On-Page SEO: All you need to know
Before we go down to understanding how to ace on-page SEO practices for the best performance of your website on search engines, let us first understand what is on-page SEO about:
What is On-page SEO?
The definition of on-page SEO is to have a website rank as high as possible in search engines for specific keywords or keyword phrases. In the age of information overload, many people search for their answer to a question online before they ask it. Find out how you can help your website rank for those questions.
Factors that go into on-page SEO
On-page SEO is all of the factors that go into a webpage that help it rank well in search engines. There are different parts of on-page SEO. The three main components are technical, content, and link building. Each of these is discussed below with examples relevant to each factor.
Technical
There are many factors that go into “on page” technical SEO. Key among these is the way that web servers are configured, which coding languages are used to develop the website itself, and how it is hosted. There are some very simple mistakes made on websites (such as spelling errors) that can interfere with on-page SEO, but they will be fixed soon by the Google algorithm anyway.
- Keywords are part of on-page technical SEO, but because so many people abuse this, it is better for your website to try to rank high without relying too heavily on keywords.
- A final note on keywords: make sure they are used in a natural way, not just thrown onto a page without a thought. Using SEO to help rank websites has been proven to work for many years and is still effective today. Keywords should be specific to what you have written about – if the word or phrase doesn’t fit into your content, don’t use it.
- Including keywords for good SEO helps search engines find your site and visitors find the information they are looking for. Don’t be afraid to use them – but make sure you include them in a natural way that makes sense to human readers too.
- Links within Content – Links within web pages can be important for on-page technical SEO. Make sure that whenever someone types in a URL, the link found goes directly to that page of your website and no other. Having links to specific pages of your site on each page is good for both visitors and search engine crawlers.
Content
Text Formatting – H1 tags should be used sparingly and never more than once per page. They are very helpful for search engine crawlers. Make sure they are not too large or bold. Use your H1 tag as it was designed, to highlight the most important keywords on one page of your website.
- Content Formatting – Content formatting refers mainly to the size and color of text used on a webpage. Make sure there is enough contrast between the text and background so that it is legible. All content should be at least 400 words long. Many search engines give bonuses to websites with good page content, so make sure every page of your website has enough content for visitors to find what they are looking for.
- Page Title – The title of each web page should be descriptive of the page’s content. The title should also contain at least one or two keywords that describe your website as a whole.
- Page ALT Tags – The alt tag is what shows up when an image cannot load properly on a webpage, so it serves as both a decoration for the page and text for web crawlers trying to read the page. Because people who are blind use alt tags to distinguish what is on a webpage, make sure they are descriptive and relevant to the website’s content.
- Body Text – This part is critical for on-page SEO because it shows up in so many different ranking factors. It should be above the fold, but not too high up so that people skip over it. It should also be descriptive of what your site is about. The body text shouldn’t just be full of keywords because it will probably get penalized by search engines. Links within the body text are good for both visitors and crawlers, but avoid linking to other websites if you don’t have a very relevant link to go with it.
- Header Tags – Header tags are found throughout your page to separate sections of content. They usually include H1, H2 and H3 tags (the largest header text is an H3), but there can be more or less depending on the website’s layout. Search engines look for keywords in headers because they help show what a webpage is about.
Link-building
- Link Building – Links are not a part of on-page SEO and fall under off-page SEO but are critical for on-page SEO because most search engines use them to rank web pages in their database. Links can come from other websites, articles written by website authors, or even press releases. It is usually best to get links from other web pages rather than the home page of your website because it shows that people are actually using and linking to specific content on your site.
- Meta Tags – The meta tag is a section of code that gives information about the page. It usually includes things like the page title, keywords, and description. Meta tags are hidden from view, but they are still important because many search engines highlight them on results pages. Make sure to include your target keywords somewhere in the meta-tag section of each webpage on your website.
On-page SEO is one of the most coveted, yet essential attributes to developing good search engine optimization to the benefit of your website and business. Acing this part of SEO will help you enhance credibility both, as an SEO firm and as a business operating in the digital realm.