What is On Page SEO in Digital Marketing
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing web pages to earn organic traffic and improve a website’s rankings in the SERP (search engine results pages). This includes optimizing a page’s HTML, internal links, and meta data (meta title, meta description, and keyword density) along with posting high-quality, relevant content and images. When you add all these aspects of a webpage together, you are left with an improved webpage, thanks to on-page SEO.
Similarly, there are ranking factors for search engines that lie outside of the site owner’s control, this is called off-page SEO. Things like backlinks from other sites, social media, brand mentions, and shares can all have a direct or non-direct effect on a site’s rankings in the SERP.
On-page SEO relies on the actual content of the page which means that anything within the website can fall into the realm of potentially effecting SEO – this includes text, meta data, multi-media content, HTML code, CSS, JavaScript, and more. In general, this is called “content,” although oftentimes marketers use “content” to refer to the main text of the page.
Either way this is the main area of focus for search engines, which means it should be the main focus of any SEO marketing strategy.
What on-page SEO ranking factors should I optimize?
With on-page SEO, you have several different ranking factors. You want to optimize all these factors. Taking the time to optimize each of these factors will improve your rankings in search results and make your website more competitive and difficult to beat.
On-page optimization factors you should focus on include:
- URL
- Title tag
- Meta description
- Heading tags
- Alt tags
- Keywords
- Content
- Speed
- Internal linking
- Images
- Mobile-friendliness
Example of some on-page SEO action items include:
- Optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions
- Writing in-depth, quality content
- Cleaning up your site’s code
- Streamlining your site’s navigation
- Speeding up your website
How to optimize for on-page SEO
Now that you know what factors influence your on-page SEO, you can start optimizing them. Remember, it will take time to optimize your site, as well as see the results from it. Following best practices for these factors, however, will help you create a website that can endure algorithm updates.
URL
What is a URL?
Your URL is like an address, but for a page on the InternetURLs for your website’s pages should include brief descriptions of the page’s topic.
For example, if you have a page about dog daycares in Daytona Beach, a good URL for that would be www.yoursite.com/dog-daycares-in-daytona. Or, if you have multiple locations, you may use the following format: www.yoursite.com/locations/daytona/dog-daycare.
Including your keyword in your URL instead of a long string of jumbled numbers also makes your site easier to navigate and gives people a better idea of your page topics.
Which of the following URLs would you rather visit, for example?
- https://www.example.com/category/subcategory/keyword.html
- https://www.example.com/125typu4f5ww56fifl6639j875fe.html
Use clean, organized URLs — like the first example above — to improve your site’s architecture and help you rank higher in relevant search results.
Title tag
What is a title tag?
Your title tag is your page’s title, but it only appears in search results.In order to show your website in search engine results pages (SERPs), Google has to know what your page is about. Using specific keywords in the title tag of each page (<title>, </title>) makes it easier for search engine crawlers to understand your website.
For example, if you’re targeting the keyword, “dog daycare daytona beach,” you may create the following title tag: “Top Dog Daycare in Daytona Beach | Company Name.” For the best results, limit your title tag to 55 characters to prevent Google from cutting it off in search results and use your targeted keyword at the beginning.
Meta description
What is a meta description?
Your meta description is your page’s summary and appears in SERPs.
A meta description doesn’t influence your on-page optimization directly. It’s a feature that helps users, however, learn more about your page. The fact that Google will bold user search terms that appear in your meta description is another reason to optimize your meta description for on-page SEO.
Include your core and related keywords in your meta description for the best results. Your page about dog daycare in Daytona Beach, for instance, may use the following meta description: “Looking for dog daycare in Daytona Beach? Come to Rover’s for dog daycare, dog grooming, and more!”
For the best results, your meta description should stick to 160 characters.
Heading tags
What is a heading tag?
Heading tags break up content with H2s, H3s, and H4s to improve its readability.When it comes to heading tags, you want to use them for search engines and users. Use heading tags throughout your content to break it up and make it more readable and skimmable for users. You can also add your core or related keywords to provide search engines with more context for your page.
For example, a post about dog daycare may use the following headings:
- What does dog daycare include?
- How much does dog daycare cost?
- How to find the best dog daycare
When writing your heading tags, remember to target your core keyword in your H1 tag.
Alt tags
What is an alt tag?
Alt tags provide more information for multimedia, like images and videos.Search engines can’t see multimedia, so they depend on alt attributes to tell them what multimedia is.
For example, if you have a photo of an apple, your alt tag could say “red delicious apple.” Beyond that, you can add descriptive names to the image files themselves so Google can get a better idea of your multimedia.
Always include an alt tag for your multimedia content. Besides Google, your alt tags also help users that can’t see or interact with your content. Using alt tags makes your content accessible to everyone browsing your site.
Keywords
What are keywords?
Keywords describe words used in SEO to target valuable user queries.Each page on your site should include text content that discusses the page’s topic.
Even pages that are typically not optimized, such as the “Contact Us” page, can help your business gain recognition online. Using keywords throughout the body text of your page helps Google read it and rank it appropriately.
You should research and compile keywords for each page on your site. Keyword research tools like KeywordsFX and Keywordtool.io can help you understand the keywords people research related to your products and services.
Look at helpful metrics, like monthly search volume and competition, to determine which keywords offer you the most value.
In most cases, smaller companies will focus on long-tail keywords or keywords with three to four words.
Long-tail keywords often have lower monthly search volumes, but they also have lower competition. It’s typically easier to decipher the search intent behind long-tail keywords since they are more specific.
For example, if someone searches the short-tail term, “dog treats,” it’s hard to identify exactly what they want to find. Maybe they’re researching the best dog treats for small dogs, or they might want to try a dog treat recipe.
On the other hand, if someone searches the long-tail phrase, “buy dog treats for puppies,” you know exactly what they want to find — and that they’re ready to purchase.
High-performing SEO campaigns contain both short and long-tail keywords — and the terms you choose to target will depend on your business and goals.
Content
What is content?
Content provides users with answers and search engines with context.Content is critical to on-page optimization.With content, you give users a reason to visit your site.
Whether it’s to read a blog post or check out a product page, people browse your content. Optimizing your content can help search engines understand and rank your content, which can lead to people finding your website.
On-page SEO for content revolves around the following practices:
- Using your keywords in headings and paragraphs
- Breaking your content into skimmable headings
- Complementing your content with helpful images
- Ensuring your content uses correct spelling and grammar
- Making your content trustworthy and authoritative
In addition, you should regularly add new pages of content to your site so that search engines will see that you’re active online. You can do this with new blog posts, landing pages, and other strategies that show Google you’re hard at work for your customers.
Finding and removing duplicate content also improves your on-page SEO.
Duplicate content is bad for on-page SEO, so make sure to regularly check your site for duplicate content and remove it.
Page speed
What is page speed?
Page speed measures how fast content on a page loads.With an attention span of less than the common goldfish, 50% of users will abandon a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. People want information, and they want it now!
Search engines like Google also use page speed as a ranking factor. You can control your site speed and page speed, so you want to optimize your page speed. Make your website load faster, and you can rank higher in search results
Use PageSpeed Insights to check your speed.
PageSpeed Insights will provide you with customized recommendations for speeding up your site. You can also follow some best practices for page speed, like compressing images, eliminating unnecessary website code, and more.
Internal linking
What is internal linking?
Internal linking describes linking to and from pages on your website.
Internal linking often gets overlooked when it comes to on-page SEO. As your site grows, however, it’s critical to develop an internal linking process. That’s because internal linking helps crawlers explore your site, discover new content, and understand the context of different pages.
Having little to no internal linking on your pages negatively impacts the user’s ability to access content on your site that is valuable to them. And if they can’t access it, that directly affects your conversion rate.
Use internal links to improve your on-page SEO by:
Adding links to relevant, existing content in new posts
Adding links from relevant, existing content to new pages
Every internal linking strategy is different, but for the best results, you should make sure that every new page has at least two to three links to it. If you’re struggling to find pages, don’t force a link. Instead, consider creating pillar content.
You can check the status of your internal linking with a free tool like Screaming Frog.
Images
What are images?
Images are a form of multimedia that helps people understand and skim content.Images matter to SEO, as well as users. With images, you can break up your content. You can also provide context, like for complicated processes or difficult-to-describe features. Include images in your content, from stock photos to custom graphics to screenshots.
When adding images to your site, remember to compress your images. Oversized multimedia can slow down your page speed, which can impact your rankings. Remember also to add alt text, as this additional detail makes your website more accessible and can help with rankings in Google Images.
Be sure to also include usability features such as transcriptions for videos and alternate text for images. These are another great place to include your target keywords, and incorporating them can help make your site ADA compliant.
Mobile-friendliness
What is mobile-friendliness?
Mobile-friendliness describes your site’s usability on mobile devices.
A mobile-friendly website is essential because more than 50% of the Internet’s traffic comes from mobile devices. If people on smartphones and tablets can’t access your site, your rankings in search results will go down.
Search engines like Google, for example, use mobile-friendliness or responsiveness as a ranking factor. This means, if your site isn’t optimized for mobile users, you’re missing out on valuable leads and revenue.
Mobile compatibility isn’t a suggestion anymore. It’s a requirement, especially if you want to rank well for your keywords. Google considers mobile compatibility when it ranks your website. Low compatibility = low rank.
On-page optimization for mobile-friendliness often focuses on developing a responsive site. With a responsive website, you have a single site, which makes it easy to update your website and add new content.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check your site’s responsiveness.
Why is on-page SEO important?
On-page SEO helps search engines analyze your website and the content connected to it so that it can identify if a searcher’s query is relevant to your site. Google is constantly updating their algorithm so that it can better understand a searcher’s intent and deliver search results that meet that user’s needs. As Google’s algorithm develops, so should your website.
It is essential that your website and its content, including what is visible to users (i.e. media, content, images) and what is visible to search engines (i.e. meta data, HTML), are optimized to the latest practices used by companies like Google and Bing. This way search engines can understand your site and how to rank it.
Whether you have a big or small business, it is important to optimize a website’s on-page SEO. SEO represents one of the most common digital marketing strategies, and it remains super popular because of its reliable return-on-investment. In fact on-page SEO offers the best ROI out of nearly any digital marketing strategy with its relatively low-cost and long-term benefits that can help websites grow and bring in passive traffic for years.
As much as half of all website traffic comes from search engines like Google or Bing, this means that close to 40% of online revenue comes from search traffic as well. Here’s something else to think about: The top 1st result on Google gets more than 32% of keyword traffic, and the first page of search results grab as much as 91.5% of traffic.
This is why on-page SEO is important. Without it your site could be seriously missing out on opportunities to rank for search queries specific to your business. Without an SEO strategy then your site might get pushed down search results by competitors. This is a big part of why many companies hire an SEO agency, because the world of search marketing has grown to represent approximately $79 billion.