On-Page SEO Explained

9 Elements of On-Page SEO

1. URL – Picking the right URL for your website is a very important step. Not only should it be descriptive, but it should also reflect your main keyword if possible.
2. Title Tags – Your title tags are the next most important element when setting up your pages. Your Title Tag tells users, and search engines the subject of your page. It is important that title tags be only 55 – 60 characters. Anything shorter, or longer than that will hurt your Local SEO. Also be sure your target keyword for that page appears in the title tag. Use words like How, Why, What, and Where in your tags to help people understand what they will find on the page. You can also use words like Best, Ultimate, and Review to try to increase a user’s interest in clicking on the link. Most of all, keep it simple. Don’t spam your title with needless keywords. Give a concise description of the page with the target keyword.
3. Meta Description – Your Meta Description is a basic description of your page that appears under your Title Tag in Search Results. A well written meta description will entice the user to click on the page. So write it as if it’s an ad for your page. Keep it the ideal length. Between 155 – 160 characters is considered the correct range. Be sure to include the keyword in your description, but only in ways that make sense. Remember, no keyword spamming. Bonus points if you communicate value in it.
4. Header Tags – Next, we have Header Tags. Header tags follow the hierarchy of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, etc. The H1 is considered the main tag and should always appear first on your page. Ideally you should only use one H1 tag on your page. The sub headings on your page can then use H2. After that you can use H3 and the rest of the lower tags. As long as you have everything setup like this, Google will read your page correctly. Please note that Google expects to see the H1 first, followed by an H2. You can be a little more liberal with H3 and lower tags, as Google doesn’t place much importance on them.
5. Keyword Use & Density – Now, on this one you have to use commonsense. There was a time when you could needlessly stuff content with a keyword and it would rank you. These days that will get your penalized. Instead you should concentrate on writing good content that is relevant to the subject, while using your keyword in a way that makes sense. Your content should explain and talk about your keyword, but in a conversational way, and without spamming your keyword into the content needlessly. An ideal keyword density is 1 – 2%, meaning that your keyword should appear once or twice for every 100 words.
6. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) – Latent Semantic Index Keywords are words that are seen as related to your target keyword. For example, if your keyword was Credit Cards, then the terms “interest rate,” “credit score,” and “money,” could be seen as semantic keywords. Using latent semantic keywords can help augment your main keyword, improving your SEO ranking in Google.
7. Image Filenames / Alt. Tags – This is an area a lot of people overlook, but it’s a great opportunity for you to improve your SEO. Your alt tags should be the description of the picture. The title should be what the image represents. The exception to this is the first image that appears on a page. In the case of the first picture that appears on each page, you should always use the exact targeted keyword you are trying to rank for as the title and alt tag of the image.
8. Outbound Links – Outbound Links are not viewed as importantly as backlinks, but they can help your On-Page SEO. Outbound links are quite simply links that point to another domain from your website. They can help Google understand the niche of your website, as well as help increase the trust and quality of your site, which can play a vital role in your site’s SEO.
9. Topic Relevance – Topic Relevance is the relevance that the content of your entire website has to your target keyword or topic. It can also be referred to as “Topical Authority.” It is the process a search engine uses to determine whether a particular webpage or website is relevant to your target keyword. The stronger your website’s topical relevance is, the faster it will rank keywords that are related to that topic.

A couple of bonus tips to help your On-Page SEO

Use Subpages to Support Your Main Page

A good trick to help with Topic Relevance is to create 3 – 4 subpages supporting the page you want ranked with relevant content.  This will help with the LSI, as well as the Topic Relevance. Just be sure to link back to the main page at least once per subpage.

Internal Links

While we’re on the topic of links, we need to discuss Internal Links. Internal links are any links that connect to other pages within the same website. Having a good amount of internal links is seen as very favorable in Google. It helps a lot with LSI and Topic Relevance as well. So be sure to sprinkle a lot of internal links throughout your website.

On-Page SEO is the Foundation on which your SEO Strategy is Built

When properly set up, your On-Page SEO will magnify any other SEO strategy or tactic that you use. Once properly set up, it should provide the foundation for a great SEO strategy. If you have any questions, contact me, I’m always around to answer any questions you may have. Otherwise, take the extra time to research and set it up properly. The extra work you put in will pay off in the long run.

Till next time!