34 On-Page SEO Factors And Checklist From Matt Cutts And Other Experts

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Here is a list of search engine optimization tips I got from one of Google's webinars with Matt Cutts and other experts, in this special webinar he points at a few websites to show 33 on page SEO factors that needs to be in every webmaster or business owner checklist.

The event was a great way to learn and make sure I was doing the things right and I was following Matt's on page SEO factors, I know this tittle blog is doing great in the SERPs, but with the last search engine algorithm change (Google Panda), you need to make sure you know every single new rule the big 'G' want you to follow in order to keep you ranking or to help rank a new site. And let me tell there were a few things I added to my optimization checklist... In my last post about using strategic methods for fast ranking, I provide some quick and easy to follow tactics for beginners, and this list of white hat onpage tips goes hand to hand with that post, together you increase your success rate.


Matt's On Page SEO Factors.

If you have any questions about any of the tips and strategies mention below, please post your question on the comment below or join the conversation over at Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

1. Make sure to add text to your pages, site without any text based content will get rank lower than those that have good relevant text content.

2. Use targeting keywords as the headline of your pages, this help search engines and visitors know what your site is all about. Use a good keyword research tool!

3. Use proper headline tags "H1, H2, etc."

4. Use targeted keywords at the beginning and through the content. (Don't stuff).

5. If you don't know what to write, encourage user generating content with comments, discussion forum, social media platform (CMS or content management systems).

6. Have a blog related to your niche.

7. Use social media to generate interaction, but bring engagement to your site.

8. If your run Wordpress as your site, be sure the you are using the current version. This is the same to any other CMS platform to avoid getting hack.

9. Matt Cuts recommends to use a HDX file to whitelist the IP addresses that access your WP Admin directory. Also is good for Joomla, and any other CMS platform.

10. Avoid having a login box on the left corner on your site.

11. Don't use two level of navigation buttons at the top of your site, but is OK to repeat or have a full list of navigation links at the bottom of your page.

12. Make sure to use your blog post or articles titles as the title of each post page, this is automatically added if you use WordPress.

13. Use your main keywords on the "title" tag on your homepage.

14. Your domain doesn't need to have your keywords in it, instead think on branding with an easy to remember and spreadable name.

15. Register with Google Webmaster Central (http://google.com/webmasters) for many useful website and marketing tools, and also because it will help you if your server gets hacked, or if your site have malware or anything like that. Remember that if Google detect malware in you site it will block it.

16. Don't post duplicated content from press releases or article directories. This is not good for ranking and for visitors experience.

17. If you have a local site or blog make sure to add your address or location on your page.

18. Local sites can get lot of traffic and better search ranking if you add your business town on your "title" tag. So, your added right after your main keywords, for example: House Painter In Worcester Massachusetts.

19. Try not to use unrelated or missleading names as your site name or domain name... Not good for branding and traffic.

20. Learn from the top link-to sites in the world... Adobe, Google and Apple are the most link-to sites on the web, why? Because they provide something of full useful and compelling value. So, if you want to get lots of voluntary back links you need to offer something of wonderful value.

21. Make sure your site has a good hosting plan to avoid down time for over using bandwidth.

22. Web croms are excellent if you separate them the right way. Use '/' or '.'

23. Be sure to a unique and relevant title tag and meta description tag for each of your pages. This is the information that shows on the search results so you want it to be relevant to the term use by your audience. Because the bots will take the first part of your content as description, but if you have a site description that appears on every page like in blogs, you need to add a meta description tag to make sure you show the right content to search users to increase click through rates. You can have your web developer to automate this for you.

24. Don't fake comments, and write wierd reviews for your content or products.

25. Avoid having too much spam comments on your blog or site, specially the kind that promotes adults based links or unrelated topics.

26. Don't add duplicated content inside a frame, this isn't useful for SEO or for your visitors.

27. For local sites make sure to add complete address on page and if you mention your county, also make sure to mention your town to help you rank better.

28. Avoid multi versions of your homepage URL, example: www.you.com/index.htm, www.you.com/default.php, etc.. You need to make sure you only have one main homepage, if not your ranking gets divided between the pages which makes you loose traffic. If you don't know how to if it just search for 'rel=canonical' or visit the Google reference page (watch the video below for more instructions). This script can help you unify this URL's so you don't loose ranking.


29. To add to the last tip, you don't want to have too many versions of your URL, so when building link make sure all those links and anchor text are pointing to one single URL, example: 'you.com' and done!

30. Avoid a page or ecommerce sites that are full of affiliate content and links....

31. You domain extension have nothing to do with ranking... Is all about the quality of your content, so having a .com .net .org, makes no difference, so is OK for you to use .info .me etc.. Just check this site http://Matt.tt, doesn't use a regular or popular extension and still manage to ranks higher than Matt Cuts blog for the term 'Matt'.

32. Google can handle H1 or unclosed tags fine, as soon the problem is minor. They do it because they know that more than 40% of the web is H1, because there many people that post content but don't use proper tags or forget to close them. It only becomes a problem if you entire site or page is H1!...

33. A few words about URL shortners which are awesome tools to share information on social media sites like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. But, the best URL shortner are the ones that use 301 redirect, because this past the page rank to your site.

34. Another important SEO factor: Please don't spam the search engines by over stuffing keywords in your content, don't get crazy about meta keywords because Google haven't used that for years now, don't hide key-phrases in color, all those old school black hat techniques don't work at all, and can get your site penalize by the search engines.

So, what you need to remember to ensure the success of your online marketing efforts:

• Use your main keywords where it matters.
• Add text content to your site.
• Use proper tags.
• Provide high quality value.
• And don't spam.

Also make sure to validate your site with W3c validation tool. To complete your SEO factors checklist you need to keep your eyes on any changes made by Google or any other major search engine, and apply the new rules if is relevant to your site, if not, just leave it alone keep working on the off-page elements of your web marketing.

Warmly,

Luis Galarza,

Local SEO Specialist.

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