As a technical marketing function, search engine optimization relies upon both content creation and innovation technology. Online competition is fierce and constantly trying to keep pace with search engine evolution. On-Page SEO is the framework on which a website strategy is built. On-page factors all have to do with elements of a website. On-page factors include technical set-up, quality of the site code, textual and visual content and user-friendliness of a site. Understanding how Search Engines scan websites and analyze data is fundamental to achieving a higher rank on the Search Engine Results Page. Online marketing, specifically SEO, is a relatively new field where many search engine crawler limitations are not obvious. Many website developers fail to understand the benefits of a fully optimized website. There are also many who acknowledge it’s benefit yet consciously decide not to employ On-Page techniques. This provides lots of opportunity for On-Page optimization of new and existing sites. On-Page, or On-Site SEO, is fundamental to an online targeting strategy.
What is On-Page SEO and how can it help drive traffic to your website?
The definition of On Page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-Page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to Off-Page SEO, which refers to links and other external signals. As search engines become more intelligent, a major factor that influences optimization is relevance. Websites must now create content and deploy marketing efforts anticipating the online searching behaviors of their customers. The site architecture and aesthetics must align with searcher intent. Over the years, On Page ranking factors have changed considerably as search engines try to deliver the best results. As Google evolves, On-Page SEO strategy must evolve in unison. However, there are On-the-Page factors essential to every site. Using an On-Page SEO Checklist is one of the best ways to review the health of your site on a routine basis.
The Most Important Elements of On-Page SEO
Important factors Google uses to score onpage optimization
- Page Title – The primary keyword phrase must be used in the page title. The closer the phrase is to the start of the title the better. Not only are titles key to how search engines determine relevance, but they also influence the searcher’s inclination to click.
- Title Tags – The Title Tag, or H1 tag, should incorporate the keyword or keyword phrase. Though there have been mixed reviews regarding its placement in the H1 tag over the years, however, it’s easy to acknowledge when searchers click on results page, they expect to see a matching headline on the page they visit. Failure to incorporate the keyword in the H1 tag increases the chances of users clicking the back button and leaving your site. This result is tracked by engines and negatively impacts a website’s relevance.
- Body Text – The keyword phrase, or secondary phrases, should be included in the body text. Content of the page and the number of keyword references is measured by engines. Repeating the keyword throughout the text may not be enough. Sophisticated algorithms deem comprehensive content for useful and relevant to users, so various descriptions of the keyword are beneficial.
- Images and Image Alt Attributes – Images have an opportunity to show up in an image search result. The image’s title, filename, surrounding text and alt attribute all matter from a ranking perspective.
- Internal Links – A good page should be accessible through no more than three or four clicks from any other page on a site. In accordance, a website should provide useful links to relevant information on any topics that are discussed.
- Meta Description – A pages Meta description isn’t used directly by search engine crawlers, but they are still important to driving traffic. The meta description tag usually shows up in the search results and is part of what searchers consider when deciding whether to click or not.
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research is often the most important analysis for website evaluation. Online marketing professionals understand that users search for products, services, and information using an extraordinarily wide variety of search queries and query types. Developing an SEO onsite strategy involves performing extensive keyword research to determine which queries people actually use. A website’s rank does not necessarily translate to quality because consumers still associate top placement in a results page with a stamp of approval regarding its creditworthiness. A higher rank creates website visibility, visibility implies relevance, and relevance drives traffic. Implementing On Site SEO basics make sites look more relevant. The basics of Onpage optimization often begins with keyword research.
When researching Keywords, the goal isn’t the typical selection of specific keywords, but rather, looking at what drives high quality content that naturally targets interesting, searched-for terms. Instead of specific optimization of simple terms, the focus should be on accessibility and best practices throughout the site to earn traffic through high-volume and long-tail queries. An optimizer should concentrate efforts on great content, and use keyword-based optimization as a subsequent application to confirm titles, headlines, filenames, metadata, and other elements of the content created.
What is the Google Panda Algorithm?
Crawlers only analyze raw HTML, so it’s paramount to understand the influence of the Title Page, Title Tags, internal links, Image tags, and Metatag Descriptions. These raw features of a webpage have the highest impact on ranking and provide the framework for OnPage optimization. Once this framework has been deployed and refined, it requires continuous review in order to maintain relevance as algorithms become more and more sophisticated. Not all On-Page SEO techniques are designed specifically for search engine algorithms. Additional considerations should address user experience on the site. Google named it’s on-page specific algorithm “Panda”, after the engineer who invented it, Navneet Panda.
Why a Quality User Experience is Important
A relevant website should be user friendly. The more relevant a website is to the user, the more time they spend on the site.
Some Elements Google Uses To Determines Quality
Here are several things Google will look at to determine the quality of a page:
Dwell Time
Dwell time is the amount of time a user spends on your page before exiting, or clicking back to the results page. On-Page SEO has an enormous influence on user “Dwell” time. Read more about that on Wordstream.
Related LSI Keywords
Google will scan the page and look for keywords it sees as highly related to the main topic of the page to assess content quality.
Page Speed
A website’s speed, length of content and multimedia use impact the amount of time spent on a site. These additional On-Page elements require special consideration. In today’s technology age, speed is essential. We don’t want to wait and if a page doesn’t load immediately, we generally find another site that will. This is especially relevant to mobile sites.
Relevant Multimedia Content
Once you have ensured the speed of the site is sufficient, the page needs to have enough content to keep the user on the page. Using lots of images and other multimedia, like videos, boost onsite Dwell time. As users search for information, eye-tracking plays a key role in driving and maintaining traffic. On-page visuals tend to keep users on the site longer than those with fewer images or multimedia attributes. Encouraging blog comments or including Social Sharing Buttons are common multimedia elements used to increase on-site relevance and user dwell time.
Content Quality
Finally, the length of content matters. In SEO, there is an old adage “length is strength.” Research has shown that longer content tends to rank significantly higher on Google’s first page. If the site has well-written quality content, dwell time is boosted for the site as user’s spend more time on the page reading the longer content.
Summary
On-page SEO is very important and is an integral part of the puzzle Google uses to rank websites. Google wants to provide the most relevant site for user queries using the aforementioned on-page elements to determine page relevancy and quality.
Remember to ask yourself the following checklist before publishing new content on the web!
Checklist of the most important elements for quality onpage seo