In SEO Checklist Part 1 (last week), we covered some SEO basics and technicalities that you should keep in mind before your website even goes live. However, we have not touched content-related SEO or on-page SEO yet, because it’s a broad topic with many things to implement.
Both technical and off-page SEO contribute to your rankings. Although, on-page SEO will make or break your website in the SERPs, it is also one of the main reasons why website owners use search engine optimization services – there is a lot to learn here if you’re not well-versed in the subject. Let’s continue the checklist, this time focusing on, on-page SEO:
Topics and Keywords
It is one of the most important parts of SEO which determines your entire content strategy. Of course, a lot of the topics will focus on what your business does or provides to potential customers. However, the way you approach these topics will be entirely dependent on your keywords. That’s why you have to:
- Do keyword research – this process includes selecting keywords that will go into your content and different website pages;
- Optimize content – the content you have on your website must be relevant to your business, with just enough but not too many keywords;
- Keep track of URLs – while your URLs should reflect your website structure, they also need to include the keyword and provide context about the content of the page;
- Pay attention to title tags – title tag is one of the many small pieces of the SEO puzzle – it won’t ruin you not to optimize it, but if you make sure you have a unique title tag relevant to the page content, it adds up.
These SEO tips provide the outline of your on-page SEO strategy, but you’ll still need to go a bit more in depth with the content itself.
Content
There are a few things to keep track of while you’re writing or posting content, other than picking out the keywords and topic for that particular piece. Pay attention to:
- The body of the copy – keyword density and their placement are as important as the keyword itself. Don’t stress over it too much, since that can create content that doesn’t flow well;
- Meta descriptions – sometimes it’s better to let them formulate automatically, but if you can incorporate keywords naturally into it without making it too long, that’s always a good choice;
- Headings – SEO-optimized headings will contain the main keyword, but they don’t have to if you’ve got enough of them in the body and placing them in the headings sounds unnatural;
- Image alt attributes – a small thing that contributes to SEO: images should have alt text so the search engines can understand what the image is about.
This concludes the checklist of SEO basics for your website optimization. SEO is beneficial but can take 4-6 months before it shows any tangible results. If you wish to see results faster, you might benefit more from a website refresh and PPC ads. Give me a call, and I’ll be happy to discuss ways in which I can help, including my search engine optimization services.
Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.