Introduction to On-Page SEO
Being indexed and ranked on the search engine results pages (SERPs) it depends on many factors, beginning with the different elements on each of your website. Optimizing these factors helps search engine crawlers find your website, index the pages appropriately , and rank it according to your desired keywords.
On-page optimization plays a big role in ensuring your online marketing campaign's success. In this definitive guide, you will learn how to successfully optimize your website to ensure that your website is indexed and ranked on the SERPs. In addition you’ll learn how to make your web pages convert.
On Page SEO: Codes, Mark-Ups, & Metadata
Having clean codes, optimized HTML tags and error-free metadata helps search engine algorithms gain a better understanding of your website they crawl and index your site in order rank your pages according to the most relevant search terms.
Make sure to check the following:
Source Codes
Your source code is the backbone of your website. The search engine algorithms find everything they needs in order to index your website based on the source codes. Make sure your source code is devoid of any problems by checking the following:
Incorrectly Implemented Tags
Examples of these are re=canonical tags, authorship mark-up, or redirects. These could prove catastrophic, especially the canonical code, which can end up in duplicate content penalties.
Server-Side Code Showing Up On The HTML Code
Depending on how this is processed, the code could either cause errors on the website or show up as text on the front end, revealing secrets that your competitors can pick up on.
Excessive Script Code
This could slow down your page loading time which is bad for your SEO rankings.
Analytics Tagging
Some tags for analytics may be available to competitors. Removing unnecessary tags is good practice.
Mark-Ups & Tags
Adding markups improves the look of your SERPs listings and contributes to trust signals. The most basic snippets are:
Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) - Rich Snippets
This displays your business name, business location, and contact details on the SERPs.
Product Snippet
This displays ratings of your products, images, price range, and availability.
Review Snippet
This snippet shows the ratings and reviews exclusively on the SERPs.
Video Snippet
Displays a thumbnail of the video display next to the listing. You can install this manually if you host your own video or if it is shared on a video sharing site (Youtube, Vimeo, Vine, etc), or automatically have this appear through the Facebook Share markup code.
Other specialized snippets for on-page SEO are also available and may be integrated according to industry standards. These include snippets for recipes, people snippets, and even music album snippets, to name a few. It’s also good on-page SEO practice to check your HTML tags and optimize all titles and header tags with relevant keywords.
Metadata
Optimizing metadata helps crawlers interpret your site content better. It's important to include the following details:
Title
We keep your title within the character limit, and make it consistent with the web page's title.
Meta Description
This displays your business name, business location, and contact details on SERPs.
Meta Keywords
We refer to your keyword groupings to determine which keywords we need to insert here.
H1 Tag
There needs to be continuity between the title and header tag.
Landing Pages & Buyer Psychology
When developing your landing page, we understand that in most cases, you should be able to drop paid traffic onto that landing page and still see a fair amount convert to leads and/or customers. An optimized landing page will work great for both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising (PPC). If your optimized website does not have a landing page that converts, you’ll be washing valuable pre qualified traffic down the drain…along with your advertising budget.
In order to get this mix right, we focus our efforts on optimizing landing pages for search engines and for potential customers. We go through a process of understanding how your audience thinks when they are searching for products and services online. This information helps us determine which interests and needs should be addressed during the customer journey. Here’s how we do it:
Captivating, Keyword Focused Title Tag:
On your landing page, this is the most important 8 - 10 words you'll write. We keep it both keyword focused and compelling enough to be clicked on above your competitors.
Eloquent Description:
This text is the very first point of contact in search engine results and is thus a crucial component of your landing page optimization. We create descriptions that receive clicks through strong call-to-action.
Keyword-Focused, Powerful Headline:
We make sure that the user experiences continuity when making first contact with the website. The headline contains the optimized keywords and gives your potential customer a reason to stay on the page and engage with whatever is on offer. It also gives search engines the topical focus of your page.
Topically Relevant & Keyword-Focused Content:
It's very important that the content on your landing page focuses on the topic and goals your website sets out to be achieved. We use the correct keywords and related phrases, but more than that, make sure that the content will be useful to your users.
Call-to-action:
A good landing page doesn't leave the user feeling unsure about the next step to take. It is clear and concise in providing the user with a motivation to take the next step. We create a clear goal and desired action for the user to take.
Site Structure:
When grouping your keywords and creating the site structure, consider the website topics, what keywords you want to rank for, and what the general purpose of the site is. Also consider the customer journey and make sure that the site structure will make sense to your customers.
Trust & Credibility Signals:
Add testimonials and logos of companies you have worked with so far. This will send trust signals to your target market and add to their credibility. Encourage reviews from customers through social media and forum engagement, email surveys, and links to your local listings.
Socialization:
The importance of social signals shouldn't be understated in significance when it comes to search algorithms. We make sure that your website pages are easily shareable by your users, making sure your visitors engage with your offerings.
On-Page SEO In a Nutshell
Implementing a good on-page SEO strategy will bring paying customers to your website in no time. Even though it’s only the first step in the SEO process, you should see a substantial increase in overall organic website traffic. Optimizing your landing pages closes the loop in the conversion process and makes sure that these pre qualified prospects turn into leads and then spend their money with your business.