On-page SEO factors affecting rankings (Part 2)

Yesterday I started looking at on-page SEO factors affecting rankings for top 5 performers on Google.ca for “calgary web design”. Today we’ll look at the contenders and their on-page SEO elements in more details.

On-page SEO review for top 5 listings

#1: Calgary Web Design | SEO | Web Designer

Now let’s look at on-page SEO for WedgeIM in more details:

• WooRank score: 54.2, http://www.woorank.com/en/www/wedgeim.com
• Descriptive meta title: This “Calgary Web Design | SEO | Web Designer” title contains high traffic keywords that the company targets. It does describe what company does though. This title raises a question: is this a company or a freelancer. There’s nothing wrong with either but I prefer to be clear on that from the beginning.
• Promise in meta description: This description offers a promise of no-hassle answers, clean design and easy-to-navigate sites, as well as asks the user to give them a call. I’d include a phone number in this description. There’s enough space left for it too.
• Site links: This is the only website that has site links in Google listing. Site links are granted by Google to show a list of most popular pages on the website. This shows that the site is well trafficked. According to WooRank it gets over 1000 visits per month. It’s not a lot but considering the key phrase “Calgary web design”, it’s enough to get site links from Google.
• Landing page: This is where we land after clicking on the search listing. Are we in the right place? Based on latest website design showcase, we are in the right place. Good! Does this page look like a web design shop? At first it looks like a modern Web 2.0 web design with an image scroller and bold calls to action. However, looking at more details, it appears that the website is based on a Joomla website template with a few things unfinished.
• Headings: H1 tag is one of the most important elements on a webpage. It appears that H1 is missing here. According to WooRank the page has 5 H2′s and 8 H3′s, which is not so bad, but all H2′s are the same “Making beautiful websites since 2004…”. Not the best way to do it.
• Image alts: Also, according to WooRank, the page has 26 images and 18 of them are missing alt tags. Adding unique alt tags to those 18 images might help the company to solidify its #1 position :)
• Address / email  / phone number: The page has contact details of the company spelled out in text on the page. This is exactly what you would want to do to be considered more credible according to Google, especially if you’re running a local business.
• Canonical issue: This page is missing canonical tag (has a www. vs. non-www issue). As a result Google views the URL with www. and without as two separate websites with exactly the same content. This raises a duplicate-content issue, which is bad. The fact that the website still ranks #1 interesting.

#2: Web Design Calgary & iPhone Apps by Mediumrare Inc.

And on-page SEO for Mediumrare in more details:

• WooRank score: 51.2, http://www.woorank.com/en/www/mrare.ca
• Descriptive title: The page title “Web Design Calgary & iPhone Apps by Mediumrare Inc.” sounds pretty descriptive to me. It identifies the keyword, the service and the company. Best one so far.
• Promise in description: This description is a humble (can compete…) overview of services the company offers. It invites the user to make the next step and check the portfolio. No promise made, but clean and within the character constraints.
• Landing page: This page is about creativity. It can be seen the headline and the graphics. To me this one looks as a very clean and unique website design showing that the company is in fact a web design agency.
• Headings: This page has 1 H1 and 8 H2′s. That’s what I like to see. However, H1′s text is “mediumrare” and like embedded into  the logo on the page. Ideally, I’d like to see H1 showcasing a target key phrase for the page (i.e. Calgary web design by Mediumrare Inc.” or something like that.
• Image alts: 2 out of 2 image alts are missing. Adding those in and planing a key phrase in there should help the company make this page more relevant to its target search term.
• Canonical issue: No canonical issue here. All great! Google views the www. version and no-www version as one page.
• Contact info spelled out: This one also has the contact details spelled out in text. Google like to see things like that!

#3: Calgary web design – Apis Design

Here’s on-page SEO for Apis Design in more details:

• WooRank score: 61.8, http://www.woorank.com/en/www/apis.ca. That’s the top scored site according to WooRank. Let’s see what we have here.
• Descriptive title: The title is descriptive, includes the key phrase and the company name. I’m not sure if adding “inc.” at the end would make any difference though.
• Promise in description: Describes the service being offered, has the keyword phrase mentioned and promises “we build websites that work”. Adding a recommendation for next step could make this description more actionable. Like, “get a free quote today” or “call us today (and list a number)”.
• Landing page: The page showcases a visual scroller of featured website projects as well as shows strong calls-to-action such as “improve communication” and “reach the masses”. This website is custom-built, no templates involved, a good sign of a true web design agency. Their websites might be more expensive, but they will be unique, professional and, according to the promise, they will work.
• Headings: The page has no H1, 3 H2′s and 7 H4′s. Not the best case. As mentioned above, I like to see at least 1 H1 per page containing a target key phrase. In addition, H2′s do not contain any text. In this case, they’re just images. I’d highly recommend adding the text to these H2. It won’t be a big deal if it’s left as is, but there might be a good opportunity in adding text.
• Image alts: out of 7 images, 1 is missing alt attribute. Not a big deal, but for the sake of consistency I’d recommend specifying an alt attribute here.
• Canonical issue: no issues here. We’re great!

#4: Calgary Web Design – Web Design Calgary – Calgary Web Design

Now on-page SEO for Calgary Web Design Network in more details:

• WooRank score: 50.2, http://www.woorank.com/en/www/calgarywebdesign.ca
• Descriptive title: Although it contains the keyword and appears relevant this title looks like plain keyword stuffing. It does not identify the company.
• Promise in description: The description identifies the company as well as the key phrase, which is actually the same in a lot of cases. Its description is a bit too long to fit into the Google snippet so the user only sees the initial portion of it. It outlines the service, but does not more to the next step. I’d recommend shortening the description and adding a call-to-action.
• Landing page: The page does not really look visually relevant to the query “calgary web design”. Although it displays various computer related images, there’s nothing that says “a web design agency”.
• Headings: According to WooRank all major headings are missing. Adding headings to the page will likely increase its relevance for focus key terms.
• Image alts: 6 out of 38 images on the page are missing alt attributes.
• Canonical issue: Just like WedgeIM this site may have duplicate content issues and, as a results, may be devalued in rankings.

#5: Calgary Web Design, SEO, E-Commerce, Graphic Designers & More | Web Candy – Calgary Web Design and Web Development

Let’s look at on-page SEO for Web Candy in more details:

• WooRank score: 53.7, http://www.woorank.com/en/www/webcandy.ca
• Descriptive title: This title is descriptive and includes the company name. However, it also looks a bit keyword-stuffed. There are many opinions on the length limit for meta-titles. My personal take is that 70 characters (including spaces) is enough space to tell your audience about the focus of your company and mention your company’s name. Also, with so many different things in the title, the value of each key phrase is diffused.
• Promise in description: With the length of over 150 characters this description does describe the business, but puts it a bit more for search engines than for people. There’s a clear promise “Your best source for Calgary Web Designers” but it gets truncated due to character limitation and the potential customer does not see it.
• Landing page: This landing page is relevant to the search query and actually very useful. It’s got a functional display area that tells you about the company’s services. It’s got a sitemap-like menu of things the company does, which allows users to see all in one place, and very well-organized.
• Headings: The page is missing H1, it’s got one H2 and one H3, which appears very weird. Adding at least a H1 to this page and ensuring it contains target terms will likely help the company be more relevant for their target search queries.
• Image alts: no image alt attributes are missing. That’s great!
• Canonical issue: no problem here either!