Search engines are crowded with pages and pages of results for all searches. How can your business stand out and improve its ranking? On-page SEO is the answer. With on-page SEO, combined with other SEO strategies, you can rank higher and increase traffic to your website.
What is on-page SEO?
Search engine optimization or SEO means improving your website to rank higher on search engines. Through SEO, businesses can increase the organic traffic to their sites, for free.
On-page SEO takes the optimization one step further and focuses on improving each page of your website. You can optimize landing pages, blog articles and each web page you have to get discovered by potential customers and generate relevant traffic.
Unlike off-page SEO, which refers to links and external factors, on-page SEO refers mainly to the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized.
Why is on-page SEO important for your business?
When it comes to digital marketing strategies, most of the time, your business is either trying to reach out to potential customers and reel them in or trying to get seen by them and pushing them to engage with you.
But, if users typed in a search something that you can help them with, they are the ones actively looking for you. Understanding the difference between the two is crucial. The fact that users are after “you” gets you way closer to a conversion. That is if they find you and not your competitor in the first few ranking positions.
On-page SEO Basics
The major search engines, namely Google, Bing, and Yahoo, search through the web and present results they consider most relevant to the user’s search. Users rarely go past the first few pages, if they ever look past the first-page result. So, make sure you always aim for the first page, it’s not easy, but it’s definitely worth it.
- Relevance is key
As Google grows and improves its ranking algorithms to ensure it provides the best search results for their users, the on-page SEO guidelines also evolve. Unlike in the earlier days, when Google would search for the exact keyword, now it focuses on users’ search intent.In other words, the page results don’t necessarily show a page with the exact keyword. Your content needs to be relevant to the user, and not just a web page with the keyword written all over it. - Create high-quality content
Content is also crucial to improve your ranking in search engines. The more visits you get to your content pages, the easier it will be to rank higher. Though the search engines don’t rely only on keywords, they are still relevant to your on-page SEO. Make sure you choose the right keywords according to your business’ target audience intentions. - URLs
Whenever you create a web page, whether it’s a service page to your site or a blog post, choosing the right URL is also part of the on-page SEO. Shorter URLs that contain the focus keyword tend to work better. - Metadata
Another vital aspect of on-page SEO is metadata, which is how the search engines “read” your website. - Tags
Use title tags to create a hierarchy of your content. For instance, if your keyword is SEO, try inserting it in different ways throughout the title and the headings (h1, h2, h3). - Meta description
Write a thought-out snippet about what’s in that web page. Not only it’s beneficial to your SEO, but also, it might convince users to click on the search result.
These are just a few of the many crucial aspects of on-page SEO. When you focus your efforts on SEO, you’ll be able to increase your ranking and boost your organic traffic.