If you want your website to be successful, you can’t ignore SEO. If your page isn’t optimized for SEO, it’ll be hard for your audience to find you when they search. In the digital age, there’s a lot of competition between websites for visitors attention. That means you have to do every step you can to ensure your website actually gets noticed. On-page optimization is essential for maintaining a good page ranking. Read on for a guide to mastering on-page optimization for your website.
Why should you care about on-page optimization?
While you should strive for a perfectly optimized website, you should also care about page level optimization. When you optimize your individual pages and posts, you make it easier for new users to find your website and what they’re looking for. The on-page SEO refers to both the content, external links, and keyword targeting. There are some things you’re probably already doing that help with your page ranking, but this guide will focus more specifically on on-page optimization.
Content is King
When it comes to SEO in 2018, it’s all about content. Good content fills a demand, and it creates a loyal user base. You’ll need to write content that speaks to your target audience, and that actually offers valuable information. Writing good content goes beyond just creating something users want to link back to. Having more links to your page content means a higher ranking.
Title tags include the right keywords
Title tags are an essential part of on-page optimization. This is arguably the most important part of your page-level SEO other than content. When creating your title, use the right keywords. If possible, keep this keyword at the beginning of your title tag so it carries more weight with search engines. To add a boost to your title tags, include modifiers. Modifiers are words like “Guide,” “Best,” and “2018.” These boost your ranking for long tail versions of your chosen keyword. Finally, make sure all your title tags are wrapped as H1 tags. This is usually automatic if you’re working with a system like WordPress, but it’s worth reviewing.
Create an SEO-friendly URL
One of the biggest mistakes new website creators make is using the wrong URLs. If possible, configure your website URLs early in the design process to avoid ruining old backlinks and posts with complex URLs. The best URLs feature the page keyword and are short. Something like rankwatch.com/best-seo-guide instead of rankwatch.com/10-10-16/category/best-seo-guide which is hard to read by search engines.
Don’t forget multimedia
Your page should be more than just a blog of text. 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on your website, so you need to make your pages look as easy to read as possible. People just won’t bother reading something that looks too long or unorganized. Break up large chunks of text with multimedia. You don’t have to limit yourself to images. Videos and infographics are quickly becoming major SEO influencers, so don’t be afraid to integrate new forms of media when it makes sense. When using images, don’t forget to include your title and keyword in your ALT tags.
Use your keywords at the right time
There are a right way and a wrong way to use keywords when focusing on page optimization. The wrong way is to load the page with so many keywords your website gets flagged by search engines for keyword stuffing. The right way is to use the keyword within the first 100 words of your page copy. After that, you should include the keyword again only when it makes sense. You can also use keyword synonyms to appear in similar searches.
Optimize your website for mobile
If your website isn’t mobile optimized by 2018, you’re in trouble. Starting in 2015, Google began penalizing websites that weren’t mobile friendly. To avoid any unwanted penalties, invest in a mobile-friendly design. Most website designs are already created with mobile optimization in mind. Test your website on different device sizes to ensure it’s easy to read on all screens!
Use both inbound and outbound links
Including links is an easy way to boost your own credibility with search engines. Google wants to know you mean business, and linking to relevant, reputable sources within your pages will show you know what you’re talking about. It also helps Google understand your topic so it can show your website pages to the right users. Include 2-3 outbound links when appropriate, and also include internal links. Internal links encourage users to stay longer on your website which is good news for your bounce rate. For easy linking, click here to learn more about using an anchor text generator.
Encourage users to share your page
It’s all about social media in 2018, and more people are finding new websites through social media than ever before. Encourage your readers to share your page by optimizing your website with social share links. This doesn’t directly boost your ranking, but having more people visit your website will help search engines take notice of your content. If you’re using WordPress, there are a lot of plugins that easily integrate popular social sharing links within your posts.
Write lengthy content
If you’re writing short posts for your website and calling it a day, you might be doing yourself more harm than good. While posting regularly is useful, it’s even better to have lengthy content. Longer content ranks higher on search engines, and that means you need to focus on the word count. Ideally, every post should be at least 800 words. Marketing guru Neil Patel argues the best length for blog posts is over 3000 words! While you don’t have to always write that much, you should make an effort to keep posts long enough to be very value-rich.
Increase your website speed
As previously stated, people only spend a few seconds at most looking at your website. That means you can’t have any downtime in loading speed. If your website can’t load in a few seconds, people won’t stick around very long. To check your website speed, use a free website speed test to make sure everything is loading quickly. If you need to speed up response time, use a CDN, switch hosting, or compress your images to see a difference in load times.
Secure your website
In 2018, Google will begin to penalize websites that don’t have an installed SSL certificate. New versions of Google Chrome will display websites without HTTPS as “not secure.” This change is to pressure website owners to encrypt their websites with SSL certificates. The good news is it’s inexpensive and easy to install an SSL certificate on your website. If you haven’t already made the switch to SSL, it’s time to start before your website is punished by search engines.
On-page optimization is easier than ever
Nowadays, it’s easy to learn more about the best way to optimize your website pages. There are so many comprehensive guides and plugins that make it easier than ever to boost your page ranking. In 2018, technical SEO is more important than before. If you want your website to build a successful audience, you can’t ignore SEO! By following these on-page optimization tips above, your website will start to get noticed in a big way.
Conclusion
By following these on-page optimization tips above, your website will start to get noticed in a big way. Nowadays, it’s easy to learn more about the best way to optimize your website pages. There are so many comprehensive guides and plugins that make it easier than ever to boost your page ranking. In 2018, technical SEO is more important than before. If you want your website to build a successful audience, you can’t ignore SEO!
SEO is something you can’t just optimize for once and never think about again! It’s always changing as Google updates its algorithm and as the internet changes. That means SEO is an ongoing process which you should get in the habit of doing regularly! Use your website analytics to check what works and what doesn’t! As long as you’re proactive about your on-page SEO, you’ll see results!