As a business owner, you should know the importance of SEO in determining the success or failure of your company. Do you want to make your content SEO-optimized and keyword-targeted to attract more traffic? Do you want to let the search engines know which keywords your page should rank for?
With the help of SEO, mainly with the perfect combination of On-page and off-page optimization, you can make it happen. If you are a novice marketer, the details of both aspects may seem too complicated at first. To make things simpler, we will begin by discussing on-page optimization at length.
On page SEO vs. onsite SEO
That is where many of the users get confused. On-page SEO and onsite SEO are different from one another.
- Onsite SEO refers to the optimization of the entire site as a whole with techniques like defining permalink structures and proper site mapping and such.
- On-page SEO, on the other hand, is all about optimization of content for target keyword in a standalone content or article. It includes the usage of:
- Appropriate heading
- Proper keyword allocation
- Optimizing content quality
- Paying attention to reader friendliness
Need for on-page optimization
You need to understand the working principle of search engines, where a set of custom programmed algorithms function to get results against queries. Search engines consider various factors and elements of a particular page to rank it for certain keyword phrases. Therefore, the first step towards optimizing a page is in helping the web crawlers identify what your website is all about so that the search engine can rank it on the basis of relevance and other factors.
Aside from on-page factors, search engines like Google take several other attributes into account before ranking a web page. Social media popularity is seen as a valid parameter, and it is measured by the number of likes, shares, tweets, followers, domain authority, quality back links, and many other off-page factors. With on-page SEO, your goal should be to optimize the reach and acceptance of content smartly and naturally.
On-page SEO ranking factors
The rules of on-page SEO have changed significantly over the last few years. However, content still plays the most vital role, and it is through content that you can enhance your on-page optimization efforts.
Before we start with the strategies, here are a few basic things to be incorporated into your website for SEO value.
- Enhance overall user experience
- Ensure that your site has a responsive design
- Repair or remove all broken links
- Reduce bounce rate by ensuring user-friendliness and apt content on pages
- Make sure the website is properly managed
- Use appropriate copywriting techniques to make people stick to your page
- Use more engaging headings and subheadings for the posts
- Make it interactive by seeking feedbacks and keep improving
Now, it is time to explore the onpage SEO guide to know the top tips you should try in 2017.
- Title of blog posts
The title of a blog or article is a major on-page SEO element. The title is the first thing visitors notice about the content, and if they do not like the title, they will not bother checking the rest of the post. Therefore, giving a relevant and attractive title to a post is necessary to entice the target audience. Here’s how you can do it:
- Try to use the target keyword or key phrase at the beginning of the H1 title tag. If not, use it somewhere naturally in the title.
- Do not repeat the keyword in the title.
- Ideal length of the title may be 65 characters.
- Posting Permalink structure
It is also essential to ensure that the page URL is displayed correctly. You may use the keyword in the URL, but you must avoid using any special characters, parenthesis, commas, or symbols in the actual URL. If you need to differentiate various strings in the URL structure, it is ideal to use dashes. URLs created this way are called proper permalinks, which are supported by all existing browsers.
An example of an ideal Permalink:
- https://www.domainname.com/title-of-the-post-seperated-with-hyphens
- Header Tags
Heading tags are used to highlight different headings and subheadings. While doing WordPress development, the title tag is set as H1 by default. For section breaks, you can use H2 and H3 tags. However, do not use H2 or H3 tags too many times.
- Keyword Density
The ideal keyword density is 1.5%, and you should use a mix of LSI keywords. However, there is no proven magic formula to apply in the case of keyword density. The best practice is using the main keyword one time in the first paragraph and again inside the last paragraph. Include the keyword properly to make perfect sense in the context of the content.
- Use of meta tags
Always use the most relevant and unique meta description for each post. You must include the targeted keyword naturally in the meta description too, but do not try to spam your description with overuse of keywords.
Always write user-friendly meta descriptions, which make perfect sense. Regarding meta keywords, Google has announced that the crawlers do not care about them. However, search engines such as Bing still value meta keywords.
- Using images
Image optimization is an essential element in on-page optimization, and it helps to drive a lot of traffic from image search, which is highly popular now. Keywords must be used in image titles as well as alt texts to ensure that your posts are more targeted and focused.
Moreover, images can create more engagement, which always offers great SEO value. There is one essential point to note when you work on images. Large size images may slow down the page loading speed, which can have an adverse impact on Google ranking. So, it is essential to:
- Compress the images
- Always use caching plugin
- Use a CDN
Apart from the above details, there are more strategies you can apply to on-page optimization. Some of these include internal linking, external linking, and the creation of engaging content with specific word counts to reap desirable results.
