SEO On Page: What it is and how to optimize your website

SEO

Having a website today is a fundamental step to manifest the online presence of a company, as it represents a digital showcase of the services and products offered that, if well managed, allows to increase the number of customers and achieve a higher number of conversions.

Optimizing SEO will allow a better positioning in the results of major search engines such as Google and Bing, and potential customers to easily find the page. On Page SEO, which takes into account all the elements of the web pages and content writing, contributes to this, so that the website climbs to the top of the SERP results. From our Marketing and SEO agency, we present you the factors to take into account and how to use SEO On Page to optimize the positioning of your website.

What is On-Page SEO?

Websites can be considered organic ecosystems made up of many different entities and, therefore, all aspects must be assessed: from content-related aspects to more technical ones, such as page loading speed and user experience.

The term SEO(Search Engine Optimization) refers to search engine optimization, i.e. all techniques to optimize a website and improve its ranking in the SERPs.

SEO on Page refers in particular to the optimization of all the elements of the website: titles, meta, URLs, texts, multimedia content and internal links, but also readability
y
usability.

Guided by the keywords and the maximum and minimum length of titles and meta descriptions, you can improve all the aspects that lead to a good positioning. There are some aspects to consider when planning an on-page SEO strategy : content, user engagement, site structure, interlinking and mobile responsiveness. But basically there are 2:

 

  • Be as friendly as possible for the Google bot and help it understand the content of that URL and web that allows it to rank for the relevant keywords.
  • Answer the search intent of the keywords you want to rank for

What factors influence on-page SEO and how to improve them on your website

SEO On Page: the importance of content and tags


Content is king
. Content is the “king” of web page optimization and taking care of it is the first step to improve a site’s SEO on Page. When writing, it is necessary to take into account the psychology of the user and to intercept the“search intent” (search intention), using strategic keywords .

Content | Factor on PageTo improve this aspect, it is necessary to find the keywords that describe the product or service and that can intercept such search intent, check their presence in the SERP, and identify which are the secondary and related keywords.

The structure of the web site can also be improved, and an important role is played by SEO tags, such as the title and the headerThe information to be provided to users and search engines can be organized in a way that makes it easier to read. Therefore, the main keywords should appear in title tags, slug tags and URLs, while the use of related keywords in headers, i.e. H2, H3 or H4, is recommended.

What to do if our content does not rank or we want it to go up in the SERPs?

To solve the reader’s problem, we must first understand search intent, because it tells us what type of content the reader is looking for.

In order to define a clear strategy and for the website to move up positions, it is necessary to analyze our current content and research on the content that ranks in the top positions for the same main keywords :

  • Improve or aggregate the search intent that Google is giving to those first results.
  • Analyze key entities or concepts to develop in your content.

Many times it is not necessary to expand the content, but to structure it in a different way, change some keywords, etc.

#1 Note the format

To make reading as easy as possible, stick to short sentences and paragraphs:

  • Uses simple words and phrases
  • Avoid jargon
  • Write in active voice
  • Use bold and italics to highlight relevant text fragments.
  • Uses synonyms and semantic varieties.

#2 Add a table of contents (index)

An index provides links that jump to different sections on a page. A table of contents is also useful to help you gain sitelinks in the SERPs.

#3 Use headings to create hierarchy

Headings such as H1 and H2 help create hierarchy and break content into logical sections. This makes your content easier to skim and digest.

To structure a body text, relevant tags, ranging from H1 to H6, should be used. Google interprets them as the headings of a newspaper (title, subtitle, subtitle heading, etc.) so these tags hierarchize the importance of the content. Let’s look at them in detail:

  • H1 there can only be one per page, not too long but very explicit according to the main concept.
  • H2 There can be one, two or as many as convenient, if the text requires it, it would be to head a part. Always taking into account the keywords for which we want to position, but always prioritizing naturalness and avoiding repeating what we have already put in other important tags.
  • H3, H4, H5 are used to head an enumeration or a subsection within an H2 categorization or the one preceding it.

Examples of logical header structures:

H1 H2 H2
H1 H2 H3
H1 H2 H2 H3
H1 H2 H3 H2 H3
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H3
H1 H2 H3 H3 H2 H3 H2 H3 H3 H3
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H4 H3 H4 H3 H4

However, any one that makes sense for your website, and follows a consecutive hierarchy, will be correct.

#4 Friendly URL factor

A friendly URL is one of the most relevant factors in the On Page of your website. What do we mean by friendly URLs? The URL must be descriptive and include the keyword for which we want to appear in the first positions. A good URL can help you a lot in your SEO.

Examples of friendly URL to try to position “cheap German cars”.

Friendly: mydomain.com/cheap-cars-cheap-germans

Unfriendly: mydomain.com/index.php/art-1-cat-3

When creating a friendly URL, keep the following in mind:

  • Avoid using symbols, punctuation marks and letters that are not commonly used in other languages. Examples include the use of {ñ}, {‘}, {ç}, {?}, {¿}.
  • Always include the
    keyword
    for which you would like to appear in Google.
  • Whenever possible, avoid adding dates, either with numbers or words in your URLs.
  • Try not to generate URLs that may resemble others you already have on the web.

#5 How to create the best SEO optimized title?

The meta tag
title
is another fundamental factor that Google takes into account for indexing.

Titles and meta descriptions seo

Not so long ago, the title of a web page had to be about 65 characters long, whereas nowadays, Google takes pixels into account. Therefore, we recommend that you do not write in capital letters and do not use strange characters that take up a lot of space, otherwise you will be taking space away from the most relevant words!

As we have seen, the keyword you want to rank for must appear in the title of your website. But don’t focus on a single search term, take advantage of all word combinations.

For example, if your website is a snowboard outlet, apart from the keyword “snowboard outlet”, you will also be interested in the search terms “cheap snowboard clothing” “cheap snowboard equipment”. A good Seo on Page title for your website would be:

  • Snowboard Outlet. Cheap clothing and equipment + brand

With this title we will have all the combinations mentioned above.

#6 Work on the meta description

If you have set up the website with a content management system (WordPress, Joomla, Prestashop…) the meta description is a space you have to put a small summary of 140-160 characters, where you explain what is the URL to which it refers. If you have developed your website without a content management system, you will have to add the tags in the head of each page.

What is the goal of the meta description?

  • The first one is to offer the user a detailed and at the same time eye-catching summary so that he/she enters our website.
  • The second is to convince Google that we are relevant for certain keywords. In this case we must place the key word or words so that they appear as soon as possible and it is not necessary to repeat them.

Improve Seo on Page with images

No one wants to read a brick of text, as it is boring and overwhelming. For these reasons, images lighten the reading and help the reader to visually comprehend.

However, Google does not know how to identify an image as we do. In other words, Google’s robots cannot decipher it. However, they can “read” it and take the file name into account, so it is advisable to use a descriptive and keyword-optimized file name.

Remember that it is a web what you are doing and it has to be loaded on mobiles and we do not always have 4G. It must be taken into account that the photographs are not too heavy and, thus, do not penalize the loading time.

Take a look at our article “How to optimize page load time“.

SEO on Page: user engagement

To achieve the success of your website you must also take into account the “user engagement” factor, which refers to the metrics to be evaluated to understand if the SEO on Page strategy applied is working or not. These include pages per session, bounce rate and click through rate.
Click Through Rate
(CTR). These parameters depend on both search engines and user behavior, and our goal will be to improve all aspects of SEO to increase user interaction and, therefore, user engagement with our website.

The number of pages per session, i.e. the number of pages of the site visited by a user before leaving the site, allows us to understand which errors, if any, lead the user not to browse the site. It could be errors in the sales funnel or items on our website that are not generating interest. The bounce rate indicates user satisfaction on a landing page: the higher it is, the less engagement our page is generating. An analysis of the pages with a high bounce rate will make it possible to identify the aspects on which to intervene in order to improve the number of pages per session.

Finally, there is the CTR, that is, the first interaction that a user has with the website (number of clicks that a link obtains in relation to its number of impressions). When this value is low, it means that the user did not find the meta description and title tag appearing in the SERPs interesting or relevant to their search. To attract more users, these details will have to be improved with labels of appropriate length.

SEO on Page: structure and interlinking

International web positioningAn on Page SEO analysis must also take into account the site structure and interlinking activities .
interlinking
(internal linking). If your website loads slowly, is not responsive for mobile devices, your pages are not crawlable by search engine spiders and does not respect the HTTPS protocol that guarantees secure transactions, it is very likely to lower your position in the SERPs.

Links are also very important for optimization, for this reason, a broken link that leads to Error 404 damages the site and a lot. Using skillful internal linking means improving the navigability of the website and therefore increasing its authority in the eyes of search engine algorithms, which will reward it with a higher position in the SERPs and increased visibility.

Why use an SEO agency?

As you have seen, taking care of the SEO on Page is extremely important if you want your website to be successful, don’t you have enough knowledge to make sure that all the details are optimized? What better than to turn to an SEO agency? At Rodanet we are a team of professionals, passionate about what we do and we will be delighted to
help you grow your business
.

Copy & Content Strategist en Rodanet | tamara@rodanet.es | + posts

Tamara es redactora #seo y la boxeadora de la oficina. 🥊
Siempre escribe textos con gancho 😉

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