As we've discussed in the chapter 6 training videos, proper on-page (aka "internal") optimization is vital for achieving high natural search rankings in Google. In the How to Optimize Your Meta Tags video we discuss some of the basics relating to on-page optimization. As mentioned in that video, one of the most vital considerations that "newbies" tend to not understand is the fact that Google ranks web pages, not websites. Each individual web page within a website can be, and should be, optimized for a different keyword phrase (or a couple keyword phrases).

During the initial build out of your ecommerce store, you should really only worry about optimizing your homepage for your main micro niche keyword phrase (or possibly 2 micro niche keyword phrases). The rest of the pages on your ecommerce store should initially be built out using common sense, and you can worry about optimizing them with keyword phrases (that actually get traffic in Google) later on. Chapter 8 is dedicated to maximizing your store's profit potential, and doing additional keyword research (and implementing it) is a major part of that.

So, now that you understand that each web page should be optimized independently, and optimizing a page simply means to use your keyword phrase correctly on that web page, it's time to actually do it. Here is a sample web page that has been correctly optimized for the keyword phrase "tiffany lamps" - below we will talk about each component of the page and how it was correctly optimized.

Now that you've seen the actual web page, let's break down the different components of the page and talk about how & why each component is "optimized" for the "tiffany lamps" keyword phrase. Refer to the labels on the sample web page as we discuss each component of the page.

Meta Title Tag

As you can see the 'Meta Title Tag' is the title at the very top of the screen shot. It's actually displayed in the header of your web browser, and not down on the web page. The meta title is also used as the 'large blue underlined' hyperlink that's displayed as the clickable text out on Google when your web page is ranking for something that was searched for. The meta title is the most important on-page component, so it is vital that we optimize it correctly.

Your meta title should be limited to nothing more than the keyword phrase(s) you are wanting to rank for on that web page, and it shouldn't have any sort of punctuation. As you can see, the meta title for this page is 'Tiffany Lamps' and that's the exact keyword phrase that is being targeted. If you are targeting 2 keyword phrases, you would simply separate the phrases with a '-' symbol, '~' symbol, or '|' symbol. For example 'Tiffany Lamps - Table Lamps' would be a good meta title if those were the 2 keyword phrases you were targeting.

Implementing this tag in your Zulu Cart store: For the homepage the meta title tag is located within the Zulu Cart Store Manager at Store Design > Home Page & it's the field named 'Meta Title'. For the meta title on all other pages within your Zulu Cart store, see the 'Meta Title' field within the actual page creators.

Meta Description Tag

The meta description tag cannot be seen on the actual web page (it's contained within the source code of the page), but it's also very important. The meta description tag should be 2-5 sentences long (containing punctuation) that summarizes the content of the web page & your offer to potential customers. It is smart to put your exact keyword phrase 1-2 times, and the opposite (singular vs. plural) version at least once. It's also advised to put 1 or 2 LSI keyword phrases in your meta description.

Here's the meta description for the sample page above: "All Tiffany lamps are on sale now. From Tiffany table lamps to Tiffany window panels, we have it all. Your Tiffany lamp purchase is backed by our Low Price Guarantee, and for a limited time all Tiffany lamps ship free within mainland USA."

As you can see we use our targeted keyword phrase in it's 'exact match' form twice. We have the singular version of it once, and 2 LSI keyword phrases are displayed as well; 'tiffany table lamps' & 'tiffany window panels'. Also note, we are summarizing the content of the web page while also promoting the products and calling the customer to action!

Implementing this tag in your Zulu Cart store: For the homepage the meta description tag is located within the Zulu Cart Store Manager at Store Design > Home Page & it's the field named 'Meta Description'. For the meta description on all other pages within your Zulu Cart store, see the 'Meta Description' field within the actual page creators.

H1 Tag

The H1 Tag is a meta tag that is used as the title of the web page content (see the sample web page above). This is formatted the same way as the meta title tag (i.e. punctuation is optional) but needs to be more of a promo or call to action, to customers. The H1 Tag for the sample page above is: "All Tiffany Lamps On Sale Now!"

As you can tell, it is recommended to simply put your keyword phrase within a single sentence (or call to action). Make it promotional, but not "over the top."

Implementing this tag in your Zulu Cart store: For the homepage the h1 tag is located within the Zulu Cart Store Manager in a homepage gadget at Store Design > Home Page. You simply activate the H1 Tag homepage gadget and then edit it. For all other pages within your Zulu Cart Store Manager, the H1 Tag is controlled by the 'Heading Text' field within the various page creators.

On-Page Content

The phrase 'on-page content' is simply referring to all the other textual content within your web page. This is not a meta tag, but it's still a very important part of optimizing your web page for your targeted keyword phrase.

If you are using Zulu Cart as we recommend, the majority of the on-page textual content will be handled by the template components automatically. By simply building your store the right way, your keyword phrase and related phrases (possibly even LSI phrases) will be used within the components of your template. With Zulu Cart, you can also rename the homepage and sidebar gadgets so they contain your keyword phrase, but don't go too crazy! Remember that we are going to put the customers first & Google second, so it needs to look natural and not like you're trying to stuff keyword phrases in everywhere.

Besides the textual content that is naturally created by Zulu Cart, you need a bare minimum of 1 or 2 good-sized paragraphs of well-written unique textual content per page (at least a paragraph on category pages & at least 2 on all other pages). You will see this towards the bottom of the same page above. FYI, the sample page is a website's homepage. Optimization on a category page or product page would be handled a bit differently. It is recommended that you splash the keyword phrase (in both the singular & plural versions) at least 3-4 times within these paragraphs, but not more than 7-8 times. You should also use some LSI keyword phrases within the content as well.

Implementing textual content in your Zulu Cart store: For the homepage the textual content is located within the Zulu Cart Store Manager in a homepage gadget at Store Design > Home Page. You simply install a new 'Open HTML' homepage gadget and then edit it to contain the content you want displayed. For all other pages within your Zulu Cart Store Manager, the textual content is controlled by the description text (aka 'body text') within the various page creators.

Meta Keywords Tag

Those of you that know about on-page optimization already are probably wondering where the information is on the 'Meta Keywords Tag'. At this point, we intentionally leave the meta keywords tag off of our web pages. It is widely believed that Google (and other major search engines) no longer pay any attention to the meta keywords tag. So displaying it simply gives your keyword phrases to your competitors. There's no reason to display a meta keywords tag, and you will not see a field for that meta tag in any of the pages within your Zulu Cart Store Manager.