Throughout the marketing community, there is a lot of controversy over on page SEO, and off page SEO.  SEO, or search engine optimization, is important in that without it being maximized on a website, the chances of showing up on the first page of the SERP's (search engine results page) is not very likely.

So what exactly is on page SEO?  On page SEO is the way a site is put together to make it attractive for the search engines.  Using on page SEO, you will maximize every aspect of the web page that makes it relevant and meaningful to the search engines. H1 tags are used to highlight the keyword phrase in the title of the page.  Let's say your site is about internet marketing.  On the page copy, You would therefore use the phrase "Internet Marketing" and enclose it in H1 tags in the HTML source of the web page. This tells the search engines that your page is indeed about internet marketing.  To many times, new marketers will use the phrase "Welcome to our website!" as the title of the page.  This can only hurt you in the SE's. The use of bold and italic formatting is also used to highlight the keyword phrases that you feel are most relevant to both the search engines and the content on your site.  

Another way to increase on page SEO in you web copy is to insure that your keyword phrases are used correctly.  Be very careful in the use of anchor text, using keyword phrases instead of the old "click here" strategy. Don't be penalized for keyword stuffing, as it can only cost you in your ranking with the search engines. Instead, educate yourself on the advantages of latent semantic indexing, or LSI.  By learning this technique, you will make the search engines happy, and your sales copy will have a more natural flow.  LSI is based on a mathematical algorithm, and basically scans a page for relevance.  Because LSI is a very advanced topic, it is beyond the scope of this article, but not hard to understand once you grasp the principle. Use it in your sales copy, and the SE's will love you for it!

Off page SEO is basically how your site is perceived in accordance to other sites of similar content, and their position with the search engines.  Everyone has heard of page rank, and its principle is quite simple.  Google rates your website on importance and relevance on a scale of 1 to 10.  Therefore, a site with a ranking of 10/10 is a top authority site, and has the most relevant content for the particular niche it is presenting. To check your ranking or the rank of competing pages, download the free Google toobar, or use a resource site such as http://www.pagerank.net.

One of the best ways to increase page rank is through a comprehensive linking strategy.  By exchanging links with a site that has content relevant to your own, you are seen by the search engines as being an authority site, and they will consequently rate you higher.  Many new marketers think that having a links page full of reciprocal links is a good idea, but don't fall into the trap of being just another link farm.  Only link with sites that have content relevant to your own.  By gathering links from relevant sites on a regular basis, you will soon find yourself climbing in the search engines ranking.  Always try to get links from .edu or .org sites, as these sites generally rank very well.

Using common sense in your SEO strategies will help you accomplish good ranking in the search engines, and will make your website one of the top ranking sites on the internet.