On the page, SEO does not have to be as complicated as some people make it out to be. It does not involve coding or programming, as some people believe, especially if you create a blog like WordPress. Let’s face it; the search engines have no idea what word you want to rank high for if you don’t tell them. We must let the search engines know what keywords we want to rank high for in several ways.
I want to give you five essential on-page SEO tips; note that some of these will apply to bloggers more than others, but be creative, and they can boost your search engine rankings for any website.
1- Write a Good Optimized Title
It would help if you took some time to give your title a lot of thought; your meta title is the most important on-page SEO factor for search engines. If you are writing your titles to capture your reader’s eye and draw them in, you are going about this the wrong way. Your focus should be more on telling the search engines what your content is about rather than trying to pull your readers in. Your meta-title is where you should focus on the search engines, not the readers.
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Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about: “Click here to learn the best dog training techniques that the experts don’t want you to know about.” This is a terrible meta-title. Out of 14 words in that title, only two are what you want to rank high for, but they are the most sought-after phrases in that niche. Seven best dog training techniques focus more on search engines while still pulling in your readers.
Short and simple works best at times; please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all your content should be optimized this way. Long-tail keywords work best when the user types in those exact words. So you can rank high for long-tail keywords, but when you want a lot of traffic to your website, you need to try to rank high for those keywords you want to rank for.
If you are writing a blog, “Click here to learn the best dog training techniques that experts don’t want you to know about,” that would be a great post title, pulling in your readers and making them want to read your article. Please don’t make it your meta-title; it can be different than your post title, which is better for search engine optimization. Your meta-title should contain your website’s main keywords without being so long. So, as you can see, writing a well-optimized title isn’t easy; it takes some thinking.
The techniques I talked about above can also be applied when writing your meta-descriptions.
2- You Need to Maintain Focus on Your Content
Content is a significant part of your website if not the most important. Focusing your content on the right keywords can easily boost your search engine rankings with little effort. Just think, how will the search engines rank you for the keywords you want if it has no idea what your content is about? I have always said that SEO was more than just building links.
Please don’t get a bad rep with the search engine regarding keyword stuffing. Always keep SEO in mind when you’re writing content for your website. Be sure to mention the keyword you want to rank for often; this is one of the best on-page SEO tips I can give; don’t mention your keywords too much. If your keyword fits, use it; if it doesn’t work, don’t use it; it will be the same as keyword stuffing, and Google could penalize you for that.
Use special text; I’m speaking about using bigger or bold letters. If you can use your keyword and it fits to put it in bold letters, do so. The search engines give a lot more emphasis on bold or enlarged words, such as your title. Large letters are bolded and show more importance than non-bolded text. Do not overdo special text as with anything else; this could have a negative effect.
3- Internal Linking
Internal linking doesn’t carry the same importance as links from other websites, but this is a good way to show the search engines what your website is about. What I mean by this is you can link to other articles you have on your website inside an article using different keywords. Using keywords to link to other articles on your website lets the search engine know what your website is about and what keywords you are trying to rank for.
An internal linking strategy should be used when writing your content; this allows visitors to your site another way to get to important content that you have on your website, keeping them on your website longer. Most importantly, use your targeted keywords when linking to other articles or posts; this strategy will help build a network of internal links on your website to let the search engines know what keywords you are trying to target.
4- Keep a Clean URL Structure
The URLs on your website are just another way of telling the search engines what your web pages are about. URL structure is fundamental. Many web admins and bloggers alike do not take the time to optimize their websites.
What I want to talk about now mainly pertains to bloggers keeping a clean URL structure. It is something that is just not thought about much, but it is oh-so important. Always remember to put keywords in your URL. This is also very important. Here are a few examples of dirty URLs: examplesite.com/page-number-47.html, examplesite.com/47.html, examplesite.com/?p=47, etc.
Here are a few examples of some clean URLs: examplesite.com/seo-tips.html, examplesite.com/seo-tips/, examplesite.com/search-engine-optimization/seo-tips/ etc. As you probably noticed, these URLs are in the main directory of the domain. Creating this sense of power within each page is very important for search optimization.
If your website is on a blog platform such as WordPress, it is pretty straightforward how to edit your permalinks. But for the other guys who are not using a blogging platform, you may want to learn how to edit your .htaccess files to manage a clean URL structure.
Creating a good, clean URL structure can be difficult even for experienced web admins and could drag their side down if not done correctly.
You probably already know what I’m talking about. When designing your website, having a good navigational structure will allow your visitor to navigate your website and the search engines to index your website’s content more easily. Here are a few ways to improve your site structure.
Within the navigation bar, link to important pages. It’s not important to link to every page on your website in the navigation bar, but fit in as many important links as you can using targeted keywords. The footer should also contain links to content. Bloggers might be interested in a related post-plug-in that will help increase internal links and good navigational structure. The best way to get your content indexed by Google is to submit a sitemap to Google’s Webmaster Tools. There are also plug-ins for bloggers to do this, but I manually submit mine to Webmaster tools to Google with XML Site Maps.
The Golden rule for most bloggers is to visit any page on your website within three clicks; this is an excellent rule. I make sure that from any spot on my website, within three clicks, you can visit any part of my website. By doing this, your website gets some link juice and ensures that every page can be easily accessed by the user looking for it.
I want to add that writing good quality content is very important in giving Google a reason to index your website more often and thinking of your website as the authority site. Also, writing good content gives your readers a reason to promote and link to your website. Most people overlook on-page SEO and think that just building backlinks on the web will give their site high rankings. In some instances, it works for certain content on your site,, but for your site to be ranked highly on a page and off-page, an SEO strategy needs to be applied.
Creating an online business can change your life forever. It knows how to implement all the strategies to get visitors to your website. That is the tricky part.
