Hope, you have gone through my previous chapter – SEO For Beginners. If not, please read it. If you’re beginner when it comes to “Web Marketing” then you must be thinking that “What Is On Page Optimization?” Well, according to the definition, on-page optimization refers to factors that have an effect on your Website or Web page listing in natural search results (organic). It is also termed as on-page SEO and involves activities that are performed on the website in order to get higher visibility and ranking.
So, we can say that it refers to all measures that can be taken directly within the website in order to improve its position in the search rankings. These activities include but not limited to content optimization, HTML code, meta description and title tags.
With the passing of every single day, Search engines are getting smarter & intelligent. You need to put much more efforts to get on the top of your competitors. I often use term that “SEO is dynamic” which means that search engines are updating their algorithms all the time to offer genuine information to their users. In this scenario, if you can do proper on-page optimization for your website you not only can rank well in a search engine but can also increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.
Through this blog, I have tried to summarize some of the most important on-page optimization techniques for you. You can implement some of these if not all to give your site a better exposure to the search engines as well as to increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.
Title Tag
Title here refers to title of the post and not page title. Title tag is considered as the most important on-page SEO factor. It is recommended you should contain the keyword in this. For example, I am using title “On Page Optimization – All You Need To Know”.
My keyword is “On Page Optimization” and I have covered that in the title. Title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify what information should they got in the content. It is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. Further, your title has to be appealing enough so that visitors should click when it is shown in the SERP.
Page Title
Page Title is for the bots or spiders. It provides information to search engine bots about the content of the website. In most of the cases, most of the SEO professionals take “Title Tag” of the post or page to “Page Title”. There is nothing wrong in that however, you can make “keyword” as page title, if you want to. While writing “Page Title”, it is recommended that you should take keyword along with Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name.
The reason being “Page Title” represents the whole flavor & content of your website, making it easier for the bots to recognize it. While having business name or site name helps in branding as some visitors may be searching you by your brand name. It is recommended that you should use “Title Tag Separator Site Title/ Brand Name”.
Meta Description
It is HTML attributes that provide concise summaries of webpages and appear underneath the blue clickable links in a search engine results page (SERP). It is a snippet of about 155 – 160 characters which conveys what users will find on the page and further helping the search engines to determine the page’s topic and the audience that will find value. Whenever user puts a query, Google pulls meta description text of your page in an attempt to better answer the searcher’s query. While writing the meta description, it is recommended to use keyword in order to get better ranking in SERP. A well-written description can generate a competitive advantage in the search results, creating a higher click-through rate (CTR) with a greater chance of conversions.
Content Optimization
There is a famous saying that “Content is the King”. So, to get on the top of ranking you need User-Friendly, Authoritative and optimized content. Content involves the use of words—keywords—and writing for human value while still appeasing the search engines. An optimized content is one which maintains “Keyword Density”. It is recommended that you should maintain keyword density to 1-2 percent.
It is also recommended that you should avoid using copy paste content. Another thing which you should keep in mind is that you should use your “Focus Keyword” in 1st para or 1st 100 words. Avoid keyword stuffing. However, if you use meta keywords and Long Tail Keywords then this will make your content more relevant and SEO friendly without violating any of the Google Algorithm/ guideline. You should also check the readability test. If you avoid writing complex sentences then there is good probability of getting high ranking in the searches.
Bonus Tips: Creating SEO optimized content can be a complex and time-consuming process. If you’re struggling, it is recommended that you should outsource content writing.
SEO URL
Avoid using page/ post IDs in the URL. A URL containing the keyword is good. Try to keep them as short as you can. However, you should avoid using numbers or IDS.
Image Optimization
Image Optimization is also important owing to the fact that Google Query Page also depicts results as the images. It is very easy for a human reader to interpret the image into its meaning but the case is different for Bots/ Web crawlers. Search Engine spiders can only read some special tags for your images in order to give them some meaning. One such tag is ALT text or Alternate Text. It describes your image when your mouse moves over an image on your web page.
In case, your browser can’t display the image for some reason, the alt text is used in place of that particular image. This text gives information about the image to reader in case it is not loaded. Make sure you are using keyword in the Alt Tag. Further, this tag provides your image ranking when query is based on image. In that case, there are chances that user can navigate to your website looking for the image source.
Important HTML Tags
The header tags [h1] [h2] [h3], Bold [strong] etc have their own significance. The text inside these tags is given very high importance by the search engine bots. You need to use these. If you are developing custom website, then it is recommended that you should use these tags in the HTML.
Internal and External Links
Linking to external source is loved by search engines. So, it is recommended that you should link the text to original source or to reference. However, putting link on the right words is also important. Internally connecting to previous posts is also a good practice.
SiteMap
A site map is a model of a website’s content designed to help both users and search engines navigate the site. It is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site.
Web Traffic 