On-page SEO is the course of making your website or webpage search-engine friendly. To make a long story as basic in words as possible for now – it is a process in which you tweak and adjust certain features on your website so that search engines like Google, Bing etc are able to index and crawl over your website. The tweaking is to make sure that your website’s content or structure is well understood by the search engines as a result.
In this piece of writing, we will be focusing on the On-Page or On-site SEO to help you understand the ins and outs of it – how you can use it to your best and most of all – how much of a basic knowledge you need to impress your interviewer(s) or bosses. By the end of this article, you will be able to discuss on-page SEO with confidence and a superior knowledge to your fellow newbies.
The first thing you need to know is that what exactly is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO can be explained as the procedure for optimization of web pages so that they rank higher and in result gain more traffic via Google and other such search engines. An on-page includes both;
- Content
- HTML Source Code
This means that both the content, as well as the code, can be optimized in order to maintain or better your web page’s ranking.
Off-page SEO, however, is dependent on;
- Links
- Other External Signals
The main purpose of an off-page SEO is to help your website rank higher in ways on-site doesn’t. While you focus on your own website’s;
- Pages
- Titles
- Tags
- Content
- Overall Structure
In on page SEO so as to optimize everything around your keyword – an off-page technique would focus more on ‘off-site’ (Off the website stuff) like back-linking from significant and renowned sites as a way to lead more traffic to your own on-site page.
Source: https://moz-static.s3.amazonaws.com/learn/seo/elements-optimized-sml.gif?mtime=20170104131405
On-Page Ranking Factors:
Now that you have a know-how about the difference between on-page as well as off page – let’s move on to the next point which is going to help you increase your site’s ranking by manifolds.
The on-page ranking factors can impact your website’s individual page’s ability to rank better if optimized.
Page Content
The content on your page is what can either make or break it for you. If your content is good and unique in quality – both the audience as well as the google algorithms would stay happy. In case, you have no idea about what a Google algorithm is then thought of it like an online inspector that inspects your site on the basis of your content quality, customer reviews/ trust, and your websites’ authority.
When your page has a good content then it meets the audience’s reason for searching the internet. Thus, your content should be your first and foremost priority. However, in the eyes of the internet and some people too – if your content isn’t accessible of linkable then it doesn’t matter whether it is bad or good – it’s of the same value i.e. zero. Thus, it is important to write on a trending topic and not something that people might not even have an idea about – unless your blog or website already is generating a lot of traffic, of course.
Title Tag
Being an HTML element, a title tag is used to specify the ‘title’ (you can totally understand by its name too) of a web page. Whenever someone searches the good on a topic similar to your title tag – it appears on the search engine results pages also known as SERPs.
Title tags hold great importance for;
- Usability
- SEO
- Social sharing
When writing a title tag – be sure to write something that gives an idea of the content. It’d hold the audience’s attention and make them want to click on it too. Don’t try to stuff your title tag with a keyword – if it is stuffed – google won’t support it and the algorithms would push it to the invisibility level.
URL
You know the web addresses you put in the search tab and a website opens up are called URLs, right? A ‘uniform resource locator’ or URL states the location of a source on the internet (your webpage being one of them). A URL also uses a ‘protocol’ that can be sued to retrieve the resource or webpage you want to open. HTTP, FTP, HTTPS etc are an example or protocol.
While writing a URL – make sure that it is no longer than 2083 characters. Moreover, it should not be like domainname.com/4451.html. This is an example of a bad URL. A good URL should be as the picture below shows. A good URL reflects the hierarchy of information on a particular website.
Image Alt Text
Sometimes, due to slow or poor connection, the user is unable to view an image – that is when the Alt or alternative text comes into play. It is displayed in place of a picture to give the reader/ audience an idea of what it is.
Internal & External Links
Sometimes, when you are reading an article a text in blue or some other colour catches your attention. If you click it – you’d be led to another page. This is an internal or external link … a hyperlink that takes you to another resource or web page that either consists of an image or a whole new article. The links are termed as internal or external depending on the domain or website they have as their target destination. It is a common way to provide useful resources to content and to pass link juice from one post to another, resulting into better positioning in search engine results.
Well Optimized Webpage
An ideal webpage optimization would have the following:
- Hyper-Relevance of the Topic i.e. in Title Tag, Meta Description, URL, Image Alt Text Etc.
- Unique and Quality Content
- Good Page Loading Time
- Rating and Star Buttons to Promote Customer Review
- Link back to its – category as well as their subs page, homepage etc.
Author Bio: Nathan John works as Content Editor at u verse packages. He contributes in various online communities and writes about technology, marketing & entertainment.
