Try these 10 On-Page SEO Techniques to Land on Page One
On page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing individual web pages so that the pages are ranked higher and therefore get more online traffic. There is a difference between on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page optimizes both the content and the HTML, with a focus on websites, while off-page optimizes links and other external factors. However, on-page SEO does not work independently; it has to be used in conjunction with technical SEO and off-page SEO.
Here are the ten best SEO ranking techniques as explained by the best SEO company in Toronto.
1. Headings and Content Formatting
Use headings and sub-headers. It makes it very easy for the reader to skim through your content and get the key points within a glance. It could also be of use in increasing the keyword density in the article.
Have only one H1, or heading tag. When coming up with the other headings, h2 and h3, avoid using single words, try to make them as interesting as possible and incorporate your keywords.
When making important points in your text, make them stand out by either using bold, italics or underlining them. Use a font that makes reading easier and especially on words that are in bold. Make sure that the type of font chosen does not become illegible when made bold.
Split your text into small portion as people stay away from articles that look bulky.
2. Optimization of the length of the article
Google gives priority to articles that are longer. The advised range is a minimum of 300 words and a maximum of 800 words. Keywords shouldn’t be thrown all over the place, especially in long articles, but kept at a saturation of around 2%.
3. Be selective in your choice of keywords
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Keywords aren’t just the words that you want the readers to see as often as possible.
Once you choose your keywords, create a list of related keywords or long string keywords and use them like you use your regular keywords. It is because as everyone is becoming more aware of keywords and how to use them effectively, Google search has had to go a step further and not just consider keywords but also relevance to the topic.
There is a methodology that helps you to choose keywords. It can be done even on a feature that Google provides such as Google suggest and the ‘People also ask for’ feature. If it is too tedious, there are also paid tools for this. You should use Keywords in the title, headers, tags, and main text.
4. Optimize your images
Other than the images on your website being attractive and relevant, images can further be optimized by adding keywords to the image files and providing ALT tags. ALT tags help search engines understand the contents of the image.
Make the filename as descriptive as possible.
Use an original image. Where not possible, make sure to quote the source of the image.
The size of the photo should also be appropriate, pictures that are too large make the page take a long time to load. If you have multiple images, you can use a CDN service. This is where your image will be hosted by some servers as opposed to one and thus speed up the page loading process.
5. Make your content shareable
Once you have an SEO friendly article, the next step for optimization would be to make sure that your article gets as much viewership as possible. Make sure to add social media and email tabs to enable your readers to get your content with just a few clicks.
6. Write high quality content
Make sure you do proper research on your articles and that you don’t have catchy titles with no substantial content within. Your website will soon be tagged as one that looks for click-bait, and although you might get a lot of traffic at first, it won’t be sustainable.
Here are examples of what is seen as good content:
- Original content: Picking another article and retelling the story differently does nothing for you.
- Synchrony with your entire website: Make sure that articles on your website are coherent and have the same quality, if not quality that is improving. Don’t just write and post an article for the sake of doing so.
Make sure that you are the first to publish the article.
7. Page title and meta descriptions
The first information that search engines get is the page title, the description of the page and the headings.
The page title must be catchy yet describe the entirety of the page in a few words; sixty or less. As previously noted, include the keyword in your page title.
Include power words, for example amazing, checklist, etc
When using meta descriptions, avoid using the ones that are auto-generated and also remember to include your keywords.
8. URL Optimization
This process has two parts: URL optimization and URL structure.
- There is a permanent link as the unique URL of each page. Just like headings, an SEO friendly URL should be short, descriptive and include target keyword.
- The URL structure should be a reflection of the structure of the website. It means that you should group your pages into categories to help the user find what they want easily.
9. Internal and external links
Internal links are links to pages within your website. They are a way of making search engines aware of your other content and for you to let them know which pages on your website hold more importance than others. It also increases the time that a reader spends on your website as they are more likely to click on a link within the article. It is advisable to use around 8-10 internal links.
Quality linking, of course, increases the credibility of your website. Ensure that the links are also from reputable sources as their reputation is linked to yours. Also, you can go a step further and quote credible sources.
10. Mobile friendliness
Make sure that your website opens on mobile devices the same way it would open on a computer. This is because Google records show that more searches are coming from mobile devices.
Try to create a checklist to make sure you check all boxes in SEO optimization. Visit the best SEO company in Toronto for guidance and assistance in optimizing your website to rank on Google's top five results.
