7 Ways to Improve On-Page Optimization
An important and essential part of SEO is on-page optimization. Many elements factor into a successful formula for on-page optimization. At Upright, we often see clients who are doing things to improve their online presence ranging from adding content to complete website redesigns, only to find the results from their efforts disappointing and frustrating. Part of our job is to assess a client’s status quo to identify missing elements or opportunities for enhancement. One area that we often find in need of improvement is on-page optimization.
Websites that lack on-page SEO often fail to rank well on search engines and subsequently lose out to competitors who appear in the top positions. If your missing online marketing ingredient is on-page SEO, there are many extensions available that can strengthen your online presence and improve your position among searches for your products and services.
Knowing the most effective on-page optimization strategies is critical for online marketing success. The right strategies will not only provide an efficient way to improve your rankings, but also allow you to track website performance and measure the core metrics of your program.
Here are 7 important on-page strategies to keep in mind:
Proper Content
Your website copy should be relevant to your products and services as well as unique and originally written for your website. Search Engines not only look for this, they actually penalize websites that contain outdated or duplicated information. When creating website content, make sure that your copy is relevant and consists of the right keywords to connect searchers with your website.
Heading Tags
The headings of the page are created with tag, with x being a number between 1 to 6. Heading tags such as h2, h3, and h4 are used to highlight your subheadings. While the h1 tag is used one time only as your title, tags such as h2 or h3 tags can be used more than once, but not too frequently as this could be construed as a negative SEO practice if overused.
Title Tags
HTML tags are used to define the text or the title of the search listings and are located on the top of Web browser. The title should provide a brief but accurate preview of the page’s content, not to exceed 65 – 70 characters. Title tags are essential to each webpage, and each title tag should be unique. Title tags are highly important for optimizing your page in search engines.
Meta Description Tag
Meta description tags are intended to offer a concise description of your website page content and be used by the search engines to evaluate your pages as search results. As with the title tags, meta description tags should be unique and relevant to the page content. Important keywords should always be included. The length of the description, including spaces should not exceed more than 155 characters.
XML Sitemap
Having an XML Sitemap is always recommended as it permits a Search Engine to index the list of URLs for a website. An XML file should contain only 50,000 URLs or less and its size must not exceed 10 MB.
HTML and CSS Validation
Proper HTML and CSS validation enhances the user interface for any visitor coming to your website. A website with good HTML and CSS validation will improve the experience of the user by eliminating glitches and other barriers to usability.
Alt Tags
Using images helps to create interest and increase how attractive a page is to a viewer. When using images, alt tags provide an essential way to attract the attention of search traffic. Always include correct and relevant keyword alt tags for your pictures in the image alt text and image name.
Have questions about your on-page optimization strategies? Need assistance with your online marketing efforts? Contact the team at Upright Communications to discuss your plan for online success.