how to optimize your content to rank in search engines
Learn how to optimize your content to rank in search engines 2020
- What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the content of a website to rank in search engines.
This includes optimizing HTML elements like title tags, meta descriptions, the content, internal links, and more to make it easy for search engines to understand your website.
As opposed to On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO refers to optimizing factors external to your website (like backlinks from other websites, brand mentions, and social signals).
Why Is On-Page SEO Important?
On-Page SEO is important because this shows search engines what your website and your pages are about. Without proper on-page optimization, it will be difficult to rank for your targeted keywords and generate traffic.
By understanding how to optimize your site, your chances of ranking will be greatly increased!
How To Do OnPage SEO
While optimizing your site for SEO involves many factors, here are the major parts of OnPage optimization you’ll want to consider:
Title Tag
The title tag is a piece of HTML code on each page of your site that tells search engines what the page is about. It’s often what is displayed in search engine results pages.
You’ll want to make sure that your title tag includes your target keyword and is written in a compelling way that makes a user want to click it.
Meta Description
The meta description is a piece of HTML code on each page of your site that describes what the pages is about. It’s often displayed right below the title tag in search engine results pages.
Header Tags
Header tags are pieces of HTML code that help structure the headings and the subheadings of a page. These can tell search engines what the most important elements of the page are.
As an example, the h1 tag is generally the main header of a page. You’ll want to include your keyword here.
Content Optimization
The actual content and text of a page is also an important element. You’ll want to make sure to include enough content on the page in text form for users and search engines.
In fact, studies show that longer content tends to rank better.
Make sure you include your keywords in the content of the page in a natural way.
Image Optimization
Images on your page can also give clues to search engines as to what the page is about.
Before uploading your images, use descriptive filenames. For instance, you can name a file “tampa-fl-roof-repair-exmple.jpg” as opposed to “image1.jpg”
Alt text is a piece of HTML code that tells browsers and search engines the contents of an image. Similar to the file names, you can use this to describe the image.
Internal links
On your website, you can internally link to other pages of your site. This helps search engines find the pages of your site, and also pass authority to other pages.
URL structure
Using SEO-friendly URLs can help signify what your pages are about to search engines.
As an example, have you ever seen a URL that looks like this?
example.com/383888v20/10-29-2024/388883000293999?
The URL just contains random numbers and doesn’t help the user or search engines understand the page. Instead, you’d be better off using a URL that contains your keywords like:
example.com/tampa-fl-roof-repair
- Using SEO Friendly URLs
You can optimize the URL (or address of your webpage) by keeping it short and including your target keywords.
A good example of an SEO-friendly URL looks like this:
example.com/tampa-fl-roofing-repair/
As you can see, the target keywords are in the actual address, and both a user and a search engine could tell that this page is about roofing repair in Tampa, FL.
In contrast to the example above, an “ugly” URL often contains numbers or extra characters that do not describe the page. A non-SEO-friendly URL might look something like this:
example.com/38892302/ab20093-3992/
The numbers are extraneous, they elongate the URL unnecessarily, and they do not help a user or a search engine understand the page.
Using Short Urls
Google’s former head of search quality, Matt Cutts, stated in an interview that it’s important to keep URLs short:
According to Cutts, an SEO-friendly URL is around 4-5 words, with the algorithm giving less weight to keywords added in after the 5th word.
In other words, keep your URLs short and sweet, and use keywords near the front.
How To Create SEO Friendly URLs
Non-SEO friendly URLs are often created as a result of the CMS that a website runs on.
For instance in WordPress, when creating posts and pages, you can edit the URL by clicking “Edit” button next to the URL on the page.
editing the URL in wordpress
For the blog in WordPress, you can set the default taxonomy (URL structure) by going to Settings > Permalinks and choosing an option like “Post name” as a default.
URL structure in html , php, WordPress
By using your keywords in the URL of your pages, you’ll create easy to read SEO-friendly URLs!
abc.com/about-us
abc.com/services
