Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors for driving traffic to your website. With the right SEO strategy, you can ensure that your site not only shows up in Google search results but that it shows up in the top results. SEO isn’t a single tactic; it’s a combination of techniques and practices that work together to provide a strong boost to your website ranking. I mean combining on-page and off-page SEO for good results.
One of the most powerful SEO techniques is on-page SEO. On-page SEO includes all the steps you take directly within your website to improve its position in search rankings. This includes optimizing page titles, descriptions, content, and image optimization on each page, as well as making sure your URL structure is optimized for search engines and users alike.
Optimizing every page on your site is an important step towards achieving better search rankings, more social shares, and increased traffic. The good news is that on-page SEO is something you have complete control over – as opposed to off-page SEO factors which depend heavily on how others perceive and talk about your brand.
Let us get started …
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO (also known as on-site or on-page SEO) is the practice of optimizing web pages to improve a website’s search engine rankings and earn organic traffic.
On-page SEO involves both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.
Follow these 9 SEO best practices and tips for new bloggers, and you’ll give yourself the best chance possible to skyrocket your blog’s readership and make it easier for people to find out about you and your great content.
1. Adding internal links
Internal links are links on your website that point to other pages within your site. They make it easier for visitors to find the information they need within the site, and can also help identify your site’s most important pages.
To Google and other search engines, internal links help Google crawl and index your site. They help establish an information hierarchy for the given website and provide value for users looking for specific content within a website.
Essentially, internal links are backlinks from one page on our website to other pages on our website.
In addition to helping search engines understand the structure of your website and the relationships between different pages on your site, internal links also allow visitors to navigate efficiently through your site. This helps keep people on your website longer and lowers the bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave immediately after viewing only one page).
Let’s say you have a website that sells shoes. You can create an internal link from one pair of shoes to another pair by using an anchor text like “how to start a blog.” It would look something like this: “If you this guide on how to start a blog, you might also like “How to write a blog post on your new site“.” When someone clicks on the link, they’ll be taken to another page where they can buy white sneakers.
There are a few ways to link internally:
- Normal links: You might include links as part of a sentence or image description, or as text inside a list. These links can also be underlined, bolded, italicized, or set apart by color.
- Drop-down menus: If you’d like to link to other pages on your site without adding a lot more text to your page, you can use drop-down menus. These are usually placed at the top of the page and display lists of additional links when clicked.
- Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs are text that shows users their location within a website’s hierarchy. For example, if someone has navigated from the homepage https://zakariagithae.com/ to a blog a page https://zakariagithae.com/how-to-start-a-wordpress-blog/ then the breadcrumb would be “Home > how-to-start-a-wordpress-blog
2. Optimize your permalinks: Make Sure Your URLs Are Short And Sweet
URLs are one of the basic building blocks of SEO. They’re a critical part of how search engines crawl and index your site, and serve as the first impression for people who find your site in search results.
Optimizing your permalinks is a great way to both improve your on-page SEO and make it easier for people to find, share, and link to your pages. A permalink is the permanent link of a webpage.
When you don’t optimize them, they can look like this: https://zakariagithae.com/?p=561. If you do, they might look like this: https://zakariagithae.com/seo-ranking-factors/.
The difference here is that users will be able to tell what the page is about just by looking at the URL, which is helpful when they’re deciding whether or not to click on it (people usually prefer to know what they’re getting into before they click).
It’s also more likely that people will link to your page (and share it) if it has a descriptive URL than if it doesn’t.
3. Including images that illustrate your topic
Visual content is the most engaging and important form of content for many readers. It’s also one of your best on-page SEO opportunities because it can enhance your ranking in Google Image Search. Research shows that images are an effective way to grab attention, convey information, and increase comprehension. They can also help you rank higher in Google Image Search, which can result in new traffic to your website.
Read on: image optimization.
Images are a great way to make your post more eye-catching and break up large blocks of text. They draw people into the body of the article and encourage them to read more.
It’s important to remember that images are read differently than text – users tend to scan photos quickly and don’t spend as much time looking at each individual image as they do reading a paragraph of text. Because of this, it’s helpful to include multiple images in a post so users have multiple opportunities to notice one when scanning through it.
When you’re including images in your posts, be sure to add as much value as possible by including relevant keywords and descriptive alt text that tells Google what the image is about.
Let us talk about image alt text …
4. Optimizing your images with alt text
Optimizing your images with alt text is a great SEO strategy, especially if you’re writing articles with a lot of how-to steps or product descriptions.
When the robots crawl the web and look at each page, they’ll see the words in your article’s alt text, then add those words to their index of what that page is about.
This helps reinforce your keywords, giving you an additional boost on Google. But it also helps your readers: Search engines can’t see what an image is – they only read the code that describes it.
If you don’t include alt text, someone using the web with a screen reader will hear something like “image” or “graphic.” If you do include alt text, they’ll hear something like “sunset over lake” – which is not only helpful for them but also brings attention to the fact that you have a beautiful sunset picture!
And don’t forget about search engines – they’re crawling through your site too. Optimizing your images can help them understand what your page is about and rank it higher on Google searches!
What is alt text?
Alt-text is a short description of what an image shows. It’s used by screen readers and other assistive technologies to communicate what’s on the page to users with visual impairments.
5. Use keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions
Search engines like Google use the title tags and meta descriptions on your website to display relevant content to searchers. When it comes to on-page SEO, these elements are crucial as they’re the first thing search engines look at when ranking your pages.
Search engines are looking for the most relevant information relating to a search query, and the most effective way for them to determine that is by looking through your page for keywords related to what someone searched for.
By using keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions, you ensure that you’re giving both search engines and searchers exactly what they’re looking for. Doing this will help boost your ranking in search results, as well as encourage people to click on your links.
When writing title tags and meta descriptions, aim for clarity and conciseness. You only have a limited amount of space to work with, so you’ll need to choose your words wisely.
Here are some tips:
- Keep title tags between 50 and 60 characters long
- Include keywords at the beginning of title tags
- Use action verbs and avoid repetitive phrases
- Keep meta descriptions between 150 and 160 characters long
- Include keywords near the beginning of meta descriptions
You should also consider including a call-to-action (CTA) in your meta description. This can entice users to click through to your site by giving them an incentive to do so. For example, you might try something like this: “Get 50% off today – visit us now!” or “Download our free guide.” etc.
6. Use your key phrase in headlines & subheadlines
The headlines and subheadlines on your website are like the titles of books or chapters: they direct readers to the gist of what you’re saying and help them evaluate whether they’re interested in reading further.
If a reader sees that your headline doesn’t match their search query, they’ll most likely leave your site to continue searching elsewhere.
So it’s important that you include your key phrase in both your headlines and subheadlines to ensure that you’re attracting people who are looking for what you have to offer.
It’s also a good idea to make sure that the key phrase is near the beginning of the headline and/or subheadline. This will help Google understand how relevant your content is to the search term.
7. Submitting your sitemap
Submitting your sitemap is an important part of the on-page optimization process.
A sitemap is a document that contains links to all of the pages within your site, and you can submit it to Google directly through Search Console. It serves as a roadmap for search engines, helping them find and analyze content on your site.
The more pages you have on a site, the more important it is to submit a sitemap, but even if you only have a few pages it’s still useful to do. When we talk about submitting a site, we’re talking specifically about the XML sitemap format.
Submitting your sitemap will not guarantee that all the items in that list will be crawled and indexed – it will still depend on the crawl budget – but it does help ensure that search engines know about the pages on your site.
You can also submit any updated versions of a sitemap in order to notify search engines that you’ve made changes since the last crawl.
8. Optimize Title & Meta Description
– Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a snippet that summarizes the contents of a webpage. It’s what you see when Google displays your website beneath its title in search results. Your meta description should be short, sweet, and to the point – no one will read something too long or cumbersome. Use this space to describe what your site offers and why people should visit it.
– Page Titles
Page titles are not only how readers see your website in their search results; they’re also what show up at the top of the window when someone visits that page on your site. Much like meta descriptions, page titles should be brief and concise, but they should also help describe the unique content on each page of your site.
9. Bold Important Words Throughout Your Posts
The bolding of important words throughout your posts is an on-page SEO best practice because it makes your content more readable to the human eye. It also helps to visually separate certain areas of your text and can signify headings, quotes, or other content that needs to be emphasized.
When you bold important words within your blog, whether it’s the main keyword phrase you want to rank for or other related keywords, you are making it easier for Google to figure out what your post is about.
When you’re bolding certain terms, try not to overdo it. Bold every other sentence and readers will start skimming your content for bold text, instead of reading your work.
Conclusion
There is no denying the truth behind the statement “Content is King.” Creating high-quality content that readers want to share and comment on is the best way to start attracting inbound links and building a loyal following – both of which can drive traffic to your blog in the long run.
The on-page SEO tips mentioned above will help you establish a good foundation for your blog, but you should also focus on creating great content from the get-go. Don’t forget to link within your own content as well. Readers find relevant, internal links persuasive and are more likely to click on them.
Thanks for reading.
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