5 minute read

On-page SEO and keyword targeting are important aspects for a successful website that will attract visitors and encourage them to engage in your webpages. It’s not just about getting the right keyword phrase or checking off a list. It takes a lot of time and effort to make your on-page optimization a success that generates profits for your company. Here are eight strategies to help with your success this year.

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is when you optimize your individual web pages specifically to rank higher and build more targeted traffic organically. On-page SEO refers to both the webpage content and source code within your website, such as meta tags and page content. Not to be confused with off-page SEO, which refers to inbound links and other external signals.

 

1. Content On Page Should Match Your Visitor’s Search Intent

Behind every search and keyword phrase that someone types into a search engine is a reason and intention as to why they want to find that information. The searcher either wants to find out information, trying to find a solution to a task that they want to accomplish, or wanting to make a purchase of a product/service. Make sure the content that you’re providing on that page is exactly what the visitors are looking for. A properly executed SEO and content writing strategy can achieve this.

 

2. Need for Speed

The chances of a visitor leaving a webpage seconds after viewing your website are high, meaning that your pages must have a fast load time to earn more engagement. Load speed is positively correlated with page rankings; having a web page that loads quickly can highly contribute to your rankings in search engines.

 

3. SEO That Creates Trust & Boosts Engagement

User interface and branding is just as critical as the speed of a website when it comes to user experience. Since user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) go into different areas on-page, there needs to be attention placed at these different points-of-view within your SEO strategy. Here are six website UX trends that can help.

To ensure that all aspects are being met through UI, UX, and the branding of your website, ask yourself these questions:

  • Do visitors make a connection between our domain and company name?
  • Do viewers know who we are and what we do?
  • Are we providing visual elements that make us look trustworthy to users?
  • Can visitors contact us easily?
  • Can viewers quickly find reviews about our company?
  • Is our content easy to share and unique?

 

4. Avoid Overlays & Pop-ups that “Scare Off” Users

Do not place distracting elements on your webpage, as it tends to keep visitors from coming back to your website. Some of the notorious examples are pop-ups that tell you to download their free eBook if you want to make a lot of money.

These types of overlays get negative feedback from visitors and can often cause your website to lose user trust and engagement. While they may provide some potential leads, they can also contribute to pogo sticking (when a user clicks the “Back” button from your webpage) and receive a flag from search engines.

 

5. Keyword Targeting

Keyword targeting is still an important aspect to off-page and on-page SEO, even to this day. While some websites no longer focus on keyword meta tags, it’s still good practice to choose successful keyword phrases and incorporate them in your meta tags, headings, page content, links, and images.

 

6. Related Topics & Articles

There is no doubt that someone who is searching for a specific keyword will also be searching for related topics or related articles. For example, if someone is searching for a suit, then they may also be interested in shoes or accessories that go with that suit. Try to include related articles and topics in your content in order to boost your organic SEO. Related keywords and links should also be easy to find on each page, whether its within your content or in your sidebar. Check out #3 here about internal linking and dynamic related posts.

 

7. Rich Snippet Optimization

The ultimate goal, besides page ranking, is the webpage’s click-through rate. If the page ranking is high and the click-through rate is low, then something is not working or you’re targeting too broad of an audience. When you SEO rich snippets on-page, please consider the following:

  • Your page title, meta description, and URL should be clean and simple for users to identify.
  • Make sure that you keep an up-to-date publication date on your pages and posts in case someone searches for the current year (example: “Best SEO Trends in 2016”).
  • Take advantage of any schema markups that you can use. There are several tools that you can find online to help incorporate this into your webpages. Get started here with schema.org using microdata.
  • You should be thinking about your domain name prior to registration and how people view the brand with that domain.
  • Can you answer someone’s question directly on your webpage? If this is the case, consider placing the answer or list of steps in your meta description so that Google Direct Answer is more likely to place your webpage at the top of the search results.

 

8. Uniqueness of Your Website & Content

Even after following all of these SEO principles, your webpage must still be one-of-a-kind to grab user attention and encourage them to share content. You can take some ideas from other websites for inspiration, but your webpages must bring unique value to visitors that no other website can do. Ask yourself these questions when creating your content on a per page basis:

  • What makes this better than what is already highly ranked?
  • Will this be difficult for others to replicate?
  • What is it going to take to amplify this content?

 

By using these on-page principles, you will increase your chances of getting ranked and successfully converting traffic to leads, and leads to sales. For more SEO tips and tricks, plus building a fully functional user friendly website, subscribe to our marketing blog today. Check out our FREE eBook and learn key points of getting found online that will change your company forever.

 

 

 
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