SEO Tip #3 - Most Important Parts of a Page
January 15th, 2007 | Categories: SEO, marketingA lot of people stress over SEO. Many believe that a certain keyword density ratio is absolutely necessary. Others pledge that a given web page should be structured in a specific way. Though both notions deserve some attention, often times they get overblown.
The best bang-for-buck can be achieved by focusing on several specific locations of a page. Maximizing ROI, while minimizing time and effort is the ultimate goal. Having said that, here are the most important parts on a page in my mind (in order):
- Page title
- META description
- Header (h1)
- Page URL
If you can insert your given keywords into these spots, then you’re already miles ahead of most sites.
Obviously, the page title is absolutely key as most know. My first article on SEO was devoted entirely to this part of the page. Next, we have the META description. This is the text that shows up in the search results when an engine returns your listing. Meticulous planning of the description is often overlooked, but cannot be understated. Headers, more specifically h1’s and h2’s, are the most important on-page terms. Finally, if you are able to somehow fit your keywords or terms in the page URL, it will help improve your rank.
Another thing to keep in mind is prominence. Simply put, I always try to place my keywords as close to the beginning of the tag as possible. This increases the prominence of the keyword or term and places more emphasis on its importance.
In the era of Web 1.0, META keywords were at the heart of SEO. However, keyword SPAM and other illegitimate tactics forced changes. This is why Google, and its PageRank, emerged as the leader. Nowadays, META keywords are on the brink of extinction. Google doesn’t take them into consideration at all. Yahoo supposedly does to a small degree, but don’t hold your breath.
By targeting the 4 specific areas listed above, you can expect your SEO rankings to increase by a large degree. Oh… and you might want to try and acquire some back-links 
For more information, view: The 4 Most Important Parts of a Page for SEO.
January 15th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Have you noticed how with a generic WordPress install, your Page Title, H1, and URL are the same?
For a while I’ve been wondering about keeping this setup, with the same “title” in all 3 key places, vs hacking the code in order to have more _different_ keywords in total.
Any thoughts?
January 15th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Tony,
I would shy away from having more keywords and different keywords. I think that concentrating on a smaller number of words and maintaining consistency across the important locations is essential.
My one concern is this:
Sometimes the page title doesn’t necessarily best describe the article or its content. For example, I often use quirky, catchy article titles that often fail to accurately describe the content. The advantage to this, however, is that the title may be more likely to seduce RSS subscribers and potential readers.
Having said that, if you can tweak the appropriate areas with more accurate keywords and themes, you may be better off.
Just something to think about…
Cheers,
Aidan
January 15th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Well that’s exactly my point. Quirky, catchy Title vs keyword descriptive URL. Indeed something to think about, thx.
January 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Solid advice, Aidan. People are often torn between writing for their intended audience and writing for the search engines. I tend to think you’re better off writing for people and just keeping some core SEO concepts in mind. Sometimes, though, it’s worth it to experiment and write a post structured primarily for the search engines.
As for meta keywords, it’s amazing how many people still push them. I’ve been telling people for years to avoid them. I like it when sites do use them, though, as it’s useful to scrape them for keyword research.
January 17th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
not sure how seriously I can take someone named Dick Ball.
January 17th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Sigh. When I worked at AOL (software developer there for 6 years), some of my co-workers started calling me N. Took me awhile to figure out what they were talking about. Go ahead, make fun of my name.
Take my advice, though. Don’t use the meta keywords tag. Be happy when others do, though. If they really believe the meta keywords tag is important, they’ll presumably have done some extensive keyword research. You can often get some great keyword ideas (for either SEO or PPC purposes) by scraping meta keywords.
BTW, Aidan, found your site via 9rules. My blog, Apogee Weblog, was accepted in the 5th round.
January 17th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Richard,
Thanks for the advice about the META keywords. I understood that they offered little value, but I kept them anyways. Nonetheless, I’ll make the necessary changes.
BTW, congrats on being accepted into 9rules in round 5. I was also accepted into the network in round 5. I think I was accepted on day 3 or so, which seemed so long ago. In any case, I was very happy as it was my first time submitting. In addition, the blog had only been around 2 months prior to the submission.
It’s a great network and I look forward to being a part of it.
Cheers,
Aidan