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What are on-page SEO elements?
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Its purpose is to get more people to find you on search engines, like Google. It ultimately aims to get more traffic to your website, which means more clients and customers. This is achieved through optimizing your website and online presence for search engines.
“On-page” SEO refers to the SEO work on your website itself. “Off-page” SEO is for work outside of your website. Both are important!
In this article, we are going to give you 10 on-page SEO optimizations to supercharge your website. This will help you if you are a DIYer, or just want to further understand the process. If this seems confusing to you, we recommend hiring a professional to handle it for you.
1. Title tags
The first optimization is to what are called title tags. As it suggests, this defines the title of your web page.
They appear in 3 places on your website:
The SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). This is your main headline on your Google listing. This is important because it’s what people immediately see before deciding to click on your website. It must not only be relevant to the user’s search, but it must also contain target keywords. Keywords are whatever people are searching for, such as “plumbers in New Jersey”.
The title tags also appear on the title of your browser window. It’s vital to have a title that is accurate to its content, so people know what they are looking at.
Finally, the title tag appears on some social media platforms as the title of the link.
Title tags give search engines like Google a brief idea of what your website is all about. They should be concise and to the point.
2. Meta descriptions
Meta descriptions are what appear just below your title on Google. They give potential visitors more information before they click. Generally, they give a summary of what your website is all about.
A powerful meta description increases your click-through-rate (CTR). It should convince a viewer to click on your website over a competitor’s site.
Meta descriptions, like titles, also appear in social media postings when sharing a page.
They must be completely relevant to what your website is all about. A meta description should be concise at around 150-160 characters.
Target keywords are also important with meta descriptions, and you can even bold them to grab attention. Your meta description can conclude with a call to action (CTA), such as “contact us today!”.
3. Header tags
As the name suggests, header tags are your headings and subheadings.
There are numerous benefits to well optimized headers. Header tags structure the content on your webpage, making it more readable for visitors and search engines like Google.
It’s important for your content to avoid a wall of text! It can seem overwhelming for a reader, and will drive them to quickly leave (for a higher bounce rate). Header tags help keep readers hooked by breaking down content into bite-size sections and sub-sections.
Your headers should contain relevant keywords. They help search engines to understand your content.
For those who are visually impaired, well-structured header tags also help screen readers break down your webpage.
4. URL structure
A URL is your address on the internet (for instance “example.com”). They are a critical part of SEO because they give search engines further context to your content.
An effective URL will help your webpage rank higher in search engines, and give an overall better experience. This will also increase your click through rate.
URLs should be short and relevant to the content of the page. The concise URL makes it more memorable and easy to share.
Your URL must contain the target keyword. In the case of local business services, it should contain your niche plus your city name.
URLs should use hyphens (-) between words for readability. They should avoid special characters and capital letters. Stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens!
What is a good URL?
example.com/services/plumbing-winnipeg
It is clear and concise and contains your target keyword (service plus city).
Here is a bad URL:
example.com/?p=34225
It gives no context to the content!
5. Keyword-optimized content
Keyword-optimized content is absolutely vital for SEO! It tells search engines like Google how your webpage is relevant to a user’s search. A keyword-optimized will rank you higher on Google.
As mentioned, keywords are whatever someone is searching. For example “pizza in Duluth” or “best phones 2024” are both keywords.
You want to have relevant keywords in your content so that Google knows how you match the searcher’s query.
It is important that your target keywords and their synonyms and phrases appear naturally throughout your content. Overuse of keywords is called keyword stuffing, and search engines hate that!
Short-tail keywords are 1-2 words, while long-tail keywords are longer. It’s a good strategy to use long-tail keywords, and less people are using them. This means you won’t get bogged down in the search results. For example, instead of targeting “shoes”, try targeting “affordable shoes for ladies”.
6. Internal linking
Internal links are links on your webpage that link to another webpage on your same domain.
They help users navigate through your website, especially in your menu. They help engines like Google crawl your website so it can be listed.
Internal links also pass what is called “link equity”. They give pages ranking power to whatever pages are linked.
These links should use descriptive anchor text, such as “learn more about SEO” rather than “click here”.
7. Optimized images
Images become SEO-optimized when they have been properly formatted, resized, and tagged.
Filenames should contain relevant keywords. For example “blue-bowling-ball.jpg” instead of “img43290.jpg”. The ALT text should be meaningful and contain other important keywords. ALT text helps people who are visually impaired, as it will be read in their screen reader.
Files must be compressed without losing quality. A great WordPress plugin that does this is Smush! This ensures a fast page speed, which is vital for ranking higher on search engines.
Images should be responsive to be mobile-friendly! If your website doesn’t appear properly on phones for example, search engines won’t rank it as high.
8. Page load speed
Page load speed refers to how quickly your website loads in a browser. There are multiple factors that determine the speed.
File sizes: large file sizes will bog down your website and be slower to load.
Server performance: where you host your website is important. Shared hosting, while more affordable usually isn’t as fast as dedicated hosting
Browser and device: how people are viewing your site, and the speed of their connection. People who are far away from your server might take longer to load.
Website code: Poor coding practices can slow you down. If you are in WordPress, using too many plugins will also slow down your website.
Search engines love high-performing websites because they give the best user experience. A website that is slow will cause people to leave before it loads. Make sure your site is fast!
9. Mobile-friendly design
A vast amount of people now use devices like their phone to go online. Search engines like Google understand this, and want to give them the best experience. This is why your website must be functional and responsive on all devices.
10. High quality content
High-quality content is valuable to a user and must match their search query. It should be easy to read, original, and answer or solve any of their questions. Any factual information must be properly cited.
Google’s system EAT (standing for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) rewards your webpage if it has high-quality content and will penalize you if it’s lacking.
If your content is great, more people will read and link to it, driving more organic traffic. If people are linking to it, it will give your website higher domain authority.
Conclusion
On-page SEO is mandatory for your website. If you follow these 10 optimizations, you will be on your way to success. They will help you rank higher on search engines like Google, and rake in more traffic.
