spam marketing, site cloaking, or using doorway pages can lead to your site being penalized or even banned by Google and the other search engines. If you are worried that someone working on your site used one of these tactics, consult a SEO professional for an evaluation.

6. Breadcumb Navigation

Easy-to-follow well-organized navigation is both easier for your visitors to surf your site and for search engines to catalog and index your interior pages. Make sure your navigation flows logically and that your site does not contain broken links. Larger sites with more content and multiple authors may find it advisable to use a content management system (CMS).

7. Is Your Site Balanced?

A site that ranks high on the major search engines is typically well-balanced between text, links, images, and widgets or other applications. Search engines can penalize sites loaded with too many links or too few relevant content pages. Make sure your site has a SEO-friendly mix.

8. Server and Hosting Issues

The server and hosting company you use is an important part of SEO. Site load times has become more important to search engines. Run a diagnostics test on your site to make sure your site compares favorably. Sites using shared servers need to be especially careful not to be associated with the bad behavior of other sites on the server. Make sure that your site is not suffering from any server or hosting issues.

9. Spidering and Robot Issues

HTML code of all web sites contain code that instructs search engine spiders and robots what to index on your site. In some cases you may have have pages that you would like to prevent from being indexed. For example, if your site allows comments and a search engine spider identifies spam within those comments, it is your site which could be penalized. If you are not sure that your site is optimized for robots and spiders consult with a SEO expert today.

10. Content Management

Managing your new content effectively is an important part of your site’s on-going SEO. New content needs to be found easily by frequent visitors, as well as becoming part of your site’s navigation. Organizing content into categories, guides, article archives, or even tutorials is a positive step and increases the chances your fresh content will be found and indexed. Sites with multiple authors and daily content may need a content management system (CMS) to organize their new content efficiently and quicky.

11. Sitemaps

Creating a sitemap is typically the job of a webmaster or the person running your site. Once just a collection of your site’s links, today it is essential that the sitemap used by your site is completely search-engine friendly and optimized.

12. It’s All in the Code

A comprehensive SEO plan involves a top-to-bottom evaluation and validation of your computer code. Every fragment of your HTML, ASP, PHP or XML code is fair game for search engines and typically web designers have not optimized the code to the maximum level. Coding errors can, in some cases, penalize your site by preventing it from ranking higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines. Consult a SEO expert for an evaluation of your site’s code and for suggestions on optimizing it properly.

14. Where SEO and SEM Meet

There is a lot of common ground between search engine optimization and search engine marketing. For one, the ultimate goal is the same: driving traffic to the site. Make sure that your SEO and SEM efforts are working together in tandem. PPC campaigns, geo-targeted campaigns, and seasonal marketing campaigns should all be running concurrently with on-site content and keyword changes to your site and blog

15. Search Engine Traps

A search engine trap is a fatal flaw in your site that can prevent proper indexing or ranking. If your site has consistently ranked poorly, despite aggressive SEO and search engine marketing, it could be due to a search engine trap. Complex HTML issues on a site or the use of Flash, Ajax, ActiveX Controls, or Dynamic Widgets could have led to the inadvertent search engine trap. Enlist the help of a SEO professional to find if your site is suffering from a search engine trap and find an effective remedy for this potentially terminal problem

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