According to Search Engine Journal, roughly 32.8% of webmasters declared that on-page elements play a significant role in boosting your online visibility. Many people are still puzzled over the impact of On-page SEO, what it actually encompasses, and how to do it right.
Thankfully, we have put together a comprehensive guide to On-Page SEO. It will give you all the information you need on its basic principles, what to do for these principles to be fruitful, and other valuable insights that will up your on-page game significantly.
Let us uncover the mystery of On-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO is not rocket science. It is hardly even a science. It is just how you organize your site for search engine optimization to be better recognized by Google, or any other search engine, for the keywords you are targeting.
In other words, these are your strategies to win Google’s trust and attention.
What is On-Page SEO?
In layman’s terms, On-Page SEO is how search engines see your page. How many times has Google told you that it’s presenting your page in the best possible light? It will help Google understand what content is most important and help you rank higher than the competition.
This effort may include text links or strategically placed keywords in your page’s title, meta description, and the target keyword in the URL. The concept is that you want Google to see important information such as an attractive title and a descriptive meta description (and target keyword) in your content.
Not only will this attract the attention of your site’s visitors, but it will also take you closer to search engine optimization (SEO) success.
Why Is On-page SEO Important?
If KEYWORD RESEARCH is your way to understand what content your AUDIENCE is searching for and how to satisfy their need, ON-PAGE SEO serves as a way for SEARCH ENGINES to understand your content is about. It is a concept that will make your content more visible.
With the constant update of the Google algorithm, optimizing your on-page SEO will save your website from getting penalized. It might even lead you to Page 1 in SERP. Be it a small business or massive enterprise, on-page SEO is a crucial weapon. It is one of the tools you can use to allow your business to flourish in the digital space.
With on-page SEO, you’ll reap these benefits:
*Advance crawl rate
The main goal here is to encourage Google to crawl your website as frequently as possible. A site will only be able to attract more visitors if it is well-crawled, especially by search engines. Crawling a site helps the search engine identify what’s on the pages of a website, and it helps users find relevant information from those pages.
On- page SEO helps search engines understand what topics your visitors want from your site. If they can find relevant information on your pages, it will increase the chances of them staying on the site.
*Improved visibility
Can you still think of a reason why your site does not rank on the first page of Google SERPs? It is probably because it does not receive enough traffic.
This is due to the fact that search engines do not understand what your site’s content is all about. To improve visibility, you need to make sure that the search engine understands what your site’s content points to.
To do this, you need an optimized page title and meta description with target keywords. With the power of on-page SEO, search engines will notice your site and start ranking it at the top of the SERPs.
*Improved conversions
On- page SEO can also help you improve your conversions. With well- optimized pages, users will easily find what they are looking for. You might even find that some users will not mind reading content that is available to your site. As a result, you might see improved conversion rates.
This is why on-page SEO is so important for your business.
On-Page SEO elements
To further understand On-Page SEO, one must first understand these elements that contribute to on-page SEO efforts.
High-Quality Page Content
“Be the authority.”
Having relevant and high-quality content is vital for two reasons.
First, many social media sites such as Facebook allow users to share content with their friends using social plugins like Like, Tweet or Google+. These plugins then indicate which website the content came from. This is similar to how people tag their friends in pictures on Facebook or Twitter, but it will be more effective. Google wants high-quality information to represent your brand online.
High-quality page contents are also more likely to get shared by relevant users. The popularity. Therefore, popularity of your website on social media is imperative for search engines.
Page Titles
Page titles are an essential part of a page’s on-page SEO. These words are usually displayed in SERPs alongside the URL and can be seen by visitors on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and even in your email when the page is shared. They also appear in Google’s Knowledge Graph when your website is featured in a listing with other sites for a search query.
So, how long should it be? Moz suggests that you keep it under 64 characters. Google will truncate the title, and there is no advantage to having a more extended title.
Headers
Headers are the subheadings that may appear on your website. They provide another way for search engines to recognize your pages. Therefore, you should include them on every page of your site (especially your home page).
Use sub-headers within your content’s headers to make content easier for Google to read and for visitors to consume.
Meta Descriptions
Meta description serves as an advertisement for the rest of your page. How do you describe what is in your article? Don’t just repeat the article’s title. This meta description should sell your page’s content without ever having to visit the page.
These are usually used when people share your website on social media or when you share someone else’s site on social media. You can control their length and appearance using the Yoast SEO plugin.
Image Alt Tags
This is similar to meta descriptions, but for images (and videos). The alt text of an image is displayed if the image can’t be loaded. The description for that image should tell visitors what is in it, so they are not forced to load it.
The same applies to your video’s alt tag. There are many social media plugins that will take your video’s description and place it on your page as an enticing preview for someone to click on. Don’t forget this one, either.
Structured Markup
Structured markup helps search engines understand your page’s structure and the hierarchy of your content. If you have a site with a lot of pages, use a hierarchical sitemap to keep them straight.
Ensure that your header tags and H1 appear only once on the page and check the Yoast SEO plugin to confirm.
Also, you can use HTML heading tags (H1 to H6) within your content. Search engines may not place extra emphasis on these, but visitors will read them in order of importance just like they would in a newspaper or magazine.
Page URLs
The page title is always found in the URL, but that is not where it stops. The URL is actually the home page of your site. It shows up in Google searches because it is relevant to the search query.
Sometimes, you may have multiple URLs for your home page. There are different reasons why you might do this: copy-paste or an alternate URL to show up in SERPs if the search query doesn’t contain any words relevant to your main page.
Internal linking
Internal links are links that point to your own site. This is different than external links (links to other websites). When they click on your internal links, you will bring them further down the rabbit hole of your website for more content.
Mobile Responsiveness
Change your website responsive view every now and then. Also, if you are using a WordPress theme that is not mobile responsive, replace it with one that can be.
You will be surprised how many people are using their mobile phones to look for products online. It has been reported that “mobile searches have increased by 92% in the last year alone.”
Site Speed
One of the most underrated SEO elements is site speed. People don’t like to wait, especially when they are online.
The faster your website loads, the faster you will be able to get new customers. In fact, Google has released data that shows that “there is a 20% increase in organic traffic for every additional second it takes to load a page”.
Useful On-page SEO Tools
Conducting a thorough on-page optimization is imperative to unlock the true potential of your website fully. This is because that on-page optimization essentially covers all of the pieces of your site that “touch” your website’s visitors.
With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of valuable tools you can use to do this. In doing so, you will better grasp the on-page optimization process and execute it more efficiently.
1. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is an SEO tool that has been around for quite some time now, and it’s widely regarded as one of the best tools for analyzing on-page optimization. This tool offers a wide variety of features, including:
– The ability to find out how well your site is optimized for international markets. This includes the ability to analyze title tags, meta descriptions, URL structure, images, JavaScript files, Flash files, and even more.
-The capability of analyzing internal linking, page structure, site speed, mobile optimization, duplicate pages, and more.
-The ability to run your site through the Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
-The ability to compare multiple sites.
Additionally, Screaming Frog has an excellent tutorial that helps you get the most out of this tool, and it’s completely free!
2. SEO Yoast
If you are looking for a more simplified SEO tool, then SEO Yoast is a great option.
Some of the tool’s notable features include:
-The ability to quickly assess how optimized your pages are. This includes offering suggestions on how you can optimize your content for specific keywords.
-The capability of comparing the results of your pages against specific industry competitor(s).
-The capability to see how optimized images and videos are. This includes giving you pointers on what to increase these elements’ rankings and search engine visibility.
-The ability to see what keywords your competitors are ranking for and which ones you’re missing out on. It could be comparing the effectiveness of specific words and phrases and how they relate to your business.
-The capability of making at least some small cosmetic changes to your website.
All in all, SEO Yoast is a versatile tool that you can use both to accomplish the basics of on-page optimization and complex SEO processes.
3. Short Pixel
When it comes to on-page optimization, many people overlook one of the most influential factors: content. To get people to stay on your website for a longer period, you need to create high-quality content that offers value.
In other words, you need to offer something that lures them back. This is why many analysts refer to this process as the “content cycle,” where your website’s visitors come in and turn into leads or customers.
It is why, when it comes to creating high-quality content, you need to invest in the right tools. For this purpose, we suggest that you use Short Pixel.
Short Pixel offers a variety of features that allow it to be a useful on-page optimization tool:
– The capability of analyzing how well your content is optimized and how well it ranks for specific keywords and phrases (and which ones you’re missing out on).
– The capability of analyzing the type of content that your visitors prefer. This includes looking at the content’s most important pieces, such as headings, images, videos, and more.
– The capability of looking at the frequency in which your most important keywords appear on your website.
-The capability of making at least some cosmetic changes to the content on your website.
Simply put, Short Pixel is your way to go in terms of on-page optimization!
4. Metatags.io
How are visitors interacting with your website?
The answers to this question are trickier to analyze than you’d expect. For starters, many users won’t tell you what they’re doing, so it’s important to have a tool that can record their actions. This is where Metatags come in handy.
This is because they allow you to create a list of all the keywords that people use on your website and the pages that they visit after being referred by these keywords.
When it comes to analyzing how people are interacting with your website, Metatags.io is one of the few tools you’ll find that does this job. We suggest that you use it to analyze how people find their way around your website and gain leads.
It comes in handy since:
-It allows you to create your own tags and get insights into how your visitors are interacting with your website.
-It allows you to analyze the keywords that people use in order to get to specific pages of your site and the ones that they use afterward.
-It allows you to compare and contrast different websites’ interactions and results.
In short, Metatags.io is a very effective analytics tool that you can use to better understand how your site interacts with visitors.
5. Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator
Yet another SEO tool that you should try out is Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator. This tool has the capability of generating schema markup codes for your website. As a search engine optimization tool, it is perfect for adding product details to your site.
If your website sells multiple products, then this will matter a lot. The code that it generates can be applied to any product on your website.
With this tool, you can:
-Generate schema markup codes for any product on your website.
-Generate schema markup codes for multiple products on the same page.
-Compare the difference between your current and previous schema markups. You can also compare these results with those of specific competitors.
-Generate multiple types of markups, including price, review, image, video, and more.
6. Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer
Finding the right keyword to target is a tricky business. While it may be simple to find ideas, it requires a lot of effort to find the right one. This is why you should use Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer.
In this tool, you can:
-Find long-tail keywords that your competitors are also targeting.
-Go through the different content types and analyze which ones have been working best for your competitors. In this method, you will discover new keyword ideas and come up with new content ideas.
-Analyze the search queries that your competitors are using and see if you can do better. This allows you to determine where you should focus your efforts and what kind of keywords to target.
-Evaluate the websites that your competitors rank for and see how they rank for each keyword. This is a simple way for you to analyze their site’s effectiveness and figure out if there’s something that you can do better than them.
-Assess the performance of past campaigns and analyze how well they performed against specific keywords. In this way, you will be able to figure out what worked well and what didn’t.
Best For Beginners
These SEO tools are best for beginner SEO practitioners. Compared to the rest of the SEO tools out there, these are relatively easy to use and can take you a long way. But, more importantly, they will help you get started on the right foot. If you’re simply looking for a quick fix or an easy solution, then these tools should be your answer. They are meant to take care of the most common issues that small businesses have, especially when it comes to SEO.
UP YOUR SEO GAME TODAY!
Keep this in mind – on-page optimization is your foundation to establish your organization. Without a solid foundation, an organization will fall.
With Google becoming smarter each year, optimization strategies are getting harder. For your website to be visible in SERPs, you need to up your game with an advanced understanding of on-page SEO. We are not saying that the basics are useless because they are far from it, but you need an extra boost to surpass your competitors.
Not sure how to jumpstart your on-page optimization?
Don’t worry, GoSEO can guide you through the best techniques and methods you can use to improve your site’s search profile. Want to know the best part? There are no coding, HTML, or technicalities required!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What kind of work do you do on-page SEO?
To help you and your business thrive, we offer a wide variety of marketing and digital development services. For example, our on-page SEO strategy starts with understanding your website and finding the best keywords, on-page content, and links to boost your organic rankings on Google.
We also focus heavily on increasing engagement with content that directly relates to your business goals. We also work with social media as a marketing channel and as a way to generate business.
The advantages of our on-page SEO services include:
* On-page SEO is more than research and monitoring. It involves building on your site’s strengths, prioritizing through competition, and refining your content for the keywords you want to rank for. All the while, we’re working to improve your website’s usability and performance, ensuring that search engines can easily crawl and index your pages.
* Results: With on-page optimization, you can see a boost in rankings for your keywords and improve your site’s user experience. These changes will show up quickly and reliably with Google Webmaster Tools.
* Effective: A full on-page SEO strategy is more than just picking the right keywords for your site or changing a few things on a single page. You first need to understand how your website is currently built and what strengths you have on your site.
* Scalable: This type of digital marketing doesn’t just start with on-page SEO but can also include content marketing, social media, search engine marketing (SEM), referral traffic generation, or other channels. With a solid on-page SEO strategy, you’ll build the foundation for all of the various digital marketing techniques. This means more effective results across all channels and more consistent results over time.
What is the on-page SEO process?
At GoSEO, we start with an initial audit of your site, looking for strengths and weaknesses. Once we know what you have to work with, we can begin building your on-page SEO strategy. Next, we analyze your page content and navigation structure, looking for opportunities to optimize keywords and create unique value for visitors.
We find the most relevant keywords related to your business goals and write the best content possible. After writing, our copywriters review the content with a critical eye for optimization. They make sure the content is relevant, contains the keywords you want it to rank for, and is structured so that search engines can easily understand.
Next, we create an outline for your pages and put a plan for sharing your content on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. This will help spread your content more widely and get people talking about it online.
Finally, we work with our clients to ensure that their pages are always optimized for search engines. We ensure that the code of your site is complete and follows best SEO practices. This helps make sure you get maximum visibility from search engines.
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