As the digital world continues to expand, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is becoming more and more popular. And while most folks in the industry these days have some sort of picture of what SEO is, there are many of them out there who don’t understand all of its working mechanisms. Which is a big drawback for anyone planning, not only to expand, but to keep their business afloat.
Fortunately, we’ve prepared a thorough explanation which will guide you through the process of On-Page SEO, backed up by some tips which will help you improve your website’s performance and reach to your clientele and audience.
The basics of On Page SEO
Every possible element located on your website comes under the On-Page SEO category. When scanning your website, search engines don’t just look for elements visible to the audience. They also go through the website code and structure and through a series of complex algorithms to calculate your website’s relevancy to the searched term, or in other words — its page rank.
With that clarification, it’s time to go into details and check the technical aspects of making a well optimized website and achieving the best SEO results.
Start with your URL(s)
Some search engines have clearly stated that when their bots crawl through a website URL, the first 3 to 5 words in it are given the most “weight”. Furthermore, numerous studies suggest that they prefer short URLs over long ones. Is this correct?
Thus, the first consideration to make in On-Page SEO is to choose your URLs wisely. Select your website name from relevant keyword terms, all the while staying within the five-word limit.
TIP: If you have already chosen your website name, you may want to consider changing it if your name does not follow best practices but before making any changes, speak to me or someone in the digital marketing industry.
Every good story begins with a good title
When writing new content, it’s imperative to choose the right title and tag for it. A title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page, the short text that displays on opened tabs in a web browser.
The general rule is that the closer the keyword is to the beginning of the title tag, the more “weight” it gets, thus improving the overall rank.
TIP: You should have created a list of keywords that you want to be found for before starting your on page SEO, so use those keywords in your title tagging.
Responsive/mobile design is a must
Last year marked the turning point in the digital world, as mobile browsing exceeded desktop. Which eventually made search engines alter their algorithms even more and give way to websites optimized for mobile devices.
So if your website hasn’t been updated to meet such requirements, it should be your top priority. And don’t stop with just making it mobile-friendly but also include a responsive design. It’s not just about SEO technicalities, it’s about the overall impression you want to make.
Utilize links
Internal links contained in your blog content leading to other pages on your website can improve your overall traffic. These links help search engines pinpoint the most important content on your page, and in return they add some extra rankings to that page in SERP’s (search engine results pages). The optimal rate is from 2 to 5 links leading to older posts in each new blog.
These are some of the best SEO techniques you can apply to boost your On-Page SEO efforts. Now, because of its ever-changing nature, what was effective in the digital marketing world yesterday, may not be relevant tomorrow. So it’s up to your SEO team to keep track of new trends and improve your strategies in order to achieve the best SEO results or better yet, contact me for an opinion and guidance..
All you need is time (4-6 months) and patience and you can get that new business through digital marketing efforts. If you need results quicker, a website refresh and pay per click (PPC) program may be better suited to your needs. Contact me. We can discuss strategy on the phone or get a coffee.
Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consulting in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years experience in building and implementing marketing plans for small business.