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The importance of on page SEO cannot be overstated. There is no other aspect more important than optimizing your content for on the page. Thousands of dollars in marketing funds cannot cover your SEO blunders and you’ll have to correct your mistakes before you can improve your journey in high rankings.
That’s why all the major websites in any niche are always paying close attention to on page SEO and reap the rewards for this effort as well. You may work in any area or niche, but your first priority should be Search Engine Optimization, both on a page and off page.
Let’s now start and learn what is on page SEO through this complete beginners guide.
What is on page SEO?
On page SEO, or on site SEO, is the optimization of your website content and HTML code to rank high on SERPs. The adage is that you don’t rank your website on Google, you rank your pages on Google. And that’s true because if you’re pages, each one of them, is not optimized for SEO, then you don’t get a great ranking.
The basic idea is to add maximum relevant keywords to your content. But there is more to it than just stuffing your content with keywords. In fact, keyword stuffing carries a penalty from Google if your website does not actually contain the relevant material.
What you need to have, is highly valuable content with relevance that delivers results and creates a great user experience. This reflects in your website’s CTR, or click-through rate, and bounce rate. With a high CTR and low bounce rate, your website will gain more and more value in the eyes of search engines.
Difference between technical SEO and on-page SEO
Some SEOs differ on-page SEO from technical SEO. But it is vital to keep it different and know the difference.
Technical SEO deals with page speed, site speed, plagiarized content, site structure, schema, and indexing.
To summarize, on-page SEO deals with SEO techniques used on the content, and the focus is on specific URLs, and technical SEO deals with the SEO of the entire website.
Also, off-page SEO looks after the SEO happening outside the website, for example, link building and brand names.
Importance of on-page SEO
It is imperative to consider the on-page SEO if you want your content to rank better on search engines. As many changes had happened in the past decade, Google looks for the keywords being used in the content and has banned the keyword stuffing from providing a better experience.
With Google Search engine’s algorithms improving day by day, the users need to focus more and more on significant SEO factors. On-site SEO is so important that focusing properly on this factor helps the search engines understand your content with relevant URLs for relevant queries.
How URLs help on-page SEO
Google has stated that URLs help them to understand better the topic and the content of the page. So, how do we optimize URLs?
- Use low competition keywords- you must keep the primary keyword in the URL, which helps the user and search engine better understand the page’s content.
- Left placement- It is essential to keep your focus keyword on the left of your URL.
- Use relevant words in the URL- it is essential that you use natural and appropriate words as much as possible and not some attractive words having the same meaning but very tough to use.
- Keep it precise and user-friendly- Indeed, your URL should always be concise and easy for users and search engines to understand. Accurate and user-friendly content makes it easier for Google to understand content through relevant URLs, and Google shows relevant URLs on the search. If your page URL has a long string of alphabets and letters, it makes Google confusing. It is more likely to place the keyword on the URL of your website, to Understand the purpose of your page in a better manner.
- Using Hyphens- using hyphens between words make the URLs more readable. So, it would be best if you used hyphens between URLs for clarity.
- No to Session IDs- You must avoid the Session IDs in the Google URLs to avoid producing an avalanche URL on the same page. Instead, use Cookies as advised by Google.
How keyword density helps on-page SEO?
Keyword density refers to how many times you use a specific word or a bunch of comments on the web page. So, if you are writing a 1000 words article, you should use the keyword ten times, thus maintaining 1% keyword density.
There are no challenging rules about maintaining the on-page SEO rules for keyword density, but make sure that you use the keyword thoroughly within your content.
Additionally to your primary keyword, try to include synonyms, long-tail keywords, and terms related to your article that can help you to increase your page ranking.
These are not similar to latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords that Google forbids to use. So, it is best to use related terms instead to help you build the context.
Content providing bulk InformationInformation
Google always looks for their users’ search satisfaction and hence only promotes that content that has high-quality content. Or, you can say content that is highly capable of resolving user’s queries efficiently.
There are four types of search intent-
- Informational- Users looking for InformationInformation
- Commercial- Users researching before any purchase
- Transactional- Users wanting to buy something
- Navigational- Users trying to find the specific page
There is a straightforward way to figure out the purpose behind your search: looking at the first page of results. The Titles have words like how ways help find relevant InformationInformation and hence use words like best and top falls a tremendous impact on the commercial content.
Secondly, you need to post content that satisfies your customer’s search queries.
Try to make the content information as much as possible. You should cover the subjects, solve the common FAQs, and make the content easier to understand for the user.
When writing commercial content, make sure that you provide all the InformationInformation related to the purchase, including reviews, price, comparative analysis, pictures, etc.
- If you are looking to write transactional content, ensure that all your pages are optimized with structured data that can efficiently show up in the Google search carousel. Also, you can add specific selling features on your content title like discounts, product quality, selection, etc.
How to create on page SEO content
The best content is the one that your visitors not only want to read fully but are also benefitting a great deal from it. There is always an audience for a certain niche, however, there is not always a great blog or website for that niche. Your job is to find that niche and create content that delivers maximum value.
Some of the basic ingredients of good quality on page SEO content are:
Relevancy:
Always create relevant content. It’s better to have one relevant page than 10 irrelevant pages. Google does not want you to add useless pages that it has to crawl for no advantage to users.
Clarity:
Be clear and precise about your topic. Filler words and content does not help anyone and people leave your website if they are not sure what they are reading. Always create content that is clear and purposeful.
Uniqueness:
If you’re creating the content that’s already on the web, and some pages are already ranking high no search results, why would Google bother to replace them with you? It won’t. Unless you deliver uniqueness in style or substance, your content will never rank higher.
Thoroughness:
Complete research into the topic will help you understand meaningful insights about your niche or subject. It’ll help you identify problems and create solutions that will help your visitors a great deal. Unless you do that, people won’t find your content interesting.
How to optimize your content for SEO
Different methods are depending on the type of optimization you want to do. For on-site SEO problems solution, you can use Moz bar or manual inspection such as source code visualization. For image optimization, you’ll need to focus on images and their relevancy. For written content, you need different insights.
There are different aspects to keep in mind when optimizing your content for SEO. Some of these are given as follows:
Heading:
Your keyword must be in the heading. The heading should also be relevant, catchy, and directed towards the topic. Wrap your heading in the H1 tag and avoid using H1 for other headings.
URL:
URL should be short and direct with the keyword included as early as possible. Always keep your URL relevant to the topic and recognized as such.
Meta description:
Always write a good and relevant Meta description and add a call to action to increase your CTR. Meta descriptions should also contain your keyword and a short description.
Images:
Always add relevant images and optimize their sizes for better loading speeds. Also, add descriptive alt text to facilitate people with difficulty in visibility and search engines in their search.
Links:
Internal and external links are extremely important in the ranking of pages and websites. It increases DA, domain authority, and helps people link your content better.
Tools you can use for on page SEO
Next in our guide to on page SEO is tools for making this happen better and easier. There are different tools and ad-on you can use for this purpose. Let’s help you with some of the basic ones. You can check them in detail in our article on the best tools for SEO.
You must install some of these tools on your WordPress site or have them online. Some of these are, Yoast, Ahrefs webmaster tools, Ahrefs SEO toolbar, Moz bar, Ubersuggest, and SEMrush. These tools are freemium so you can use at least some of their services for free.
In the End…
Wrapping it all up, we’ll suggest you pay close attention to on page SEO and learn what actually is on page SEO through this beginners guide as well as our SEO course. It’ll help you immensely and you can rank better and compete with high-value firms.
The best way to do SEO is by learning it yourself. However, you can also get help from professionals as you might have too much on your plate right now. In any case, you must not ignore SEO and make it your priority today.
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