[Build Backlinks Online] A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'A Visual Guide to Keyword
Targeting and On-Page Optimization'


Posted by randfish
How do I build the perfectly optimized page?

This is a challenging question for many in the SEO and web marketing fields.
There are hundreds of "best practices" lists for where to place keywords and how
to do "on-page optimization," but as search engines have evolved and as other
sources of traffic â social networks, referring links, email, blogs, etc.
â have become more important and interconnected, the very nature of what's
"optimal" is up for debate.


My perspective is certainly not gospel, but it's informed by years of
experience, testing, failure, and learning alongside a lot of metrics from Moz's
phenomenal data science team. I don't think there's one absolute right way to
optimize a page, but I do think I can share a lot about the architecture of how
to target content and increase the likelihood that it will:



A) Have the best opportunity to rank highly in Google and Bing

B) Earn traffic from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,
etc.

C) Be worthy of links and shares from across the web

D) Build your brand's perception, trust, and potential to convert visitors


With the help of some graphics from CreativeMarket (which I highly recommend),
I created a number of visualizations to explain how I think about modern on-page
optimization and keyword targeting. Let's start with a graphical overview of
what makes a page optimized:


larger version



In the old days of SEO, "on-page optimization" referred merely to keyword
placement. Search engines liked to see keywords in certain locations of the HTML
code to help indicate a page's relevance for that query. But today, this simple
approach won't cut it for two key reasons:



The relevancy and keyword-based algorithms that Google and Bing use to evaluate
and rank pages are massively more complex.
Gaining a slight benefit in a keyword placement-based algorithmic element may
harm overall rankings because of how it impacts people's experience with your
site (and thus, their propensity to stay on your pages, link to you, or share
your content socially â all of which are also directly or indirectly
considered in ranking algorithms).



Below is a pie-chart breakdown of how the 128 SEO professionals surveyed for
Moz's annual ranking factors project rated broad algorithmic elements' impact in
Google:


larger version



If <15% of the rankings equation is wrapped up in keyword targeting, no
wonder smart SEOs in the modern era have evolved to think more holistically.
Personally, I'm happy to sacrifice "perfect" keyword placement in the title
element or a URL for better user experience, a higher chance of having my
content shared on social networks, or a better click-through rate in the search
results.


But, for the purposes of this post, let's put some of those caveats aside and
dive into the best practices for each element of a page. It may be unwise to
optimize all of these purely towards search engine-based best practices, but we
can temper the advice with notes on usability and user experience for visitors,
too. Below, I've attempted to go tag by tag, and element by element through the
keyword targeting and on-page optimization canon to expand on the more basic
advice in the "Elements of an Optimized Page" graphic above.

Uniquely valuable

An optimized page doesn't just provide unique content, but unique value.
What's the difference?


Unique content simply means that those words, in that order, don't appear
anywhere else on the web.
Unique value refers to the usefulness and takeaways derived by visitors to the
page. Many pages can be "valuable," but few provide a truly unique kind of value
â one that can't be discovered on other pages targeting that keyword
phrase.


Whenever I advise marketers on crafting pages, I ask them to put themselves in
the minds of their potential visitors, and imagine a page that provides
something so different and functional that it rises above everything else in its
field. Here are a few of my favorite examples:


The Baby Name Wizard â a terrific page that provides clear value above and
beyond its competition for searches around baby names.

How Much Does a Website Cost â Folyo surveyed their designers to create a
distribution of prices that accurate, credible, and massively valuable to those
seeking data on pricing.

Scale of the Universe â this interactive feature will take you from the
tiniest parts of an atom all the way to universe-scale. No wonder it ranks for
such abstract queries as "the size of things."

The Best Instant Noodles of All Time â The Ramen Rater has tried literally
thousands of packets of instant noodles and determined these ten to be the
outstanding few. I'm actually excited to try them :-)

Top Social Networks by Users â Craig Smith puts together an update to this
list every month or two, and has compiled this invaluable resource to help those
of us wondering just how big all the networks are these days. I've personally
used this for numerous posts and presentations â it's an excellent example
of creating unique value by aggregating data from varied sources (and it,
deservedly, outranks stalwarts like Nielsen as a result).


Unique value is much more than unique content, and when you have a page that
rises to the level that these do, social shares, links, and all the other
positive associations, branding, and ranking signals are apt to follow.

Provides phenomenal UX

A user's experience is made up of a vast array of elements, not unlike the
search engines' ranking algorithms. Satisfying all of these perfectly may not be
possible, but reaching for a high level will not only provide value in rankings,
but through second-order impacts like shares, links, and word-of-mouth.


At the most basic level, a great UX means the page/site is:


Easy to understand
Providing intuitive navigation and content consumption
Loading quickly, even on slower connections (like mobile)
Rendering properly in any browser size and on any device
Designed to be visually attractive/pleasing/compelling


Smashing Magazine has my favorite article on the subject: What is User
Experience Design? Overview, Tools, and Resources.

Crawler/bot accessible

Search engines still crawl the web using automated bots, and probably will for
at least the next decade or more. While there have been plenty of leaps in the
sophistication level of these crawlers, the best practice is not to take chances
and follow some important guidelines when building pages you want engines to
crawl, index, and rank reliably:


Make sure the page is the only URL on which the content appears, and if it's
not, all other URLs canonicalize back to the original (using redirects or the
rel=canonical protocol)
URLs should follow best practices around length, being static vs. dynamic, and
being included in any appropriate RSS feeds or XML Sitemaps files

Don't block bots! Robots.txt and meta robots can be used to intelligently limit
what engines see, but be cautious not to make errors that prevent them from
crawling and indexing your content.
If the page is temporarily down, use a status code 503 (not a 404), and if
you're redirecting a page to a new location, don't go through multiple redirect
chains if possible, and use 301s (permanent redirects), not other kinds of 30x
status codes.


Geoff Kenyon's Technical Site Audit Checklist is still one of the best
resources for those seeking more in-depth information about crawler-based
accessibility.

Keyword-targeted

As I mentioned in the opening of this post, it may be the case that perfectly
optimized keyword targeting conflicts with goals around usability, user
experience, or the natural flow of how you write. That's OK, and frequently, I'd
suggest leaning in those more user-centric directions. However, when it's
possible to optimize keyword usage, you'll need some ammunition. Here's a look
at the most important elements as we've observed them through time, testing,
correlation, and listening to the engine's recommendations, too.

7 important keyword targeting elements (and 1 not-so-important element)

#1: Page title


Using the primary keyword phrase at least once in the page's title, and
preferably as close to the start of the title tag/element as possible is highly
recommended. Not only are titles key to how engines weigh relevance, they also
dramatically impact a searcher's propensity to click.




Above is an example comparing some title elements for the search query "lip
balm." The tag for allure.com is more compelling from the perspective of
fulfilling the searcher's intent (which is likely to compare multiple blams vs.
find a specific one), but it also puts the keyword in prime, eye-catching real
estate on the results page. We have seen evidence and heard the engines
themselves discuss the value/importance of earning clicks and preventing
"pogo-sticking" (the bouncing of a visitor back to a search page after clicking
a result). Optimizing for both keyword prominence AND user intent/visibility is
an excellent idea.


#2: Headline


While we've seen mixed results over the years with using the H1 tag
specifically for keyword placement, it's almost certainly the case that a
searcher who's just clicked on a results expects to see a matching headline on
the page they visit. Failure to do so may increase the odds of pogo-sticking,
and our most recent rank correlations suggest that a topically relevant H1 is
associated with higher rankings.




I wouldn't always require a match between the title and the H1 precisely, but
they shouldn't be so dissimilar as to drive anyone who's clicked away from the
result.


#3: Body text


It should come as no surprise that using your primary (and secondary, if
relevant) keyword phrase(s) in the content of the page are important. Our
research suggests that it's not just about raw keyword use or repetition,
though. Search engines are almost certainly using advanced topic modeling
algorithms to assess relevance and perhaps quality, too.


This means it's wise to make your content comprehensive, useful, and relevant
as possible, not just filled with instance of a keyword. In fact, we've observed
plenty of cases where the overuse of keywords resulted in a negative impact on
rankings, so be judicious. If you asked a non-marketing friend to read the page,
would they get the sense that a term or phrase was suspiciously prominent,
sometimes needlessly so? If that's the case, you're probably overdoing it.


#4: URL


A good URL has a few key aspects, but one of those is keyword use. Not only
does it help with search engine relevancy directly, but URLs often get used as
anchor text around the web (mostly through copying and pasting). For example, if
I link to this post using its URL, e.g.
http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization, the
phrases "keyword targeting" and "onpage optimization" appear right in the text.


For more best practices on URLs, check out our learn article on the topic.


#5: Images and image alt attributes


Having images on a keyword-targeted page is wise for many, many reasons, not
least among them is that these can help directly and indirectly with rankings.
Most directly, your image has an opportunity to show up in an image search
result. Granted, Google's new interface has dramatically lowered the traffic
from image search, but I still find great value in having your brand name/site
associated with production of useful graphics, photos, and visual elements.


For search engines, the image's title, filename, surrounding text, and alt
attribute all matter from a ranking perspective. In particular, those doing SEO
should know that when an image is linked, the alt attribute is treated similarly
to anchor text in a text link.


#6: Internal and external links


A good page should be accessible through no more than four clicks from any
other page on a site (three for smaller sites), and it should, likewise, provide
useful links to relevant information on any topics that are discussed.


Some SEOs have, in the past, questioned whether linking externally, especially
to sites/pages that might compete for a visitor's time/attention or a search
engine's rankings is wise. I believe the nail in that coffin was delivered by
Marshall Simmonds in his Whiteboard Friday Interview noting the value the
NYTimes saw from their implementation of external links. Since then, search
engine representatives have subtly hinted on multiple occasions that there are
elements in the algorithm which reward external links to quality sites/pages.


#7: Meta description


A page's meta description isn't used directly in search engine ranking
algorithms (according to representatives from Google and Bing), but that doesn't
mean they're not critical. The meta description tag, if it employs the keyword
query, usually shows up in the search results, and is part of what searchers
consider when deciding whether to click.




As you can see from the snippet above, when keywords appear in the meta
description, they also get bolded, which can help with visibility. The primary
goal of a meta description should be to earn the searcher's click. Think of them
like ad copy, and work to make searchers care about your page.


#8: Meta keywords


Notably absent from this list is the Meta Keywords tag, which Google does not
use in rankings, and we, along with many others (including SearchEngineLand)
recommend against employing on your pages.


-----------


The reason it's so important to balance these keyword-targeting demands with
other attributes of on-page optimization is illustrated below:


larger version



As you can see, while on-page features like keyword use in titles, keywords,
and body text (even when measured via a more sophisticated and higher
correlating model than just raw usage like our data science team did in the
ranking factors) have reasonable correlations given the complexity of Google's
rankings, other elements are found much more often in higher- vs. lower-ranking
pages.


If social shares, brand mentions, links, and domain authority all potentially
trump keyword-based factors as differentiators, marketers need to make sure
we're hitting the basics of on-page, but never extending in such a way that
interferes with our ability to succeed in these other avenues.

Built to be shared through social networks

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, and dozens more
social networks that are niche-focused can help earn signals that help rankings
directly and/or indirectly (often through exposure to folks who might link to
them).


A well-optimized page should help to make social sharing as easy and seamless
as possible, including:


Using obvious social sharing buttons that are targeted to the page's audience.
Don't just list every network on the web â be empathetic and predictive of
what your visitors are likely to employ.
Craft URLs that are short and descriptive so that copying/pasting (for those
who prefer) is painless, and whenever/wherever those links appear they provide a
good UX for those seeing them. This is particularly important across more niche
social sites, forums, and Facebook/Google+ (which use full URLs if the length is
short rather than the condensed versions that Twitter uses).
Make content that has inherent viral value. Think about a social influencer and
ask yourself, "would I share this page if I came across it?" Find ways to make
that answer yes. One of the best is to build pages that will make social sharers
themselves look good to their audiences (either because the page helps promote
them directly/indirectly or because the unique value is so compelling, their
followers/fans will be indebted to them for finding it).
If possible and relevant, employ features like Twitter Cards and Facebook's
OpenGraph markup to get the additional benefits on those networks.


Given how the reach of social networks have grown, how well social shares
correlate positively to higher search rankings, and how those correlations have
risen over time, there's a lot of value in making sure your pages have an
opportunity to perform socially.

Multi-device ready

Although it was called out in the UX section, this principle is worthy of its
own headline due to the increasing diversity of devices, browsers, and screen
sizes. Mobile use isn't just critical for users "on the go." Many are using
mobile or tablets to browse at home, at work, and as a replacement for
laptop/desktop. And they're not just consuming â they're sharing! Social
sharing in particular is a huge part of mobile & tablet functions, which means
that if you're not optimized for all devices, you're missing critical
opportunities for amplification to a broader audience.

Inclusive of authorship, metadata, schema, and rich snippets

There are a vast array of options that provide additional markup that engines
may employ in their listings. Rather than try to list all of them, I'll link to
resources with more information on each:


Google offers the rel=author and rel=publisher options to display a
profile/brand image and details alongside results.
Bing has a similar service called "linked pages" to show profiles with results.
Google also provides a vast array of options for rich snippets, many of those
come via schema.org markup, which show in various ways alongside, above, or
below search results. They provide a nice tool for testing those snippets here.
Several options also exist directly through a page's meta data that Google &
Bing employ.


Moz's marketing scientist, Dr. Pete, recently put together a slide deck
showing 90+ unique forms of search results, many of which leverage rich forms of
markup (though only a few of these are in the control of the marketer/creator).


My recommendation is to apply those that both match the opportunities provided
by the engines and the techniques that will give value to your potential
visitors. Be cautious of going overboard â there's a bit of rich snippet
spam that serves only to leave a bad taste in searchers' mouths and may hurt
your reputation or rankings with the engines themselves, too.


Choosing how to optimize

One important takeaway from this post should be that modern on-page SEO is
about juggling competing priorities. In general, my recommended ordering of
those priorities is as follows:


Create a page that is uniquely valuable to your targeted searchers.
If at all possible, make the page likely to earn links and shares naturally
(without needing to build links or prod people).
Balance keyword targeting with usability and user experience, but never ignore
the critical elements like page titles, headlines, and body content at the
least.

There's no such thing as a "perfectly optimized" page, but I took a stab at
drawing up the mythical beast anyway:




Over time, what's "perfect" might change, and new services, platforms, and
areas of optimizational opportunity could arise. But for the past few years
(notwithstanding some newer tactics like Google's rel=author), the model
described in this post has held relatively stable. The "O" in SEO is getting
broader, and I think that's a wonderful thing for marketers of all stripes.
Targeting an algorithm instead of people is far worse than hitting both birds
with the same handful of optimization stones.


p.s.: If you have feedback or suggestions on items to include, please feel
free to suggest them in the comments.

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