Back in the good-old-days, search engine optimization was largely based on on-page factors, that is, the layout of your web page was the major determining factor of how well your page would rank in search engines.

Today’s search engine optimization techniques are vastly different to those of the old days. Links and linking are the major determining factors for ranking in search engines, and on-page factors rarely influences it. While on-page factors doesn’t seem to contribute much to your rankings anymore, they are still useful in creating a easy to read web page for your visitor.

So what are the on-page factors?

Here’s the quick list:

1. Title tag
2. H tags
3. Keyword:
   1. Early on the page
   2. Repetition
   3. Stemming
   4. In <b>, <strong>, <i>, <em> and <u>
4. Grammatically correct
5. Internal linking

1. Title tag

A good title for your web page can increase your traffic. Use a descriptive title. There is little value in using your domain name as your title as it doesn’t elude to what the page is about, only what site the page is from. This doesn’t mean you have to exclude your domain name from your title, just include a short, descriptive phrase as well as your domain name.

Title tag tips:

• Use your keyword in your title tag.
• Don’t repeat any word more than twice.
• If you’re using your domain name in your title tag, add descriptive text about your page as well.

2. Header tags

Header tags or H tags, such as <h1>, <h2>, <h3> and so on, can be used to break up your page into sensible blocks. When used properly, headers can make your page much easier to read for the visitor.

Header tag tips:

• Try to use a <h1> tag as the first thing on your page.
• Use your keyword in your header tag, repeating your title as the header is an option for achieving this.
• Try to use <h2> and <h3> tags further down your page where it makes sense.

3. Keywords

Keyword early on the page

Use your keywords early on your page. Try to get it early in your first sentence if possible, but not as your first word of your first sentence.

Keyword repetition

Repeat your keywords several times throughout your page, but not too often. Keep in mind that you’re writing for your visitors, not for search engines and too much repetition of your keyword is not overly attractive looking and makes the page clumsy to read. Write the article first, then while proof-reading it, add your keywords where it makes sense.

Keyword stemming

A stem of a keyword is the part of the word which shares the same “stem” or “root”. For example, “stem” is the stem of stemming, stems and stemmer etc and “cat” is the stem of cats, catty and catlike etc.

Don’t be afraid to use your keyword’s variations when repeating your keywords within your article. Use its singular and plural, and add -ing, -ed and -ly where possible.

Keyword in <b>, <strong>, <i>, <em> and <u>

It’s a good idea to have your keyword in emphasizing tags such as <b>, <strong>, <i>, <em> and <u>. Do this cautiously as overuse tends to uglify your page. My rule for using emphasizing tags is use it where you want to make a strong point.

4. Grammatically correct

One of my major pet-hates is grammatically incorrect articles, so utilize your grammar and spelling checker. Search engines may one day become clever enough to look at grammatically incorrect articles and discount them in their index.

5. Internal linking

A very important on-page factor is internal linking. Look at the other pages you have and figure out if there are any pages that may be related to the current page you’re working on and link them together. This provides a service for your visitors so they can continue reading more related content on the subject they’re obviously interested in.

Internal linking tips:

• Use anchor text that is descriptive of the resulting page of the link.
• Use absolute linking (see the reasons here).

Conclusions

In the end, my biggest and most important tip to you is write for your visitors. The writing tips on this article are designed to help you write a good and useful web page for your visitors while helping search engines try to figure out what your page is about. It’s not about trying to write a page so it ranks in search engines, that stopped working a while ago.