Many of you may overthink on-page seo. You should target the right keyword density percentage in your content to ensure that all of the possibilities for different search terms in the content are perfectly optimized for Search Engines. However, taking On-Page seo too far can also be a disaster for your website.
Owning a small business or even if you are an seo manager and interested in generating high quality and instant result for your clients, you must know the right strategies and changes to make. Though not a rocket science but you still need to be aware of minor on-page factors.
In this guide, we have listed out 7 On-Page seo Improvements that we think every business owner or an seo should make within the next 24 hours. These are quick yet simple fixes that can dramatically improve your rankings.
They will also help to make instant progress in Google’s organic search without doing much on the seo.
Here we go!
1: Fixing Title Tags
Many business owners miss out the title tags. We have analyzed many client websites and found that their title tags were not optimized for seo. So, if your target keyword is appearing close to the end of the page’s title tag, you can win the seo simply by optimizing all of the page’s titles on that single keyword.
What we recommend here is to use the title tags like “Keyword – Brand Name.” Suppose you have a local business called “Coffee Craze” with a page that is targeting a keyword, let say, “fair trade coffee in London.” So, an optimized title here would be “Fair Trade Coffee in London – Coffee Craze.”
When you place your main keyword at the start of the title, it immediately tells Google which keyword to focus on your page. This dramatically increases the page relevance and improves your organic search rankings. Moreover, it also shows your website users exactly what the page is about.
When the brand name is added at the end of the target keyword, it will establish your brand in the eyes of Search Engines, no matter if the user clicks on it or not. In simple, if someone searches that keyword, he still sees your brand name, “Coffee Craze.” This improves your brand recognition.
An important thing to consider here is to keep your title tags under 60 characters. This gives you an enormous on-page seo benefit as compared to the competitors.
2: Using H2 and H3 Tags
Obviously, there would be long tail keywords in the content. They must be optimized with H2 and H3 tags. Don’t use H1 tag as it is already used in the main heading. Using H2 and H3 tags also breaks up the content and improves user’s readability.
We highly recommend considering H1 for the title of the post only. Then, use H2 tag for the core chapters of the content and H3 for the subheadings. When you use different headings and subheadings within your content, it will improve user experience and reduces the bounce rate as well.
It has been seen that headings play a major role in website’s seo, and business owners can potentially grab high organic rankings by optimizing the keywords with headings. For your principal or target keyword, we recommend H1 tag. Try to keep it close to the beginning of the post for maximum visibility.
For H2 tags, use them in your secondary keywords and for the H3, use them for your long tail keywords.
Doing this shows Google that you have given a particular level of visibility to those keywords on your page.
So, if “Fair trade coffee in London” is the page, then you must use H1 tag on “Fair Trade Coffee in London.” Here the secondary keyword would be “Fair Trade Coffee Brands.” This must be enclosed in H2 tag. Similarly, if you have used any long tail keyword as well, use H3 tag for it. This will dramatically improve your page’s focus keyword.
3: Making individual Page Solve a Specific Problem
Another important method to improve your on-page seo that many website owners neglect is to make individual pages solve a particular problem of the audience. To make it easier, ask yourself: “What’s the problem this content will solve for your readers?”
By doing this, it will improve your page’s focus on a specific topic. When the focus topic is narrowed down, it will be better rank in its category on search engines. This is also beneficial regarding Google ranking because Google will deliver the best results for each query. So, if your page is perfectly optimized and focused on solving a problem, it will rank on the top of other websites.
Just in case you were struggling with naturally inserting the keywords, this will solve your problem. How? You will be optimizing the content to solve a problem, so it naturally becomes more relevant.
4: Expanding Content for More detail and Value
A study tells that the top-ranking pages on highly competitive keywords have 2000 words of content. This doesn’t necessarily mean that long content is better than short content. However; Google usually values the longer and valuable content over the short one.
So, even if your page is ranking for a specific search term which is quite competitive as well but isn’t cracking up to the top 3 position, you should expand the content, add more detail and value to it. Also, build the page to focus on the main keyword. Doing this, you will turn that particular page in a right authority.
I should also mention here that Google’s is always focusing on the content which it thinks is the most relevant to the user’s search query. Having a detailed post is a great on-page factor and can give the best results. Not only that, but it also attracts more links and recommendations than little content.
So, if you aren’t making it to the first position, analyze the top results and their content. Then make your page more valuable for your audience. This will give instant ranking improvement.
5: Practicing the art of Relevant Internal Linking
Many websites have great interlinking, but if it isn’t relevant, it doesn’t add up to the website’s seo. Off-page link building is not all that counts in ranking. Internal linking plays a vital role as it tells Google which page is more valuable and which isn’t. In simple, you are optimizing Google’s attention on a particular page.
When there is a good interlinking from one page to another, like from a particular blog post to a relevant product or your service page on your website, it immediately tells Google the importance of that linked page.
This rule also applies to anchor text when it comes to off-page seo. For example, “XYZ” is the anchor text, it will improve your search ranking for this “XYZ” keyword.
You might be surprised to hear that internal linking may not bring you to the top of search results for a highly competitive keyword. However, it is a very crucial aspect of on-page seo, and it must not be ignored. With a good interlinking strategy, it will improve the overall power of your website that counts a lot in technical on-page factors.
We have also interlinked various pages and some outbound links as well. Make sure that when you do inter-linking, it is linking to the relevant page only. This way it will increase your website’s seo.
6: Structuring URLs for seo
Perhaps, one of the silliest mistakes we see on more than 75% of the sites. The structure of website’s URLs can dramatically improve visibility in search engines. In simple, try to keep your URL’s shorter for better ranking in Google’s search results. When a page has a short URL, it signals that is it highly relevant to the user’s search query.
Let us take the example of London Coffee Shop. Ask for yourself, which URL looks more appropriate and better for the page Fair Trade Coffee in London:
- http://examplewebsite.com/coffee/types/fair-trade-coffee/london.html
- http://examplewebsite.com/fair-trade-coffee-in-london.
The CTR on the second URL will be high as compared to the first one because it is more relevant to the search query.
The first URL is also relevant, but it looks very detailed and a bit confusing as well. When the URL is short, Google awards that page with better ranking. Some reasons for this include:
- It is easier for your user to identify the topic of the page.
- It also includes the target keyword.
- It clearly shows that the page is about fair trade coffee in London.
Other than on-page, having a short URL also gives you off-page benefit. When your page’s URL contains the target keyword, it will rank better in search results.
In simple, try to keep the URL’s short as possible and do include the target keyword. With an exact match anchor text, you will already stand out from your competitors because of relevancy.
7: Optimizing Code and Images to Load Faster
We often see that a lot of websites have several multiple lines of codes and large image files that cause their page to load very slow. Back in 2010, Google officially announce site speed as a ranking factor.
Although your website’s speed is only a small part of several thousand ranking factors it can surely determine the page rank. Sometimes, your seo is perfect, but a poor loading speed can make Google push you down in the search results.
Having a fast website can guarantee page one ranking for the target keyword as compared to a slow and sluggish site. It is not only good for Search Engines but also for users who land on your website. It has been seen that websites that load fast also achieve a better conversion rate as compared to the slow ones. This shows that your audience is likely to convert into your potential customers if your website’s speed is fast.
Luckily, increasing website’s speed is enough easy and there are several different ways to do it. The easiest one is through a CDN or choosing a server which is closest to your target location. Another way is to optimize the website code and images for a small file size.
For optimizing your images so they better support the file size and quality, you can use Google’s guide to image optimization. Alternatively, try some great tools like GTmetrix. It gives an instant report on the code that might be slowing down the website’s speed. Not only that, but it also gives you a solution on how to fix it.
As an seo, optimizing the images is the most tedious process, however; as important as it is boring. It not only improves the user experience but also increases conversion rate. It has been seen that websites that load faster also gain more returning visitors.
Need On-Page seo Help?
If you are not satisfied with your website’s on-page or even off-page seo and want to improve its ranking in Google’s search results, contact us today for our top-notch seo consulting services that have helped hundreds of businesses across the globe.