On page optimization is one of the very first step of SEO which every webmaster have to do. If you can do proper on-page optimization for your website you can not only rank well in a search engine but also can increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.

1. Title tag optimization

Title tag is the most important on-page optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. Title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. So naturally it is given a very high importance.

What your title tags should have?

• Title tags should be short.
• Put your main keyword in it.
• One keyword should be repeated three times,  not more then that.
• It is about your business! So do not use here a welcome message and any other general sentences.

2. Meta Tags

A site’s Meta tags may not be as important as it used to be before, however Meta Description is something you can’t just ignore. A site’s Meta description should contain a brief description of your website focusing on the areas and services that your business is specialized in. This small piece of text can be considered as a selling snippet, if a searcher finds it appealing he is likely to click and go inside your page to find out more information. But if your Meta Description is too generic and isn’t written too well then there is a good chance that your site will simply be ignored.

Things to know about your Meta Description:

• Meta Description should give a brief introduction about your site.
  
• It should contain your main keywords.
• Should not be too long – one or two sentences are enough based on my experience
  

3. Headings & HTML Tags

Headings is one of the most important tags in html. HTML contains 6 Headings in it, from H1 to H6.  H1 tag in a page shows the main focus/heading of the site, while it gets lower important with every lower heading tag.

What to do with Heading tags:

• Your Page must have one and only one H1 tag in it, and the text on which this tag is applied should be your main keyword.
• Use less important keywords in lower headings.

HTML Tags:

Some other HTML tags contribute alot in your site’s SEO. For example. You should always bold, italize or underline your keywords present in the text of your page.

Text Styles:

• Bold: You can bold (e.g. [strong]) certain words which are of high importance. Sometimes it’s good to bold your keywords where appropriate. However overdoing this may get you penalized.
• Italic: You can use the [em] tag to emphasize certain words which will appear in italic.
• Quote: This is very useful when you are quoting from someone.

4. Keyword Optimization & Synonyms

Your site’s content needs to be optimized in such a way that it can suit both search engines & your readers. Stuffing your site with too many keywords can make your site unreadable. So you will need to have some sort of balance between your keywords & your content.

Important elements of Keyword Optimization:

• Research: Do a proper research before you decide on your keywords. There are plenty of free tools out there that can help you to do keyword research. Some of my personal favorites are: SEObook Keyword Suggestion tool, Google Adwords Keyword Tool & Overture Keyword Tool.
• Keyword Density: Try to have a moderate keyword density so that it can help the search engine to determine that your page is indeed related & relevant to the keyword that you are targeting.
• Synonyms & Related Keywords: I personally like to use synonyms instead of having a high keyword density. This helps to make my content sound natural but still helps in SEO.
• Long Tail Keywords: It’s often good to target some long tail keywords as they are comparatively easier to rank for. During your keyword research you should be able to gather some good long tail keywords that you can optimize your site for. But you can also come up with your own long tail keywords; for example try adding some common words like – ‘best’, ‘free’, ‘cheap’, ‘top’ etc. along with your actual keyword and you might eventually get some good long tail keywords.

5. Link Optimization

It is important to optimize your internal & external outbound links for search engines as well as to give your visitors a better navigation.

Important elements of Link Optimization:

• Include the appropriate keyword in the anchor text which gives the outbound link a ‘proper meaning’ and value.
• A good & clean Internal Link Structure with proper use of anchor text will definitely help. E.g. “New visitor, register here” is a better anchor text compared to “click here”
• If you are using a CMS, then try using permalinks. This way your keywords/post title will be on the link itself and thus it will valued more by the search engines.

6. Image Optimization

If your site has lot of images, you need to optimize them too as they can’t be read by the search engines. It’s very easy for a human reader to interpret the image into its meaning. However for a Web crawler the whole interpreting process is completely different. Search Engine spiders can only read text but not images. So you need to use some special tags for your images in order to give them some meaning.

Some Important Image Optimization Elements:

• Alt text : ALT text or Alternate Text is the text to describe your image when your mouse moves over an image on your web page. The text should be meaningful but short. You can use your relevant keywords as ALT text. If your browser can’t display the image for some reason, the alt text is used in place of that particular image.
• File name : always use meaningful file name for your images, use names like “blue_house_wall.jpg” instead of meaningless “DSC24045.jpg”. Keep image file name same or similar to the ALT text.
• Image Title : always use the title tag in images which will show the title as tool tip when a user moves his mouse over the image.
• Image Linking : Whenever you want to link to your image, use the image keywords in your link text. Example: use “View a blue house wall”, instead of “Click here to view” as the anchor text.