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How do you perfect on-page optimization? Tough question. There’s no canned answer to that, but there are some pretty clearly defined best practices that allow us to check off the critical bits and, naturally, adjust individual efforts from there. What does perfect optimization look like? Let’s pretend we’re optimizing a page for “Perfect On-Page SEO.”

Must Have On-Page Factors:

Title Tag: “How To Perfect On-Page SEO Optimization | YourSite.com”

Best Practice: Place the target keywords before the brand/site name.

Phrasing this as a question is a natural way of including the target keywords, plus you take advantage the populate “How to” prefix. This is also a strong format for headlines in general.

Meta Description: “A great SEO resource to ensure you attain perfect on-page optimization the first time.”

Best Practice: Include target keywords and keep the total length to less than 160 characters.

You won’t get any additional ranking boost out of a meta description tag, but you will get an opportunity to sell your site to the searcher. Make it clear (we’ve described the page as a “resource” above) and entice the searcher to click with another headline-like snippet.

H1: “A Guide to Perfect On-Page SEO”

Best Practice: Include target keyword, entice as a headline and set the semantic tone of the page.

The H1 isn’t critically important in terms of SEO, but as David Ogilvy famously said “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” Including the keyword ensures the headline reflects the searcher’s query and defines the semantic meaning behind the page content.

H2, H3*: {as needed}

Best Practice: Only include if needed.

All subheadings should be used to break up the on-page copy, and as such will be relative to the content. Including keywords is never a bad idea, but it is generally more important to use all subheading tags draw users through your content.

Image Filename: /on-page-seo-ranking-factors

Best Practice: Include target keywords, consider image search relevance.

Filenames really do double duty – they increase the semantic scent of your on-page content and the compete in image search (which can be a big traffic contributor.) Make sure you consider both factors with your filenames.

Alt Attribute: {illustration of on-page SEO factors} “On-Page SEO Ranking Factors”

Best Practice: Use a photo, image, or illustration to connect the user to the page content, and use the target keywords in the alt attribute text.

One thing of note – alt text should mirror the text used within the image. This is not a place to stuff keywords, but an opportunity to thoughtfully connect imagery to your content.

Body Text: …perfect on-page SEO… …perfecting on-page SEO… … on-page SEO perfection…

Best Practice: Include variations on any available verbs (e.g. carry, carried, carries) to build on the root keyword’s semantic meaning.

First and foremost, write your content for your users. Bar none. Once you’ve completed your piece, look it over and consider rewriting portions to increase the opportunity for keywords variation – without sacrificing the message or readability of the piece, of course.

URL: www.yoursite.com/how-to-perfect-on-page-seo-keyword-targeting

Best Practice: Use hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_) and include your target keywords.

The URL is another element that serves double duty. You need to consider on-page optimization as much as readability and user relevance. Generally speaking, people will link to, bookmark and click through URLs which are human readable and relevant at a a much higher rate than “messy” URLs.

Of course, this totally depends on the site – Youtube is a great example of a site that gets TONS of links even with gibberish in the URLs – all due to the shareability of the content on the site.

Other On-Page Elements:

Internal Links: {in links to the example page} “perfecting on-page SEO”, “on-page factors” & “perfect on-page SEO “

Best Practice: Use a variety of your target keywords as anchor text for internal links.

Within navigation elements it’s best to standardize the actor text, but with body copy you have a chance to create relevance with thoughtfully architected internal links. After you’ve written a piece, revisit that content to consider where you might link to other internal resources with targeted anchor text.

Page Architecture

Best Practice: Target more competitive phrases further up in the site architecture, link to pages targeting your most competitive phrase more and only link to a page from another page once within body content.

With on-page architecture, the general idea is to get content targeting more competitive keywords higher up in the site and link to them more with targeted anchor text from in-content links. Navigation and footer link value may be discounted, so link to content from within other content.

Optional Items:

Canonical Tag

Best Practice: Implement on sites which create variations of URLs – sort data, tracking tags, etc.

The canonical tag is a great tool for clarifying the root page of a given set. For instance, if you have a page which appends sorting tags when a user sorts products – by brand, size, cost, etc. – the canonical tag should be employed to clarify the unsorted page as the root URL for all that content.

Meta Keywords Tag

Best Practice: Don’t bother.
The meta keywords tag has little to no SEO value – so it’s up to you if implementation and management is worth the additional cost/brainwork. Usually this tag is little more than an easy way for competitors to research your target keywords.

Additional Meta Tags:

Other than hCard Meta Data for address information, there is no meta tag other than the above that is going to provide any valuable data to a search engine.

Debunking a Few Myths:

Keyword Density & Repetition: There is no right answer for this, as keyword usage and diversity are predicated on the content being produced, but generally speaking the concept of a specific density or number of keyword repetitions unlocking the key to search engine dominance is deeply flawed. There are too many other factors search engines consider to make keyword density have much (if any) impact on organic ranking.

Certainly this list is a general guide for on-page optimization, but each individual vertical will have specific traits and considerations that make it unique and challenging. One thing to remember – there is no single task that is going to bear as much fruit as a solid link building plan. Once your on-page is in good shape don’t belabor it – get out there and build some links! Revisit your the keywords sending you traffic and make sure to adjust on-page factors as opportunities arise.

Outside of the above tips, what have you seen that makes for a perfectly optimized page? How do these vary from vertical to vertical?