Succeeding in organic search today requires optimizing factors such as on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. While over the years there has been an increased focus towards off-page techniques such as link building, the reality is that without on-page SEO, off-page cannot do much. If you are a smart practitioner, you need to know that on-page SEO is very important.
Since the SEO landscape is constantly changing, it’s important to ensure that your on-page SEO is up to date. To help you get the grips with the on-page SEO factors, here is the on-page SEO ultimate guide.
What is On-Page SEO
Also known as on-site SEO, on-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing web pages so as to earn organic traffic by improving a website’s search engine. Besides publishing high quality, relevant content, on-page SEO includes optimizing your HTML tags, headlines, and images. It also means making sure that your site has a high level of authoritativeness, expertise, and trustworthiness.
It actually takes into account various aspects that when added together will boost your site’s visibility. While off-page covers mostly link building, on-page SEO covers both content and technical stuff.
Why On-Page SEO is Important
On-Page SEO is very important since it helps the search engine to understand your website content and confirm whether it’s relevant to the user’s query. As search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated, there is a greater focus towards semantics and relevance in SERPs (search engine results pages).
With complex algorithms, Google is currently much better at understanding what users are searching for and also delivering the results that meet the user’s intent. Adapting to this development is therefore very important.
More so, since you have more control when optimizing for onsite elements, you can’t just ignore on-page SEO. Once you put some effort on on-page SEO, you’ll not only see a boost in traffic but also a rise in your search presence.
On-Page SEO Elements
Here are some of the major elements of on-page SEO
- Page titles
- High-quality page content
- Headers
- Image Alt-text
- Meta Descriptions
- Internal linking
- Site Speed
- Mobile responsiveness
All these on-page SEO falls into three main categories namely HTML elements, content elements, and Site architecture elements.
Site Speed
Whether your website is being viewed on a desktop, laptop or mobile phone, you need to ensure that it loads faster. When it comes to on-page SEO, site speed plays a very important role. First and foremost what matters to Google is the user’s experience. If your website loads haphazardly or slowly it’s most likely that your users will not stick around for long.
While site speed and mobile responsiveness are considered as technical SEO, optimizing them is important as it creates a better on-page experience for visitors. For example, if most of your visitors are using laptops, it’s very important to ensure that your website loads faster.
Optimizing Your Content for SEO
Now that you understand why on-page SEO is important you need to know how to optimize your content. Here are some of the tips that can help you optimize your content
1. Use your keyword in the first 100 words
Although this is an old school on-page SEO method it still makes a lot of sense. In this strategy, all you need to do is to use your primary keyword in the first 100 words of your article. This is very important since Google normally puts a lot of weight on terms that show up early on your page.
2. Wrap your Blog Post Title in an H1 Tag
H1 tags are just like a mini title tag hence using it makes goggle to understand the structure of your website. Although platforms such as WordPress automatically use the H1 tag, this is not always the case. In some instances, you may need to put the tag alone.
3. Wrap Headings in H2 Tags
You also need to include your primary keyword in at least one subheading and wrap that subheading in an H2 tag.
Keyword Frequency
This refers to the number of times you are using the keywords in your content. While Google is opposed to using the same keyword a number of times, SEO pros with experience will tell you that this actually works wonders. This is not about keyword stuffing it means mentioning your primary keyword to confirm to Google that your page is actually talking about the topic. The idea is to use the keyword naturally a few times.
Use Outbound Links
External links are links that help Google to know about your page’s topic. It also tells Google that your page is full of useful information.
Optimize Your URLs
Although most people underrate URLs structure it’s a very important part of on-page SEO. The best way to create SEO friendly URLs is to ensure that your URLs are not only short but also include a keyword in every URL.
Meta Descriptions
Since the start of SEO, Meta descriptions have been one of the most important aspects. Meta descriptions refer to Meta tags that provide information about what the page is all about. Although Google believes that Meta descriptions don’t help a lot with rankings, there is some evidence that using them well does help.
Optimizing them well can significantly improve
- The quality of the search
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Perception of what your website offers in terms of change.
Use Title Tag Modifiers
Using modifiers such as guide, best, fast, checklist and review can also help you rank for the long tail version of your primary keywords.
Good SEO Writing
This implies writing content with both users and search engines in mind. Since there is a strategy about writing good SEO content it’s actually more than just the keyword research. By simply producing content for the sake of it, you won’t do much. You, therefore, need to ensure that your content is substantial, high quality and relevant to the users.
Plus, your web content should be able to bring something new to the table. That something may include
- A new strategy or tip
- A better list of curated resources
- New case study
- UX and Strong Design
- Streamline step by stem content.
Here are also some ways that you can make your SEO content valuable
- Make sure you add details, steps, images and screenshots that make it easy for your content to be put on practice.
- Make sure you use strong copywriting skills
- Make sure you use recent and updated information.
- Make sure the content is written by expert authors.
Use On-Page SEO UX
When it comes to SEO UX you need to push your content above the fold. This is especially true when a visitor lands on your page what they are looking for is a quick answer. With that said you need to avoid massive images above the fold. Instead, make sure you put your introduction and headline front and center.
Although it’s ok to have an image at the center, if it pushes your image downwards then it’s not good. The idea is to ensure that your content is very easy to skim.
Use Image Optimization
Adding images to your content is one of the best ways to make your WebPages more appealing. However, you need to know that not all images are the same as some of them may end up slowing down your website.
If you optimize your images well, you’ll make the most of them. Some of the benefits that you’ll enjoy wit this includes
- Better user experience
- Additional ranking opportunities
- Faster page load times
Images should not be something that you put as an afterthought. Ensure that all the images that you use support your web content.
Internal Linking
If you want to boost your on-page SEO then you cannot forget about internal linking. The idea is to link from high authority pages on your website that needs the most boost. When doing this it’s also important to use keyword-rich anchor text.
First, you need to use the best SEO tool to bring up the pages with the most link authority and then add some internal links from those pages to a high priority page on your website.
Create a Comprehensive Content
Google’s aim to show its users content that provides them with everything that they need on single page. In other words, what they are looking for is a comprehensive content. This means if your post has everything that users need it has high chances of ranking well. One of the ways to make sure that this is done is by LSI keywords.
Monitor Your Results
In order to improve your on-page optimization, you need to constantly monitor the results. One way to do this is to track the rankings of your most important keywords. By tracking the keywords that you are interested in, you’ll see the actual rankings for a specific location. You also need to set up alerts so you can know if there are any sudden drops in rankings.
Final Thoughts
Make no mistake, just like most businesses search engines are motivated by profits. With that in mind, in addition to your technical SEO and off-page SEO, you also need to work on your on-page SEO. By doing this, you’ll not only rank well but also provide your users with the best experience. You’ll also focus your attention on the searchers, visitors and potential customers.