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On-Page Seo

What is On-Page SEO? 

Search engines like Google are growing more sophisticated every day, and you may be wondering, Are on-page SEO techniques still relevant? The answer is yes, but not all. Some techniques still work, and they help search engines understand your content quicker. Off course, on-page, technical, & off-page SEO are completely different from each other. In this article, we will learn more about what exactly on-page SEO is & which technique we could still do to get the best results on SERP. 

What is on-page SEO?

It’s simply the practice of optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engines. It revolves heavily around optimizing pages for search intent. But on-page optimizations also involve creating and optimizing HTML tags like titles and meta descriptions. Now, if you’ve been exposed to the practice of on-page SEO, then it’s quite likely that you’ve heard conflicting advice.

On-page SEO consists of making sure your web pages are relevant and useful enough to rank for their target keywords. For example, it includes how and where to use your target keywords on a web page, which you more generally want to actually put on that web page in order to appeal to both Google and visitors. On-page SEO affects what happens in two places:

The first is on the search engine results page, or the SERP for short, meaning search snippets that Google shows people when they search for something. The links, images, and text that Google shows for each web page are mostly controlled by what the owners of those web pages put on them. The rankings of those web pages also have a lot to do with on-page SEO. So if you do a great job with your on-page SEO, you’re much more likely to rank well on Google. And the other thing that on-page SEO effects, of course, is the web page itself. what users and search engine web crawlers see when they visit the site.

Best on-Page SEO techniques to improve your Website

There are on-page and off-page SEO. On-page is all about optimizing the page for search intent, and it helps search engines understand the content better. While off-page is meant to help the popularity of that page: 

Optimizing for internal links is one of the most important on-page SEO techniques you should employ. The way search engines assess the quality of a site is if you’re writing one piece of article, are there any other supporting pieces of content on the same site that can help support and add depth to that one piece of article? It is the same way search engine robots crawl your sites. They crawl from one page, and they visit the pages linked to that page and crawl them, and it goes on and on. The more depth you provide to a topic, the higher the quality of your entire site in the eyes of the search engine. Do not overuse the same anchor text for several articles.

2. Leverage header tags

Writing a piece of an article for your website is very similar to the contents of a book; if you have ever written a project report in high school, college, or university, the structure of the content is very similar. Think of your content as follows: The title of your article is like the tree trunk. It is the main part that holds everything together and sets the foundation for the rest of the content.

The H1 heading tag represents the tree trunk. It is important to use only one H1 tag per page to clearly define what the page is about. This helps both the page visitors and search engines understand the main focus of your content. For example, the main topic could be the benefits of exercising. Then the H2 tags are like the main branches of the tree. These tags represent primary sections that grow out of the main topic. For example, since the main topic is about the benefits of exercising, you could have H2 tags with physical health benefits, mental health benefits, and how to start exercising. These main sections break down your content into more specific areas, making it easier to navigate and understand. They not only help organize your article and provide a clear structure, but they make it easier for your page visitors to scan your page. And then the H3 heading tags are like the smaller branches. These subsections provide more detailed information under each main section. In this example, H3 tags under the physical health benefits can be improve heart health, boost immunity, enhance muscle strength, and others. then the hierarchy goes on. The H4, H5, and H6 heading tags act as the leaves and tweaks of your content tree. If you can break down further on the benefits of improving heart health, you would use H4. Breaking it down further, you would use H5, and then up to the H6 heading tag.

Read More: What is SEO ?

3. Future Proofing URL & URL Structure

If your website is already established and your content is ranking on the search engines, do not change the URL structure. because restructuring URLs, if not done properly, might have a severe impact on your site. However, if your site is relatively new and it is not getting much or any search engine traffic, then by all means, you should future-proof your URLs. On your WordPress site, to change the URL structure, you would hover over settings and select permalinks. By default, for most WordPress installations, for some reason, the day and name option will be selected. But our recommendation to future proof your URLs to accommodate growth without needing significant overhaul is to use either the postname option that uses the page title as your URL slug, or in other words, the back of your URL, or use a custom structure that includes the category and the postname. Having the postname in the URL is favored by the search engines because it gives context as to what the page is about.

4. Optimize Meta Title & Description

When it comes to meta titles and descriptions, it is still an important on-page SEO technique because when you visit the search engine and check out one of the search results, the most prominent element of it is the SEO meta title. As a searcher, if this title catches your eye, the next thing you will see is the meta description. Optimizing your SEO meta title and description is incredibly important because if it does not catch the searcher’s eyes, if it is not enticing enough, and if it doesn’t seem like it is what the searcher is looking for, then no one will click through to read your content, no matter how great it is.

5.Keyword Placement

Keyword placement is part of the foundation for SEO, even today. Those search engines today are quite advanced, and they claim to be able to pick up the contacts and the keywords you are trying to rank for; we shouldn’t leave it to chance. We should do our part and optimize the content so that we can clearly communicate the important things we want search engines to know. Other than adding the focus keyword in the SEO meta title in the URL and in the description, we should also add the main focus keyword at the beginning of the content. With it, it reinforces to the search engine what your post is about and also reassures the page visitors that they have visited the correct page.

Google recommends including any keywords you care about in your on-page SEO content because it helps both the search engine and users understand what your content is about. in other words, if you want a page to rank for a specific keyword, it’s important to use that keyword on the page. That said, Google understands that there are alternate spellings, plurals, and synonyms of different keywords.

It’s common for a page to rank for a lot of keywords that don’t even show up in text on the page. Generally, if you can include your most important keywords on the page, it will help it rank for those keywords; just don’t overdo it. If your human visitors don’t like the page, neither will Google.

6. Add Alt text to Images

Adding the focus keyword strategic areas will help search engines understand your page quicker. One thing is for sure: the placement of the keywords in the content should flow naturally. They shouldn’t be forced. Don’t squeeze or staff keywords in the content. Search engines today are way sophisticated, and they will penalize you for trying to manipulate them. As you already know, having the main focus keyword in the alt text of an image is a good SEO practice, but you should also add alt text to all your images, even if they do not contain any focus keywords. Every time you add an image to your page, you should open up the image settings and add an alt text there to describe what the image is about. There are two reasons for doing so:

  • First, for visibly diversity-impaired individuals, they may use screen readers to consume your content, and the alt text will be read as the description of the image. 
  • Secondly, for page visitors who have poor internet connection, sometimes the image may not load, and having an alt text for the image helps the visitors understand what the image is about. Having an alt text for all your images is beneficial.

 Bottom-Line 

By making web pages more search engine friendly, on-page SEO is still crucial for improving search engine rankings. Internal links, structured header tags, future-proofing URLs, improving meta titles and descriptions, placing keywords strategically, and adding alt text to pictures are important strategies. By enhancing visibility and engagement, these approaches also improve search engine understanding and user experience.

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