Since nearly 70 percent of all online activity begins on a search engine, it is important to invest in SEO. There is a misconception that on-page SEO only involves optimizing website meta tags. In reality, this optimization process is far more complex.
Here are some actionable tips you can use to improve your on-page SEO.
1. Provide Consumers With a Mobile-Friendly Website
In April 2015, the digital marketing world became aware of a Google search algorithm update involving mobile-friendly websites. This update, referred to as Mobilegeddon, would alter how the Google algorithm indexed and ranked content.
The mobile-first indexing model adopted by Google meant that its algorithm would look at the mobile versions of content during the indexing process. While this update happened over seven years ago, it is still relevant. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you will get left in the dust by your competition.
This is why the first thing you need to do when trying to improve on-page SEO is to cater to mobile users. The best mobile-friendly websites have things like:
- No pop-up ads
- Concise blogs
- Fast page load speeds
- Limited scrolling
- Plenty of icons
- Tabs and menus
Once you implement some of these features on your website, you need to test them out. Using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test will give you information about how easy it is for mobile users to access and navigate your website.
2. Update Your Old Blogs
One of the best ways to drive more organic traffic to your website is by publishing great blogs. As time goes by, the information in some of your blogs might become outdated or incorrect. When trying to figure out which blog posts to prioritize during these updates, consider how well each of them ranks.
Ideally, you want to update blogs that are already on the first page of Google. Optimizing blogs that already rank well with new content can be extremely beneficial. When handled correctly, these updates can substantially improve a blog’s search engine ranking. Updating your old blogs can help you accomplish the following.
A Great Way To Show Readers You Care
Updating your blogs is essential if you want to show blog readers that you care about the integrity of your content. Incorrect information in a blog causes a reader to form a negative opinion of your business. The readers of your blogs are the lifeblood of your online lead generation strategy. This is why you need to focus on keeping them happy and engaged with the help of routine updates.
Enhance Website Traffic
As you look at your old blogs, you need to focus on optimizing them for search engine success. If many of the older blogs on your website aren’t being found on search engines, you need to update your keywords and add more words to the content. By optimizing old blogs, you can drive more traffic to your website and generate a higher number of sales leads.
Improve Search Engine Rank
Perhaps the best reason to update your old content is the rank boost it can provide. Optimizing poor-performing blogs for search engines can help all of the content on your website. Since only the best content rises to the top of Google, it is important to routinely review and update blogs as needed.
3. Include Numbers in Your Title Tags
When developing new blogs for your website, your main goal should be improving website traffic and conversion rates. The Internet is filled with competition, which is why you need to find a way to make your blog content stand out. When looking at the best performing blogs on a search engine results page, you will probably notice each of them has a number in the title.
Adding a number to your title tags can help you:
- Make your content sound more authoritative
- Attract attention from Google
- Convey how digestible and easy to read the content is
- Provide the promise of something specific
There are numerous studies that show numbers in title tags can significantly boost click-through rates. This is why including numbers in your titles is such a good idea.
4. Realize the Importance of Image Optimization
Providing blog readers with a visual break from text is vital. The best way to provide this break is by strategically placing images throughout your blogs. However, you need to make sure these images are properly optimized to drive organic traffic to your website.
The first step in the image optimization process is compressing file sizes. The larger an image file size is, the more it will affect page load speed. There are many tools on the market that will compress file sizes without compromising the quality of the image.
You also need to add descriptive names for your images to help Google better interpret their significance. Including your target keyword in the image alt text is also important. Resizing your images to ensure they are in line with site dimensions can also improve performance.
5. Create Easy To Find Social Share Buttons
Modern consumers love sharing helpful content on social media. If a person finds one of your blogs exceptionally helpful or informative, they will start to search around for social share buttons. Failing to make these buttons easy to find can lead to a person getting frustrated and leaving your website altogether.
Rather than making it difficult for people to share your content on popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, you need to make your social share buttons easy to find. Most experts recommend putting a social share bar that follows the blog content to the bottom of the page. With this bar, readers can share this content whenever they want.
6. Perform an Audit to Find On-Site Errors
The only way to pinpoint on-page SEO problems is by conducting routine audits. The results from this audit will help you fully optimize your website for search engine success. During this audit, be sure to look for problems like:
- Slow page load speeds
- Low-quality external links
- Duplicate content
- Missing image alt tags
- Internal links that are poorly structured
- Title tag/meta description errors
By fixing these problems on your website, you can make it more appealing to both search engines and potential customers.
7. Make Improvements To Your Meta Descriptions
The meta description is one of the first things a search engine user will notice about your website. The short piece of text that appears under your web address on a search engine results page. The first step in optimizing your meta descriptions is ensuring they are less than 155 characters long. Anything over this limit remains unseen on a search engine results page.
Writing your meta description in active voice is also important. When writing your meta descriptions, include your primary keyword and a call-to-action. A well-optimized meta description can help you improve the percentage of people who enter your website by clicking a hyperlink, also known as the click-through rate.
8. Use Long-Form Content
Some business owners choose to keep their blogs short and sweet. If you want to improve your on-site SEO, then you need to start using long-form content. Blogs between 1,000 to 7,500 words are referred to as long-form content.
Long-form content can provide:
- More social shares
- Better credibility
- Improved Google search rank
- A higher number of backlinks
- Brand authority
Many SEO experts equate higher rankings to longer-form content. Creating this type of content can be helpful if you are struggling to get on the first page of Google.
9. Make URLs Short and Keyword-Rich
It is no secret that Google and other popular search engines present URLs that are short. This is because short URLs are visually appealing and provide a better user experience.
Using your target keyword in your URLs is also a good way to boost SEO. The page URL is prominently displayed in search results, which is why you need to use popular keywords in them. If a consumer sees the words they used in a search contained in your URL, they’ll be motivated to click the link.
10. Consider Search Intent When Creating New Content
The goal behind a search query is referred to as the search intent. Satisfying search intent is one of the top priorities Google has.
Optimizing your content for search intent will require:
- Thinking like your target customer
- Studying search engine result pages
- Research autofill options
- Reverse engineering a competitor’s high-ranking content
- Perform in-depth keyword research
Content-based on search intent is generally more engaging. It also matches the needs of the end-user, which can help improve conversion rates.
Start Using These Tips
From keyword-rich URLs to updating old blogs and image optimization, there are many things you can do to improve on-page SEO.