With the constant changes in the
It is not a secret that since all these updates, your on-page optimization is more important than it ever was. Before even starting an offsite optimization campaign, you should make sure your website is fully prepared for it. As we move into 2015, let us have a look at 15 of most important on-page
#1. Optimize Your Page Titles
Title tag is one of the most important ranking factors. It tells search engines and visitors about the content on your page. Title tag should be directly relevant to the page’s content and at the same time, it should be compelling, thus more searchers will visit your page. Since Google only displays 60 characters as a page’s title, try not to go over the limit and keep your title tag under 60 characters. Make sure your title is unique and try to include your important keywords at the beginning of the title.
#2. META Description Tag
META description is a vital part of any on-page
#3. URL of Pages
Permalinks of pages on your site are important as well. I still see some websites not utilizing their permalinks properly for on page
The URL should contain a short summary of the given page, but no more than 4-5 words. Ignore and do not include words like “and,to,of,for,etc.”, since they are simply neglected by the majority of search engines
#4. Utilize Heading Tags Wisely
The next important tip about any on page
Remember, that each page should contain only one H1 tag and try to include in it the main keyword you are going for. When writing other heading tags, make sure to follow the proper hierarchy (H1 first, then H2, then H3, etc.). Include relevant keywords in your heading tags, but do not forget to do it in a natural way. You can check your current heading tags by viewing HTML page source.
#5. Keyword Density (aka stop stuffing your keywords everywhere)
Speaking about presenting your content naturally to the visitor, remember one thing, you are writing for humans, not robots. All SEOs have different opinions on keyword density and what it should be (and honestly it will vary in different multiple cases). I try to keep my main keyword density at around 1% and try to replace it with relevant keywords. Which means if I have 300 words of content on my page, I will repeat the main keyword 3 times.
#6. Make your content as readable as possible
Your site’s content readability is an important optimization factor as well. Make sure to use list tags (“ol” or “ul”), when you are writing a list. It directly affects your visitor’s behavior and if the content is good and readable, it creates a good user experience.
When embedding images in your posts, make sure to use image ALT tags and file names properly. Even though most visitors will not see this tag, it gives search engines another idea about the article’s topic. On top of that, you might even get additional traffic from people searching specifically for images.
#8. Internal linking
Another good tip is to interlink your inner pages in a natural way. For example, you might be writing an article about taking proper care of your garden sheds and your site has a dedicated page about garden sheds. It would be wise to create a relevant internal link.
#9. Duplicate Content
I think it has been said hundreds if not millions of times – all your content must be unique! Even though it has been said again and again, I still encounter website owners who are in a rush to launch a site and just copy content from their competitors.
Even though people make the duplicate content mistake without even knowing it. For example, Wordpress site owners can encounter duplicate content issues when utilizing tag archives improperly. It would be a wise thing to check your website for duplicate content issues using tools like, CopyScape or Siteliner.
#10. Page Loading Speed
Do you think Google’s Webmaster Tools has the “Page Speed” section for no reason? I doubt it. Your site loading speed is an important
A few good tips to increase your loading speed:
- Start analyzing your web hosting. Do not save money on hosting, as it is your virtual real estate. Try to buy the best hosting you can afford
- If you are using a popular CMS (Wordpress, Prestashop, etc.), make sure you use caching plugins, to decrease load on your server, thus increasing loading speed
- Use a website speed test tool Pingdom, to determine your site’s loading speed and which elements can be optimized (decreasing image quality, for example)
#11. Optimize your site for mobile devices
According to the latest research, mobile traffic makes 40% of organic search traffic in the 3rd quarter of 2014. This is just insane how fast the mobile industry is growing. Furthermore, Google announced that they would exclude sites that are not mobile-friendly from search queries made on mobile devices.
If your website is not responsive and optimized for all available mobile devices, you are seriously missing out on a lot of traffic. Make sure you also check mobile version load times.
Social networks are as popular now as never before. It also tells search engines a lot about your website if your site is shared and liked on social networks. Make sure to include proper social actions button, thus increasing your chances of picking up additional social traffic.
Connect your social profiles with your website. Make your visitors aware that you are active on social networks as well. OG (Open Graph) tags are vital as well, since it makes your content more enticing for social traffic.
#13. Sitemaps and robots.txt files
You should create and include a sitemap of your website. It helps search engines index your site better and faster. Do not forget to add a link to sitemaps XML files in your robots.txt file.
If you have any directories you do not want search engines to index (for example administration panel), use robots.txt file for that.
#14. Contact, privacy policy and terms of service
All businesses and organizations should have a contact page with details about your website/business. If you are running a legit website, you absolutely must have a privacy policy and terms of service! Link to them in the footer, since it is the most common place for those kind of pages and people usually scroll down when looking for them.
Another way to make your content more readable is to use the above-mentioned text formatting tags. On top of increasing your content’s readability, you will also notify search engines about important keywords in your article.
Keeping these fifteen points in mind would be good for your website even after a dozen new Google updates. However, the anatomy of a webpage from an SEO perspective would be incomplete without the mention of headers and footers, and how schema microdata is the next big thing in deciding content fit. But we will leave that for another day. Although it may seem that search engines just want to make our life harder, they simply want to provide the best user experience they can. In addition, the only thing we can do, if we want to stay in this business, is to learn these new changes and adapt to them! Do you agree?
Images: ”Businessman looking at seo design on whiteboard. Shot outdoors/Shutterstock.com“
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