On page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can become rather tedious but you can use a WordPress SEO plugin to do much of the work for you.

On page SEO is simply the means by which you make the search engines aware of the subject of your page or post. This entails following a series of simple rules and writing in a suitable style i.e. that provides valuable content to visitors and, at the same time, can be understood by the search engines. It is vital to get this right otherwise ranking highly on the search results will be difficult.

The "SEOPressor" WordPress SEO plugin can be used to check your on page SEO and tell you how to improve it. This is a very useful tool which is of most benefit if you try to follow the key rules from the outset.

Rule 1 - Set-up your site correctly

Decide on the keywords you are going to target and use your primary keyword in the domain name, preferably at the beginning.

Make sure that your site has all the necessary "standard" pages which should include, About Us, Contact Us, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Disclaimer. I recently had a site go from Google page 3 to page 1 simply by getting these pages right, so it is important!

Rule 2 - Title

The title should be no more than 72 characters and must include your keyword. The nearer the keyword is to the beginning the better.

As well as being good for the search engines this makes it more likely that inbound links will use the keyword in the anchor text.

Rule 3 - Meta Description

This is the description that usually appears on the search engine results. Start this with the Keyword then summarise the page in a way that will tempt the reader to click.

Rule 4 - Post/Page Content

The content should relate directly to the keyword and should be at least 300-400 words.

The keyword itself should be repeated as often as possible without overdoing it (known as keyword stuffing). It is generally thought that a keyword density of 2-4% is good and will make the search engines to see your content as relevant to the keywords whilst keeping the text readable by visitors. More than this may make the search engines think they are being manipulated (which will have the opposite of the desired result).

Outbound Links

Include links both to other pages on your site and to other sites using anchor text that fits with your content. Link to sites that have authority in your niche, don't link to any site that is involved in dubious SEO practices.

The SEOPressor WordPress SEO Plugin will check your on-page SEO against the keyword entered and will generate a list of recommendations for resolving errors and omissions. I have found that in practice you soon get fed up with having to correct the same errors and start producing SEO friendly content first time. The WordPress SEO plugin then becomes a failsafe in case you forget something.