We’ve covered the basics of how on-page SEO works—now let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Use these strategies to improve your on-page SEO game.
1. Optimize Keywords Effectively
Keywords are what users are searching for on search engines. By using keywords in your content, Google will know for sure what your piece is about, making it more likely to serve your page higher in results for these terms.
But you can’t just throw keywords into every sentence and call it a day. Google looks for content that’s natural and well-written. Place your keywords naturally in target areas, including your headers, intro and metadata.
2. Use Metadata to Your Advantage
Speaking of metadata, it’s another way to make it clear to Google what your page is about. Metadata includes both the meta title—the title Google displays in SERPs—as well as the meta description—the small blurb Google shows under the meta title on a SERP.
Google typically cuts off meta titles over 60 characters, so keep yours under that limit. Same goes for meta descriptions—160 characters is a good limit. When writing these, keep the voice active and engaging to draw in readers. Also, don’t forget to include alt tags for your images—bits of text that explain what the image is for search engines.
3. Structure Your Page With a Clear Hierarchy
Google typically scans your page for relevant information, and that’s far easier for it to do when you have the page organized with clear headers. Start with an H1 for the title of the page, then drop into H2s and H3s as necessary to structure the information. Readers will appreciate this as well, as it helps them easily locate the information they’re looking for.
4. Create Easy-To-Understand URLs
Remember how Google wants your page to be trustworthy? Having a URL that clearly describes the page can help a lot with that.
By default, some content management systems publish new pages with dates and folder names embedded in the URL. This isn’t very helpful for users, as it doesn’t tell them what the page is about. Instead, consider renaming your slug with a long-tail keyword phrase.
5. Maximize Internal and External Linking
We’ve mentioned how Google tries to understand a page’s structure, but it also wants to know about a site’s structure. Using a fair amount of internal links—links to other pages on your site—gives Google a better idea of how everything is connected. Also, to Google, pages with more links pointing to them appear more valuable.
Google is also looking for authoritative content, and you can show what you’ve written about is worthwhile by linking to authoritative external links—links to pages outside your site. For example, linking to a government website can boost your site’s credibility.
6. Add Author Bylines to Your Content
Search engines want to make sure content is coming from someone with experience and expertise. Providing bylines for your content is one way to prove that, especially if you have content written by industry experts.
To further boost your authors’ credibility, include author bios that explain their background and experience, as well as an “About Us” page that details your business experience.
