On-page optimization goes beyond adding Keywords and Keywords to rank on Google.
For successful on-page optimization, there's a need for a clear hierarchy.
The most important information should have the greatest visibility, and the least important information should have the least visibility.
Because the average scan time of a user is 8 seconds, and only a few users read word by word.
So, your on-page optimization process should be a natural practice of developing content, structuring and organizing it for search engines and humans to understand.
READABILITY is important!
The primary page elements such as headings, sub-headings, and content mark-up can be used to present a clear hierarchy of information.
When you look at the components that make up the SERP, you'll see that the primary elements are...
How do you optimize the pages of your website to show up the way search engines want and also make it pleasing to humans?
Let's take a look at the page structure of your site.
SEO On-page Elements & How to Structure Your Content
Your page content structure is important because this is what the search engines pull out and display to searchers.
Every page on your website should have a unique:
- URL,
- Page title,
- Description, and
- Unique keyword to avoid keyword cannibalization
Your page title and description should focus on the content.
The description should summarize the content. And strategically place the keywords to increase its rankings on search engines.
URLs
Universal Resource Locator (URL) helps describe a web page to search engines.
An SEO-friendly URL is important for proper crawling, indexing, and ranking and also for user experience.
URL - best practices
- Include Keywords in URL.
So that search engines can find consistent information patterns when the URLs utilize keywords as part of the naming convention.
Keyword in URLs is a strong signal to search engines about the content of the webpage.
- Separate words with hyphens
https://semoladigital.com/web-design/seo-friendly-web-design-best-practices
https://semoladigital.com/seo-friendly_web_design-best-practices
- Url must be lower case.
- Keep it short.
- Use silo structure
www.semoladigital.com/topic/post-title/
Or
www.parknbuy.com/products-category/sub-category
e.g.,
https://amazon.com/clothes/men-wears.
- URLs should be within three clicks away from the homepage.
Page Title
The page title is the first phrase seen by the searchers and plays a vital role in on-page optimization.
The page title must be clear and concise to provide insight into the type of content a user will see after clicking on the result on SERP.
For example:
You want to write on a real estate agency
Your page title could be:
7 ways to invest in real estate without buying a property in 2020.
Page title - best practices
- Make it simple.
- Use keywords or keywords phrases that are relevant to the content.
- Avoid adding words that are not necessary.
- Use short titles to enhance readability. Too lengthy titles will be cut off and may make your title appear incomplete.
- The shorter title has been seen to increase the view rate.
- Use Keywords, hyphens, commas, brackets, and colons to simplify your title.
Note…
Google only allows a maximum of 600px - pixel width of characters for the page title, and everything else is cut out.
This translates to a character length of between 65 and 70.
To prevent Google from truncating your title, keep it below 65.
Headlines
Headlines are the primary information found on the webpage and are displayed in large text.
Your headlines should be able to augment the title and describe the information or content on your page.
Headlines - best practices
- Like the page title, headlines should be clear and simple.
- Write in an active voice.
- Include your Keywords in most especially the H1 tag, as this will attract the reader's attention.
- Avoid additional words that can result in confusion.
- There should be only one heading within an H1 tag and
- Wrap other subheadings within H2 to H6 tags.
How to optimize the content on your web pages
The key to optimizing the content on your pages is understanding how people scan and identify the information on a web page. ...tweet this...
What do people scan?
While scanning a web page, users search for information quickly by looking at the headlines, sub-headings, and paragraphs.
And so, the layout of your pages, the page elements within HTML, the content, and Keywords all ensure that a user sees the most important information as quickly as possible while scanning your web pages.
How users scan web pages
- A user first looks at the page headline, which informs him or her about what the page is about.
2. He or she then looks at the sub-headings to see if he or she can quickly navigate straight to the answer to the question in mind.
3. From there, move on to scanning the text paragraphs for bullet lists, hyperlinks, and text decorations to see if there is a direct answer or something related to what he or she is looking for.
Optimizing content - paragraph
#1. The paragraph should be short - not more than three sentences.
#2. Each paragraph should represent a single idea.
#3. There should be coherence and a sense of completeness in sentences.
#4. There should be space between the paragraphs.
Optimizing Content - Bulleted Lists
Adding bullet points on your web pages makes it much easier for users to scan and read your content.
If there's a paragraph of information, only 55% of people will look at the content on your web page.
But,
If you add bullet points to your content, more than 70% will pay attention and read through.
When and How to use bullet points in content
Bullet points help to break up the content and provide quick information bytes.
#1. You should only include bullet points in your content if it has specific, actionable information.
#2. Bullet points should not be too long.
Optimizing content - Use of bold and italics
Bold and italics should be used only in a few places to attract the reader's attention.
Here are some important points to note while using bold and italics in your content:
- Do not use too much bold text as it can distract your readers.
- Only bold and italicize where or what you want your reader to focus on.
- Do not use too many colors on your web page, as the important content could easily be overlooked.
Optimizing content - content break-ups
A content break-up is another way to enhance readability. You can optimize your content by breaking it up into paragraphs or getting rid of unwanted content.
Follow these best practices to break up your content effectively:
- Evaluate the amount of content and break it into half to make it easier to read.
- Avoid keywords stuffing and jargon.
- Rephrase sentences by utilizing the results of keyword research.
- Develop and decide on a strategy to use for content presentation.
Content optimization - hyperlinks
Hyperlinks help search engines to determine the quality level of your content by citing other people's work within your content.
Use hyperlinks to:
- Refer to other examples.
- Cite other people's works.
- Refer to the information on other websites.
- Direct visitors to another page on your website.
Optimizing content - multimedia
You can optimize the multimedia and images on your website by using correct naming attributes and captions.
Before you integrate an image into your content, you must ensure you properly name it within the alt attribute tag.
Here's an example of how to name an image. Assuming you want to include a picture into your real estate article, it would be:
<img src="home.jpg" alt="picture of a home">
So that when the image does not load, users can see the details - and what the missing image is about.
Here's is what Google Webmaster Guidelines say:
"Use the alt attribute to provide descriptive text. In addition, use a human-readable caption and descriptive text around the image."
Summing up On-Page SEO Optimization Best Practices for Your Website...
"The best SEO is good content".
- Seth Godin
The secret to ranking on a search engine is knowing how to write to attract people.
Always organize your content and present it in a format that you know your reader would enjoy.
However, do not over-optimize with keywords as this may attract Google penalties and flags your website with Panda.