by Claudia Bruemmer

Did you know that over 70% of Internet users go to a search engine before they buy a product or service? Since we have over 220 million Internet users in the US, you can’t afford not to be exposed to these potential buyers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique used to optimize your website’s on-page and off-page factors in order to rank more favorably in search results. You can use SEO Best Practice techniques to drive more business to your site from customers who never heard of you before finding your site in the search results pages.

Did you know over 80% of website traffic comes from search engines? That means SEO is a vital marketing strategy if you want your business to grow. While it might be expensive to hire an SEO agency, it’s possible to do it yourself. However, it takes a lot of time, effort and know-how. Below is a brief review of the on-page and off-page SEO factors that are necessary to achieve top rankings.

On-Page SEO has to do with the text and content on your web pages. Compelling content is the foundation of the ongoing process of updating your site to make it user-friendly for both users and search engines. When you create persuasive content about your products/services and use the keywords people will use to search for your offerings, the search bots crawling the web will index and rank your pages favorably in their databases.

• Webpage URLs: Your inner page URLs should consist of your domain name and a description of the page content.
• Meta Tags: Optimize your Title and Description Tags. Title tags should be short (65 characters or less), forming a sentence that begins with your primary keywords. Use enticing, descriptive copy and create unique Title tags for every page. Your Description tag will grab the click as snippets truncated from your Description is displayed in search results. Use keywords in the beginning and write concise, compelling copy (150 characters or less).
• Headers: Include primary keywords to spark interest with headers. Keep them short and relevant. Use only one H1 tag per page.
• Body Text: Write pages that have a purpose for your visitors and are focused on 2 or 3 primary keywords. Include your primary keywords at the beginning and the end of the page. Support primary keywords with related keywords to establish context on the page and to facilitate spidering. Close with a call to action. Write in conversational style, focus on customer needs and be mindful of search spiders. Write concisely as web users scan pages quickly. Let the headers organize your copy, using bullets and bold text for emphasis. Allow plenty of white space for readability. Use anchor text for internal and external linking and vary your anchor text by using related keywords.

 • Internal Links: Create relevant links between the pages within your site. Link your major pages to your homepage, ensuring keyword-focused anchor text is relevant on the destination page. Use navigation text links rather than images or JavaScript. Use breadcrumb links, subject/topic group links and sitemap links.
• Images: Use images for content credibility and to create interest. Keep image size to a minimum for fast display. Use relevant ALT text.
• Sitemap: Create a sitemap of all the pages in your site to reveal link structure. This will ensure all your pages are indexed by search engines.
• Site Validation: Ensure your pages are indexable and that links can be followed with the free W3C Markup Validation Service.
• HTML Code: Ensure code is free of errors and warnings.

On-page Factors to Avoid: Using the the techniques below can get you penalized.

• Hidden Links or Text: Avoid using hidden or invisible text in a font color similar to the background color of your site for the purpose of getting listed on search engines. This will adversely affect your rankings.
• Cloaking: Avoid publishing two different versions of your site, one for search engines and one for users. This will get you penalized.
• Duplicate Content: Avoid posting duplicate content. You must display unique, original, useful content.

Off-Page SEO refers to the technical work that must be done off the pages of your site. Off-page SEO is more difficult than on-page SEO and includes the following:

• Anchor Text: Use relevant keywords in anchor text links, and don’t ignore the text surrounding the links.
• Quality Links: Build quality links, considering relevance, page rank and authority sites.
• External Links: Get listed in DMOZ and quality directories in your niche. When looking for one-way links, search your primary keywords to identify competitors, and then find out who is linking to them. Create a list of possible candidates and be prepared to offer something of value in return for a static link with relevant anchor text. Start a business blog and post valuable information on other blogs relevant to your business. Write hot content in your area of expertise and submit to relevant publications or post on your blog. To fast start your linking program, hire a link expert.
• Increase Link Popularity: In addition to the above, you can attain links by using social networking sites, logging comments on these sites, posting on forums, writing articles/press releases, submitting your site to directories, creating link bait, posting classified ads and exchanging links with relevant sites.

On-page and off-page factors are two different aspects of SEO, and both must be implemented to bring qualified traffic and conversions to your site.