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On-Page SEO
Getting Up To Speed in Today's Landscape
Long ago, in an internet that time forgot, processing power and time was far more limited than it is now. Search engine algorithms were much more primitive. The current and historical data in storage was laughable. Directories, web rings, and even print encyclopedias of websites still existed.
Back then, you pretty much had to shove not just your topic, but the precise keyword down a search engine's throat to let them know what you wanted to rank for. Managing your On-Page optimization NOW requires knowledge of how the game used to be played.
If you want to know how to make your website walk like, talk like, and quack just like an SEO'd site, then all you have to do is follow SEO blogger advice on On-Page SEO. They are about 5 years behind in this regard and most even further. The most popular Wordpress plugins for on-page lead you down this road as well. This is how you used to perform on-page optimization, and take note because it's still relevant in some aspects:
If you wanted to rank highly for a specific term back in the day, just make sure you put your term in the following spots in your HTML...
The game has changed. The only search engine to concern yourself with is Google and they are concerned with three things:
So what's one way to stand too tall and have your head poking out? Over-optimizing On-Page SEO.
The funniest thing with Google is that they will literally put out guides and teach SEO's how to optimize for Google. Then a few years down the line they will call it manipulation and start chopping heads. And that's what's going on now. If you do it the way it used to be done, as Wordpress plugins would have you do it, and as SEO bloggers will preach, then you're popping your head above the crowd.
The game now is camouflage. You want to look like a normal internet user. And do they even know what all of those HTML tags above are? No. So they definitely aren't going to end up with their keyword in all of those tags or likely even touch HTML any more. It's very simple for Google to run an analysis throughout the index and find out what level of optimization is average for a niche and then to filter out, devalue ranking power, dampen link flows, or whatever on any page that's over-optimized. Do they do this? You bet your newbie ass they do.
So step one of doing proper on-page SEO to your money sites is to not over-optimize.
The question then becomes... well which HTML tags still carry the most weight? If I'm going to limit the number of places I put my keyword, then which should I use?
I'll tell you. This is my gift to you, the newbie. Use the <title> and the <h1>. That's it. You don't even have to use your keyword on the page in the content if you don't want. I would at least once.
Google is getting a grip on topical analysis now. So you can use LSA terms (latent semantic analysis), meaning that you need to discover which n-grams (another term you need to look up and understand) usually appear together on a page. And use THOSE instead of your main keyword in other spots. Now you're optimized for a keyword while not over-doing, and you're getting optimized for a topic as well.
This goes for the page level and the entire domain level. This is how true authority sites rise. Have you ever looked Webmaster Tools and seen the "content word usage" section or whatever it's called where they are tracking which terms get used the most in your content? Yep. They are just showing you the tip of the iceberg.
(Hint: If you're creating your own contextual backlinks, do on-page optimization in that content as well to manipulate topical flow so your page and your domain become more authoritative.)
Quality Considerations
So you think Google can handle topical flows, latent semantic analysis, n-gram analysis, term frequency - inverse document frequency (tf*IDF... dropping more hints on you), and all they are worried about is if a keyword appears in certain HTML tags? They taught an entire industry of suckers how to optimize their pages and out themselves. They chopped and are chopping those guys and while finding better ways of telling what's not only relevant but most authoritative and popular.
But they aren't just concerned with authority and popularity. They want to know if those pages are of high quality and easy accessibility too.
I'm making this far too easy for you. You need to understand how the Flesch Kincaide Reading Ease and Grade Level algorithms work and figure that Google has one of their own similar to it. Read up on the Gunning Fog Index, Coleman Liau Index, ARI, and others work as well.
Now consider your niche. Are you writing about macaroni noodle crafts? Yes? Then why are you writing those articles with a doctorate level vocabulary and level of syntax? Dumb it down to what's appropriate for your niche and search term. Are you writing about quantum physics? Then maybe it should score highly on the Flesch Kincaide and use academic formatting like APA or MLA styling...
Most of us are going to be dealing with niches where high-school level readability is desirable. Even in niches that are more sophisticated, nobody wants to expend effort. They want to consume content quickly and Google knows this. So write at the high school level.
What else increases readability? Lists.
What else increases time-on-page and decreases bounce-rate (both quality signals)? Videos, Images, Quizzes, Length of Content.
Quizzes work so well. If you're a Facebook user, you know this very well.
Does Google say "Hey, a video is present, that's a quality signal!" or do they look at the consequences of the video, which would be keeping your viewer around longer than your competitors? Likely both. Include several types of content on your page to ensnare your reader and tell the search engines that you're the best choice for their traffic.
How about a Table of Contents that links to sub-sections of your page? #introduction, #chapter1, #chapter2. I bet the search engines think that makes for good user experience.
What about supplementary content? Yes, the stuff you cram in your sidebar matters. The stuff you cram in your 4 column footer matters. Human quality raters look at every bit of this and report back to a computer which then attempts to simulate their discernment abilities. Make every bit of it count.
What about being a link hub? Do you point your readers to different resources that Google also considers high quality? You definitely want to interlink within your own site as well.
Does your content appear above the fold before advertisements? Webmaster intention plays a role in the determination of whether or not a page is of high quality or not. Over-monetization is a negative ranking signal.
About, Contact, Social Network... what else says legit, trustworthy, authoritative, easy to use, and high quality?
This is how complicated the on-page game is now. Google is hiring the top statisticians and computer engineers on the planet. They have global positioning satellites that direct driverless cars on the interstate. You better not be stuffing keywords in HTML tags.
The online equivalent is the page speed. You don't want your server buckling under the load.
You want your content to be served up immediately to the user. Google is becoming increasingly better at simulating this on their end too, now able to render javascript, ajax, and checking only what loads above the fold. So how do you server you content to the user as fast as possible? Look at these numbers CCarter posted in another thread to get an idea of how far you can take this. This is from Pingdom's page speed tool.
You want to consider the following relationships between your server and your user:
The second question is how much data is being moved around. Everyone is tempted to create the most graphically impressive websites, but minimalism is key here. You want to only use the images necessary and then compress the images to the smallest format possible. If you have a ton of small images, you'll want to create a sprite sheet that loads all of them at once and then pull from that sheet using Cartesian coordinate positioning. A way to still look good while not having a ton of images is to use CSS to create some of the effects you want.
Part of the reason you want to use the least amount of images possible and combine them to a sprite sheet is to reduce the number of HTTP requests. Generally these pieces of data are going to be loaded serially, not in parallel. So the less of them you have, the faster everything can get loaded and rendered. This means having fewer images, combining CSS stylesheets, combining javascript files, calling javascript last so everything else has a chance to load first before the script is executed. If you have a lot of images, there are scripts to only load those above the fold first so you get a faster loading score. The rest will load as the page is scrolled.
Now, you CAN load in parallel instead of serial by using a content delivery network (CDN). What this does is stores your static content all around the globe so that it can be delivered to your user faster than having to skip and jump through many nodes halfway around the globe. If you're thinking that electricity moves at the speed of light, you're right. But it's not a direct line to your user. CDN's can be magic, and they can offer you parallel loading. If you're using a CDN, then you need to be using server caching as well, along with browser caching. You should be doing this anyways. We can't get into all of it, but you can research those possibilities.
Also, and it's not completely desirable these days with content management systems (CMS), but you can forego a database altogether. You can go flat-file HTML and load much faster. This will also improve your site security a million fold. But it's not always desirable. So at least keep your database clean and don't store 100,000,000 spam comments and 10,000 draft revisions.
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Getting Up To Speed in Today's Landscape
Long ago, in an internet that time forgot, processing power and time was far more limited than it is now. Search engine algorithms were much more primitive. The current and historical data in storage was laughable. Directories, web rings, and even print encyclopedias of websites still existed.
What It Was
Back then, you pretty much had to shove not just your topic, but the precise keyword down a search engine's throat to let them know what you wanted to rank for. Managing your On-Page optimization NOW requires knowledge of how the game used to be played.
If you want to know how to make your website walk like, talk like, and quack just like an SEO'd site, then all you have to do is follow SEO blogger advice on On-Page SEO. They are about 5 years behind in this regard and most even further. The most popular Wordpress plugins for on-page lead you down this road as well. This is how you used to perform on-page optimization, and take note because it's still relevant in some aspects:
If you wanted to rank highly for a specific term back in the day, just make sure you put your term in the following spots in your HTML...
- <title>
- <h1>
- <h2>
- <h3>
- <b> or <strong>
- <i> or <em>
- <img alt="" />
- 5-10% keyword density
- <meta name="description" content="">
- <meta name="keywords" content="">
What It Is Now
The game has changed. The only search engine to concern yourself with is Google and they are concerned with three things:
- Psychological Warfare - using propaganda to scare people into not being SEO's
- Friendly Fire - getting idiots to negative SEO each other, use the disavow tool, and report each other's networks
- Cutting Off Heads - letting you stand too tall above the crowd, and then chopping you down with filters
So what's one way to stand too tall and have your head poking out? Over-optimizing On-Page SEO.
The funniest thing with Google is that they will literally put out guides and teach SEO's how to optimize for Google. Then a few years down the line they will call it manipulation and start chopping heads. And that's what's going on now. If you do it the way it used to be done, as Wordpress plugins would have you do it, and as SEO bloggers will preach, then you're popping your head above the crowd.
The game now is camouflage. You want to look like a normal internet user. And do they even know what all of those HTML tags above are? No. So they definitely aren't going to end up with their keyword in all of those tags or likely even touch HTML any more. It's very simple for Google to run an analysis throughout the index and find out what level of optimization is average for a niche and then to filter out, devalue ranking power, dampen link flows, or whatever on any page that's over-optimized. Do they do this? You bet your newbie ass they do.
Don't Over-Optimize
So step one of doing proper on-page SEO to your money sites is to not over-optimize.
The question then becomes... well which HTML tags still carry the most weight? If I'm going to limit the number of places I put my keyword, then which should I use?
I'll tell you. This is my gift to you, the newbie. Use the <title> and the <h1>. That's it. You don't even have to use your keyword on the page in the content if you don't want. I would at least once.
Google is getting a grip on topical analysis now. So you can use LSA terms (latent semantic analysis), meaning that you need to discover which n-grams (another term you need to look up and understand) usually appear together on a page. And use THOSE instead of your main keyword in other spots. Now you're optimized for a keyword while not over-doing, and you're getting optimized for a topic as well.
This goes for the page level and the entire domain level. This is how true authority sites rise. Have you ever looked Webmaster Tools and seen the "content word usage" section or whatever it's called where they are tracking which terms get used the most in your content? Yep. They are just showing you the tip of the iceberg.
(Hint: If you're creating your own contextual backlinks, do on-page optimization in that content as well to manipulate topical flow so your page and your domain become more authoritative.)
Quality Considerations
So you think Google can handle topical flows, latent semantic analysis, n-gram analysis, term frequency - inverse document frequency (tf*IDF... dropping more hints on you), and all they are worried about is if a keyword appears in certain HTML tags? They taught an entire industry of suckers how to optimize their pages and out themselves. They chopped and are chopping those guys and while finding better ways of telling what's not only relevant but most authoritative and popular.
But they aren't just concerned with authority and popularity. They want to know if those pages are of high quality and easy accessibility too.
I'm making this far too easy for you. You need to understand how the Flesch Kincaide Reading Ease and Grade Level algorithms work and figure that Google has one of their own similar to it. Read up on the Gunning Fog Index, Coleman Liau Index, ARI, and others work as well.
Now consider your niche. Are you writing about macaroni noodle crafts? Yes? Then why are you writing those articles with a doctorate level vocabulary and level of syntax? Dumb it down to what's appropriate for your niche and search term. Are you writing about quantum physics? Then maybe it should score highly on the Flesch Kincaide and use academic formatting like APA or MLA styling...
Most of us are going to be dealing with niches where high-school level readability is desirable. Even in niches that are more sophisticated, nobody wants to expend effort. They want to consume content quickly and Google knows this. So write at the high school level.
What else increases readability? Lists.
What else increases time-on-page and decreases bounce-rate (both quality signals)? Videos, Images, Quizzes, Length of Content.
Quizzes work so well. If you're a Facebook user, you know this very well.
Does Google say "Hey, a video is present, that's a quality signal!" or do they look at the consequences of the video, which would be keeping your viewer around longer than your competitors? Likely both. Include several types of content on your page to ensnare your reader and tell the search engines that you're the best choice for their traffic.
Some Types of Content To Consider
How about a Table of Contents that links to sub-sections of your page? #introduction, #chapter1, #chapter2. I bet the search engines think that makes for good user experience.
What about supplementary content? Yes, the stuff you cram in your sidebar matters. The stuff you cram in your 4 column footer matters. Human quality raters look at every bit of this and report back to a computer which then attempts to simulate their discernment abilities. Make every bit of it count.
What about being a link hub? Do you point your readers to different resources that Google also considers high quality? You definitely want to interlink within your own site as well.
Does your content appear above the fold before advertisements? Webmaster intention plays a role in the determination of whether or not a page is of high quality or not. Over-monetization is a negative ranking signal.
About, Contact, Social Network... what else says legit, trustworthy, authoritative, easy to use, and high quality?
This is how complicated the on-page game is now. Google is hiring the top statisticians and computer engineers on the planet. They have global positioning satellites that direct driverless cars on the interstate. You better not be stuffing keywords in HTML tags.
Page Speed
This is that "meta" realm, and I'm not talking about meta keywords and descriptions. Most people concern themselves with what is on the page, but forget about the page itself. You could have the finest fountain pen in existence which writes with the ink of the gods, and it doesn't matter at all if you're writing on a parchment that will crumble and turn to dust as soon as someone picks it up to read it.
The online equivalent is the page speed. You don't want your server buckling under the load.
You want your content to be served up immediately to the user. Google is becoming increasingly better at simulating this on their end too, now able to render javascript, ajax, and checking only what loads above the fold. So how do you server you content to the user as fast as possible? Look at these numbers CCarter posted in another thread to get an idea of how far you can take this. This is from Pingdom's page speed tool.
You want to consider the following relationships between your server and your user:
- What resources can the server allocate for the user?
- How much data is it trying to shuffle to the user?
- How fast can it send this data to the users's browser?
- And ultimately, how quickly does it render totally?
The second question is how much data is being moved around. Everyone is tempted to create the most graphically impressive websites, but minimalism is key here. You want to only use the images necessary and then compress the images to the smallest format possible. If you have a ton of small images, you'll want to create a sprite sheet that loads all of them at once and then pull from that sheet using Cartesian coordinate positioning. A way to still look good while not having a ton of images is to use CSS to create some of the effects you want.
Part of the reason you want to use the least amount of images possible and combine them to a sprite sheet is to reduce the number of HTTP requests. Generally these pieces of data are going to be loaded serially, not in parallel. So the less of them you have, the faster everything can get loaded and rendered. This means having fewer images, combining CSS stylesheets, combining javascript files, calling javascript last so everything else has a chance to load first before the script is executed. If you have a lot of images, there are scripts to only load those above the fold first so you get a faster loading score. The rest will load as the page is scrolled.
Now, you CAN load in parallel instead of serial by using a content delivery network (CDN). What this does is stores your static content all around the globe so that it can be delivered to your user faster than having to skip and jump through many nodes halfway around the globe. If you're thinking that electricity moves at the speed of light, you're right. But it's not a direct line to your user. CDN's can be magic, and they can offer you parallel loading. If you're using a CDN, then you need to be using server caching as well, along with browser caching. You should be doing this anyways. We can't get into all of it, but you can research those possibilities.
Also, and it's not completely desirable these days with content management systems (CMS), but you can forego a database altogether. You can go flat-file HTML and load much faster. This will also improve your site security a million fold. But it's not always desirable. So at least keep your database clean and don't store 100,000,000 spam comments and 10,000 draft revisions.
Conclusion
This post has become far too long. Perhaps I've missed some things as I typed this post. If you feel I have, please share any other methods available to help bring everyone up to speed in this modern SEO landscape. Please ask questions, criticize, or anything else. Join the discussion.
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