Get Noticed on the Web!!!- On Page SEO

Introduction

On Page SEO is a part of SEO. It is a method practised to increase the site visibility on the internet and increase its page or website ranking when searched by various search engines. The basic rule is, More the site visibility, higher the ranking.  Over the years the search engines and the On Page SEO has changed the manner of their function. It has transformed the structure and the presentation of the On Page SEO.  

What is SEO

SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization. It is the basis on online marketing. It is an approach that facilitates visibility of a website or an individual web page on the internet. The sign of a good website depends on its ranking on a search engine. The more times the site appears on a search, the higher it is ranked. The ranking increases the traffic to the site and search page visibility.

What is On Page SEO

SEO can be split into two sections- On-Page and Off Page SEO. On Page SEO is to do with the happenings of the individual website. Right from the construct, look, linking, design, user experience, content, and flexibility. On Page SEO not only indulges in the functional part of the web site or a page but also gets into the technical aspects. The onus is on the website creator. Off Page SEO considers external or internal linking, social media presence and other external factors necessary to get more visibility of the website.

Importance of On Page SEO

On Page SEO is also known as Site SEO. It maximises the features required of a website for better positioning in its search results. It facilitates the search engine to know your website. It gauges its contents to give relevant results to the user. Thus, it is of outmost importance to optimize the On Page SEO and attract the target audience. A search engine enhances site traffic to a well-crafted website ranking it higher than the others. It reaches its target audience with less effort and time.

Must have components for an On Page SEO

Among the many factors required, Let us look at some of the basic ones to kick start the On Page SEO.

1.  Expert technical hands

The On Page SEO looks at both the functional and the technical aspect of the page. Hence, the code quality should be of high standards. It should be simple, understandable and well written. A less complex code makes it easier to incorporate changes in the future. The code should not accidently block a crawler from adding the website to their list.

2. Clear crisp content

Search engines fish for contents that are clear and informative and rank the site based on it. The contents of the website should catch the reader’s attention. Language should be simple language and avoid too many jargons. It should be easily readable in terms of the font used, font colour, font size, page background colour. It should carry the relevant information the reader is looking for and carry a value-add for the reader.

3. Error-free user experience (UX) design

A site will not stand alone only by it brilliant content and an excellent designed website. The website should be equally user friendly designed. Users should get the pulse of the website in the first few minutes of their visit to the site. The prompts on the website should be easy to understand, simple and well directed. The user should be able to navigate easily on the site. The speed of navigation and the click should be fast. A well designed UX site grips the attention of the user wanting him to visit the site often.

How does your Website get ranked?

There is a step by step procedure that a search engine follows to rank a website. For Example-Google has a three-step process. It has a crawler, an index which is a large database and an algorithm that works intelligently to match the search with the desired result. The crawler goes through the web 24/7 and looks for links from one website to another. It then updates the HTML code of the link into its database that is the index.

As and when it finds any changes in the websites visited, it updates it in its database. The crawler visits the website on the frequency of the changes made on the website and the site traffic. This is a continuous process.

For the crawler to make a note of your website presence, it has to be linked to the site already added to the index. If the crawler visits the liked site and follows the link, it will crawl to your website and save it in the index.  From now on your website will be visible in the results when searched.

Once indexed, the algorithm comes into play. It is dynamic in nature and changes often. It decides what websites to visit and its order of appearance for a requested query. The algorithm then matches the query with the indexed websites to give the required results.

Now that we understand the importance of On Page SEO and how the search engine works to look for a websites, let’s make use of the following techniques to optimize the On Page SEO for higher ranking.

12 important On Page SEO techniques to elevate Ranking

1. Title: Word the title uniquely

The title plays a very important factor in the On Page SEO while searching for information on the web. The search engine looks for the titles that match keywords to give accurate results. A well thought and worded title shows up in the top search results. The title should be unique yet simple to comprehend. This entices the target audience and increases the site visit frequency. Make sure that there are no multiple page titles. This confuses the browser and may not direct to the required site. Many title tags arise as a result of erroneous coding by the developer. Hence, it is not only essential to unique title the web page but also write error-free code.

2. Keyword usage frequency

Using keywords in the body of the content is very important. It helps the search engine to scan and understand the content. It is a good practice to use the keywords four to five times or maintain a keyword density of two to five percent. Crowding the content with more keywords decreases the readability factor of the content and can run the risk of getting the site banned. An article on a website or a web page content should be informative and of reasonable length. A good article length is of five hundred to thousand plus words. The trick is to write a human-readable and a search engine traceable content.

3. Heading and sub heading tags: H1-H4

Break your contents into smaller paragraphs for users to read. These paragraphs can be grouped under main and subsequent sub headings. This is where the tag concept comes into picture. The H1 tag is basically associated with the main heading. H2, H3 etc. are used for sub headings. Hence, word the heading appropriately and make use of affluent keywords in order of heading priority. The search engine uses the keywords to search for the content. Do not add keywords and overdo the sub headings. The idea of using the H tags is to inform the search engine of your content structure for easy read.

4. Meta Descriptions: A summary of the content

Meta description attracts visitors to the website and increases the site traffic. This in turn results of the website ranking. The Meta description is a compact version of the entire content written. Like the heading tag, there should be only one Meta description written for content. Meta description gives the summary of the content at a glance. Make use of the keywords while writing a Meta description but do not overload it. Avoid writing a generic Meta description and using the same across the content. A good Meta description should not exceed 156 characters. It encourages the reader to read the content on the site and not pass through the title to another site.

5. Meta Tags-Hidden text

Meta tags are a set of keywords written in the code. Meta tags contain the content relevant keywords. They are not visible in the search results but are hidden in the code and is a tag in the HTML language. This is machine read and put in for the search engine to read.

6. IMAGES

Including images with your content is a great way to break the boredom of continuous text reading. Users remember visuals better than the text. A combination of image and text increases the site visit and ranking. Make sure the images uploaded to the site have titles with relevant keywords. This increases the user experience in tracing the site while looking up on images on the net.

7.  URL: Structure & Keywords

The structure of the URL should be user-friendly and short. A website can have an URL for each page to bring greater crawling from the search engine. SEO friendly and keyword targeted URLs increase the SEO value of the site. They also enhance in building the trust of the users. The URL character length should be less than 76 characters to avoid truncates.

8. Linking: Internal and external

One can link pages in the website or to another source outside the website. The main motto is not only to have the users take a tour of the site but also dig deep into the content. If used well the website gets crawled better and finds all pages of the site. This also helps in the Google ranking factor. Linking your website to external site spikes credibility for both SEO and the users. The users get to navigate deeper and look for relevant information. It serves as a value-add for the user enhancing the user experience.

9. Social Media

Add social content sharing buttons for various social media platforms. It signals the search engines the value and worth of your content. Besides it increases the brand value, visibility factor and increase in site traffic.

10. Responsive Design

Responsive design has made browsing easy for a user on any device. It adapts its layout to the device making it easier to read and elevates user experience.

11. Domain Names

The choice of the domain names speaks about your website. It is one of the crucial elements in the On Page SEO strategy.

12. Specific Landing Pages

Landing pages are for a specific service or product and are tailor-made. A well created and optimized landing page is beneficial to search engines and users. It talks a great deal about the company services and benefits offered to its customers. Focus on the appropriate keywords and include them in the Meta description and title.

On Page SEO is the crux of an awesome website. Focus on creating user friendly, attractive and rich content to appear frequently in a search result and increase the page ranking.

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