For those people who have less knowledge on search engine optimization, it may seem very difficult for them.
How about you, do you find it hard to comprehend too?
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Most online strategies may appear complicated. However, they are not as complex as you think they are, especially if you keep on practicing them. And, when it comes to optimizing your website, the key is to watch out for particular signals. These generally consist of the following:
- Quality – substantial and well-written content
- Research – relevant and highly popular keywords
- Content – contain terms that most individuals use in queries
- Engage – more time spent on the site
- Fresh – trending topics
- Titles – must include the main keyword and must have HTML title tags
- Headers – headlines and subheadings have header tags with related key phrases
- Description – describes the article content in 160 characters
- Layout – easily-indexed and crawled site structure
- URLs – short and descriptive with relevant keywords
- Speed – quick page load time
Keep In Line with SEO Guidelines
Now, as you are looking into these signals, you need to avoid particular aspects too.
- Stuffing – excessive keyword use
- Cloaking – showing search engines pages that are different from what you show to the users
- Hidden – hide keywords through font colours that are the same with the background colour
- Thin – shallow and insubstantial content
- Link schemes – paying for or spamming links in hopes of getting high ranking
Are you practicing any of these “black hat” tactics?
If you have heard that such strategies can help you land on the top SERP, you need to think twice before applying them. When you insist on using them, the most likely result is search engines and your target audience ditching you.
Instead of focusing on easy yet wrong methods, pour your time and effort on the right optimization techniques.
On-Page Search Engine Optimization Tips
1. Use keywords
The search terms integrated in your website content are essential. Therefore, you must always practice extra care when it comes to choosing the right phrases and placing these in particular positions throughout the page.
So, where do you put keywords? Here are the ideal locations.
- Title – Apart from including the main term, it has to consist of less than 12 words or 65 characters.
- URL – It has to be descriptive and has to contain relevant key phrases separated by a hyphen.
- Article body – It has to comprise of important words scattered throughout the page but not “forced” and “overstuffed”. What is more, there must be a combination of synonyms and keyword modifiers (adjectives added to the main word) to avoid repetitiveness.
2. Place images
A page definitely looks better with colorful pictures on it; however, there a few flaws to this strategy. One, search spiders cannot read the text found on images. So, if your sentence goes like the following:
- Through the right seo strategies, you can obtain a high ranking.
The spiders will only see it as “Through the right strategies, you can obtain a high ranking”, missing out the important keyword – SEO. With that said, never incorporate your important phrases in images.
Another disadvantage is that it can cause a sluggish page load speed, especially if you are using Flash graphics or too many pictures. If you do not want the readers to wait for 5 seconds or more before your webpage loads completely, avoid these aspects.
As a final note regarding images, you must also create a file name and alt tags using relevant keywords.
3. Generate internal links
Like how you must place keywords in the right positions, you need to do the same with this element. Here are ways you can come up with links for easy navigation and effective algorithm indexing.
- Create a sitemap – This formatted file assists the spiders in finding search-relevant content on your website.
- Put anchor texts – These are link texts leading the readers to other pages on your site.
- Place breadcrumb navigation – This is like a series of anchor texts, which the users usually find on the upper left side of a webpage. It serves as a trail to the pages they have previously visited.
4. Write compelling content
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This is one of the biggest factors bringing traffic to your site, especially since algorithms prefer websites with relevant and unique information. Additionally, most users stay longer on pages with valuable insights and if they find your insights informative and interesting, they might just share your pages on their social pages. In turn, you can widen your online visibility.
Given these, never forget these fundamental content-writing tips.
- Write unique articles.
- Avoid duplicating the work of other webmasters.
- If you use other articles as resources, take time to understand the materials first. This way, you can come up with original content based on the sources. As a note, it helps to obtain ideas from various sources.
- Keep from posting the same articles or writing about similar topics on your site.
- Prevent other people from duplicating your work by using canonicalization, which you can read about on Google Webmaster Tools.
- Stick to a longer word count, maybe 500 and above, so you can provide the readers with more valuable information.
- Post new content regularly to keep your website up to date, timely, and relevant.
5. Create heading tags
Your article’s header and subheadings provide search spiders an idea about its content. Moreover, the heading or H1 tag is the first element that they see when crawling the webpage for indexing. Hence, you must never forget it.
So, there you have five on-page SEO tips you can use for better ranking in SERPs.
As a conclusion to this article, always keep in mind that the Web keeps on advancing. With that said, watch out for developments or updates to help you keep pace with the changes.
About the Author: Emma Tomlinson is the Head of Retail at Smart Traffic, a UK-based SEO services provider that caters to both SMEs and major companies from several countries throughout the globe.