Your website is like a shop window to customers on the internet. It not only allows them to purchase your products, but it can also tell customers a lot about the company and how well it treats its visitors. On-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tool you can use to create a website that performs well in search results, and has something of value to offer people who visit. Read on to learn how to do on-page optimization in SEO for better rankings.
The SEO Trilogy
Search engines such as Google use three main factors to rank your website and determine where in the list of search results it will sit. These three main components are:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
Off-page SEO refers to how well your site is shared on social media and the quality of the site’s external links. Technical SEO covers things like the speed of the site and whether it is mobile-friendly.
Some of the requirements of these three components will overlap, but it is important to treat them all equally. With a lot of people clicking on the first result in Google search results, it is vital to get the balance right to give your website a boost.
Let’s take a closer look at on-page SEO strategies.
Page Content
One element that can have a big effect on SEO is your page content. The quality of your content is something the search engines like Google use to see how much value it will give to the visitors.
To help your content be seen, you need to add keywords that are relevant to the topics you are writing about. Start by conducting keyword research on your competitors websites and those that come up on search results.
There are tools that you can use that will help you with keyword research, and there are online courses such as those provided by us here at IMG (Internet Marketing Gold). If you’re not sure where to start, educate yourself first.
Creating Page Titles
Your website titles (title tags) are very important in terms of SEO. They need to tell the reader what the page is about, plus, they need to feature the keyword as naturally as possible.
Here are some tips to making the page title work for SEO:
- Keep the title to under 70 characters. If you make it any longer, it will cut off on the results page.
- Only use the keyword that relates to the page. If you add too many keywords, the search engines will see it as spam and downgrade your page.
- Don’t use all capitals.
Using Headers Effectively
Headers should use HTML tags <h1> and <h2> to help search engines see what part of the text is relevant to the searcher. It also helps to break up the page into easier parts for the reader.
You can use keywords in the headers, but they should be variations from those used in the title.
Meta Descriptions
When learning about on page optimization, you might hear that meta descriptions (the little blurbs that appear in the search engine results page) are not vitally important for ranking. This may be true, but having a catchy meta description will encourage people to click on your link.
To make the best meta description, consider the following:
- Keep it under 160 characters. Mobile pages cut off after 120 characters.
- Include the keyword or phrase in the description.
- Make it worth clicking on, and easy to read quickly.
- Don’t use alphanumeric characters such as -, +, or &.
Image Alt-text
Image alt-text is another important part of your page to optimize. This text is not the caption, but rather the html text that describes in detail the picture it accompanies. Google and other search engines reward image searches, so you want to make sure yours have text.
Here are some of the ways you can make your images searchable:
- Make the text specific yet descriptive.
- It has to be shorter than 125 characters.
- As with other areas of SEO, don’t put too many keywords in the text.
- It needs to be relevant to the content.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is an important part of on-page SEO. Links help to take readers to other content you have uploaded, which keeps them on your site longer.
Another important reason is the longer visitors stay on your site, the longer Google has to crawl your pages and get information.
Mobile Responsiveness
More people than ever before use mobile devices to search the internet and consume content. This means your website needs to adjust its look to make it easier to see on mobile phones and tablets.
Many of the sites that help you create websites will automatically add a mobile version of the site which
you should check and adjust as necessary.
Site Speed
Google likes sites that have a fast load time. This is because many people don’t want to wait for websites to load. If your site is slow, not only will Google penalize you, it will also cause visitors to navigate away.
You can check your site speed using many online apps and tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. Although this is technical SEO, having it working properly gives a better on-page experience.
How To Do On-Page Optimization in SEO: Conclusion
Whether you’re working with a team of SEO experts or learning SEO on your own, your website needs to be fine tuned to include these and other on-page SEO elements to make it visible to people. Working on having high-quality content is important, but you need the SEO part so people can enjoy what you’re offering.