12 Main On-Page SEO Factors
On-page SEO can be broadly divided
into three categories: content, HTML, and website architecture. We’ll look at
each individually.
Content: You’ve heard it before: Content is king.
Here are the content factors you need
to consider to maximize your on-site SEO:
1. E-A-T
One way Google weights your site is
based on E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
In 175 pages of Google Search Quality
Guidelines, it’s mentioned 135 times, which should be an indication of the role
it plays in the search engine’s algorithms.
While Google has only confirmed a few
elements of E-A-T (PageRank and links), it’s generally accepted in the SEO
field that on-page signals play a big part in its evaluations.
2. Keywords
The most basic way to tell them your
website’s content answers a user’s question is in the language you use.
Pages that feature the keywords used
in a query, whether in the body, headings, or both, are more likely to be
relevant to the search.
Sometimes this is easy to determine.
If you’re optimizing the website of a Maruti Showroom, you’re probably going to
want to include keywords like [Swift], [Ertiga], and [S-Presso].
In short, you need to know what your
target customers are searching for and create content that includes these
terms. It’s always a good idea to do research, so you’re not missing any
opportunities.
3. SEO Writing
Creating the type of content that both
prioritizes search engines and converts human visitors to your site is
something of an art.
We have an entire piece dedicated to helping
you master the art, but some of the key takeaways include:
Emphasize readability: Your content should be easily scannable, so
users can quickly find the information they’re looking for.
Don’t overuse keywords: Also known as keyword stuffing, this
technique was used in the past by unscrupulous SEO professionals to game the
system, Google takes a dim view of sites that overuse keywords. If you’re
caught doing this, your page could be demoted in SERPs or even removed
altogether.
Keep sentences and paragraphs brief:
If you’ve ever clicked on a webpage only to be assaulted by an unbroken wall of
text, you know how hard it is to read lengthy pieces of copy. Avoid driving
users away by keeping your sentences and paragraphs short.
Use subheadings: Subheads stand out because of their size,
attracting attention from people who are scanning your page. Use an ample
amount in your content to guide readers down the page.
Use bulleted lists: This may feel very meta, but bulleted lists
are a good way to break information down into easily digestible chunks. Use
them whenever they make sense.
4. Visual Assets
Using images, videos, and infographics
do more than making your page visually interesting to visitors. It also gives
you opportunities to boost your SEO.
More than 36% of consumers use visual search when they’re doing online shopping, which means if you’re not using images, you’re missing out on traffic.
Make sure you’re optimizing your
accompanying text whenever possible.
Be aware of your image file sizes to
prevent slow loading. Make your images shareable to identify opportunities for
backlinking, which can help boost your E-A-T.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language or HTML is
the code used to structure your webpages and their content.
They tell the user’s browser what to show and where to show it. And it tells search engines what your page is all about and where they should rank you.
5. Title Tags
This is one of those areas where it’s
important to focus on the details.
On its own, this snippet of code that
allows you to give a webpage a title probably isn’t going to have you shooting
up SERP rankings.
But in context with other on-page
elements (like the ones discussed here), it can help you build context and
demonstrate your site’s relevancy.
Right now, a veteran SEO professional
is throwing up her hands at the screen. “Oh, come on,” she’s saying, “Everyone
knows meta descriptions aren’t an SEO ranking factor.”
And don’t let negative Nancy here
dissuade you from adding them to your site.
Despite their relative lack of use in
SEO, they do offer two key benefits: They can help Google understand what your
web page is all about, and more importantly, they have an outsized influence on
your CTRs.
Better meta descriptions give
searchers a better understanding of what your page is all about, which in turn
leads to more clickthroughs. So, don’t neglect them.
7. Image Optimization
We already briefly touched on the
importance of visual assets on your page, but now it’s time to look more
closely at their technical aspects.
Here are some tips to help optimize yours:
- · Include SEO-friendly alt tags.
- · Choose the right format and file size for fast loading.
- · Customize file names instead of using something like IMG_08759.
- · Ensure your images are mobile-friendly.
·
Once again, we
have an excellent resource for more in-depth information on HTML image
optimization. Read it here.
It may be a global economy, but most
business is still done at a local level. Connect with the people in your
neighborhood by optimizing your on-page local SEO.
While this is less important for
mega-corporations like GMC or Pepsi, for small- and medium-sized businesses,
this is their bread and butter.
There are three main SEO tactics to consider
when focusing on local traffic:
Optimizing local listings and
citations including name, address, and phone number (NAP), website URL, and
business descriptions, using third-party apps, and getting reviews.
Optimizing your local content,
including accommodating for “near me” searches, providing location-based
content, or buying a local website or blog.
Optimizing and building links with
other local businesses and organizations.
Be sure to include the name of your
target location in your keywords and put them in your content wherever they
fit.
Having a well-structured website is
important for two reasons: First, a website laid out in a logical manner will
be crawled more effectively by search engines, and secondly, it will create
richer user experiences.
9. Site Speed
A clunky, slow-loading site does more
than frustrate and drive away visitors – it actually hurts your search ranking
too.
Search Engine Journal took a deep dive into the effect a page’s loading time has on SEO and confirmed page speed is a ranking factor in search results.
However, what minimum speed your site needs to meet is constantly changing.
It can currently be met by meeting
Google’s Core Web Vitals minimum threshold. If your site isn’t currently
meeting these standards, there are several steps you can take, including:
- ·
Enabling
compression.
- ·
Reducing
redirects.
- ·
Optimizing
images.
- ·
Leveraging
browser caches.
10. Responsive Design
In 2016, mobile search volume
surpassed desktop for the very first time. And in the years following, that
number has only grown.
Mobile now accounts for more than 56%
of all internet usage, with tablets contributing another 2.4%.
Because more users are on mobile
devices, Google followed the logical path and began to prioritize sites with
responsive designs in mobile search rankings.
This mobile-friendly update only
impacts search results performed on mobile devices, and while it’s still
possible to rank in these results without responsive design, Google strongly
recommends sites have a mobile version.
11. URL Structure
There was a time when URLs played a
large role in SEO. Professionals would make sure their keywords were included
in web addresses to help them rank higher.
But Google, doing what Google does,
changed the algorithm. And what was once so important to rankings, now plays a
much smaller role.
12. Links
Remember E-A-T from way back at the
beginning of this article?
One of the best ways your website can
establish expertise, authoritativeness,
and trustworthiness is through links from other reputable websites.
Links work in the same way.
There are three main types you need to know
about for SEO:
Internal links – or ones that direct to another page on your
website like this one.
Outbound links – also known as external links, these are the
links that point to a site on a different domain, like this one pointing to
Google’s SEO page.
Inbound links – sometimes called backlinks, these are links
from other websites pointing to your page.
Of the three, inbound links are by far
the most important. They provide the biggest SEO benefit, but they’re also the
hardest to obtain.
On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO
We’ve talked a lot about on-page SEO, but there’s also something known as off-page SEO. The difference, as you could probably tell by the names, is where it happens.
On-page SEO is everything you can do internally to boost your rankings, including keyword optimization, meta descriptions, title tags, alt text, and website structure.
Off-page SEO
is all the things that happen externally that impact your site’s rankings. This
includes backlinks, E-A-T, local SEO, social media mentions, and pay-per-click.
Obviously, you have a lot more control
over your on-page SEO, but it’s important to keep off-page SEO in mind as well
– you need both to get where you want to go.
But, you should first focus on building a good, relevant webpage that’s fully optimized for search engines before you begin sinking a lot of resources into building links and promoting your site.
Thank you for joining Us
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Jai Hind.
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