When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, many people tend to focus on the wrong things.  Novices will say that they need to make sure they have their meta keywords and meta descriptions perfectly laid out and implemented.  Experts sometimes focus obsessively on inbound links, and rightly so, but miss an important and easy piece – On site SEO.  On site SEO consists of all of the things you can do on your site to help with the search engine rankings. Whether it is determining your title tags, properly using header tags, or interlinking all of your existing pages, all of these are effective in SEO and are a lot easier to do than thousands of link requests!

We work with many different Virginia SEO clients on a daily basis, and our approach is to always looks inside first.  We look at a client's site and make sure it is fully optimized first before we start seeking out other external linking opportunities and partners.  Below are some of the things we do to improve on site SEO.

The title tag is the single most important adjustment you can make on your website to improve your rankings.  The text in the title tag is a very important ranking factor for the search engines, and additionally, it is what is searcher will be displayed with as a link in the search results.  So, it is important that your target keyword be included in the title tag of the page you are trying to rank for.  Additionally, it is important that you word it in such a way as to entice the visitor to click-thru to your site (you must also create enticing text in the meta description tag).

Also critical to your search positioning of specific words is the use of heading tags.  You should always have your main keywords included in the H1 tag used at the top of the site.  If your design does not use an H1 tag you absolutely must start using it if you are at all concerned about SEO.  Additionally, H2, H3, and H4 tags are also valuable, although in a decreasing value the higher the number is.  The search engines know that if you are putting some words in a heading, they are likely the words your site should be ranking for.  As such, ensure that your heading tags are coded into your CSS design and also be sure you are using your keywords in these headings.

A final critical factor often overlooked is how you link to other pages within your site.  Just how you want to have your keywords in the anchor text in the links other people do for your site, you can and should use specific anchor text to link to specific pages on your site.  Lets say you have a site about dogs, and a page about large dogs that you want to rank for the search ‘Black Labs’.  From the home page, you might have text that says, “Learn more about large dogs such as black labs” and make black labs the link to your large dogs page.  This has the same effect as external link anchor text.  Do this often on your site and measure your ranking improvements.

So, as you can see, there are many different ways you can use your existing site and content to improve your own rankings in the search engine.  It seems obvious but it is often overlooked. Be sure to research and put a lot of thought into improving your title tags, headings, and internal linking and you’ll certainly see an increase in your rankings!