It’s one thing to start a website, and another to actually make it successful. Most internet marketers fail when it comes to bringing in the website traffic they need, which can lead to potential leads and clients – in case you’re offering services. we at technians softech follow complete on page factors to improve site usability for users as well as search engine.
Conventional methods of advertising are high, and you wouldn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars every few days. Instead, what if you could potentially increase the Organic traffic on your site, over time?
That’s where SEO comes in.
How high a rank your website has on Google depends on different factors. The number of backlinks and site popularity are just few things that you need to focus on to get results over the longer term.
And on-page SEO is one of the more important things that you need to do right from the very first. Better ranking websites translate to
Better ranking => more visitors => more leads => more sales => profitable business.
On page SEO optimization techniques revolve around how relevant Google and other search engines feel your webpage content is to what a user is searching for. It involves the use of keywords strategically to feature more prominently in search engine results.
However, it is not just about the use of keywords, it is also about the type of keywords you use and how you use them on the page. here is some important on page seo factors you should focus before publishing your web page.
Top On page SEO Optimization Techniques That You Can Use
What are the ingredients that you need to look for when making a SEO optimized page that search engines love? Every web page has different parts of content, and your SEO optimization strategy needs to take into account all the parts.
1) The Page Title Tags (Meta Title)
<head>
<title>Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name</title>
</head>
The top most heading that you use for your post is the Page Title. Your page title tag is important and needs to be relevant to what you’re writing on. If you’re talking about your product, it is important to have the product name right at the page title itself.
It helps the readers know what they’re going to read about. you should use your primary keyword in beginning of the title and followed by secondary keywords then use your brand name. always try to wrap it into 55 characters including space as after it google ignore it to show on SERP.
Every user first read the title and then decide weather they read your article or not, hence click through rate (CTR) is primarily depends on your web page title. if you are writing your blog post then you can use tool(my favorite) like blog post title generator.
2) Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.)
Your content will probably have sub heads. And a good way to make search engines notice is to use different heading sizes in the post. H1, H2, H3 and so on are heading tags that you can use throughout the post to demarcate the different parts of the content. Google give high priority to H1 tag then H2, H3, H4, H5 finally least priority to H6.
A) Wrap Your Title in an H1 Tag
This is one of the best SEO techniques to try, and involves wrapping your title around the <h1> tag. if you’re using a content platform like WordPress then make sure your theme is having H1 size of your post or page title. but if you’re using HTML, do not forget to make the title have a H1 tag. also always use your primary keyword in title.
B) Add Modifiers To Your Title
always try to use some catch word in title to increase CTR, here use some tools to research. Why did we use the word ‘TOP 25’ right in the title? This is because studies have proven that using modifiers can help the content rank higher on search engine results, and you might want to try it out too.
Plus, it does help get more eyeballs too.
3) Metas
What would you want the search engines to tell about your webpage? This is where metas come in- they are tags that help search engines know more about the content. Normally, it is placed as a snippet of a HTML code at the top of the page, summarizing what the content is about on that page.
Here are some of the different metas that you need to know about.
A) Meta Descriptions
The meta descriptions are those two to three lines that users see about your webpage in the search results. It is right at the top of the page for search engines to index first. Good use of keywords makes your webpage feature more prominently, as search engines look at the meta to know if what the user is searching is relevant to what you’ve to offer.
Think like you’re advertising your product – a reason you would love to copy Adwords ads to make killer Title and Description tags!
B) Social Media Meta Tags
These are the visualization or snippets that are used to describe the content on social media. there are well described on open graph meta tags for social media
4) URL Structure & Better Directory Structure
How are you creating the URL structure of the web pages? www.xyz.com/life/what-you-need-to-do-today is a good url, as it tells the search engines that the category of the post is under ‘Life’ and relates to how people should live their life daily.
However, www.xyz.com/14324 is not. You just have a numerical number at the end – and it doesn’t tell anything about the type of content in the URL.
You need your URL to talk about what the post is about. A good idea is to have the URL similar to what the post title is. SEO-friendly URL’s describe the post’s content, and includes the primary keyword.
When setting up the URL structure of your website, avoid the numerical form. Having a category or sub category within the URL is a good idea.
5) Keyword Density
Search engines do not want you to overburden the text with keywords. If you use keywords throughout, to increase site visibility, search engines may penalize your webpage and website. The content has to be natural, and you’ve to actually offer sound advice on what you’re writing.
Optimizing a keyword ‘cars’ for a post on ‘cycles’ would not help.
A) Use the Primary Keyword in First 100 Words
You need to include your primary keyword right in the first 100 words. If you scroll up, you’d see that we put in our primary keyword for this post ‘on page seo techniques’, right in the first part of the article.
B) Sprinkle LSI Keywords
The primary keyword for this post, for instance, is ‘on page seo techniques’, but if you read the post, you would be coming across other different SEO phrases like ‘SEO techniques to try’.
These are Long Synonym Keywords, or keywords that users are more likely to search for. You can use tools like Google Adwords to know the different searches for the topic you’re writing on – so that you know the LSI keywords to use.
6) Image SEO
The images that you’re using form an important part of SEO too. Every webpage has an image or two today – it is one the easiest ways to catch a reader’s attention. However, your image needs to be described properly.
A) Be descriptive
Every image should tell what the image is about, and it needs to be relevant to the topic. For instance, if you are having a blog on insurance, it is a good idea to title an image as ‘Auto insurance’ and not ‘Car running on road’.
Most websites today are built on WordPress, and you would see an option to insert Image details everytime you upload an image on the site.
Image SEO helps to know how relevant the picture is to the content. Make the image description as relevant to the content as possible for the best results.
B) Using Image alt tag
When you’re filling in the SEO descriptions of images and videos on your site, do not forget the alt tag. These are the alternate tags that help identify your content, and tells users what the image is about.
For instance, if you’re having an image to buy one of your services, the alt tag could be ‘Buy our <Service name>”.
7) Linking to useful Resource
Google rewards you for having backlinks. The more sites that link to you or you link to, the more would Google look at your site favourably. The catch though is that to get higher rankings, the sites that link to you (or you link to), would need to be trustworthy, high authority sites and preferably in the same niche as yours. Here is a look at the two different types of linking.
A) Internal Linking
Link to different pages within your website itself. It helps increase the relevancy of the content and adds in to the link juice of the site. It also helps brand credibility, and potentially lower the bounce raate, as users are more likely to visit a ilnked content.
B) Linking out to External Websites
The one thing that you need to do to is to build up link juice through backlinking. Linking out to trusted websites which have relevant content similar to what you’re writing about, can not only help customers know more about the subject but also create more backlinks. Backlinking is one of the best ways to increase site popularity in the longer run.
Notice how we linked out to Moz in the last paragraph – where you would know more about link juice and what it is all about.
However, do take care to link out to only trusted sites – as linking to fradulent sites can mean search engines penalizng you as well.
8) Content, Readability and Usability
The content that you use on your post will make a difference too. Studies suggest that as much as 70% of content marketers lack a consistent or integrated content marketing strategy. To increase engagement rate, you need good content, and topics that your visitors want to read on. Here are some factors that can increase the engagement rate.
A) Word Count Per Post
Different studies come to different conclusions. Copypress states that top ranked content has an average of around 2,416 words per post.
While the results may differ, most studies agree that you need to have a blog post of at least 500 words, and more than 1000 words if you want the best results.
B) Content and Formatting
User engagement matters. There is no two ways about it. You need to write content that is useful to your site’s audience and can make them read more. A good way to do it is to organize your content in a way that people love to read.
Use short paragraphs when pssobile, have a coversational language and use media when possible. People love pictures and videos. Don’t overdo it though.
C) Write for users
You’re not writing for the search engines, but for the users. So, you need content that users would love to read, and not just something that search engines would love.
Google, for instance, is using contextual technology to reward those web pages which have more relevant content on the matter than just being optmized for search engines.
9) Page Speed and Load Time
How fast does your web page load? A Kissmetrics study states that 47% of users expected the webpage to load in as little as 2 seconds.
How do you ensure fast page loading times?
- For one, you can invest in a Content Delivery Network. This ensures that no matter where the user is around the world (and no matter where your server is located), the page would load as fast. Amazon’s Cloud Delivery Network is one of the more popular options out there.
- You can also cache your page to make it load faster, or use optimization tools that can significantly boost up loading times.
- Many of these tools for instance, load up the content users want to see first, than loading up the whole page part by part.
- Having a proper sitemap with Schema.org markup can help improve your CTR, hence increasing Ranks in search engine.
10) Have web analytics in place at the start
How many visitors does your site have daily? What pages are the most popular? At what times during the day are people most active on the website?
Use Web Analytics
Web analytics like Google Analytics can help you track user behaviour easily. You can know everything from bounce rate to what users seem to be loving the most, and design a content strategy that will bring in more people to the website.
11) Optimize Clicks to Content
If you’re having your content posted on social media (or even advertising on social media), you would need more clicks on your content. A good way to go about is through A/B testing.
You need to use different versions of the same content to see which one’s faring better. For instance, you could have one saying “Buy Now for 20% discount” and another as “Get Your Own Copy for just $20, and get a FREE CD”.
12) Responsive design
More than 75% of users access websites from their smart devices. If your website is only compatible from a PC, you’re losing out on many customers.
You need your website to display properly across different devices, and a responsive design is the answer, as it helps websites be displayed in an optimzed way across different devices, from a smart phone to a laptop.
13) Using Social Media
Link out your content to interested audience in social media. With more than a billion users online, you could expand your reach exponentially.
A) Use Social Sharing Buttons
Have social sharing buttons in each post itself. You can have a Twitter button for readers to tweet about the post, and one Facebook like button, to share what they’ve liked on their Facebook profile.
You can also allow them to share the content on Tumble, Google +, LinkedIn and the like. This significantly engages the reach to customers.
B) Open graph Protocol
Using an open graph protocol makes your webpage friendly on social networks. It involves a set of protocols and most social networking sites including Facebook uses it. Most often, you can implement the open graph protocol automatically, but you can tinker it manually too. (explained in point 3B)
Bonus – Update frequently!
In one study, publishing daily increased the traffic by as much as 46%.
The last important thing that will work wonders over the long term is updating your site daily. Have fresh content everyday – this can help build up brand credibility. Google loves those sites that are more trustworthy and have its own followers, and your site would have more preference than others.