On and Off Page Components of
Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, as it's become to be known, is broken down into two broad separate components.  These components are on-page and off-page.

On page components include the following:

• Title Tag
• Meta Tag Description
• Meta Tag Keywords
• Heading Tag
• Keyword Density
• Alt Tags
• Page Name / URL structure
• Internal Linking

Off page components include the following:

• Content Relation
• Links
• PageRank®
• Page Traffic
• Content Donation
• Anchor or Linking Text

On page components can easily be created in FrontPage or MacroMedia Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver is much better as it doesn't clog your code with uncessary junk.  The built in help function provides detailed instructions and we recommend that you use this source in learning how to perform these tasks.  On page components are the easiest to control because these components are created as you build or modify the site of which you have 100% control.

Title Tag - The Title tag gives the search engine a basic understanding of what your web page is about.  The Title Tag functions the same way on Internet as it does for the title of a book or the name of a chapter within a book.  Each page of your website should be titled to reflect the actual content on that page.  You shouldn't name your title "Blue Widgets" if the page has nothing but "Red Widgets" on it.

Meta Tag Description - The "Meta Tag Description" provides a basic description of what's found on the webpage.  Typically this description will be 12-15 words as most search engines ignore anything past the 15th word.  Included within your description will be targeted keywords, action verbs like "research", "buy", "sell" and your company name.

Meta Tag Keywords - Your Meta Tag Keywords are the same as the keywords that you researched.  Your Meta Tag Keywords should reflect what's contained on your webpage.  If the page is about Blue Widgets, then the keyword Red Widgets shouldn't be contained within your Meta Tag Keywords for that page.

Heading Tag - A Heading Tag is similar to sub-sections within a chapter of a book.  They are used to break down the overall content within a web page.  There are six heading tags and they are H1 - H6, with the H1 tag carrying the most importance and H6 carrying the least, but more than text that does not have a heading tag.  For example the following heading tags have been used throughout this web site.

Search Engine Optimization - A do it yourself guide. - H1 Tag

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization - H2 Tag

On and Off Page Components of Search Engine Optimization - H2 Tag

On Page Components - H3 Tag

When using the Heading Tags you'll find that FrontPage or Dreamweaver automatically assigns a font size and other font characteristics, but these can be changed to fit the design of your website.

Keyword Density - Keyword density refers to what percentage a particular keyword is used on a page.  In most cases it is recommended that a keyword be used anywhere from 2% - 8% on a page, but it can be analyzed for different aspects of your page.  For example, your keyword density should be different for your Title Tag than your on page keyword density.  Overall keyword density is calculated on all aspects of a page and that includes your Title, Meta Tags, on page text, URL structure and others.  If you would like to check your keyword density of a page try this helpful Keyword Density Tool as it gives you percentages of all portions of your site.  Requires registration for use.

Alt Tags - Alt Tags are primarily used to assign keywords to an image.  If you've ever held your mouse curser over an image and it shows a description then this was created by the Alt Tag.  Your Alt tags should match the actual image.  If the picture is a Red Widget then the Alt Tag should read Red Widget, not Blue Widget or Red and Blue Widget.

Page Name / URL Structure - Your page name or URL structure refers to the actual page name.  For example, if you wanted a website to rank well for the keyword "Blue Widgets" then your URL could be http://www.bluewidgets.com or http://www.blue-widgets.com.  In many cases your URL is the same name as your company, but you can still use this as an optimization tool.  For example, http://www.acme-blue-widgets.com.  Other pages can also be optimized like the following, http://www.acme.com/blue-widgets.html.  There has been much discussion on using hyphens (-) or underscores (_) or nothing at all to separate words.  Google did say that they see underscores as text and hyphens as separators.  Based on this information then a URL structure of "blue_widgets" is seen as "blue_widgets" where "blue-widgets" is seen as "blue widgets".   However, any ranking advantage given to one style over the other isn't that apparent at this time as there are many other factors that are weighed to determine your overall ranking.

Internal Linking - Linking to internal pages refers to using keywords that normally occur within your site as links.  For example the following sentence occurs on our site, "internet marketing can be an incredible aspect of marketing your business at your next convention."  The keyword "Internet Marketing " is being used as an internal link to another page within our site and is being tied to the keyword internet marketing.  These keywords are referred to as Anchor or Linking Text and are explained in the linking section of this article.  This doesn't mean that every keyword should be linked as this could be viewed as spam