The Top 6 Tips for On-Page SEO (search engine optimization) is going to look a lot like How To Create The Perfect Blog Post. The truth is technical SEO between a post and a page is not much different. The main differentiation between a post and a page is where it is on the website, the type of content, and the way it is arranged. As far as technical SEO is concerned the Google crawler sees words and code.
Just in case you don’t want to read all the details, here are the top tips in a not so fancy bulleted list:
- STEP 1: RESEARCH KEYWORD
- STEP 2: CREATE A TITLE & META DATA
- STEP 3: ADD KEYWORD TO CONTENT
- STEP 4: ADD KEYWORD TO IMAGE TAGS
- STEP 5: STAY HYPER-FOCUSED
- STEP 6: INTER-LINKING
STEP 1: RESEARCH KEYWORD
Research is your best friend before you build your first page. Doing this after after you have built your website or have another person build it, is a waste of time and resources. You must know what people are searching for or they are not going to find you. For example, a realtor might want to build a page to contain information about their city, but once you do keyword research, you may want to frame this page around “moving to [insert city name].” This will not only provide information about their city, but capture potential buyers moving to their city.
STEP 2: CREATE A TITLE & META DATA
Once you have a keyword for your product or service, the next step is creating a title and meta data for the page. You want to place your exact keyword you found in STEP 1 early in the title of your page. Google has now discounted keywords in meta descriptions, but it is still best practice to include your keyword there as well.
STEP 3: ADD KEYWORD TO CONTENT
When writing the content of you page, you need to use keywords in very specific ways. Headings are often referred to as heading 1 (H1), heading 2 (H2), heading 3 (H3), and so on. You want to use your keyword as naturally as possible in a H1 and either a H2 or H3 tag if at all possible. In addition to your headings, you should use your keyword in the first paragraph.
STEP 4: ADD KEYWORD TO IMAGE TAGS
Google crawls site using bots that try to read and interpret code. They cannot see and image as we see them. They have to get help from the builder of the page. You should have an image on every page that is tagged for the keyword for that page. You need to include the keyword in the Title and ALT tags. In addition, we always offer bonus points for those that also name their file with their keyword.
STEP 5: STAY HYPER-FOCUSED
Developing a keyword strategy early helps this a lot. You want to stay focused on one keyword per page. This not only helps the user that is trying to find a particular thing, but it helps google know they can send someone to your specific page to find the answer to their question. Keyword stuffing is a big red “X” for ranking.
STEP 6: INTER-LINKING
This became huge around the Panda algorithm update by Google. Having a proper linking structure throughout your site is necessary. If you have pages that are sub-categories of sub-categories you want to link back up through all the way to the home page. You want to link within categories to other relevant information. And you want to link to your cornerstone content, the most important pages/posts of your website. The easier it is for a user and Google to get around and know where to go the better.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
If you find yourself confused reading through the top 6 tips for on-page SEO or found that your site lacks a lot of these qualities, we would love to sit down and discuss how to remedy them. We offer free consultations to anyone serious about their web presence.