On Page SEO
On Page SEO

On Page SEO

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about On-Page SEO is the strategic placement of keywords. We’re not saying it’s all wrong to do that, but it’s wiser to start paying more attention to the bigger picture and equally utilize on-page optimization efforts on all elements. The best approach to On-Page SEO in 2019 is one that is holistic and based on a thorough understanding of how search engines evolved over time. On-Page SEO is the process of optimizing website pages in order to rank higher on SERPs and increase organic traffic. It relates to the content and the HTML source code of the page, whereas off-page refers to links and other external signals. 

There are so many outdated practices still circulating around. These practices are either useless or harmful to your search rankings. As Google develops and improves its algorithm, we need to be ahead of the game by simply understanding what stopped working, and what’s next. The view of On-Page optimization as solely choosing where to use your targeted keywords is no longer enough. Google developed more complex keyword-based algorithms to determine relevancy and ensure better user experience. Hence, it becomes necessary to have a good understanding of how to design content that meets users’ needs to rank higher in SERPs, instead of trying to be the best match for particular keywords.

   

UX:
User Experience and On-Page SEO

As a result of increased online Google searches through mobile devices, Google considers providing a mobile-friendly and responsive website as one of the ranking factors. In fact, Google will most probably use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. For this reason, it becomes critical to improve your site’s mobile experience and user experience in general. One of the main things to consider is creating a straightforward and intuitive navigation experience. Eliminate low-priority elements, and avoid having a navigation design that needs horizontal scrolling. Finally, make sure that your site’s mobile version provides full functionality and access as the desktop version does. You can use the Mobile-Friendly Test from Google to check your mobile-friendliness score and get suggestions on how to increase it.

Google understands how slow-loading pages can be annoying and frustrating. That’s why site speed across all devices can extremely impact user experience and rankings. If your site does not load fast, almost everyone will immediately bounce and find another website that does. Hence, site speed is also linked directly to conversion rate, bounce rate, and site traffic. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to analyze your site’s loading speed and optimize it based on the suggestions and insights.

SEO Optimized and Unique Content

An SEO optimized page should provide valuable and unique content to searchers. Not just unique words as in authentic, but also adding unprecedented and distinctive value to the visitors. The goal is to craft functional content that cannot be discovered in any of the other pages targeting the same keywords as you. Quality content can increase organic traffic and help build your site’s reputation with users and search engines alike. User signals like dwell time, Click Through Rate, and bounce rate are also linked to content value. Here are some tips to optimize your website’s content:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 – Relevance:  It’s necessary to understand what users are looking for and cater your content to them. To do so, proper Keyword Research is required. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to find relevant topics and ideas to create unique and authentic content.

 

2- Quantity: Generally, the longer the content is, the more valuable it is. Long pieces of content mean more room for facts, evidence, and substance. There’s no ideal length, just avoid thin content that has little or no value to the user. Note that this factor really depends on your audience and your niche. To determine the minimum length of your content, look at competitors who are ranking for the same keywords for guidance.

 

3- Keyword Density: We’re sure you know by now that keyword stuffing is a no. Try using keywords naturally in your writing flow. Also, use semantically related keywords instead of repetitively using the same terms throughout the text.

 

4- LSI Terms: LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are terms or phrases that relate closely to your main topic and target keywords. Crawlers scan for LSI terms to assuredly define the overall topic of the content.

 

5- Readability: It goes without saying, incomprehensible content makes for poor user experience, resulting in a higher bounce rate. Your web copy should be aimed at your audience, hence, written in a way easy for them to grasp. To write a clear and understandable piece of content, you need to have an organized and logical structure emphasized through clear subheadings. Users like to scan through an article to make sure it’s what they’re looking for before they start reading. Also, try to write short sentences instead of lengthy and hard to process sentences. As Google algorithms evolve and advance to mimic humans, it becomes necessary to focus on readability.

On-Page SEO: A Holistic Approach

It’s essential to start looking at On-Page SEO from a rather holistic perspective. It’s not just a couple of keywords that you want to sprinkle around, but more of a thorough process that ensures positive traffic and good user experience on-page. All the different elements mentioned above contribute to your SEO success, you can start with whatever makes sense to your needs.

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Improving page title tags, meta descriptions, and heading tags

Next step is optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and head tags. Title tags should communicate to searchers the main topic of the page and describe its content. It should naturally, but not necessarily, include your target keyword. Description meta tags allow more space to summarize what the page is about and like title tags, they should best represent the page content. When a keyword from the search query appears in the meta description it gets bolded, which helps with visibility and assure the user that this content is relevant to what he is looking for. It’s important to create unique tags for each page of your site; at least for high priority and popular pages. As for heading tags, they appear to be larger than other text and should relate to the content below it to create a logical structure for the page.  Also, keep in mind that a searcher who just clicked on a result expects to see a similar H1 tag to that in the meta title. No one is saying don’t use keywords, just make sure you use them in a way that doesn’t conflict with user signals and behaviour. And as usual, keep away from keyword stuffing; that is heavy usage of the same keywords over and over again.

Image Alt Tags, URLs & Internal Linking

Images have the opportunity to display in an image search result, which directly helps with your rankings. On top of that, you can take advantage of image alt tags by enriching the image’s title, image file name and alt attribute with your targeted keywords. Alt texts are used within HTML code to describe the content of the image and improve web accessibility for the visually impaired. This text will show on the screen if your image fails to load, and it also helps search engines understand and crawl images accurately, which surely impacts page rankings.

URLs, or at least good ones, directly help with search relevancy. The key is short and keyword optimized URLs that search engines can crawl and understand. Complex URLs make your website seem disorganized and make it harder for Google to crawl and index, resulting in lower rankings on SERPs. Note that descriptive URLs, that tell you what to expect from the page, are more likely to include keywords and also get clicks.

Internal linking refers to hyperlinking to other relevant and helpful pages on your website. These links are beneficial for both SEO and user experience. While internal linking helps improve crawlability by showing Google priority pages on your website, it also gives your audience more options to explore your site. Try to moderately include multiple links in each page, and make sure the pages you’re linking to are relevant to ensure user’s engagement and higher ranking.


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