To improve your online visibility it is important to optimize your website for various factors that are important to search engines. These include technical, as well as on and off-page SEO elements. In the past, the focus was directed to technical elements and other off-page techniques like link building. The truth is, your off-page SEO efforts won’t yield the desired benefits if you neglect the fundamentals, including the on-page SEO of your website. If you are a smart SEO practitioner, you would prioritize on-page optimization.
Through on-page SEO, search engines can appreciate your website content, and identify its relevance to the search queries. Because of the constantly-evolving search landscape, you should keep your on-page SEO knowledge updated. Having that said, here are the most important on-page SEO elements that will improve your content and establish your authority:
EAT – This is an acronym for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses this framework in assessing websites, webpages, and content creators. Google puts a premium on quality content, and punishes poor content with lower rankings and poor visibility.
Title Tag – An HTML tag found in the website’s head section, the title tag gives the initial context of what the particular page’s subject matter is. SERPs (search engine ranking positions) often feature the tag prominently in the form of a clickable link. Because it doesn’t have a significant impact on organic rankings, it is sometimes neglected.
Meta Description – Meta descriptions have always been a vital optimization point – even in SEO’s early days. A meta description is a meta tag that provides the website’s description. It is often shown in SERPs below the page title. While Google claims that it doesn’t help much with a site’s rankings, there is evidence that high quality descriptions actually help in the following aspects:
– CTR (Click Through Rate)
– Perception of the result quality
– Change in the perception of what your site offers.
Headlines – Writing compelling headlines can boost your website’s search performance. While this may seem too elementary, a great headline can spell the difference between getting a click and an impression. Thus, you need to create headlines in a strategic manner not only to make your pages stand out in searches, but to entice visitors to read the rest of your content.
Header Tags – A header tag is an HTML element represented by H1 to H6 labels. It distinguishes the headings and sub-headings in your content from other text types like paragraph text. While header tags are no longer as crucial for your website rankings as before, they still perform a vital function – both for your site users and SEO. It will help improve your rankings by making your content more fun and easier for your visitors to read, as well as guide search engines through keyword-rich content.
SEO Writing – This means writing content that is geared both for your users and search engines. Writing keyword-rich content for search engines doesn’t cut it anymore. The fact that you are providing content for people to use means you need to come up with content that is substantial, relevant, and of high quality.
Keyword Cannibalization – You are wrong if you think that providing more pages with a specific target keyword will give you higher rankings! This will only result to “keyword cannibalization” that can lead to disastrous SEO results. You’ll only compete with your own website by posting multiple pages with the same keyword.
Content Audit – Before creating new content, don’t neglect auditing your existing content. This way, you can:Assess if your existing content helps you achieve your goals, and provide ROI.
Determine whether your current content has become outdated or is still accurate. Identify which content types are helping you.
Image Optimization – Images can make your pages more attractive. But, some images can make your website load slowly. By properly optimizing your images, you can take advantage of an important SEO asset. It can help boost your rankings, speed up your load times, and provide an improved user experience.
User Engagement – An improved on-page SEO effort can only do so much. It is important that your bounce rate will go down. You need to make sure that your visitors will view and interact with your content, and go back for more.
Keep these on-page SEO factors in mind. This way, you can succeed in the challenging task of keeping engaged users connected to your site.