Onsite SEO: Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines and Users
On-site SEO (also called "on-page" SEO) involves optimizing the elements of your website to improve both your search engine ranking and how users navigate your site. This is in contrast to off-site optimization, such as links to your site from another website, which is not controlled by you. The key point of on-site SEO is that it will provide you with an ability to have total control over how search engines view your content and provides your visitors with a consistent and useful user experience. By understanding how to properly optimize your site for search engines, they will be able to correctly crawl, index, and interpret your content.
The Core Elements of Onsite SEO
On-site SEO includes many components of both technical (e.g., meta tags) and content quality. Optimizing all components of on-site SEO provides a comprehensive plan and lets search engines know you have a site worthy of high rankings for relevant searches.
Title Tags: Your First Impression
Title tags are among the most critical onsite SEO elements. These HTML elements specify the title of a web page and appear as the clickable headline in search engine results. A well-crafted title tag should be 50-60 characters long, include your primary keyword near the beginning, and accurately describe the page content while enticing users to click.
For example, instead of a generic title like "Home Page," an optimized title might read "Detroit Digital Marketing Agency | SEO & Content Services." This title incorporates location, service keywords, and clearly communicates what the business offers.
Meta Descriptions: Compelling
Summaries
Meta descriptions do not affect your rankings but can have a significant effect on how many people are clicking on your links. A meta description is a very short (150-160 character) summary of the content on your web page that appears just below the title tag in a Google or Bing search result. Your meta description should include all of your relevant keywords, give a good idea of what the visitor will find at your site, and you may also want to include a "call-to-action" to encourage visitors to come to your website.
URL Structures: Clean and
Descriptive
Although meta descriptions do not have a direct effect on the way your website ranks with Google, it has a significant impact on your click through rate (CTR). A meta description is usually found just below your title tags in the search results and is limited to 150-160 characters. To write an effective meta description you need to include relevant keywords, clearly state the value of visiting your page and also create a call to action where applicable.
When writing your meta description think about this as advertising copy. Your goal is to make sure that the people searching will find exactly what they are looking for, and that it's worth their time to check out your site.
Content Quality and
Optimization
Even today, in the SEO world, "content is still king." With how advanced search engines are now when it comes to understanding the quality of your content as well as its relevance and completeness, you want your content to fully explain the topic it's about, answer the question your reader has, and add real value instead of just optimizing for the right keywords.
When it comes to keyword optimization, you can incorporate your targeted keywords and associated terms into your content in a natural way. As opposed to repeatedly using the exact same keyword, try using other words and phrases that are semantically relevant. Using this strategy, called Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI, will help the search engines understand the context in which you're writing, while also improving the user experience by providing readable content.
The length of your content is important, but the quality is always more important than the quantity. Articles that are comprehensive in their explanation of a topic tend to do better in search engine results than thinner pieces of content. When creating an article, be sure to focus on providing depth over fluff; make sure each sentence provides something of value.
Internal Linking Strategy
Internal links link one of your website pages to another. They help distribute page authority around your website, also assist in a search engine discovering and understanding the content on your website. Internal linking provides users with other relevant content that may interest them, also keeps the user engaged for a longer period, and increases topical authority (the authority of your website based on its topic).
For example, when you create an internal link, you should have some type of descriptive anchor text associated with it that gives the user some idea of what they will be finding at the location of the link. Instead of using a generic phrase like "click here", use keyword rich anchor text such as "more information on keyword research strategies". The practice of using keyword rich anchor text allows search engines to better understand how different pages relate to each other and increase the topical relevance of those pages.
Image Optimization
Adding photos to your website enhances the users' experiences; adding photos to your website can help with SEO if they are correctly named. Each photo needs a name of the description of the content of the photo (not "IMG_1234.jpg", etc.) and use dashes (-) between words in the name (i.e., "chocolate-cake-recipe.jpg").
The Alt Text is vital for both accessibility and SEO. The Alt Text is an HTML attribute which is read by Screen Readers and displayed when the image fails to download. Include relevant keywords into the Alt Text but only describe the image and keep it under 125 characters.
Photos can slow down how fast your website loads (a major factor of how you rank) because of their large file sizes. Before you add them to your website compress your photos (but do not sacrifice too much on the compression of your photo). There are many tools available to help you with this task including TinyPNG and some of the WordPress Plugins available will help you to automate this process.
Technical Onsite Factors
Both the overall user experience and search engine rankings are directly impacted by how fast your web site loads. If a users’ web site takes too long to load it will frustrate them and increase their likelihood of “bouncing” from the site.
Optimizing page speed for your web site can be achieved by reducing unnecessary coding, utilizing browser caching, implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and selecting an appropriate host that has sufficient resources.
In today’s mobile-first world, being mobile-friendly is no longer negotiable. Google now utilizes the mobile version of most sites when crawling and indexing sites. It is essential that your web site displays and functions correctly across all types of devices and have a mobile friendly responsive design that adjusts to all screen sizes.
Using Schema Markup, also known as Structured Data, allows Search Engines to understand your content much more clearly and can result in Rich Snippets being displayed in search results. By adding schema markup for Articles, Products, Reviews, Events and Local Businesses you may be able to increase visibility and click through rates.
User Experience Signals
As a result of an increasing emphasis by Search Engines on User Experience, Search Engines are now taking into consideration factors that relate to how the user interacts with the site. These factors include bounce rate, time on page, and pages visited in one session. If users are landing on your site and then returning to the search results, you can assume the content on your site is not meeting the users' expectations or needs.
To improve the user experience (and therefore improve the likelihood of users staying longer on your site, exploring your site, and ultimately converting), focus on providing your users with an environment that allows them to easily navigate the site, view the content clearly through readable font choices and ample use of white space, and allow the site to load quickly. By making your site easier to navigate and more engaging, you will be able to increase the time users spend on your site and have more opportunities to convert users into customers.
Conclusion
A successful On-Site Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is built on a strong base of how your website will be seen by search engines and users. When you improve your site's technical aspects, develop quality content, and optimize it for user experience, you create an environment where both search engines and users enjoy visiting your site. The investment in improving your site's On-Site Optimization leads to long-lasting positive outcomes in the areas of higher search engine ranks, increased organic traffic, and greater conversion rates. Although On-Site SEO is a different process than Off-Site SEO, when combined, both provide a comprehensive approach to achieving long term success in search engine rankings.