Learn significant aspects of on-page SEO that will not only bring web traffic to your page but also build an evergreen life for your content marketing efforts
On-page SEO is one of the most significant SEO tactics, yet it’s also one of the most overlooked.
This article will focus on why on-page SEO is crucial and suggest all the on-page ranking factors that need addressing.
What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO serves as the foundation of any good SEO strategy. Without fantastic on-page SEO, a site will be seriously handicapped, so it pays to stay aware.
The best thing about on-page SEO is it’s completely free and pretty straightforward to complete. More importantly, it can have instant results.
On-page SEO is all about making the website easier for Google to read and improving the user’s experience.
On-Page SEO Factors You Need To Take Care Of
As previously mentioned, for any SEO campaign to work, the on-page SEO needs to be perfect. This means taking care of the following on-page SEO factors is so important:
1. Speed Up The Site
Site speed has been an official ranking factor since 2010.
Google takes user experience very seriously so if users are having to wait too long for your pages to load, your pages aren’t going to get taken seriously in the SERPs.
And if you do get traffic from other sources and the pages are taking too long to load, your visitor will leave. The longer the wait the more people you’ll lose.
2. Create Unique Content
Search engines don’t like duplicate content, which means it needs to be unique. The same content can’t rank for the same keyword.
If ten different sites all had identical content, only one website would rank, worst of all, there’s no knowing which one it will be.
3. Content-Length
When it comes to what length content you should aim for…
Generally, long-form content outperforms short-form. The reason for this is that Google deems the content to be more in-depth and relevant.
An important thing to consider is what’s regarded as long-form content because it depends from niche to niche.
4. Mobile Responsive
If the site doesn’t support mobile devices, it’s set up to fail; Google has been using it as an official ranking factor for quite some time.
But this isn’t the only reason, these days a lot of traffic comes from mobile phones, so if the site doesn’t support a mobile device, it results in lost traffic.
5. Keyword In Meta
The meta description of any page should have two things:
- Include the primary keyword
- Give an honest review of the page
Google pays attention to what’s in the meta description, so pay close attention to it too.
6. Working Links
Any broken links on the site can cause extreme harm. There should be no 404 pages in any of the external or internal links.
It causes harm to the site, it’s a complete waste of link juice and damages user experience.
7. HTTPS
If the website doesn’t have HTTPS security, it’s probably time to get it. In 2014 Google announced the security system would be given priority.
How much priority they give is anyone’s guess, but it’s best to stay ahead anyway and keep up with the times.
8. Spelling & Grammar
The odd spelling or grammar mistakes won’t kill a website, but it does break the reader’s experience and drop the value of the page.
Make sure sentences make sense, and the correct punctuation is used throughout the text.
9. Keyword Variations
People search for things differently, which is why some web owners like to use variations of the keyword.
This allows the page to cover more bases, thus appearing higher in the search rankings for multiple relevant keywords. Using these across image alt text will also add another small boost.
10. Bounce Rate
Google claims they don’t take bounce rate into account, but when you look at Moz’s article, you can see it paints a different picture.
From the picture above, there seems to be a correlation between the bounce rate and the top three positions.
11. Content Structure
The site should also be easy to navigate, with lots of high-quality images. Anything that adds to the experience is a must including a simple site structure.
12. Dwell Time
This is measured by the amount of time a user spends on the site reading content. The longer a user stays on a site, the more Google rates the content.
Improving dwell time is an excellent way to increase rankings. To achieve this, copywriting skills should be used throughout the text to keep visitors on your pages as long as possible.
13. Internal Links
Internal linking is one of the most straightforward SEO strategies, yet it remains the most underused technique, strange, right?
This technique does two things. It increases the value to the reader by showing them other relevant content that may be helpful to them and make it easier for Google to crawl the site.
14. Keyword In First 50-100 words
On-page SEO is about helping Google, and the user to understand what the content is about as quickly as possible.
Adding the primary keyword to the first 100 words does just that. The Google spiders will know what the page is about quickly and able to index accordingly.
15. Keyword In URL
This may be considered as a minor ranking factor, but every little helps with SEO. In 2016 Google announced they’d be using it as a factor.
The ranking signal might be small, but as a best practice, the keyword should be included in the URL.
16. Length Of URL
The longer the URL is, the longer it takes for Google to crawl it, and as mentioned before, on-page SEO is about helping Google quickly understand the topic of the page.
A short URL adds clarity to the page by making it easier to read and lowers the crawl time.
17. H1 Page Title
Google needs to know what the title of the page is so it can understand the content. If the title isn’t inside the HTML, it can cause problems.
Make sure the title of the page is using the correct H1 tags. This will help Google understand what the content is about and recognize the keyword.
18. Optimized images
Google crawlers can’t always recognize pictures, so they use the alt tags to help them understand the image.
Use the alt tags to bring more relevance to the page, while sprinkling some keywords in there.
19. Outbound Links
Outbound links help to show the value in the content to Google and the readers.
Link to outsourced research to back up claims and figures and to other high-quality relevant content that will help your readers.
20. Freshness of content
Readers care about how recent a post is, and so does Google, which is why they show it in the search results.
Keep all content up to date to bring it back to life as often as possible. People are far more likely to click on a post from 1 week ago to 7 years ago.
21. Subheadings H2 tags
It’s not just the title that needs to use the right HTML codes; it’s the subheadings too. Using the correct H2 to H3 structure helps Google and the readers navigate the page.
Adding the main keyword and other LSI keywords to the subheadings is also a good idea to bring further clarity to your content.
22. Synonym Rich Content
Using keywords that have synonyms relating to the same topic is an excellent way of gaining extra traffic.
You can then sprinkle these other keywords across your content and rank for those too.
23. Use Multimedia
Using graphics, GIFs and videos help keep people on your page longer, which increases dwell time and decreases the bounce rate, which is a win-win.
Breaking up the text helps improve readability and caters to readers who consume information differently.
24. LSI Keywords
These are words that relate to your main keyword/topic and optimizing for those keywords too will help your page rank for more keywords and drive more traffic to your page.
They will also help add further relevance to your page.
25. Reading Level
You need to make sure the reading level matches your audience.
If you are writing beginner guides you would probably opt for a basic writing level. If you are writing a scientific article you would write to an advanced level.
26. Keyword In Title Tag
By placing the keyword at the beginning of the title tag, Google has the best chance of detecting it quickly; remember it’s about making your page simple and easy to understand.
27. Depth Of content
The more depth you bring to the content, the more Google deems it relevant.
The more information it includes, the better. It demonstrates that you are an expert in the topic and builds trust up for your website.
Round-Up
On-page SEO is an essential factor for any SEO process; without a solid foundation, it’s unlikely the page will rank.
When it comes down to it, there are five main on-page SEO factors that have a bigger impact:
- Website speed
- Internal links
- Mobile ready
- Title starting with the keyword
- Content length
But with so many other factors to think about, it’s essential to have an on-page SEO checklist to hand. This makes it easier to review old pages or when creating fresh new content.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chandrima Samanta
Content-Editor at MartechCube
Chandrima is a Content management executive with a flair for creating high quality content irrespective of genre. She believes in crafting stories irrespective of genre and bringing them to a creative form. Prior to working for MartechCube she was a Business Analyst with Capgemini.