Best On Page SEO Factors

[weslinda]

Recently, I put together an article on the 25 things that every web page should contain and was hoping to find out what on page SEO factors people here feel are most important. Below is a list of the factors I thought of.

1. Doctype
2. Language Declaration
3. Title Attribute
4. Meta Description
5. Meta Keywords
6. Author Declaration
7. Jump To Sections Navigation
8. Logo
9. H1 Tag
10. Main Navigation – Text Based
11. Main Content Area
12. Breadcrumb Navigation
13. Sub Navigation – Text Based
14. Valid HTML
15. CSS For Page Layout
16. Page Structure
17. Internal Linking
18. Alt Attributes for Images
19. Title Tags for Text Links
20. Contact Information
21. About Information
22. Footer Section
23. Sitemap HTML
24. Sitemap XML
25. Web Analytics
26. Visual Appeal

Is there anything I missed, what other items do you feel should be on a page to optimize the site for both users and search engines? I looked at this subject as what can be done with a page that will organize it well for the visitors, which is most important, but in turn optimize well for search engines also.

[weslinda]

Obviously, my list of 25 was actually 26 and there is one or two I feel that I didn't include and should have. Hindsight is 20/20

[ctabuk]

From a SEO point of view - I think you have listed the lot Jaan and John may spot something
Visual Appeal is last - but in my books it's first. Readability does it for me everytime.

I assume you allowed for disabled readers in the set up?

[weslinda]

CTA, I attempted to list them in page order, from an organization standpoint so visual fell to the end as it isn't technically page flow. However I agree that the visual is a very important piece to the overall trust of a site from a users standpoint.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by weslinda

Recently, I put together an article on the 25 things that every web page should contain and was hoping to find out what on page SEO factors people here feel are most important. Below is a list of the factors I thought of.Is there anything I missed, what other items do you feel should be on a page to optimize the site for both users and search engines? I looked at this subject as what can be done with a page that will organize it well for the visitors, which is most important, but in turn optimize well for search engines also.

1. Doctype (Best option would be strict)
2. Language Declaration (in the html tag).
3. Title Attribute (Incorrect. You mean the title tag).
4. Meta Description. (A brief summary of the document's content. Keep is less than 200 characters including spaces. Most ideal up to 150 characters including spaces. Content of this tag must be unique and relevant content to the main content of the page and not to the site).
5. Meta Keywords (A comma-separated list of topics covered by the document. Have at least 4 keywords or keyphrase, but no more than 20, Content of this tag must be unique and relevant content to the main content of the page and not to the site).
6. Author Declaration (For major search engines irrelevant. Though enhances accessibility).
7. Jump To Sections Navigation (I guess you mean skip navigation, or to main content or sub-navigation. Right?)
8. Logo (Add an alt a title attribute for browser compatibility, as Firefox does not recognize alt attributes, like this: <img src="http://www.webproworld.com/images/logo.gif" alt="Web Pro World - The Global eBusiness Community" width="222" height="81" title="Web Pro World - The Global eBusiness Community" />
9. H1 Tag (Heading tags are more than only the <h1>: <h2>,<h3>,<h4>,<h5>,<h6> and are exactly what they claim to be, tags for document title headings and subheadings. There are six heading tags and as you can imagine H1 is for the main page heading and the rest are for sub headings, it is recommended that you only use one H1 tag and try not to put others everywhere otherwise a search engine such as Google might class your page as spam. Make sure that the heading tags are unique).
10. Main Navigation – Text Based (Can also be DHTML, Flash, etc. But make sure you are providing an alternative like <noscript>, etc).
11. Main Content Area (Obviously).
12. Breadcrumb Navigation (Obviously)
13. Sub Navigation – Text Based (As mentioned above, it can also be DHTML, Flash, etc. But make sure you are providing an alternative like <noscript>, etc).
14. Valid HTML (Exactly! I watched yesterday a video with Matt Cutts, where he said that Google does not recommend, but they require that we adhere to their new webmaster guidelines. And in their guideline stands: "Check for broken links and correct HTML."
15. CSS For Page Layout (Correct).
16. Page Structure (I would add here: Page structure with HTML or XHTML. Preferably Strict doctype).
17. Internal Linking (Obviously, to enhance page fuctionality).
18. Alt Attributes for Images (Use with care. They are not to be used for stuffing them with keywords).
19. Title Tags for Text Links (I guess you mean title attributes for hyperlinks).
20. Contact Information (Must be found there your physical address, email address and telephone. To increase your accessibility and credibility, you can use on all your pages the <address> tag, and additionally a P3P policy. You should have an opt-out notice/policy anyway).
21. About Information (Obviously).
22. Footer Section (Obviously)
23. Sitemap HTML (Using a link list with the title tags content of your pages is the best way to go).
24. Sitemap XML (Great idea! But if you have problems with creating and implementing that, you have the alternative to create a list of the pages urls and save them as a text (.txt) file, which is commonly called URL list. And you can name it urllist.txt.
25. Web Analytics (Good idea)
26. Visual Appeal (Nothing to do with search engine rankings).

On the fly, I see you are missing:

1. Robots.txt
2. ICRA Labeling

Maybe I will come up with some more stuff.

My two cents so far.

[Webnauts]

I would like to add a comment to point 14 (Valid code):

Until recently Google, was recommending webmasters to adhere to their guidelines. But now Matt Cutts at Google said, that we SHOULD adhere to the webmaster guidelines if we want our sites to stay in their index. More: SMX - Googles Matt Cutts on their webmaster guidelines.

So what about this Guideline? "Check for broken links and correct HTML."

Am I missing something again?

[Chris]

i'm not sure how a visually appealing site is any more search-friendly than an ugly site. if they both have good on-page content and decent backlinks, they will both rank well... right?

and i'm talking from the perspective that every thing is equal w/the two sites.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Chris

i'm not sure how a visually appealing site is any more search-friendly than an ugly site. if they both have good on-page content and decent backlinks, they will both rank well... right?

and i'm talking from the perspective that every thing is equal w/the two sites.

You are absolutely right Chris. Visual appealing is not possible to be a search engine ranking factor.

[Laurentvw]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

You are absolutely right Chris. Visual appealing is not possible to be a search engine ranking factor.

Search engine spiders are blind after all

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Laurentvw

Search engine spiders are blind after all

Good point. More about: Reality SEO - Search Engine Commentary: Marriage of SEO & Accessibility Prevents Lawsuits, Increases Visibility

[weslinda]

Chris, that's why Visual Appeal was #26, it wasn't one of the 25 on page factors - . Obviously visual appeal has nothing to do with SEO but tons to do with success once the visitor has reached your site.

[Steven1976a]

Its the first time that i have read about "Breadcrumb Navigation" being important for SEO. What is the reason this is classed as important? Is it because of the actual navigation structure as it helps the spiders and viewers navigate, or is it the fact that typically it would be links with keywords in the links?

Also what is "ICRA Labeling"?

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by Steven1976a

Its the first time that i have read about "Breadcrumb Navigation" being important for SEO. What is the reason this is classed as important? Is it because of the actual navigation structure as it helps the spiders and viewers navigate, or is it the fact that typically it would be links with keywords in the links?

About breadcrumbs read here: Breadcrumb (contextual) Links and Search Engine Optimization | WebProNews

Originally Posted by Steven1976a

Also what is "ICRA Labeling"?

About ICRA see here: Labelled with ICRA

[incrediblehelp]

First and foremost breadcrumbs just make great sense to have from an end visitor perspective. As from an SEO stand point it gives you the perfect time to link to your pages that are relevant to the page your on while using keywords in the anchor text. A win situation for the website as far as optimization goes...and for the search engines as far as crawling goes.

[idansh]

you just almost but almost built a website on this thread with all those tags LOL

[weslinda]

Great comments on breadcrumbs webnauts and incrediblehelp, not sure I could add much more. Hope these ideas help people when building their web site and online marketing materials.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by weslinda

Great comments on breadcrumbs webnauts and incrediblehelp, not sure I could add much more. Hope these ideas help people when building their web site and online marketing materials.

Did you give us already a vote for our reputation? LOL

Wes, by the way, thanks for the kind words.

[janeth]

I think I misunderstood. You guys are not saying the above list will help you rank better in the search engines are you?

[weslinda]

Janeth, this is an overall list of items a quality web page should have, and many of them will positively affect SEO of the page.

[andyf]

Onpage optimization factors will definitely help in ranking......though i think we miss " no follow " tag.

[janeth]

My two cents is that most everything on the list will not affect your ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Doctype

My understanding is that you only need it to send your code to the validator, and to tell the browser what type of document is going to be served. You need to use it but it will not affect your ranking.

Also google does not use the <!doctype for any of it's pages.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Language Declaration

Again I do not think this will affect your ranking at all.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Title Attribute

Last testing I saw on this showed it did not affect ranking. It was a long time ago and things could have changed.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Meta Description

This has been tested and tested and every test I have seen shows this does not affect ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Meta Keywords

This has been tested and tested and every test I have seen shows this does not affect ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Author Declaration

Has no affect on ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Jump To Sections Navigation

Because of links would affect the ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Logo

Has nothing to do with ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]H1 Tag

Helps a little.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Main Navigation – Text Based

Helps with ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Main Content Area

Content is content. Not sure how mush if any having it all in one area will affect the ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Breadcrumb Navigation

Would help a little.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Sub Navigation – Text Based

Would help a little

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Valid HTML

Want affect ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]CSS For Page Layout

Want affect ranking.

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Page Structure

Is important

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Internal Linking

Is important

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Alt Attributes for Images

Should help with images that are used for links

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Title Tags for Text Links

Seen some test that show this does not have any affect

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Contact Information

Has no affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]About Information

Has no affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Footer Section

Has no affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Sitemap HTML

No affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Sitemap XML

No affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Web Analytics

No affect on ranking

Originally Posted by weslinda

[*]Visual Appeal

No affect on ranking

[janeth]

Originally Posted by weslinda

Janeth, this is an overall list of items a quality web page should have, and many of them will positively affect SEO of the page.

I agree that a quality website should have these items but I do not think most of the items will affect your ranking.

[Asiadeep]

Hi guys, this is my first time actually having a look at this forum and believe it of not this is my first thread! I'm a newbie webmaster and I'd just like to say my heartiest thanks. This tread really has a goldmine of information. Cheers!

[Webnauts]

Wes, I think you better name your thread "Best On Page Factors for SEO and Site Quality For Conversions".

[weslinda]

WIth all the work I've put into this one? Whatever makes everyone happy.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Wes, I think you better name your thread "Best On Page Factors for SEO and Site Quality For Conversions".

Most of the factors do not help with ranking and conversion depends on a lot of factors that involve a lot of testing.

I like the 25 things that every web page should contain. And it is what's at the top of the page.

[perry321]

Weslinda, put everything in there, regardless if there is a question of it working or not. It won't hurt anything, and you might as well cover your bases. There are a few there that has no affect on Google and Yahoo, but the heck with it, put them in anyway. You have other engines, and things may, MAY change in the future.

Rule of thumb: When in doubt, and if it doesn't hurt anything, do it anyway.

Put them all in, and then concentrate on your advertising. Don't rack your brain on this overrated SEO.

[weslinda]

Perry, I think that discounting SEO is not the way to win many over here. These are 25 pieces that I believe every web site should contain if at all possible, and as noted, we've missed a couple that should be included and haven't been.

I don't advertise, I have no need to advertise, I'm not seeking so much wealth that I will retire at 31, just 35, so I have 5 years to do it. Well, 4 years 362 days if I chose to retire on my 35th birthday.

[Webnauts]

Once again, I would like to add my 2 cents here, because I am getting sick and tired hearing all the time over the place that on-page SEO isn't a big deal for rankings and therefore traffic.

I am willing to provide you with a list of some clients of mine you can contact, to ask them if that helped them or not. PERIOD.

If you are interested to check with my clients those facts, PM me and I will send you their contact info.

[Webnauts]

A question for Janeth and others:

I read above your post above where you mention, this helps a little, this helps a little, this helps a little, etc.

Would you please be so kind and define the weight in % of those factors so we can tell how little they are?

To be more specific here, if we put all factors together which weight little, what should the weight be after all? Still little?

I never understood what you and others are talking about all the time. JUST CURIOUS!

So can you please clarify this?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Once again, I would like to add my 2 cents here, because I am getting sick and tired hearing all the time over the place that on-page SEO isn't a big deal for rankings and therefore traffic.

I am willing to provide you with a list of some clients of mine you can contact, to ask them if that helped them or not. PERIOD.

If you are interested to check with my clients those facts, PM me and I will send you their contact info.

Show me a competitive keyword that you have ranked a client for without using links.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

A question for Janeth and others:

I read above your post above where you mention, this helps a little, this helps a little, this helps a little, etc.

Would you please be so kind and define the weight in % of those factors so we can tell how little they are?

I don't have the time to break it all down for you but I can tell you a lot of the stuff on that list will not help you in the least bit when it comes to ranking.

I find it funny how personal some people take it when someone disagrees with them. (-:

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by janeth

Show me a competitive keyword that you have ranked a client for without using links.

I am not going into a discussion with you, if you begin like that. Sorry.

But just to clarify here, the customers already had back links but did not rank. I did on-page optimization for them and they came up in a very unexpected short time.

Most recent example: Does Michael at Nipplecharms say something to you? Ask him and you will tell you exactly what I am talking about.

I will draw him in the thread when he will be online again.

So, or you answer my question, or I am not convinced about your statements above.

Thats it. Take it or leave it Janeth.

I seriously want us to be friends.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by janeth

I find it funny how personal some people take it when someone disagrees with them. (-:

If we had the discussion alone here, I would not have a problem at all. But as other members are involved, we must take care that they will not be misleaded.

I do not mind if someone disagrees with me, since the facts due to my experience are backed up.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

If we had the discussion alone here, I would not have a problem at all. But as other members are involved, we must take care that they will not be misleaded.

I do not mind if someone disagrees with me, since the facts due to my experience are backed up.

We must not ignore all factors in "proper" optimization. Sure backlinks will greatly over weight most of these on-site factors (listed above) in a SE like Google. This is pretty easy to see. This doesn't take away from the great effect of user experience which can lead to solid conversions with the tips above. I truly feel SEO is not just about ranking a website any more, it is multi-step process including many levels or marketing not listed here.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

If we had the discussion alone here, I would not have a problem at all. But as other members are involved, we must take care that they will not be misleaded.

I do not mind if someone disagrees with me, since the facts due to my experience are backed up.

The reason I posted was to keep members from being mislead.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

This doesn't take away from the great effect of user experience which can lead to solid conversions with the tips above.

While I agree with what you are saying the thread was not written that way. The thread could be very misleading to someone new to the Internet.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by janeth

While I agree with what you are saying the thread was not written that way. The thread could be very misleading to someone new to the Internet.

If it is posed that way, what will happen if someone is mislead from the original post? Will he have a loss/disadvantage or profit/advantage?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

If it is posed that way, what will happen if someone is mislead from the original post? Will he have a loss/disadvantage or profit/advantage?

If he hires someone to create a logo because he thinks it will improve his search engine ranking then he will loose time and money.

or

If he hires someone to optimize his description and keyword meta tag because he thinks it will improve his ranking on Google he will loose time and money.

I could go on and on.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by janeth

If he hires someone to optimize his description and keyword meta tag because he thinks it will improve his ranking on Google he will loose time and money.

Maybe optimizing your meta tags will not help you for rankings.
But do you want to say that bad-formed description and keywords meta tags cannot hurt your rankings or even get penalized with e.g -30 penalty or so?

[Webnauts]

I would also like to add here that Yahoo provides some tips for improving rankings:
Yahoo! Help - Search

Are they kidding us there?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

I would also like to add here that Yahoo provides some tips for improving rankings:
Yahoo! Help - Search

Are they kidding us there?

I would do my own testing if I were you. Or maybe you believe everything the search engines tell you.

All I am saying is that people need to look at the people who are giving the advice.

Are these the same people that are trying to sell you the service?

If so, you should dig deeper and find out more before spending hard earned money.

[Webnauts]

So if I got the message Janeth, you mean that Yahoo is kidding us?
Well do be honest I don't care.

But by the way, have you probably missed my previous question I had about the description and keywords meta tags?

I would appreciate to hear your opinion there too.

[Webnauts]

And Janeth, can you tell me what the hell is this guy talking about? SEOmoz | 24 On-site SEO Checkups For Clueless Developers / Marketers

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

So if I got the message Janeth, you mean that Yahoo is kidding us?
Well do be honest I don't care.

But by the way, have you probably missed my previous question I had about the description and keywords meta tags?

I would appreciate to hear your opinion there too.

I have personally never tested it for myself but I have never seen a site penalized for meta tag stuffing.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

And Janeth, can you tell me what the hell is this guy talking about? SEOmoz | 24 On-site SEO Checkups For Clueless Developers / Marketers

My purpose here was to keep people from being mislead. I do not have a time for a 50 page debate. People can take the information I have given and look into it further.

Or

You could show me some of those keywords you rank for and I can show you how a site breaking all the rules can out rank the sites you have.

Otherwise I am off to work.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by janeth

I have personally never tested it for myself but I have never seen a site penalized for meta tag stuffing.

I did several times. For example, Michael at Nipplecharms had that problem too.

[weslinda]

Janeth, you don't feel that by following the outline of the 25 items listed in the original post a site will increase its rankings in any search engines?

I simply must disagree. While this is obviously not every piece to a great web site, or an all inclusive list of the tricks and pieces to quality SEO, it is a list of on-page concepts that build a great foundation for a web site. Not off page concepts like IBLs along with other tools and resources a web site owner can use.

By following the structure listed in the original post, a site building with those pieces as a foundation are well ahead of their competition if everything else is equal.

I certainly don't appreciate someone sharing that I might be misleading newbies on the web in regards to basic SEO, as this is what I believe to the be the core to a solid web site and will increase visibility of the web site in search engines.

I never shared this was all you had to do to rank #1 for your competetive keyword, however, for most businesses this is a very solid start to a well executed web plan. You have to remember that most of the "newbies" out there are not doing SEO for companies like Microsoft, or Progressive Insurance. They are trying to rank for Restaurants in Baltimore, and nothing more. Helping them achieve that goal is what I am hoping to do.

[nipplecharms1]

Just let me confirm what Webnauts said about my site. We were number 1 for like 45 terms. I kid you not! We were within the top 5 for another 25-30 terms. Then in Mid-May, we tanked and tanked badly. We went from a lot to almost nothing. And I mean nothing. We went for a PR4 to a PR3. I hate Gozizzle. Strike 1

A little background about our site. We had at one point 31 IBL on “G”. That dropped to like 4 in May. Ok, that is strike 2. I had stuffed repetitive keywords like “nipple”, “jewelry”, “nipple jewelry”, “nipple rings” etc in the same tags, title, descriptions and keywords. And had about 6% of the page with them. No wonder I was raking so high…. Then it caught up to me. Strike 3.

And I wondered why “G” crushed us. We were never really a threat on Yahoo as they had punished us for these types of misgivings. MSN was mediocre at best.

So I had posted in the forum here for some help and I got some good input. Webnauts accepted my challenge to help. After some back and forth over cost (very reasonable) he began. What did he NOT do for our site? He DID NOT provide any back links for us. That is a different animal that I have to tackle later.

WHAT DID HE DO? Loads. He fixed many (ok all of the) titles. He makes them specific to that page. And better than mine were. Why would I have crystal tattoos in the title, description and keywords tag where those terms were not mentioned on the page? He corrected all of that.

WHAT DID HE DO? He and his team looked at my code and found errors that the engines would stumble upon. It makes the page load faster for the end user. Does that help the SEO? Who cares, it helps with sales and that is bigger!

WHAT DID HE DO? He and his team fixed my keywords to optimize first for “G” and then “Y” and even MSN.

WHAT DID HE DO? He and his team fixed the description tags. Does that help SEO? Not sure from my standpoint to be honest. But does it mean that with “hipper”, sexier and motivating descriptions that people will click on us? FREAKING RIGHT IT DOES!!!! They are starting to now!

We are now back on top for many keywords. 13 #1 on MSN. 40 #1 on “G”, 18 #2 on “G” and 14 #3 on “G”. Some of these are not main terms but they sell. And is that not the point of an e-commerce site? (Now on Google we have another 43 in positions 4-10) Not shabby for ONLY working the Meta tags, titles, a few H1 tags and fixing a bunch of HTML code. All since June 1.

Do you need more evidence? I do not. Is this “lets feel good about Webnauts and his team?” No, its about getting a site turned around, back in the standing hopefully for some time and having that site produce.

Everything else is just window dressings.

My two cents.

Michael

[janeth]

I have a question for you Michael and I want you to be honest. Are you able to make a living off that site?