It is a set of actions that are done to optimize website pages to get higher rank in search engines. What exactly does this “optimization” include? Placing keywords in different places, Including titles, Meta descriptions, etc.
What is On-Page SEO?
The set of tasks that are done inside a website to increase the ranking and traffic of the website from search engines. These measures include content optimization as well as website HTML codes. Since all these things are done inside the site, it is called internal SEO or on-page SEO. Apart from the fact that proper On-Page SEO makes you visible to search engines, it also helps the direct audience of your website to have a better understanding of the website pages. But basically, On-Page SEO is aimed to increase the website’s score for Search results.
Several things become important in this process. Things like the titles you choose for your website content, or descriptions you write about a content or product. Even the address you consider as the page address. All of these represent your content to the search engines. Before all these things, it is very important to choose the right keyword. Following, we will explain about all these concepts and give some tips to improve On-Page SEO of the website.
keyword in On-Page SEO
When a keyword is chosen, it means that the content written on that page is related to the same keyword. Therefore, in terms of content, you should use the relevant keyword several times in the article. Before, this was the case that the more you used a keyword, Google would give the website higher rank for that keyword. This algorithm had created spam websites that when you entered to them, you were not faced with any content except for the meaningless repetition of keywords. Currently, Google has highly optimized this algorithm and it is no longer enough to repeat keywords to get SEO.
Currently, a density is considered for the keyword in the text, which according to the amount of written content, you should have used the keyword to some extent. If you are using WordPress platform for running your website, you can install Yoast SEO plugin and use the features it gives you in this field. When you enter the desired keyword in this plugin, which the content of the page is supposed to be about it, you will be faced by a set of tips.
A good SEO content characteristics
According to the cases that have been said so far, there are several parameters that you should consider in your content so that your content looks like valuable content in the audience eyes and Google.
User friendly content
Many websites make money through advertising. Aside from whether or not monetization through ads is a good revenue model, this method can be annoying for your users. There have been many times when you have searched for a topic on Google and then you open the result page; you have come across a large amount of pop-up ads, banners, and GIFs. As a result users get unpleasant feeling and it will make them leaving your website very quickly and this will not be hidden from Google. So try to make the user-friendly content and have few annoying things.
Uniqueness
Rewriting the content on the web is one of the text content creation techniques. It is a good way to rewrite the existing material with another structure or to collect and compile materials from several different sources, But you should try not to copy the content already created for other websites. This affects your website on-page SEO.
Content Credibility
For being successful in On-Page SEO, it is important to pay attention to content credibility. Now the question is: how does Google know that your article is valid and has reliable sources? The answer is external linking, that means in your content, link to the websites that have high credibility, Like Wikipedia. In this way, Google will know that you have valued your audience.
Being align with user goals
Each website, depending on the topic and field in which it operates, must publish content in line with the same field. In addition, these contents should be created according to the main purpose of the users. It means to meet their expectations. If you intend to choose the right keyword for your website, keep in mind that the users who enter your website with that keyword have reached their goal or have come across a completely wrong article. Although the number of clicks on your website link in the search pages is necessary, But how long the visitors stay on your website and whether they enter other pages or not is more important.
On-Page SEO factors
This subject if you pay attention to, it can have a great impact on your website rank in Google results. To improve On-Page SEO, just use a few simple factors and then notice their incredible effects. In the following, these factors are introduced and give you a brief explanation about each of them.
Page Title
Each page on your website needs a page title. Keywords, which related to the pages of your website, should also be mentioned in the title so that when the users search for that keyword, Google will direct them to your website. Title Tag is another On-Page SEO factor that you have to consider it in the back-end code.it can greatly help increase your website traffic.
Content Optimization
In order for users enter your website and use its content, you must deliver practical and useful content to them. As it is already explained in this article in detail, content has great impact on internal SEO, but even if you wrote the best content, you need to double check it after a while and optimize it. This optimization can include various strategies that if you didn’t take into account at the time of writing, or any changes that need to be made to make your content more attractive compared to your competitors and help you to get higher rank. Considering that, Google updates its algorithms from time to time; content optimization keeps your content up-to-date, which makes Google give your website more value and credibility.
Heading tags
Users who come to your website to read the content, seeing monotonous content, may close your website and ignore it, no matter how useful your content is. Adding body tags in your code makes your content look good and audiences know where to look for the information they want. Body tags can be used from H1 to H6. H1 tag can be used only once in each text. Important headings in the content can be displayed with H2 tag and its sub-headings with H3. You can use H2 and H3 tags as many you like, but note that overuse of body tags can be boring. Besides users, Google also likes the use of body tags. When you use body tags Google labels your website content as a good quality one. If you use the keyword used in the content in the body tags too, that will be great and will have a great impact on internal SEO.
Keywords Density
The old Google algorithms were such that the more keywords you used in the text, the more value was given to your website. But now, Google updated its algorithms and made it more user-friendly. In the new Google algorithms, if you overuse keywords, not only your website will not rank better, but also you will be penalized and you will not be in the results. Therefore, the correct use of the keyword is more important now. According to the statistics published by Google, the keywords density in each text should be between 2 and 5%. It is better to use them in the first paragraph and link them to other content. The correct use of keywords can be very effective in increasing the number of visitors to your website.
Image Optimization (Alt tag)
If you have not used images in your content, reconsider now and use optimized images. Try to use an alternative name and preferably a keyword for images and briefly explain the purpose of the photo. In this way, if a photo is not displayed for any reason, the user can understand what the purpose of the image was. In addition, your image will be displayed in Google image search.
Internal linking
It is for connecting contents on the website. Creating links between articles makes other content visible and the user spends more time on your website. This makes Google consider your content useful and give you a better rank in the results.
Meta Description
You can use about 160 words in Meta tag and use keywords to influence internal SEO. Google’s algorithms have recently noticed the Meta tag and it can attract users.
On-page SEO Techniques
With the constant update of Google’s algorithms, it is no longer difficult for search engines to recognize the keyword and its synonyms. Therefore, you do not need to focus on keywords and make sure that they have been used everywhere, Google understands the meaning of the phrase you are searching for.
How to optimize website pages for internal SEO? Follow these 8 steps:
Optimize your pages for user intention
If the content you create is not functional and user-friendly in Google’s view, the probability of being seen on the search results page will be very low. For example, a user has searched “mountain bike” on Google. In this situation, the user intention is to buying a product, so the most optimal case is to transfer the user to a product page or bike shop page. With the same word, you’ve written an article that tries to provide ways to buy a mountain bike as fastest you can, and the information is very attractive. However, user intention of searching was something else, so there is a very small chance that your website will be seen in the search results list. In the results page, you can see that the first links were taken over by websites that are either bicycle stores or suppliers, or have articles to review bicycle models. Therefore, it is better before starting to write content for a keyword, search for it and see what kind of content the search results are; an article, tutorial, product site, or perhaps another type of content that matches a user’s needs, such as a recipe.
Make sure your website page loads fast
What do you do if you search for something in Google and then click on a link in search result page and after a few seconds still does not open? You will probably hit the back button on the results page and you open another website page. This is exactly what will happen to your website if you do not pay attention to the loading speed of the site pages. Page speed is one of the website ranking factors. The chart below shows how website speed can affect your website’s ranking on the search results page over time. Although there are other factors that affect the ranking, but the first rank still belongs to the page with the lowest load.
Keep in mind that Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. Therefore, all these criteria may give way to other things to a great extent. For example, on the mobile search results page, we may see websites that are mobile friendly and their speed is high in mobile mode, not in desktop mode. In general, the low speed of the website pages can create a bad user experience and a bad user experience can take you even from a Google ranking to the bottom of the results. You can use Google’s Page speed tool to see the website speed and analyze it. It is better to check each page separately in this tool to determine the problems of each page. Checking the first page alone does not help much.
On-Page SEO and website speed
Following two general points can greatly help improve internal SEO and site speed:
- Reduce the size of the images: use a WordPress plugin (if you work under the WordPress platform) such as Shortpixel to automatically compress and optimize the images.
- Optimize HTML Codes: Every code character in your website structure takes time to load.If you are using WordPress, it is better to use a text editor instead of a visual editor. This way, you can lower the volume of HTML codes on the page.
According to Google report, more than 50% of users close a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. So try to keep your website loading time less than two seconds.
Include the target keyword in the title, Meta description and H1 tag.
You might ask that at the beginning of article, it is explained that the keyword and its use in different places on the page are not important anymore, and now one of the options is assigned to it! We are not going to completely ignore the discussion of keywords and their correct use. Rather, we should know that their importance and value is not as much as it was in the past. So, beside to optimizing the page for the target keyword, we must take other measures for internal SEO.
Of course, you do not have to force your exact keyword in all sections. You can also use synonyms or equivalent words. Google is so smart that it can understand the relationship between words. The most important point is that no page in Google is ranked for only one keyword. Most pages that rank high on the search results page appear in searches for at least 1,000 keywords. However, place the keyword or its synonyms in the title tag, Meta description, H1 tag and anywhere else that should be placed in terms of internal SEO.
Use short clear URLs
Look at the following address:
https://www.example.com/articles/322345.php
By seeing this address, do you know what page you are on or what the page is about? But the following address is totally clear:
https://www.example.com/how-to-lose-weight
This example is a short and clear address. It is better to include your keyword in the URL, preferably at the beginning, to improve internal SEO and if you can write a short but descriptive statement about the content of that page. Google says about the influence of URL address in ranking:
Of course, the effect of this factor is very small but it’s not something you want to ignore. However, you do not need to change the entire URL structure of the site to include only the keyword.
In other words, you can do it if you can, but you do not have to. According to the statistics, as well as the graph you see below, short URLs can rank higher than competitors. Especially if the page address is very long, it will not be seen in the Google search results page and will remain hidden from the user.
Write descriptive alt text for your images and optimize image names
A large number of Internet users have some kind of problem with seeing the screen. Some are blind and some are visually impaired. Even colorblind people have trouble seeing images. This is where alt text can come in handy for them. If you write appropriate descriptive text in the description of your image, screen reader tools can read this description to the users and inform them of the existence of a photo. In addition to filling the alt text of the images, it is better to optimize the file name of the images as well. One of the things that is less discussed in SEO training is image SEO. Google says:
Image alt text is very important for Google, if you want your images to be seen in the ranking. In this way, even if you use lazy load, the user knows what image to wait for before seeing the image. Try to set the name and alt text of the images to be relevant, clear and descriptive so that you can be seen on the image search results page.
Use schema markup to increase click-through rates
Schema markup helps search engines to understand your pages better. You’ve probably seen links with an asterisk or an image next to their description on the Google search results page. These websites are the ones that have used this bookmarking feature.
Increase topical communications to improve on-page SEO
If you use words, phrases and terms in your content that are of the same family and fall into the same category, Google will understand your page better. For example, if you write about cycling, the whole page is filled with terms related to this field. In addition to internal SEO and the use of keywords, Google also cares about the meaning and concept of the entire content.
Keep your content simple and readable
By checking the user’s dwell time, Google can find out how satisfied the users are with your page content. If the text you have written is in difficult language and with complicated words and terms, the user will abandon it at the first glance and return to the search results page. So keep the content structure as simple as you can, and choose literature that suits your audience.
Is on-page SEO better than off-page SEO?
It is better to answer this question in this way that in order to reach the top ranks in Google, the existence of both is needed and work should be done on both. The main difference between internal and external SEO is: in internal SEO, your mastery is more than external; because the events related to internal SEO take place inside your website and you can easily control it, but in external SEO, most of the things will happen outside your website, like backlinks. Internal SEO and external SEO are two complements to reach the top ranks of Google, but internal SEO is a little easier to improve than external SEO, and because it depends on you and the content produced on your website, it can be better worked on.
