Next on-page steps for an SEO newbie

[AlexParish]

Hi there!

I'm new to Seomoz and am really pleased with the service so far. I've been doing some On-page optimizations and am gradually getting most of my pages to an A grade, but I wondered what the next steps would be?

For example I have been looking at the search term "the shins fans". I have an A grade for my page (http://tastebuds.fm/artists/the+shins) but it lists on the 2nd page of SERPS for the term (in the UK at least).

Can anyone recommend any tips for taking my page to the 1st page of SERPS? This site seems to do well: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/the-shins

I am aware of the importance of link-building, but I'm specifically looking for tips on optimizing the page itself.

Many Thanks,

Alex

[RyanKent]

Oops. Sorry for looking at the wrong site Alex. Some quick opportunities I noticed for your site:

• improve your HTML and CSS validation

• add some unique content to the page. As far as I can tell, there is not any unique content on the entire page.

• add more social engagement

• provide more engaging content. What content would visitors find helpful? Your page is about The Shins. Perhaps their next tour dates where people can meet up? Band News? etc.

• I would recommend examining every Shins fan page you can find. Take a look at what is being offered on those pages. Incorporate any additional cool ideas into your page. Perhaps a poll or asking users to share their favorite songs or band stories.

• replace the "+" in the URL with a hyphen. http://tastebuds.fm/artists/the+shins

• the ALT text is mainly numbers. Replace the text with helpful descriptions. Also provide more helpful image file names.

Those are just a few initial ideas I noticed.

[AlexParish]

I don't suppose you have any comments on my page? I'd be interested to see if you had any tips that differed. Many thanks.

[activitysuper]

No worries.

Maybe im making it more complicated then it is.

Each page just has some sharing buttons, when someone shares the page using one of these buttons social signal is generated, end of, happy days.

So the type of thing you could do which is similar to your page is the social sharing box at bottom/left - http://blog.kissmetrics.com/

Penalties don't even come into this so forget that worry.

But do you get what I mean from that example link?

[AlexParish]

Great article, thanks for that.

I'm not sure what you mean about the like buttons. Will I get penalised if I have Facebook like buttons that like different types of content, on the same page?

[activitysuper]

Yeah course: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-bing-confirm-twitter-facebook-influence-seo

Also be careful, you got a facebook page which gains likes (fans) and then you got a like button on a webpage which when clicked 'likes' the website page on someones facebook page.

You want buttons on your site, which once clicked, basically places a link on there facebook wall to the page they liked.

[AlexParish]

Hi Ryan, thanks for responding so thoroughly. Unfortunately I think you were examining the wrong page! My site is tastebuds.fm, rather than www.fanpop.com! I'll take those suggestions on board though, thanks!

[RyanKent]

Hi Alex,

A few tips:

• your web page has over 140 html errors. Try fixing most of the HTML and CSS errors. They may cause various issues ranging from search engines not being able to crawl your site properly to errors being displayed on various browsers and devices. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanpop.com%2Fspots%2Fthe-shins&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

• Change your title a bit. Your desired keyword focus is "the shins fans". Your present title is "The Shins Fan Club | Fansite with photos, videos, and more". Try a title of "The Shins Fans" or at least replace "The Shins Fan Club" with "The Shins Fans".

• Try using the keyword target in the page's content. You have shared your focus is "the shins fans". The only place that phrase is used is in the very bottom block of the page. If that is your keyword focus it should be used prominently at the top of the page where it is visible when the page first loads.

• Use ALT tags to identify images. Search engines cannot "see" images so they rely on your help to identify them.

• Use image file names which represent the image. One of the main images on the page is named "520_800_100.jpg". Perhaps name it "Shins Group photo.jpg" or something more helpful.

There are tons of opportunities to improve your SEO. I don't place a lot of value in the "A grade" for your page. If you desire to be on the first page, especially if you wish to be at the top, there is a lot of work to do. A great place to start: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

Good Luck

[AlexParish]

Super thanks, I'll definitely add more social buttons and make them more prominent.

Out of interest does Google only take into account the number of Google +1 clicks for the page? Or is it clever enough to take into account Facebook likes and number of tweets?

[activitysuper]

Get your social on!

I would be inclined to add some more social buttons and make more of them as well, you got that box on the left which just has 1 facebook like button.

Why not have a facebook, twitter, linkedin, stumble upon type buttons, maybe with even an arrow pointing to them with the line 'give this artist some love' or something like that.

If the sharing goes on your gain some social signals, which in turn will help with ranking.