A Complete Guide From Semalt To On-Page SEO
Writing a page to be found on Google involves more than using focus keywords in the text. On-page SEO is more than just sprinkling keywords in titles and paragraphs. It is important, but there is a lot more to it.
Page optimization is less easy than it used to be, but it is still the easiest part of SEO. You have full control over what happens on the page and you don't need much technical knowledge.
To do well on-page SEO, you need to be able to write (or get a writer), know the basics of web pages, and do research. In this article, we will discuss all aspects of on-page SEO.
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO is optimizing parts on a page to score as high as possible in the results for a particular search query on a search engine. Examples of the parts to be optimized are the texts, titles, meta tags, structured data, loading speed, internal links and outgoing links.
SEO, or search engine optimization, consists of 3 core elements that are formed by technical SEO and off-page SEO in addition to on-page SEO.
Always tackle the technical side first, so that the basis of your website is good. Then switch to on-page SEO and finally tackle the off-page SEO part.
Finally, there is also local SEO, a component that is relevant if you want to be found for search terms in certain regions. This has to do with, among other things, your business listings on various websites.
The basics of on-page SEO
You now understand in a broad sense what on-page SEO is and why it is important for your website. But which parts exactly belong to on-page SEO?
In the rest of this article, you will learn exactly how to optimize your page with on-page SEO. We'll start with the basics first.
Keywords
Optimizing your page starts with determining the focus keywords. Each page focuses on a unique target keyword.
In addition, you can include variations of the keyword and related terms in your optimization. This way you can be sure that when someone uses a synonym or variation of your focus keyword, your page will still be found.
Do keyword research to find out the main focus keyword and interesting variations and synonyms. The Dedicated SEO Dashboard is an SEO tool that can help you do keyword research. Using this tool allows you to know the relevance of each keyword, its search volume, etc...
Headings and subheadings
Heading tags are important to show the structure of your page and to immediately show what pieces of text are about. It's an easily customizable part of on-page SEO.
Always make sure that the title of the page is displayed as an H1 tag. Use one H1 tag on each page. No more and no less.
Make sure your focus keyword is used in the H1 tag.
Structure the rest of the article with H2, H3, H4 and H5 tags. These subheadings can also, in part, contain the focus keyword.
Subheadings will not ensure that your page suddenly ranks super well on Google, but it also does not hurt to apply a good structure. The search engine understands better what your page is about and how it is structured.
Avoid over-optimization by using the focus keyword in every subheading. It is also important here that the text is written naturally.
Internal links
If you know about technical SEO, then you know how important it is that your website is crawlable. A search engine crawls your website to find out which pages are available and what the content of these pages is.
Internal links direct your crawlers to other pages within your website. The more often a crawler encounters a page, the more important it thinks this page is.
It is therefore important to set up a good internal link structure so that the most important pages receive the most attention from the crawlers. Make sure multiple internal links are used on each page.
External links
There are links to other websites. They are called external links. These links make the connection of the internet.
You usually use external links for citations. This way you help make other websites easier to find.
Not using external links is unnatural, so be sure to do so if appropriate. Use a "nofollow" tag when referring to websites you may not want to be associated with, or when referencing a competing page.
Use a "follow" tag if you refer to a good source and you deliberately link to another page because you think this is a good page for your website visitors.
You won't see much effect from external links yourself, but it certainly doesn't hurt to use them. External links are normal on a page and therefore you should definitely not avoid them.
Meta tags
Meta tags are pieces of text in the HTML code that provide information about your website to social media platforms and search engines. The two most important meta tags are your meta title and meta description.
The title tag and meta description are HTML codes in the <head> section of a page.
Title tag
The title tag appears as the first line in a search result. This is the title of the page you want to pass to the search engine.
It is important to always fill in the title tag and provide it with catchy text. This ensures that people in the search results click on your page. In addition, ALWAYS use the focus keyword in the title tag.
Meta description
The meta description is displayed below the title in the search result. This is extra text to describe the content of the page.
A good meta description is like a mini ad for your page. That's why you need to make it as attractive as possible to click on. Again, use your focus keyword here.
Make sure that the meta description remains relevant to your page. If Google does not think the meta description is good enough, the search engine will show a self-selected piece of text from your page.
Can't see the text you entered yourself in the meta tag? Then you have to adjust the text.
URL structure
The URL, along with the title tag and meta description, is the first indication of the content of your page. Therefore, always use the focus keyword in the URL.
In addition, keep the URL short. Nobody likes long and confusing URLs.
The URL structure of your website also indicates the structure of the website. Use fewer subpaths for important pages so that they are less hidden "deep" in the website.
Organize the pages logically with a good page structure, which is supported by logical internal links.
Content optimization for SEO
In addition to all the optimizations you can make for the focus keyword, the most important thing is good content. You can optimize everything, but without good content, your article will not score.
Here we will discuss all the parts that optimize the content of your article to rank on Google.
Uniqueness
First of all, the content of the page must be unique. Plagiarism is not valued by Google, so make sure all texts are newly written.
Duplicate content
If the text in your article is found by Google on other web pages, Google will guess which text is original. One of the pages is considered the main page and the rest is "duplicate content".
The main page is usually the longest existing page unless you refer to another page with a canonical tag. The original page is the only one shown in the search results.
A canonical tag is an HTML element that references a page to indicate which page is the "main" page of a copied page. For example, with on-page SEO you indicate which page should be shown in the search engines.
Relevance
Relevance is one of the most important elements of good content. You should write an article that is as relevant as possible for the focus keyword you are targeting the article on.
If you write an article that doesn't match the searchers' expectations, you won't show up in the search results. This has to do with the search intent of the user.
Search intent
To write as relevant as possible, you need to understand the intent of the searcher. The pages in the search results must correspond to this intention, to offer the best possible result.
Always perform a search for the focus keyword yourself before writing. Examine the pages that appear on the first page of the search engine.
Do you find many similarities in the page types? For example, are they all informative articles? Then you would do well to also write an informative article because that is what is being searched for. Are they product pages? Then, also create a product page.
Correct and understandable
Make sure that the text is written correctly and intelligibly. Difficult text scares away visitors, or they drop out.
This has consequences for the findability of your page because if everyone clicks away, Google will think that your page is not a good result.
In addition, keep the text legible by using lots of blank lines. Large chunks of text scare off visitors.
Images and alt text
Good on-page SEO also means making pages attractive. Images help, as long as they are relevant and support the text.
Always enter the alternative text for an image. This description is displayed if the web browser cannot load the image. Also, crawlers use this text to get an idea of the image content.
Use the focus keyword in your alt text at least once. The search engine then knows that your images also support the topic your text was copied to.
Video's
Add a video to the page whenever possible. This increases the visitors' time on the page, as videos are much more interesting than texts.
If a visitor stays longer on your page, your page will be seen as valuable by search engines. Embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo is very easy and can keep visitors longer.
Of course, you can't always add a video. Therefore, only use them when it is appropriate.
Optimize the click rate
The number of clicks on your result divided by the number of impressions gives the click-through rate (CTR). Search engines want to show the best results to visitors, so they show the pages that are clicked on the most.
There are several ways to optimize the CTR so that more people click on your page. A high CTR combined with good content is what good on-page SEO means.
Title and meta description
The title tag and meta description are the first thing visitors see in the search results of your page.
You have full control over these texts, so this is the perfect way to increase the CTR.
Make sure the title tag:
- Does contain the focus keyword
- Contains a " power word "
- Has a certain number (ideally)
- Displays the content of the page directly
- For each page is unique
Make sure the meta description:
- Contains the focus keyword
- Provides relevant information about the content of the page
- Makes the seeker interested in reading further
- For each page is unique
Schema markup met structured data
Schema markup provides clear information to search engines about the content of your page. In this way, you can pass on extra information that the search engine no longer needs to interpret and extract from the text.
Use structured data in your pages to qualify for so-called "featured snippets". These are special search results in Google, often above the advertisements and first organic search results.
Technic
Okay, these parts are not completely "on-page" SEO, but they are important and can sometimes be arranged on the page. I will therefore take them with me anyway so that you can be sure that these basic elements are correct.
Page Speed
A page that loads slowly will quickly cause someone to leave the page and search Google for a faster website. This is disastrous for your rankings on Google.
Use elements that load quickly, such as images smaller than 100 KB. In addition, apply caching and lazy load to the page. This way you can quickly ensure a faster page.
If you already had pages on your site, you can use the Dedicated SEO Dashboard to know the loading speed of your site. This tool allows you to know which pages are blocking the fast loading of your site. Moreover, it also gives you adequate solutions to improve the loading speed of your site.
HTTPS-verbinding
Make sure you offer an HTTPS connection for your website. You do this by installing an SSL certificate.
An SSL connection ensures that data is transferred securely, data cannot be changed during transmission, and users are authenticated before interacting with the website.
A website with an HTTPS protocol ranks higher in Google than websites with an HTTP protocol. Since 2021 you can no longer ignore having an SSL certificate.
If you need to learn more about the subject of SEO and website promotion, we invite you to visit our Semalt blog.