Onsite SEO - T.M.C - Title, Meta-Tags and Content

Published: 10th of March 2007

Whereas a couple of years back, some search engine optimisers would promise their clients high search engine rankings without making noticeable improvements to their web sites, successful web site promotion now requires a goodly amount of onsite SEO (search engine optimisation).

But what exactly is onsite SEO?

This term actually refers to any improvements made to any given web site at the code and content level.
It encompasses things like W3C Compliance, additional or improved content, a better internal link structure, more relevant meta tags and other, often seemingly trivial actions.

As a rule of thumb however, the main aspects of onsite search engine optimisation boil down to the following:

1. Page Title
   The page title is the first tag in any HTML document’s ‘head’ section.
   Unlike the other tags within this part of the document which are only visible to search engines, the title is also visible to a page’s human visitors as part of their web browser’s title bar at the top of the screen.
   In most cases, it is also displayed by search engines such as Google to give users their first idea of what any given result is about (Click to see).
   Search engines will examine this tag, compare its relevance to the page’s content and use it as part of their assessment process.
   For this reason, the page title is one of the most important components of any HTML document.
2. Meta Tags
   As another component of an HTML document’s ‘head’, Meta Tags include, amongst others, the page description and keyword tags.
   Although these tags no longer hold the same value to onsite SEO as they did a few years back, they should not be treated lightly.
   The Description Tag is designed to provide an expanded version of the page title.
   Like the title tag, it is examined by search engines, compared to the page’s content and used to assess a site’s importance for any search terms relevant to the page’s topic.
   Once used to spam the major search engines, the keyword tag has been greatly devalued in the fight against unethical SEO techniques.
   Whilst many web designers and web promotion professionals see the keyword tag as completely obsolete, the overall relevance of information contained within it still plays a minor part in overall promotional methods.
3. Content
   Whilst every optimiser has his or her own approach to onsite SEO, most will agree that ‘Content is King’.
   These days, plenty of well-written, unique, visitor-orientated content is absolutely essential to the long-term promotion of any web site.
   Visiting search engine spiders will examine a web page’s content, assess it for relevance against keywords and phrases contained within it and use this as part of the formula which ultimately determines the page’s position in the search engine results.

Together with W3C compliant HTML code, the above components form the backbone of successful onsite SEO.
Please contact us for further information about any aspect of our web promotion services.

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Onsite SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is part of a balanced approach

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