When it comes to digital marketing and the world of search, engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO There are so many things to consider in order to increase organic traffic. We wrote in a previous article about the differences between on versus off page SEO. This article we are going to review on page SEO techniques and provide examples that go along with them.
This article will serve as an in-depth guide to everything on page SEO related
We will be reviewing over 15 different on page SEO ranking factors we’ve included them in a bullet pointed list here we will dive into each one below let’s begin
Key Takeaways:
- Internal links
- Meta-descriptions
- Create branded keywords
- Optimize images
- Optimize page content
- Use heading tags
- Add engaging, visual content
- Add external links
- Add internal links
- Optimize URLs
- Review your content quality
- Think about your URL structure
- Identify and include target keywords
- Increase your Page speed
- Include your local SEO strategy
Internal links
When it comes to on site SEO there are two different types of backlinks internal and external ( We will get into external later in the article)
Internal links are hyperlinks that help to pass around page rank / link juice to other articles on your website. These links help search engines understand content in relation to one another. The process works like this as a search engine crawler visits your website, it will discover and follow internal links and read the anchor text on your page which then Increases the number of pages a web crawler is able to find, this helps with indexing more content.
Meta-descriptions
Meta descriptions are those short little pieces of text under a page title of the search engine results page or (SERPs) As an on page SEO factor the meta description is a great place to introduce people to your company and give them a reason to click on your website listing instead of one of your competitors. The meta description will help increase your website’s click-through rate CTR which shows search engines that you have valuable content people are interested in.
Create branded keywords
Creating branded keywords can beneficial to your website and SEO traffic because it will allow your company to show up for your brand name. You want people who already know about your company to find your website. Here is an example of branded keywords “Cindtoro” “Cindtoro Digital Marketing Corp” or “Cindtoro Digital Marketing”. These are all mentions of our company brand name. Branded keywords like this will help your company come up for its brand name. To do this you need to mention the name of your company throughout your website.
SEO Optimize Images
Optimization of images is another important factor for Improving your on-site search engine optimization. On-site images are necessary for a number of reasons such as they make a web page more interactive, they help display content in a different format and they can be used for adding keyword rich alternative text for search engines and people.
Best practices for image optimization are to include relevant long and short tail keywords in your alt tag text descriptions and to include relevant keywords inside of your file names so search engines will be able to find and understand them better.
Optimize page content
Page optimization can be done in a variety of ways. These could be things such as utilizing heading tags, adding images, video content. calls to action otherwise known as CTAs, interactive buttons, widgets, continuous scrolling and much more.
To improve this on-site SEO metric and to optimize your webpage content look to use some or all of the above.
Use heading tags
Some on page SEO elements are more important than others, and this couldn’t be more true then when it comes to the use of heading tags. Heading tags in SEO help search engines understand what a web page is all about. Think of heading tags similar to how you would organize a book.
Your title tag and h1 tags are like your book cover. The h2 tag is like a chapter, the h3 is a subtopic of that chapter, the h4 is a sub topic of that topic, and so on and so forth.
Techniques to optimize your websites heading tags include adding relevant keywords to the title tag and h1 tag. Because, these are the most important followed by adding secondary keywords to other heading tags like your H2, H3, H4, etc etc.
Add engaging, visual content
As an on-site SEO technique what does adding engaging visual content mean? Simply put the addition of engaging / visual content will allow your web page to be more interactive similar to adding images and SEO optimizing them.
Examples of engaging content could be things such as: infographics, YouTube videos, statistical charts or tables, or static images. Visual content is important to your website’s SEO because it will help keep users on your page for longer, time on site is a Google ranking factor. Here is what happens behind the scenes as a search engine sees that people are spending longer time on your website compared to others; they will rank it higher within their search engine results page.
Add external links
Do you remember how we talked about internal links in the beginning of this article? Now, we’re going to dive into the use of external links for on-site SEO. Think of external links as a citation or votes to other websites. These are the valuable backlinks that you are looking to generate as you’re doing SEO.
It is important to note that external linking falls more so into the category of an off-site SEO technique and is also difficult to control because most of it is outside of your control. Using external links to cite sources shows Google that you have done your due diligence and research behind the content that you have produced.
Optimize URLs
Optimizing your URLs is extremely important for your on-site SEO because it allows for a search engine to understand the context and content of your website from the top down. The URL is one of the most important factors for search engine optimization because it is often a permanent place that should not be changed often due to the potential negative implications on long-term traffic growth.
You can optimize your urls by including your main target keywords within the URL since you don’t change URLs very often because of issues with broken links which leads to losing link juice. An optimized url will contain main and secondary keywords within the page path. URLs this helps with search engines understanding in greater detail what the page you produced is all about.
Review your content quality
Reviewing the quality of your content will also help your websites on-page SEO. A search engine wants to provide the highest quality results to its users who are looking for information. They lean on webmasters (which is you) to ensure that content is kept up to date, is accurate and factual. if a search engine discovers the content is not up to date or it lacks in quality then that will negatively impact your rankings.
Content quality can be a very difficult thing to nail down because there’s so much nuance. Here are some good things to keep in mind: ensure that your content answers all possible questions that a consumer of your product or service may have. Content can be as short as necessary, or as long as possible. The most important thing to consider is how much information do you need to provide for your product or service so that people feel comfortable using it.
Think about your URL structure
Your url structure is important to your on-site SEO because the further you get away from your main subfolder the less power that your links will have. It also makes it more difficult for a search engine to have to dig through the various subfolders on your website to understand the content that is there. Considering your url structure BEFORE you begin building a website is probably your best bet here. But if not then just look to optimize it going forward. A technique to optimize your URL structure subfolders is to include quality keywords, and keep your main content within two to three subfolders max.
Identify and include target keywords
Identifying and including target keywords is first started through the keyword research process. This is a standard element of ranking keywords for search engines and is a critical part of your websites on-site SEO. There are long tail keywords and short tail keywords both with different use cases. There are also different types of search intent. Given these factors the research process can and should take a long time. Understanding the competitive landscape as it relates to keywords is important to know what types of content you will need to produce.
Finding quality keywords for your website’s SEO can be done by looking at Google’s suggested search results, utilizing SEO tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console (GSC) and others.
Keywords typically go off of the level of difficulty/competition for that particular search term. Also known as keywords difficulty or KD % This normally ranges from 0 to 100. 0 being the easiest to rank for and 100 being the hardest. We will have a separate article on how to do keyword research. For now a good rule of thumb is to focus on keywords that are low to medium competition as these are likely the ones that your website can rank for.
This means anything with a keyword difficulty range of 0 to 40+ but not over 50.
Increase your Page speed
Did you know in 2021 Google released a core algorithm update called core web vitals which made passing Web Vitals / page speed an official Google ranking factor. Core web vitals is made up of three key metrics.
Core Web Vitals Metrics
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance. For a good user experience, look to have your LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.
Interaction To Next Paint (INP): Measures responsiveness. For a good user experience, look to have an INP of less than 200 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. For a good user experience, strive to have a CLS score of less than 0.1.
Increasing page speed can be done by using a content delivery network (CDN), upgrading your servers, compressing and optimizing your images, reducing the number of plugins and themes, as well as following the best practices of modern web design.
Increasing a website’s page speed is a complex process so we will have a separate article on the technical details for how to do that at a later date.
Include your local SEO strategy
Including your local SEO strategy is the final piece for on-site SEO. You might be wondering why local SEO appears within this list? The short answer is most business is done through local search. People want to utilize companies that are in their own backyard using local SEO is how you reach those potential clients!
A great technique to improve your on-site SEO with local search strategies is to include your business address, hours of operation, information about your product or service as well as in whatever location that you service customers in.
Here is an example using our own business. “Cindtoro is a digital marketing agency that is based in Orlando Florida. We provide marketing services to central Florida businesses”
We would also include the types of services that we do in Orlando, As well as the smaller micro cities in the area that we service.
Establishing geographical relevance within your target market will help you improve search traffic for that area.
Summary
We understand that on-site SEO can be complex, difficult and long-winded following along with the main takeaways of this article. We hope that you found it useful and informative. We encourage you to try these on-site SEO strategies on your own website. Should you have any trouble with them our marketing team would be happy to help get in touch with our company by dialing 407-923-0109 or fill out our contact form and we will be in touch with you. Thanks for reading, see you in the next article!
