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Category: On-Page / Site Optimization

Explore on-page optimization and its role in a larger SEO strategy.

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    | RSO
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    | RSO
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  • Couldn't agree more! I once started working with my brother who had been a landscape gardener for donkeys years. The first client we went to, I was down on the ground pretending to know all about different types of grass. The client turned to my brother and said "he talks a lot of crap doesn't he... new at the job?" Hire a professional, who knows his onions (or blades of grass) and don't try to do anything on the cheap.

    | Gordon_Hall
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  • How to Redirect a Web Page Using a 301 Redirect By Herman Drost You've just redesigned some pages of your web site. The pages have high search engine rankings that you don't want to lose. How can you safely redirect web site traffic from your old pages to the new pages without losing your rankings? You can do this by using a " 301 redirect " What is 301 redirect? 301 redirect is the best method to preserve your current search engine rankings when redirecting web pages or a web site. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". After the code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is noted, followed by a space, then followed by the new location or file name. You implement the 301 redirect by creating a .htaccess file. What is a .htaccess file? When a visitor/spider requests a web page, your web server checks for a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains specific instructions for certain requests, including security, redirection issues and how to handle certain errors. How to implement the 301 Redirect 1. To create a .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save the file as .htaccess (there is no extension). 2. If you already have a .htaccess file on your server, download it to your desktop for editing. 3. Place this code in your .htaccess file: redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm 4. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it, skip a line, then add the above code. 5. Save the .htaccess file 6. Upload this file to the root folder of your server. 7. Test it by typing in the old address to the page you've changed. You should be immediately taken to the new location. Notes: Don't add "http://www" to the first part of the statement - place the path from the top level of your site to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space between these elements: redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved) /old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name) http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name) When the search engines spider your site again they will follow the rule you have created in your .htaccess file. The search engine spider doesn't actually read the  .htaccess file, but recognizes the response from the  server as valid. During the next update, the old file name and path will be dropped and replaced with the new one. Sometimes you may see alternating old/new file names during the transition period, plus some fluctuations in rankings. According to Google it will take 6-8 weeks to see the changes reflected on your pages. Other ways to implement the 301 redirect: 1. To redirect ALL files on your domain use this in your .htaccess file if you are on a unix web server: redirectMatch 301 ^(.)$ http://www.domain.com  redirectMatch permanent ^(.)$ http://www.domain.com You can also use one of these in your .htaccess file: redirect 301 /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html  redirect permanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html  redirectpermanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html This will redirect "index.html" to another domain using a 301-Moved permanently redirect. 2. If you need to redirect http://mysite.com to http://www.mysite.com and you've got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can put this in your .htaccess file: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=permanent,L] or this: Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L] Tip: Use your full URL (ie http://www.domain.com) when obtaining incoming links to your site. Also use your full URL for the internal linking of your site. 3. If you want to redirect your .htm pages to .php pages andd you've got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can put this in your .htaccess file: RewriteEngine on  RewriteBase /  RewriteRule (.*).htm$ /$1.php 4. If you wish to redirect your .html or .htm pages to .shtml pages because you are using Server Side Includes (SSI) add this code to your .htaccess file: AddType text/html .shtml  AddHandler server-parsed .shtml .html .htm Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes  DirectoryIndex index.shtml index.html Frequently Asked Question: What's the difference in using a 301 redirect versus a meta redirect? Meta Redirect To send someone to a new page (or site) put this in the head of your document: http://mynewsite.com/"> Content="10; tells the browser to wait 10 seconds before transfer, choose however long you would like, you can even choose 0 to give a smoother transition, but some (really old) browsers aren't capable of using this so I'd suggest putting a link on that page to your new site for them. With a meta redirect the page with the redirect issues a 200 OK status and some other mechanism moves the browser over to the new URL. With a 200 OK on both pages, the search engine wants to index both the start page and the target page - and that is a known spam method (set up  10,000 domains full of keywords for the search engines to index then meta redirect the "real visitor" after 0 or 1 seconds to the "real site" ) so using it gets you penalized. The 301 redirect simply issues a Permanently Moved message in the HTTP header which tells the search engine to only index the target URL. Conclusion: The safest way to redirect old web pages to the new pages or old web site to the new web site and keep the same search engine rankings is to use the 301 redirect. It will also pass on the page rank from your old site to your new site.

    | JHSpecialty
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  • You could certainly do with more content on the page. Problem is you want to maybe try to direct with your content that is currently above the fold. Also the format of the page is always an issue. Pushing down your dynamic content would probably never be seen by a user and Google will be able to read that with your bounce rates, time on website and overall clicking action from users once they land. The key to good on-page seo is starting with the usability of the page first. This will help you to ensure your website content is perfectly balanced and higher up on the page to show importance. Also include some H3s and break up your subjects and offer more brief but engaging content. Currently only have 63 words. So you might want to push for 300+ words and keep your keyword density at 3%. Just divide how many times you use the keyword phrase online dating by the amount of words to determine if you are at best seo practice. Your Title Tag has 37/60 characters max; this okay, might want to see if bump up a tad with something really organic or slogan with your keyword as far to the right of the title tag as possible Your Meta Description 138/154 this is a descent range; just include a click to action. This is what will help users engage your website from the SERP results. Also try to offer something you can deliver so your click-to-action and on page conversion does not result into an immediate bounce. HEADLINES and delivery is vital here! Your Meta Keyword 2/10 max. You can use 5 to 10 different keywords in this tag. Although this does not have much significance anymore; it can't hurt. Use each keyword once! Hope this helps a bit.

    | ChadBreezy
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  • I found the answer alone!! Is there 2 meta tags Description when I look for the page font. So: I see 2: content='.' name='description'/> tks!!

    | ReF12
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  • matt cutts addresses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSqLYUPq8w#t=0m22s I found this brief discussion on semoz http://www.seomoz.org/q/using-commas-in-the-tittle-tag

    | irvingw
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  • Hi James, I'm glad it helps and excites you going forward with your business. Check your Analytics data as well - see if there are ways to quickly improve time on site, loading speed, bounce rate, average pages per visit - anything Google gives you could be an insight into what they want you to improve. If you have any related questions, just ping me to let me know and I'll check back. ~Matt

    | MattAntonino
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  • Thank you Marek. I have no idea why I never thought of that part before!

    | Libra013
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  • That's been specifically called out by Google and can definitely get you penalized. It's very dangerous. Google will not see hiding text because your client doesn't want to put up text as a legitimate use - for one simple reason. They have no way to know that. All they see is a very abused tactic in play, and they can and will penalize it.

    | Dr-Pete
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  • So just a quick fyi, when you responded to my question, everyone else can see it.  You don't have to put it under each response. If it is really beneficial to your users, DO NOT eliminate it. As far as stopping the crawlers from seeing it, that may be worth a try to see if it helps or not.  That is done using a robots.txt file. If I were you before I blocked those pages with the robots.txt file, I would want to be 100% positive that all those number of links were having a negative effect on your site and that they aren't just being ignored. Take a look at this article: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-many-links-is-too-many  it is a little old, but still very relevant in your situation.

    | kadesmith
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  • Thanks Kasa! Chiaryn will be following up with you in the ticket.

    | MeganSingley
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  • My answer is not necessarily the best, but it is one worth checking out because of other benefits: Woopra. Woopra is a real-time stats package; the main function is not real time chat. One of its features, however, is a real time chat client. The client can be popped open by the site visitor, similar to what you see on many ecommerce sites or - somewhat unique - forced open by the Woopra user if you spot behavior that warrants it (keep in mind the potential creepiness of that one for most sites). If your needs run towards an analytics package other than Google, real time data, and chat, Woopra is a nice option. http://www.woopra.com/ http://www.woopra.com/features/live-chat/

    | CakeWebsites
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  • Hi Niners72, I agree with Mark. But I would also try to ensure that you are providing a relevant yet unique title tag for each of  your pages where possible (you can focus on the ones that are top level then work through as when you have the time-if you have a large site) as these can help to improve Click Through Rate also as well as the description (which needs to be within the 156 limit).

    | LoveFitness
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  • Hi Alan, Many thanks for your answer

    | te_c
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  • "I'd like the page to rank for 'Care Home Claims', but as you can see, that isn't the phrase currently being used in the URL: www.asons.co.uk/Claims/Accidents-in-care-homes/21569" True, but the keywords are in the url... order does matter but having them in the url is much better then not at all. www.asons.co.uk/Claims/Accidents-in-care-homes/21569 "I would like to amend the URL to reflect the keyword focus. Currently the page is a 'B' - so hopefully this change will push it over the edge to an A. " The page grader is a very useful tool but you also have to know when it is okay to deviate and ignore some of the results. If you get an A grade for a page that is getting canonicaled to another page then grade doesn't really mean much. Your original question was about using the canonical tag on a page which already has a canonical tag. For somebody (atleast for me) to answer the question, I would want to know what the url is you want to canonical, where you want to canonical it to and why. Something like.. url... rubbererducks.com/decoys/red/p-19191 url... rubbererducks.com/decoys/red/p-19198 canonical to... rubberducks.com/decoys/red/ Because product pages are similar just different artist That would help us help you

    | donford
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