Why On-Page Keyword Optimization is Important

“On-page keyword optimization” refers to optimization practices concerning text on screen and on your website, as opposed to “invisible” factors, such as META content or proper HTML programming.  On page factors are related more to the content and the stricture of the site.

The entire process would involve adding or adjusting keyword frequency in page content (body text), as well as in the URL, the page title, subheadings and hypertext links.  This process is not just about adding keywords, but also creating appropriate and correctly formatted lengths.

Remember not to overstuff your pages with keywords.  Ideally, each page should only focus on two to four repeat keywords, and they should be related to the content.  If you want to use more keywords, then split your content into more pages.  As far as URLs go, it is better to type out a URL (with the page title in it) rather than use random numbers.  Make sure to separate these pages by hyphens, but don’t let the page URL go on too long (aim for less than 130 characters).  Of course, all keyword titles and sentences should make sense and not merely exist as gibberish.

Part of on-page keyword optimization involves adding appropriate headers, and also ensuring that important keywords are at the top of the page.  Remember that search bots will only index some HTML tags text, and they don’t like seeing an abundance of repeated words.  So spamming is a no-no, and could even return a search penalty.  Your subheadings may in fact be returned on a search preview, so make sure you have the best quality and keywording at the top of the page.  Last but not least, don’t forget image alternate-text tags.

All in all, it’s about writing content that is right for human beings (and people working as search engine editors) not merely SEO perfection.  Aim for more natural writing, and use natural repetition rather than strictly focusing on keyword density.  As for internal or external links, 50 is about right and there is no need to repeat links.

It’s interesting to note that on-page factors aren’t as important now as they used to be, since SPAM abusers used to take advantage of on-page opportunities to flood their HTML with keywords.  However, they still matter now, though their relevance is more directly related to coherent writing made for human beings.

In the end, on-page keyword optimization is important because it welcomes search engines, holds human interest and helps to optimize your website all the way through.