Your website needs to be well-equipped to respond to searchers’ questions. These questions come in varied ways and include different words to express a similar query. You have to crack the art of optimizing your page through On-Page Search Engine Optimization.
Let’s say you have super-engaging content as well as multiple keywords in your mind. Your content won’t mean anything unless you use On-Page Optimization to rank higher in search results.
Simply put, Google needs to understand what you’re saying to place you in their top searches. Can’t wait to learn more? Without much ado, let’s dive right into the technical aspects of On-Page SEO!
What is On-Page Search Engine Optimization?
The On-Page SEO process aims at getting your page to rank higher in search results. This eventually increases traffic to your webpage. This process initially involves the strategic placement of the right keywords.
On-Page SEO also comprises modification of internal links, title tags, URS, as well as your content. However, Google has become much smarter than before. It skims through webpages to find keywords as well as looks at several other aspects.
Finally, Google also checks the bounce rate, search intent, user-experience, search intent, as well as the click-through-rate to decide your page’s rank.
Target the Right Keywords
It is important to understand keyword-use for On-Page Search Engine Optimization. Keywords are mere single or multiple-word phrases that hold power to make your website a high-ranked one.
Keywords need to be curated smartly to grab a visitor’s attention when they search for something particular on Google. Google’s job is to scan your websites to see where the keywords are located. It also notices the frequency of keywords.
Search engines don’t show your rank. Instead, it simply indexes your website as well as lists the pages. Let’s look at the different kinds of keywords and their usage.
Primary Keyword
Primary keyword usage is the first step to ranking high on a search result page. Once you get your primary keywords right, you need secondary as well as supporting keywords to back your page.
Here are some tips for identifying and using the right primary keyword for your website.
Research your keywords
• Create an Excel Sheet to track keywords.
• Put your brain to use. Keywords often come from brainstorming hard. The trick is to analyze each word that comes to your mind as well as ranking them in order of relevance.
• Look up your competitors’ webpages. Check their URLs or Title Tags and incorporate a similar pattern for your page. You can use Google Keyword Planner to do in-depth primary keyword research.
• Another option is to look up your search console data. You can study the keywords that are boosting your page’s traffic and the ones that require alteration. This is a very important step to get your primary keywords right.
Choose the right keyword from your research
• Search for your webpage on Google and analyze its current ranking.
• Go through your competitors’ webpages to select the keywords that will help your page the best. Do not blindly copy keywords.
• Study the basic services that your website offers and the purpose for which you’ve created it. Analyze the category you come under and find the exact fitment of your page. This will help you target the right primary keywords to make your page rank higher.
Secondary Keyword
Primary words are not the only source of traffic for your webpage. Your page is ranked through other keywords called secondary keywords. If the primary keywords are not strong enough, the secondary keywords will help strengthen your page.
(Source : Google Images)
Secondary keywords are part of a group of keywords that optimize the content on your page. These groups are also called ‘clusters.’ The best way to look for secondary keywords is to look up related searches on Google. Google Trends can also be an effective tool to determine secondary keywords.
Supporting Keyword
It is crucial to determine the exact difference between primary and secondary keywords and how they assist you in ranking your pages higher on a search result. Supporting keywords also help boost your presence on Google. The best trick is to study other websites in your domain.
Online forums and platforms like Reddit can offer a great deal of help in understanding the target audience. You can use these to keep tabs on what people want to know. It is also very beneficial to look up current discussions on online platforms. This way, you directly read what people are searching for, and you can optimize your page accordingly. This helps you decide supporting keywords to shift these readers’ attention to your page.
You can even head to Wikipedia’s table of contents to analyze the questions asked by readers. This is known to be quite accurate for finding appropriate secondary keywords.
(Source: Google Search)
For example, the above screenshot depicts how you can check Google’s conversations to answer questions using your keywords. This will help your page to rank well on Google.
What are Silos? Why are they important?
(Image 2:
https://www.teachucomp.com/wp-content/uploads/blog-5-29-2015-PlanAWebsite-1024×595.png)
The flow chart above shows the design of a webpage. The most common structure begins with the home page. This is followed by a parent or target page. These pages mostly determine the primary services offered by the brand along with deeper information about the company itself.
Child pages are created after the home and parent pages. The main factor here is the URL structure to understand silos. For example, xyz.com/parent/child or syz.com/category/parent/child makes silos based on the URL.
Google prefers web pages with an effective silo structure-keyword. Secondary keywords are best placed in the target page along with the primary keywords. Most searchers access other pages before the target place.
Let’s imagine a blog with several articles. These articles contain the right keywords that searchers are looking for. These ‘other’ pages offer solutions for a problem that will ultimately lead visitors to the target page. Let’s look at an example to understand this better.
The UK is a popular tourist destination. Let’s say London is hosting the cricket world cup. Your task is to provide backlinks to pages that answer related queries. For example, people might also want to know the weather in London, the flight prices, the cricket match fees, and even see what hotels to book their stay in.
The main aim of these supporting pages is to drive traffic to your website. Adding external links to the target page helps in engaging visitors. If visitors like the content you provided about the UK, they might check out your website for more such information. This tip helps you gain more visitors and even get them to subscribe to updates, newsletters, or even make a purchase.
How to divert your audience to the target page?
You need to meet Google’s expectations to rank well on a search result page. You need to understand what Google wants you to offer. It is important to know the different kinds of pages that exist before you consider making an impression with Google.
Pages like the category page, product page, long-form blogs, and articles, etc. have different purposes. You also need to analyze each kind to meet Google’s requirements.
There are times when a webpage’s rank dips. This is quite common, especially with outdated web pages. This happens because Google constantly filters pages as well as analyzes trending keywords to rank pages.
Update your web page
Researching your competitors is important. However, you also need to study the images, videos, and other media they have used. You can use these points to outline your page. Let’s look at the importance of outlining your page.
Why do you need to outline your page?
• A page without an outline looks unorganized, boring, and does not appeal to visitors well.
• A well-outlined page highlights the quality of the content as well as the structure of your page. It is pointless to offer great services and information without a quality outline.
Roman Numeral Outline
Google checks the hierarchical order of the webpage’s content as well as the ‘H’ tags. It is important to have a proper website structure for Google to analyze. You need to format your content using the roman numeral outline.
Where to place keywords
We have studied different keywords, silos, types of pages, etc. Now, we need to know where to place these keywords. When Google looks for websites, it checks the keywords used, contextual terms, as well as the variations offered. These are the best places to place your keywords in various categories.
Groups-
A- Meta Title/Page Title, Body Content, H1, and the URL
B- Anchor Text, H2, H3, H4
C- Bold, Italic, Image Alt
D- Open Graph, Schema, and HTML Tags
What do ranks constitute?
The four main elements of an SEO rank are primary keyword placement, contextual terms, variations of the primary keyword, as well as the final word count. Let’s take a closer look at these elements.
Primary Keyword Placements and Variations
The primary keyword is the main keyword used in ranking your website. Variations are simply the synonyms of your primary keyword. They can be partially relatable or even abbreviations. For example, Dubai Desert Safari Packages could be your primary keyword, and the variations could be Desert Safari in Dubai, Dubai Desert Tours, etc.
Contextual Terms
Contextual terms are conversational words that occur while discussing a certain topic. Let’s say you’re looking for the white sauce pasta recipe. The contextual terms would be white flour, pasta sauce, pasta mix, etc.
Word count
Word count is an important factor in deciding your page’s rank. The ideal word count is 1300-1500 words on a single web page. Studies say that a good word count boosts your ranking. These words are placed in the body in between or among hidden text.
The Basic Approach to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Marketing, SEO, or content curation should not take up much time, money, effort. However, the first crucial step is getting the SEO done. It is ideal to use a basic SEO approach, to begin with. Start by placing your primary keyword in Group A. Add a few secondary keywords in your preferred subheadings.
Stick to the 1300-word count approach or look up your competitors’ pages to see the approach they have gone for. Finally, insert a few supporting keywords as well as utilize them as the silo posts. It is also necessary to focus on a content schedule.
Meta Titles and Descriptions
(Source: Google Images)
Unique meta titles, as well as proper descriptions, are important to boost your ranking. A meta title is the best place to introduce your primary keyword. It is better to use the same meta title for your page’s H1s. Meta descriptions are also used in open paragraphs. There can be more than one meta description. (here)
Frequently Asked Questions
We understand that it could be tough to take this all in once. While you’re processing this data, we understand you might have some questions running through your mind. We’re here to answer your queries and help you understand the On-Page SEO better.
What is the difference between unique and duplicate content?
Google regularly removes web pages that contain duplicate content. This can be avoided by keeping 51% unique content on your webpage. In easier terms, 1 out of every 13 words on your page must be unique. Some tips to make your content unique are:
• A new strategy
• A well-researched list of latest resources
• Strong webpage design and User-experience
• A new and relevant case study
• Stepwise processes
What word count should be maintained for e-commerce web pages?
E-commerce websites have visitors that want a brief product description with just the important details/features. E-commerce websites don’t need to focus on the 1300-word approach. Instead, they can aim for 300-500 words for each product page.
(Source: Amazon)
The page should be crisp, well-designed, informational, as well as contain media. This attracts more readers as well as improves the chances of a purchase.
Is it important to use the right terms/ words on our page?
It is normal to be confused as to whether Google takes grammar seriously or focuses on every ‘ed’ or ‘ing’ you’ve used. You can set your worries aside by checking how your competitors are doing on Google’s search results. You can also refer to Google’s word suggestions to add better or unique words to your page.
Advanced Outlines and Other Elements
We spoke about the importance of a proper structure and an outline for a webpage. Let us understand how an SEO page should ideally look like. In fact, if you have any new content coming up, it is beneficial for you to understand the concepts of page structure, tag totals, etc.
Page Structure and Tag Totals
Page structure includes elements like HTML Tags, H1 H2, H3, etc. These help in delivering exactly what Google expects. The elements we mentioned will allow you to boost your page SEO and make it simple for Google to scan it.
While creating the page structure, you need to focus on some intricacies. For instance, if you have twenty H3s, and your competitor has five to seven of them, then your page lacks somewhere in the structure. Use different plug-ins for your website.
It is not recommended to use plug-ins that do not offer modifications. Modifications are extremely useful for your page’s ranking.
(Image 3: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fconcinnitylimited.com)
An ideal Search-Engine Optimized Page should include the following elements:
• Optimized and attractive headings/titles
• Appropriate keywords that help boost page ranking
• Unique content with a high readability score
• Error-free content (No grammatical or spelling errors)
• Bullet points to explain topics in a concise and effective way
• A word count ranging between 1300-1800
• Proper backlinks to guide visitors to target pages
Free Tools
Since we’ve understood what a page structure constitutes, it’s time for us to explain how you can use free tools to make your system. Firstly, you should see competitors’ pages and check the numbers to have an estimate.
You can use SEO Quake for your primary key to extract words that will help analyze your competitors’ approach. It will also give you ample suggestions to make your web page rank higher.
You can also choose to search for your term and jot down the variations (bold highlighted terms on the search engine results page (SERP)).
(Source: Google Search)
The image above shows variation keywords. These are the search results in bold letters. For example, Washington DC, cheap flights, etc.
Advanced Keyword Research
We have explained the concept of keyword variations and how to incorporate them in your page. Now, we’ll shift our focus towards some advanced keyword research concepts like Lost Keywords, Keyword Cannibalization, as well as additional opportunities.
Lost keywords are the ones used to rank your page. It is important to identify these keywords if your site’s ranking on Google has gone down. Keyword Cannibalization assists you to come up with extra opportunities to save various keywords.
These two techniques are effective tools to make changes or have a quick impact on your page’s ranking. All you have to do is look for the right words since they already pre-exist within your content.
How to incorporate lost keywords?
• Create a new page for lost keywords
• Re-target the page that contains the lost keyword
• Make supporting pages for your silo
There are two approaches to search for a lost keyword. One way is through Ahrefs. Click on Organic Keywords within the dashboard, click on movements, and then select lost. The other option is to click on compare data in GSC, and then ‘download,’ followed by ‘use sheet.’
(Source: Google Images)
Understanding SEO Page Audit
Google Webmaster Guidelines organizes such audits. There are four things to keep in mind for SEO:
• Find: The search engine finds your web page
• Crawl: The search engine scans through your page structure
• Index: Google indexes your site after finding it
• Rank: Google analyses your page and decides its rank
Guide To A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Audit
You are already aware that your website requires optimizing for enhanced performance, augmented visibility, and maximum traffic. After tackling the first step of understanding on-page search engine optimization, find out what this module has in store for you.
On-page SEO refers to everything you can control on your website, and that is what we will talk about. The on-page SEO audit is loosely based on the Google Webmaster Guidelines. The GWB guidelines were only used to outline this module better. With this outline, you can expect your website to elevate in terms of ranking and branding.
While Google may not always be right, it is still the leading search engine. Many brands refer to Google to see what is ranking and what should be on your website, and you should too. With this module, you will learn exactly how to do that.
Before we go ahead with this module, here are the stages of SEO that you should know about. This is the usual method for search engines to identify brands based on search engine optimization.
• Find
• Crawl
• Index
• Rank
• Brand
To explore an on-page SEO audit better, let’s break these SEO stages down.
Learning in-depth about On-page SEO?
On-page SEO is the method of optimizing web pages to rank higher and gain traction through search pages. On-page refers to a few components on your website that you can manage to optimize and bring in benefits. These components include content, keywords, and other such technical elements that help your website increase visibility.
Search engines follow a few stages for search engine optimization to help brands gain traction and visibility.
Find
The first step that search engines get into is finding your webpage. This is critical, essentially because it will determine whether or not your brand will be ranked.
Search engines are a powerful platform that can organically find your webpage. But there are a few ways in which you can contribute to fasten this process and direct the search engines to your webpage.
Analytics/Webmaster Tools – One of the best practices for your website is to have a Verified Google Search Console Account, also known as the Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics Account, and Bing Webmaster Tools Account. These accounts will evaluate your website and provide information on site performance and issues.
(Source : Google Images)
Sitemap – Search engines use a sitemap to crawl your website, while humans use it to search pages on your website. You can submit your XML sitemaps to Google and Bing search tools so that their search engines can easily find all of your websites. On the other hand, an HTML sitemap is used by us, humans. The HTML sitemap offers a good user experience to your audience.
Robots.txt file – You can use robots.txt file to stop search engines from crawling your pages that you do not wish to be indexed. For example, you most definitely do not want your admin page to be indexed.
Meta Robots – This allows you to assign search engines some instructions to do while they crawl your pages. Meta Robots are those instructions. For ranking pages, you can set up a Meta Robots with a configuration including ‘index,’ ‘follow,’ and ‘archive.’
(Source : Google Images)
The configuration helps to inform search engines that they have to index the webpage, follow site links, and archive the webpage. Moreover, they prevent the search engines from displaying descriptions of other directories such as Yahoo or DMOZ. If you utilize resources like Yoast or Jetpack, then you do not need this method. These resources will automatically optimize your page with tags.
Malware – No one likes malware, and your website should be free from it. In case your website is found with malware, your rankings will decline instantly. In fact, in extreme scenarios, you could also get de-indexed.
Manual Penalties – Manual Penalties are also known as Manual Actions. These are displayed in a tab in the search console. If a human reviewer on your webpage feels like it has violated Google’s policies, then they take action called a manual penalty. Try to resolve your manual penalties instantly and submit them for review.
HTTP(S) – Search engines will prefer your website more if you completely follow the required security measures. Search engines prefer a secured URL such as https://. Besides being widely used, https also plays a key role in your website’s ranking.
WWW Redirect – Another best practice followed in SEO is the non-www domain record redirecting to www record for your website. This is also practiced to ensure there are no duplicate content issues with your website.
(Source : Google Images)
Domain Property (Search Console) – Make sure you claim your domain property in the search console. This automatically allows you to claim several other versions of the domain, including https, https, www, and non-www. Additionally, you can access your domain in entirety in one place.
Rel=Canonical – Rel=Canonical is a tag that will determine an URL for your webpage and the content on it. This tag combines all the external links that point to your webpage and make sure that the target page is given credit. The tag also resolves duplicate content issues for your website and provides maximum security against SEO attacks. It is recommended that you implement the Rel=Canonical tag on all webpages for your site.
Crawl
After the first step of finding your website, it is necessary to have little to no structural issues. Structural issues will restrict search engines from crawling your website. Here are some examples of structural issues.
Structure Issues
• Html/CSS
If your website’s HTML and CSS code have faults, then a code validation test can easily identify these issues. You might not be able to find these issues out, but they’ll hinder the search engine’s crawling on your websites.
Another common issue is cross-browser compatibility code issues that are checked by user experience and is not good for SEO. If you want to outrank a ‘superfluous’ website, then you can use a ‘lean’ code. Even though it is uncertain whether Google uses HTML or CSS as a factor for ranking, you can still start with this.
• HTTP status
Everyone has seen errors popping up on their screens and wondering what they mean. This is what we mean by structural issues from HTML or CSS. Stay updated with the HTTP status, and here’s what each of them means.
500 errors are server-side errors and mean serious server issues. In case you see this, these errors must be resolved immediately.
404 errors are the popular ‘page not found’ error on a website. You don’t have to address them immediately since they have low priority.
302 errors are another low priority error that has temporary redirects. These should be changed to 301 to resolve them.
• Broken links
(Source : Google Images)
Your SEO can be affected by a broken link on your website. For instance, if you have a 404 error on your website, it can go all the way back to a broken link.
Always make sure you check both internal and external links. Internal broken links should be your first priority, followed by broken external links.
Site Speed – Site speed is responsible for your website’s user experience and plays a role in website ranking. You can easily check your website’s details at the site speed report. The report evaluates scores such as Page Speed score, Yslow score, Fully Loaded Time, and Time to Time Byte (TTTB). For SEO specifically, Page Speed and Yslow scores are utilized with a page load time under 7 seconds.
Page load time may be a tiny factor, but it does not play a role as a ranking factor. In fact, Time to Time Byte (TTTB) plays a bigger role in deciding the ranking.
Content Delivery Network – The Content Delivery Network or CDN is a group of servers placed according to their geographical locations. Instead of having only one location of the server on your website, CDN helps disperse your website to servers globally.
(Source: Google Images)
With the help of global distribution, your website will load quickly and provide the visitors with the actual location of the server. CDN also helps to increase security levels because hackers only hack one server and not the entire network.
Mobile Optimization – With the increasing usage of mobile phones, you also have to help your brand adapt to mobile devices. This includes mobile optimization, first index, Google AMP, site speed, click-through rate, or mobile user experience. All of these include optimizing tools for a better mobile-based user experience.
Index
Now comes the third step following finding and crawling your website. The next part to consider is indexing the website. The index simply refers to search engines categorizing webpages from your website according to content into their database.
Once you have a page about a certain topic, it is not directly categorized into a niche. The Index section further breaks into two parts, current, and future content.
Duplicate Content
Search engines curate authentic and unique content. In fact, the original content you post on your website will increase the chances for your website to be ranked. Duplicate content will also be shown as internal or external if detected.
Meta and Page Titles
Every page on your website serves its own purpose. Your page content should not only be different from other websites but your own webpages as well. Try to avoid duplicate meta descriptions and page titles. Keep a description and title that is unique only to your page.
HREFLANG
If your website is in multiple languages targeting several countries, then this tag helps to instruct the search engines to use appropriate language for the visitor. The tag: rel=” alternate” hreflang=”x” aims to ignore duplicate content between numerous languages.
Schema Markup
(Source: Google Images)
Schema markup is a language from inside a webpage that is only visited by search engines. This happens when your web developer marks up essential information about your business deep into the site with a special code. Essential information could include industry, location, operating hours, contact information, awards, description, etc. These are also known as the Rich Snippets because they allow rich and organic search results about your brand. Not to forget, the schema is a big factor in determining to rank.
Open Graph
Open graph is one of the efficient ways to add metadata to your pages and be able to control them. You can control how these pages land up on social media and are notified when it is shared. Utilizing an open graph literally opens opportunities for you. They increase your click-through-rates, bringing your website more traction. Try not to miss this step since it is the first important step for indexing and ranking.
Thin Content
Besides being unique, your webpage needs to add value to the World Wide Web. Search engines will only curate your content if they feel like it benefits the users. The measurement of content value is the word limit. Webpages with less than 250 words are considered to be ‘thin’ and are difficult to rank later on.
Reverse Silo Structure
A silo structure allows you to organize your website content. It helps you to structure your content in a way to increase your chances of higher rankings. Moreover, they also gain traction for target pages and supporting pages, both of them that work in combination through internal and external linking.
Here are some steps to set up a reverse silo structure.
• Select the target page that you want to rank for your brand. Further, select a few articles published on the site that are related to your target page. Feel free to create new content, as well.
• Then, link out to one of the supporting pages, and keep in mind that you can use the anchor text of your choice.
• Go to the paragraph text on the supporting blog articles and link it back to the target page and then a supporting page.
• Try to outreach to other websites interested in linking your supporting pages as well.
• Make sure you create a silo structure like this for every target page on your website.
• Choosing Keywords
When you are writing for your website, keywords are the most important part because they determine how the search engines will categorize your website. With the help of keywords, search engines also try to match visitor searches to related search results. Since search engines cannot ‘read’ the content, keywords placed in specific locations make it simpler to connect. Consider keywords to be your biggest strength and make it easy for search engines to figure out what your webpages are all about.
Make sure your target page is of a single niche. Try to optimize more than one primary keyword and phrases. This way, you get access to secondary keywords as well that are basically related keywords. These secondary keywords make up a cluster that will powerfully optimize your target pages.
Find these cluster keywords in the related searches section on your search engine results page (SERP), auto drop-down suggestions, ‘people also ask’ section or Google trends.
Rank
Finally, we reach the ranking section once all the previous stages have been tackled. Rank refers to placing your web pages in search results in a certain order. Google lists ten pages organically on every SERP. To claim the ‘first page,’ especially on Google, your webpage must rank in the top ten webpages listed for your target keywords.
This is exactly how the previous steps are so important in determining a webpage’s rank. But sometimes you might have done everything from your end and yet you worry about how to improve your rankings.
In this case, your rankings will improve solely by creating relevant content on the website and having quality backlinks for your target keywords.
Here are some factors to remember that can bring your rankings up.
• Word Count
• Latent Semantic Indexing
• Exact Match Keyword
• Keyword Variations
• Page Score
• Organic Page Performance
• Click-Through Rate by Rank Position
• Potential Traffic by Search Term
• Click-Through Rate
• Optimization Tuning
• Overall Site User Experience
Brand
The final step to getting more visibility for your brand. Search engines are constantly searching for signals to identify legitimate websites and brands. Signals include how your brand is listed across the internet and the positioning in Google and Bing along with some on-page factors.
Brand Signals & Local Optimization – You have understood brand signals, but if you are wondering what the methods to optimize your brand signals are, then here’s how.
• Google My Business Profile
(Source: Google Images)
Google My Business Profile is an essential, authoritative tool for your website, be it local, national, online, B2B, or B2C. Goggle uses this platform to verify if your website represents an actual brand. It does this by linking external links from properties like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Moreover, it identifies your business location, reviews, and more. If you have not already optimized this for your brand’s website, then definitely should.
• Rel=Publisher
Rel=Publisher is a tag that links your brand and content together. When you write quality content, Google can attribute the content and brand together. This is because Rel=Publisher is the exact same code or tag between the content and your Google+ Business Page. With the help of this tag, your brand can improve in terms of search results. No one can question its credibility as well because the Google+ Business Page is only accessible to G Suite users and businessmen. Due to this, the signal helps to improve website authority.
Authenticity, Citations, and NAP – Your brand needs to get listed in big data aggregators and have a consistent name through NAP (Name, Address, and Phone). Factual specifically serves as a business data aggregator. Many search engines do use Factual or any other leading company. They use other important industry citing sites to verify basic brand information.
Authenticity, Brand Awareness: Owning Your Brand Across the Web – If you want Google to view your brand as trusted and reputed, make sure that you are sending the right business signals. Check the below factors, whether they exist or are accurate.
• Social media itself exists while all their information stays up-to-date and accurate.
• Check if there were any negative reviews across business platforms.
• This goes without saying, and you should stick to one name for your webpage.
Additional Information: On-Page Trust and Authenticity Factors – Google is always looking at a brand to check if they were original and reliable. Most indicators exist at the footer of stronger websites.
KPIs, Benchmarking, and Reporting
These determine the success or failure of a business. That said, these are some vital things to note when SEO is considered. There are several effective ways to do your KPIs and Reporting.
You can start by advocating page-level reporting through various keywords and unique content.
Another way is to analyze your website or specific web pages. You check its past rankings and compare them with current results. You must keep an eye on traffic, conversions, and impressions. Finally, you can benchmark everything by studying your past performance.
How to set up a dashboard?
There are many efficient ways to set up a dashboard. We understand it can get tiring, so we decided to help you out with a few things you can start with:
• Google Data Studio: It is easy to use and free of cost!
• Connect Analytics, Adwords, and Search Console
• Google Analytics Data: This is great for engagement, to check page/site visitors frequently and for conversions.
• Combine trends to build your reports
• Search Console Data: Use this to lookup keyword positions, clicks, CTR, etc.
How to optimize your CTR?
There are millions of websites on the internet. How can you ensure that yours is the one that gets clicked? Well, it might not be a cakewalk, but here are a few ways to optimize your Call-To-Action:
• CTRs with Question Tags get more clicks than others- Question Tags such as “Why should I eat green vegetables?” are visited more than other webpages because readers have shown an inclination towards them.
This is because people relate to questions better and feel like Tags with questions contain more accurate information. See the image below for an example-
(Image Source: Google Search)
• Meta-Descriptions are a must- You need to have a meta-description for your web page. Yes, you get brownie points if it is a compelling description, however, just having one suffices.
• Take help from Review Schema or FAQ Schema- These do not directly optimize your page. However, these are great for connecting to Rich Snippets. Let’s look at these two tools closely.
FAQ Schema
(Source: Google Search)
Review Schema
(Source: Google Search)
• Use Power Words in your Title- Words like “Best,” “Top,” “Free,” and “You” are called power words because of their engaging quality. Using these words can help optimize your CTR.
• Use the current year in your Title: Titles like “Top 10 SUVs in 2020” and “Best Matte Lipstick: 2020 Choice” are more likely to get clicks than other pages due to the effect of time. Visitors will find such titles more recent and hence will visit them first. Here’s a search result screenshot to help you understand better.
(Source: Google Search)
How to divide your reporting?
Reporting must be divided in the following ways:
The Complete Website
The record must include data about visitors, cluster keyword positions, clicks, conversions, CTR, conversion rate, etc.
• A record of the previous three to six months must be maintained.
• Benchmark data must include screenshots of metrics, including those from the start of the campaign to the present one.
Each Target Page
The record must include data about visitors, cluster keyword positions, clicks, conversions, CTR, conversion rate, time on site, and the Bounce Rating.
• You must maintain a complete record of three to six months.
• Benchmark data, including complete metrics from start to finish, must be maintained.
How to Calculate Return on Interest (ROI)
Businesses have two common goals when they start campaigns. The first aim is pure branding, while the second goal is to generate additional revenue. You’re also the one to decide the complete outcome of your campaign. However, you must be concerned about your Return On Investment (ROI). If you work well with ROI numbers, it will allow you to keep your monthly contracts going as well as demanding higher fees.
The following metrics should be considered before estimating the Return on Investment (ROI).
• Real Search Volume
• The Site’s Conversion Rate
• CTR by Rank Position
• The Lifetime Value of a Customer
Can images optimize your web page?
Images and SEO? Yes, it’s a match made in heaven. It is extremely beneficial to use images in your web pages. Here’s why-
• Makes your page more engaging
• Helps visitors relate to concepts better
• Media makes content more relevant
However, are you adding the images properly? Are you using original/unique photos or resorting to Stock Images?
Well, let us tell you a fact. Stock Photos can hamper all your SEO efforts. It is better to use unique photos on your web pages instead of commonly used images on the internet. This is sure to boost your SEO ranking.
What is Schema?
Schema is tags that are embedded inside your website and will tell search engines what your website contains. Search engines do not understand the symbols and numerals assigned, for instance, the weighing metrics. Instead, you can simply tag Schema and state that this is a metric. This helps search engines to understand your website’s content.
Why is Schema the worst?
When it comes to convenience and easy usage of a tool, Schema does not necessarily qualify. While it may be taking a load off your shoulders, increasing traffic, it still is confusing to understand. Moreover, Schema is mainly difficult to implement.
But here’s the secret. Hide in plain sight!
(Source : Google Images)
Try to gain inspiration from some of the popular sites on any search engine results page. Try to look at their schema and understand the secret of their plain hiding. Further, you can use the Google Data Structure Testing Tool. The tool tells you if the schema you swiped is a good one.
Sitelink Search Box
Sitelink search is a custom search box that is available when you display branded searches. Only you should have a search feature on your website, and this can be put only on the homepage.
Breadcrumbs
You can easily get breadcrumbs displayed for your website. Look at this and tell us if it looks similar, Books > Authors > Ann Leckie > Ancillary Justice.
Yes, this is exactly what breadcrumbs refer to. List all your URLs in the schema. Moreover, the URL mysite.com/type/keyword-phrase displays the 404 error. Most times mysite.com/type/ is not a real page as well.
Main Entity of Page
The main entity of the Page is a simpler opportunity to tell Google that this is what your brand is about; this is the content on it, and here’s why the brand is credible.
Item Page
Many users use the Item Page as a default. This page focuses more on one thing essentially, and it does not include fitting into another schema categories of Bollywood. The item page schema looks exactly the one in the previous schema category.
Additional Schema
Now that you have understood and looked at what Schema does, here are some more branches of Schema.
Spammy Schema Manual Action – It perfectly edits your schema mainly because you get to control a big aspect of it. Since it is manual, you can totally steer your goals into any direction.
Product Schema – Through this category, you can access all the fun stars, reviews, prices, and more than usually pop out in the SERPs. If you want to make him pop, you can use Aggregate Rating and their offers. It only works when both of them exist since Google is a fickle-minded platform.
Local Business Organization – Studying the organization behind local businesses is a great way to understand how people live. But more so digitally, how do these businesses find their way back into the ranking game.
What is Medic & E-A-T?
Medic began in August 2018, came back in December 2018 and March 2019. Medic began as a series of core updates. A lot of websites started losing their ranks even though they were real websites. Their most demanding niches varied from medics, lifestyle, food, etc. and yet they started declining.
Further, this formed a concept of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). Since then, it has become easier to become the real website that you are. Although no search engine is in power to judge whose website is real, the E-A-T concept still is one of the factors. In the end, it is all about whether Google thinks you are a real entity or not.
The first thing you should do as a brand is to create your own knowledge panel if it does not exist. If your brand does not show up in this panel, it may not be as recognized.
While this is only the first step, there are several other factors to take into consideration.
Wikipedia / Wikidata – Google widely uses Wikipedia and Wikidata for information. This is your chance to take the steering wheel in your hands by creating an interesting page. You can try out Wikidata. But here are some key points to keep in mind when creating a Wikidata account.
- Avoid using email addresses with your brand’s name completely visible.
- You can use the same account to contribute to the most random topics by having multiple listings.
- Once you create an account, you can add statements mentioning information like location, industry type, inauguration date, official website, and more.
- In the end, add a ‘qualifier’ for related data to receive similar results, especially about your brand.
Google My Business (GMB) – Another way to verifying yourself is by setting up and optimizing Google My Business. Make sure you submit your website to Google My Business and claim it for every business location of yours. Next, confirm your details such as name, office address, phone number, working hours, etc. Go ahead and add a few appealing photos and then edit your brand introduction.
(Source: Google Images)
Some people go all the way and mention modes of payment, which is a good thing. Once you start getting traction, respond to every review politely, including the negative ones. A few more things that you can do is create a 360-degree virtual tour, post twice a month, or add an optimized image every week.
Yelp Optimization – If your brand is still not verified, claim a listing on Yelp. The process is pretty much similar to that of GMB. Fill in your information, add pictures, and respond nicely to your reviews.
Huge Trust Signal (GMB / G+ / YouTube / Rel=Publisher) – The huge trust signal is like a part two to your GMB optimization. You can create a huge trust signal by simply verifying certain Google properties with the same account. We have simplified the GG Suite optimization easier for you with these basic steps.
• Log in to G+ through the GG Suite and your GMB account.
• Click on your profile to grab the URL and add it to Ref=Publisher. This tag will go in the header of your site.
• Now simply go to YouTube to sync and verify in the settings.
Citations – This is the reference information a brand provides, such as a name, address, and contact number. Usually, citation in SEO terms refers to the several business listings that take place on many sites. You can also call citations as business directories due to their large databases. There are two types of citations.
• Major Data Aggregators
These are basically just large databases for brands. They include Factual, Infogroup, Newstar, and Axiom. Factual is widely used for schema identification. Other sources of entry include Whitespark, Brightlocal, Moz Local, Yext, or any credible citation service.
• Niche Citations
The following major data aggregators are niche citations. These are specific to your brand, industry, location, keyword, or content. Find out whether your competitors are getting citations and then go ahead with getting one. Using a citation service, you can also try to conduct an audit. Moreover, you can compare these major citation services before opting for any one of the above.
3rd Party Review Sites – After you have taken the bigger steps of Yelp, GMB, and citations, you can now refer to 3rd party sites. In fact, let this be your moment for earning reviews. There are two ways to find out 3rd party review sites.
• Knowledge Panel – Simply search your business on the knowledge panel and look at ratings or remarks given by other websites.
• SERPs – Search for your brand’s reviews, and you will find numerous articles on it.
Site Information and Outbound Links – You have successfully gone through every step, and this is only to wrap it up. Here are some endnotes for you to keep in mind.
• Establish different ways for your visitor to contact you internationally and locally besides your email or personal mobile number.
• Edit your ‘about us’ or ‘meet the team’ section. Consistently update it so your brand can seem humanized to the visitors.
• Ensure that your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are specific to your niche and completely in place.
• Form outbound links such as social profiles, content creation, etc. You can link all these externally as well.
Summing it up
Make sure you follow through with all or most of these steps to guarantee complete optimization, increased traffic, and maximum visibility.
Lastly, do not have duplicate content and be real with the content on your webpage. Make sure your originality stands out for Google to know that you exist. There are many ways Google will eventually discover your content and your website.
This guide has probably taught you as much as you would need to know about setting up your own optimization tools. As long as you are putting out original content in the world, your brand will surely get recognized and ranked.
That being said, just be yourself, and everyone will simply be drawn to your content.
Endnotes
Well, we’ve sure come a long way from the start. We spoke about essential On-Page SEO tips and gave you the latest insights into the concept. Now, we understand that it is a very vast concept and requires more than just 4,000 words. However, we’re also sure this guide has given you a massive head start.
The most important concepts we discussed were the keyword research tools, CTR optimization, Page Structures, and Outlines. Even though these may not look very intense, they are the most crucial elements of an optimized web page.
On-Page SEO is more than just adding the right keywords to your title or description. It aims at fulfilling the search intent and offering the most accurate data. That is the most vital part. If you fail at providing valuable data, optimization is pretty much pointless.
That said, we need to focus on keeping the ‘Giant G’ satisfied. All On-Page SEO tips also have one common goal- to crack Google’s ranking algorithm. It’s not easy but can be done by following the steps we mentioned in our guide. Well, we wouldn’t like to keep you waiting! Go on, optimize your pages, and conquer the ranks.
On-Page SEO: How to Rank Higher on Google the Right Way
Every site should start with great content. But that only gets you so far.
To really sell your site to your target audience, you will need on-page SEO.
Anyone looking to gain organic traffic needs to drop what they’re doing and read this comprehensive on-page SEO guide.
Here you’ll learn the basics of SEO and find actionable strategies to expand your readership.
What Is On-Page SEO?
There are two types of SEO: on-page and off-page.
On-Page
On-page SEO is how you optimize a website from within. You can restructure pages, edit the content, improve your headings, change the URL, and adjust the HTML.
Basically, it concerns all the factors that you have control over.
Off-Page
In that sense, it’s the complete opposite of off-page SEO which mostly refers to building backlinks and marketing. While you can launch strategies to improve the odds of success, the result is ultimately out of your hands.
This post will focus on on-page SEO.
Search engines want sites to be useful and engaging for their users. That’s why they have algorithms in place to keep poor content out of their SERPs.
On-page SEO is the first step to satisfying both Google and site visitors. A proper on-page strategy will address issues that hamper the user experience.
In the end, you want your website to be informative, easy to understand and navigate through, fast, and relevant to user queries.
And the following tips will help you achieve just that.
On-Page SEO Techniques for You to Follow
Below are some of the guiding principles behind on-page SEO. A better understanding of these factors will help you build a site that’s designed for visibility online.
Research Your Focus Keyword
It’s all about keywords.
You can’t publish posts without targeting a primary keyword.
Ask yourself: What search terms do you want to rank for? What information does my audience need? What keywords are my readers using to find the answers I have to offer?
Optimizing your pages based on keyword research will drive traffic to your site.
Search Intent
To determine what keywords to use, you will first need to know what and why they’re conducting a search to begin with.
In SEO, there’s a concept called search intent. The idea is to find out the reason behind a search query. And based on that reason, you’ll have a better grasp of the keywords used.
There are four types of search intent:
The most basic type. The user is looking for information in the form of instructions, blogs, news, and the like.
The user is looking for a domain and needs Google to pinpoint where it is. People who Google “The Washington Post” are most likely looking for its homepage.
The terms that fall under this category indicate a desire to purchase a product but need more data. They’re looking for reviews, product comparisons, spec sheets, or any other information that’ll lead to a sale.
People who are ready to buy will use transactional search terms to find a product. They’re usually preempted by the word “buy” like “buy new iPhone” or “buy toaster online”.
Is your site providing information? Or are you trying to sell something?
Knowing what your site is setting up to accomplish will help you determine the kinds of keywords you should be targeting.
Keyword Length
It may come as no surprise that generic search terms are harder to rank for. The reason is simple: the more a keyword is used, the more pages are built to rank for that term.
So keyword length will play a huge role in how you structure your pages.
A keyword will likely fall in one of three categories:
Usually consists of 1-2 words. These are hard to rank for because they’re generally vague and sought after.
They are 3 words on average. They fall in between a head term and a long tail keyword. It has the advantage of targeting other keywords in your LSI (more on that later).
These consist of 4 words or more. There are fewer searches made for terms in this category. But that also means they’re easier to rank for.
There’s no rule that says you only have to optimize pages for one category. A good mix of all three might even be beneficial.
It all boils down to your on-page strategy. What keywords do you need to prioritize?
Using head terms on the homepage is common practice. Medium tail terms are present in the upper tier landing pages. Long tail keywords are used on smaller pages like blog posts and articles.
But:
If there’s a long tail keyword you’d like a homepage to rank for, you can use that instead.
Finding Keywords
Where can you find keywords anyway? Where would you conduct your research?
You have several options.
The easiest way would be through the Google Keyword Planner Tool, an application that falls under the Google Ads umbrella.
You will need to set up a free account to get started.
Log in using your Google account and follow the on-screen instructions.
You’re going to be asked to provide your business information among other details. Once done, you will be given access to the Keyword Planner Tool.
The dashboard will display the basic settings. To expand the view, click Settings and select Switch to Expert Mode.
When asked to confirm your selection, select Switch to Expert Mode again.
This will change your dashboard to introduce additional features. Go to Tools and Settings and select Keyword Planner Tool.
Now you can do two things. You can either find keyword ideas or get search volume and forecasts. Both would bring you to the tool itself with slight variations on the default settings based on the option you select.
Enter a base keyword to begin your journey. Think of your site’s main topic (if you’re a blog) or product (if you’re a seller).
Next, you’ll be shown the average monthly searches for the keyword you entered. Right below it would be keyword ideas you can use.
You can use the filters to refine the results. You can also change the location you’re targeting to dial in on your target market.
But Google’s Keyword Tool does have limitations. The results, for example, are limited and does not provide you as many keywords as other keyword tools.
Ahrefs is an alternative if you need better keyword suggestions. The only caveat is that it isn’t free. But if you’re really invested, it’s definitely worth paying for.
After signing up for an account, click Keywords Explorer in the navigation bar.
Enter your target keyword in the search box and hit Search when you’re done.
This will prompt Ahrefs to deliver you an overview of your search term.
Scroll down and you’ll find suggested keywords you can target.
Click View All if you want to see the entire list.
As with Google’s Keyword Tool, you can filter the results to get a better sense of your keyword options. Pillar keywords and pillar posts can help you to identify and manage your highest-priority topics, and can inform how you structure the rest of your site, too.
Optimize Your Metadata
Your metadata will tell both Google and your readers what your page is all about. And because search engines use this information to rank your pages, this would also be the ideal place to insert your target keywords.
The question:
What comprises the metadata?
There are three main components:
- Title Tags – These are given the most weight and the first thing users see on the SERPs.
- Meta Descriptions – Contains additional information to complement the title tag.
- txt – An HTML file on your site that tells search engines where to look for your metadata.
We’ll be focusing on title tags and meta descriptions for now.
You’ve likely seen them in action when performing a Google search.
How Metadata Affects Search Results
Your meta tags will have a profound effect on your search rankings. The key to ranking higher involves everything you’ve read so far.
Keyword research. User intent. Metadata.
Take the results below as an example.
A search for “Rent Los Angeles apartment” delivers mostly results for the keyword “Apartments for rent in Los Angeles”.
But alter the search term a bit and the results get drastically different.
Your meta titles and descriptions affect rankings. The results for transactional keywords won’t be displayed on informational queries.
The metadata relays to Google what your site is all about.
If users are looking to rent apartments, only results that help that purpose will be shown. And if users are only looking to find information, transactional pages are omitted.
Keep in mind:
A transactional page can also contain information that’s beneficial for users. But in our example, the meta titles and descriptions are clearly targeting potential customers.
The same thing can be said for the informational query example.
There are different ways to edit your metadata. Technically, all metadata can be edited by making tweaks to your HTML.
You simply need to insert the metadata in the right spot in the code.
Your meta title and meta description should be inserted in the <head> section of your HTML code.
Here’s what your typical metadata looks like in code.
Editing Your Metadata
Here’s a closer look.
If you’re unfamiliar with how coding works, you better consult with your web designer. Although editing your metadata should be quite easy.
Fortunately, most websites today use a content management system or CMS. These would be your WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and other similar web building platforms.
These CMS have dedicated sections where you can control your metadata information. In the case of WordPress, there are plugins you can install to make the task easier.
Two plugins come to mind immediately: Yoast SEO and All In One SEO. Both are more than capable of getting the job done. And there are many more out there.
And while each tool is different, they usually something like this:
They are usually found in the Edit Post section, above or below the area where you draft your post.
Edit URL Structure
A long URL just doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s even worse when the URL is reduced to a long string of characters devoid of any meaning.
So how should you structure your URL?
It should have the target keyword inserted and kept as short as possible.
This can be a challenge for sites that feature a lot of SKUs. But smaller sites like blogs, maintaining a clean URL structure better be common practice.
Your CMS should have an option for updating your URL. In WordPress, this can be found just under your post title.
Clicking Edit will allow you to make changes to the URL of the page you’re publishing. Do note that you can’t change the domain name, only the extension.
But why the fuss?
Google also uses URLs to determine what a page is about. So a clean URL helps them to accomplish its goals.
That is also the reason why your main keyword should be present in the URL.
This practice is not going to automatically rank your pages higher in the SERPs but it will definitely help you get there.
Publish Quality Content
Time is gold. And so is content.
What you put in your landing pages increase your visibility on Google. Especially if the information you put out there is invaluable to readers.
But as previously mentioned, you can’t put out articles willy-nilly. They need to adhere to on-page SEO practices.
And keep in mind, content covers a lot of ground. It not only refers to written copy. Videos, podcasts, still images, GIFs, white papers, and other forms of media are also considered content.
When writing content, remember this:
You’re trying to appease both readers and search engines.
Mistakes happen when the content is focused on manipulating Google by stuffing keywords. Not that keywords are bad. But there are times when sites overdo keyword usage that even readers begin to notice.
Take this site for example:
Not only is the site called Build Muscle, almost every heading on the homepage includes the words “build muscle”.
The site owner is clearly trying to rank for that exact term. But this is not the way you go about it.
The links, you can say, feel so inorganic.
This is a bad attempt at SEO. If done the right way, more thought should have been given to the flow of the article. On the plus side, you can take steps to repurpose your old content if it missed the mark.
Break Down Content With Headings
Headings break down posts into manageable sections. They also provide Google an overview of what the article is all about.
Search engines crawl pages so it can index pages properly. Headings are just one of the things they look at for additional data.
So headings are also a great place to insert keywords since Google finds them important.
Adding headings is easy. Here’s how you do it.
If you’re doing it through HTML, insert the heading tags (<H1>, </H1) followed by the heading itself.
But most CMS have a visual editor where you can highlight text and assign them as a heading.
Either way, inserting headings is not a difficult task.
Only Publish Fresh Content
To pump out more articles, some sites resort to copying articles and using them as their own. This is a big no-no in the SEO world.
Google has ways of finding duplicate content. Even when the content is only modified in the slightest, the chances of getting hurt is always there.
So why not start from scratch?
Stealing content not only prevents you from ranking higher, but it also dampens your brand.
Heather Lloyd-Martin is a prominent SEO with a good following. Naturally, her blogs get some traction. Like her post on convincing clueless SEO prospects.
It’s unfortunate that other sites steal her content and use them on their own sites.
Heather’s work has been lifted word for word.
But fortunately, the offending site is not ranking in Google. Even if you search for the post’s title itself.
So how would you know if your content had been stolen?
You can use a site like Copyscape to check if your article had been duplicated elsewhere.
The tool is free to use although you’d have to upgrade to a premium account if you exceeded the maximum amount of searches per domain.
Using it is simple. Enter the post’s URL and let Copyscape do its thing.
If there are duplicate articles, then Copyscape would display them in the results.
Make Spiders Read Your Images Better
Search engines crawl pages and read the content. This is done by what the SEO community refers to as spiders.
The problem with spiders is that they can’t contextualize images and other forms of media.
But there is a way around this.
By adding alt text in images, you’re able to tell Google what the image is and how it should be indexed.
This way, your image can be associated with your target keyword.
Here’s how.
If you’re doing it through HTML, you will have to insert the alt tag within the embed code.
A normal embed code would look like this:
<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-292″ src=”https://sampledomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/sample-image.png” width=”100″ height=”100″ />
But with an alt tag, it should look something like this:
<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-292″ src=”https://sampledomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/sample-image.png” alt=”Add your alt text here” width=”100″ height=”100″ />
Note the section in bold. This is where you add keywords that best describe your image.
It gets even easier on WordPress. You can add alt text as soon as you upload your image.
You can also edit images in posts by clicking on them and selecting the Edit button.
This would bring up a window where you can add an alt text if there isn’t one already.
Make your alt text as descriptive as possible. Use keywords when applicable.
Link Out to Right Pages
There are two kinds of links you can add to your site: internal and external.
Adding both helps point readers to the kind of information they’re looking for.
But internal links have another purpose. They pass off link juice to your other pages.
What is link juice, you ask?
It’s an SEO term that refers to the value that’s being handed down from one page to the next through links.
Linked content are seen as important pages. Think about it: you wouldn’t link to a page that has no value, right?
By linking your internal pages, you’re telling Google that those pages have value and should be indexed.
In the example above, an internal link is inserted that points to a related page in Moz’s blog section.
External links tell readers that you care about them by referencing outside sources that provide more information. They can also be used when citing sources so you seem even more credible when publishing posts.
But don’t overdo your link building. Have too many and your content will appear spammy.
Improve Keyword Density
Think of it this way:
It’s good to have a high keyword density as long as the quality of the article is not compromised.
Otherwise, Google will penalize you for keyword stuffing.
As alluded to earlier, Google likes content that’s designed to reach a human audience. It means your content should have a natural flow when read.
Certain keywords can be disruptive to that process, especially those that are placed forcibly.
Posts should connect with the audience.
There are tools online that can help you check if you’re being too liberal with your keywords.
Small SEO Tools, for example, has one where you can just enter your URL along with your keywords.
Prepost SEO also has its own version that works the same way.
WordPress users might want to download a plugin like Yoast SEO which has a tool built that checks keyword density.
It will check your keyword density based on what target keyword you’ve entered.
If you find that you’ve used the keyword too many times, you’ll need to remove those keywords or use a keyword variant, whichever feels more apt at the time of writing.
Ideally, you want your keyword density to sit under five percent.
Use LSI Keywords
LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords are a great solution when you find yourself adding your primary keyword too many times.
These LSI keywords are words and phrases that are closely related to your main keyword.
For example, you’re using Samsung Galaxy as your main keyword. If Google sees LSI keywords Android, new phone, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, camera, and other words or phrases like that, it knows your content is about mobile phones.
If you type in your keyword on Google, you’d likely see auto-complete suggestions. These would be a good place to start your search for strong LSI keywords.
However, if you want to be more methodical about it, there are other ways to gather enough LSI keywords for your post.
LSI Graph, for instance, finds keywords fast. Just type in your keyword and hit Generate.
In seconds you can have a list of LSI keywords. The paid version will open up more features and data.
You can also use Ahrefs to do the job for you.
Sign up for an account then log in. You’ll find Keywords Explorer in the navigation bar. Click it.
This would bring up the Keywords Explorer tool. Here you can type your main keyword. It will then proceed to deliver keywords, some of which are LSI.
LSI keywords give your article more context that is fantastic for your on-page SEO. This also opens the door to ranking for other search terms as well.
Use Structured Data
How you structure your data can also have an effect on how well you rank. Remember, it’s all about user experience with Google.
You can add ordered/unordered lists, tables, review stars, and other means of making your content more presentable to your audience.
You can add all these elements through HTML by using the appropriate tags. It does get tricky though especially if you’re a novice.
The table tags, for example, would normally look like this:
<table>
<tr>
<th>Your 1st Header</th>
<th>Your 2nd Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>First Cell Content</td>
<td>Second Cell Content</td>
</tr>
</table>
So HTML wouldn’t be the ideal solution. However, CMS users have more options.
For WordPress users, you can install plugins like TablePress that will make inserting tables much easier.
With WP Review, you can add a rating system that you can control when you’re logged into WordPress.
Ordered and unordered lists can be configured from the visual panel.
There’s also another structuring tool that hasn’t been mentioned yet which is schema markup.
Schema markup is additional data you can add to a post so search engines can better represent them in the SERPs.
These can come in the form of a rating system, publishing date, author name, and any other information users might find useful while browsing the results page.
Plugins do exist for adding schema markup in WordPress. Schema – All-in-One Schema Rich Snippets is just one of many.
But if you’d prefer to do it without enlisting the help of third-party tools, you can use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
It will give you a report that shows errors and warnings (if any are found).
Note: You will only be able to make changes to the schema markup if you’re a verified site owner.
Make Your Site Load Faster
Nobody likes a slow website.
Google hates it so much, in fact, that they’ve started penalizing websites that can’t keep up. And since more and more users are using phones to search, Google is now using page speed as a ranking factor in mobile search.
SEO guru Neil Patel has confirmed the importance of page speed in his extensive research.
He concludes that the top results in the SERPs typically have faster load times.
In a separate case study, Radware reports that most users abandon their shopping carts because of slow load times.
The report further claims that a two-second delay in the checkout process led to an increase in abandon rates (up by 87% from the baseline rate of 67%).
So, if you want to maximize the traffic you generate from ranking on search engines, you need to shore up your load time.
It helps in improving the user experience and keeps customers from bouncing away from your site.
PageSpeed Insights
Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights. It can measure the page of a site on either mobile or desktop.
You simply enter the URL of the page you want to check and the tool does the rest.
PageSpeed delivers a list of suggestions you could perform for you to improve your site’s performance.
Expanding each error will show you more details about the issue.
It will also display a list of areas you got right.
Moving to a New Hosting Platform
Slow servers mean slow websites. So you better do some research before you choose a web hosting platform.
You want to look at user reviews. Do the servers go down frequently? Is customer service responsive?
There are tons of web hosting solutions in the market. Some are purposely built to be great at one thing (good for WordPress, best customer support, etc.).
Here are the top hosting services based on reviews online:
According to BitCatcha, the fastest web hosting service would be SiteGround. But do note that they only tested a couple of services.
Use a Caching System
Caching is important because it creates a static version of your page. This way, users would be able to load a site faster.
WordPress users have the option of installing plugins that cache their site. An example would be WP Super Cache.
Once the plugin is installed and activated, it should start caching immediately.
You can try testing the cache if you want to be sure that everything’s up and running. Or you can delete your cache if you run into any issue with cached pages.
Optimize Image File Size
Images, especially high-resolution ones, can take a long time to load. So to avoid that, you’ll have to optimize your images and bring down the file size.
You can do this manually through software like Adobe Photoshop right before you upload. The program’s Save for the Web feature lets you fine-tune the settings so the file size is as low as possible.
Or you can go online and use online tools like ShortPixel to compress your images.
Mobile Friendly
Back in the day, sites would develop a mobile version of their sites so they can load properly on phones and tablets.
That should no longer be the case today.
Your site should be mobile friendly out of the box. This means the site should be able to adapt to any screen size.
There are site builders that offer this functionality. Squarespace and Wix have templates that are mobile responsive.
WordPress users can use themes like Genesis to make your site mobile friendly.
If you’re not using a CMS that offers responsive themes, then you would have to get in touch with a web developer to help you out.
And you need to do it fast.
The longer your site is not responsive, the further you go down the SERPs.
A company called Offspring found out that their lack of mobile responsiveness led to poor user experience. After fixing that, they felt an immediate surge in rankings (102.58% uplift in mobile/tablet revenue year on year).
Improve Conversion Rate
How are your visitors interacting with your site?
Getting eyes on your pages is one thing, but analyzing how users navigate through your site is just as important.
Where do readers go? At what point do they leave your site? For e-commerce sites, is there anything about the checkout process that confuses your customers? How good is your conversion rate?
These are just some of the questions you need to answer.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help with that.
In Google Analytics you can set goals so you can track website conversions.
Select New Goal to start a new one.
In the next screen, set up your goal details. Create a name and configure the rest of the settings.
Google Search Console, on the other hand, lets you identify which pages are drawing the most attention.
From the Search Console dashboard, click Performance.
This will display your total clicks, impressions, and other details that will give you a better idea of how the site is performing.
Scroll down a bit and you’ll find a couple of tabs. Click Pages.
Here you’ll find the top pages on your site.
The Queries tab will show you which keywords are landing users to your site.
Search Console has a lot more features to offer that can help analyze your site. So feel free to explore the tool once you have it installed.
A Quick Section About Local SEO
Local businesses need to pay attention to their local SEO. It allows them to rank for location-specific search database. Local citations are the driving force behind local SEO.
Here’s how you can optimize for local SEO.
Google My Business
Sign up for a Google My Business account. Don’t worry: it’s free.
After logging in, you’ll be asked to enter your business name, address, and other information.
At the end of the setup, you will need to verify your business on Google. You can do this by postcard, by phone, or by email. You can also use instant or bulk verification.
Mention NAP
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. You need to add these on important pages on your site.
You should be using a consistent NAP. Use the same NAP you provided Google during the registration process.
Add NAP to your schema.org markup so Google can crawl it.
You can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to accomplish this.
Select a category (local business) then enter the URL of your site. Click Start Tagging.
Highlight your business name and select Name from the pop-up menu.
Do the same thing for the address, phone number, email then select the appropriate category for each one.
Embed Google Maps
You should also insert a Google Map on your site. This is easy to do.
Go to Google Maps and type your business name or address. Open the Menu and click Share or Embed Map.
You will then be given an embed link you can add to your site.
Perform Site Audit
A site audit will give you an overview of the issues that are plaguing your site.
You can hire outside help to do this but know that you can perform one on your own.
The best free tool to do this is Screaming Frog.
After installation, enter your URL and click Start.
By browsing through the different tabs, you’ll be able to see the status of each page. It will also show if errors had been encountered during the crawl.
If the status says OK, then you don’t have anything to worry about.
You can also use Screaming Frog to check your meta titles and descriptions.
Viewing all the data from within the tool can be difficult. What you can do instead is export data and view it as a spreadsheet.
Simply click the Export button and select a destination to download.
The tool also allows you to check your internal linking. Select a URL and see where it was linked from and the anchor text used.
The same also goes for outbound links (so you can check for broken links).
The free version of Screaming Frog is limited to 500 crawls. So if you want to use the tool more frequently in the future, you should consider upgrading to the paid version.
Conclusion
A solid on-page SEO strategy is important if you want to succeed in your online venture.
Your strategy needs to be consistent. This is not something you can set and forget. You need to continuously update your site so that search engines would rank you better.
Keep yourself up to date with the latest trends on on-page SEO. Google’s Webmaster Blog is a good resource.
So regardless if you’re running a blog, a news site, a review site, an online store, or any other kind of site, on-page SEO should be your priority.
