Behind every successful website lies a properly structured On-Page SEO strategy. It’s common to see websites struggling to rank higher on Google due to poor On-Page SEO. No matter how much effort you put into other SEO activities, a poorly structured website will not yield the desired results.
If not done properly, your site won’t move in the rankings, no matter how much other SEO work you do.
Here are the ten most crucial On-Page SEO elements that can help improve your website’s rankings:
1. Title tags
One of the essential On-Page SEO factors, the title tag appears in Google search results and is the first thing Google reads on a page. Your title should be relevant to the page content, contain 1-2 keywords and your brand name, and be less than 55 characters.
2. Content
The content on your website must address the needs of your audience, be unique, and stand out in your industry. Producing great content that adds value to your readers will result in more shares, likes, and links, thereby increasing your website’s traffic.
3. URL Structure
Your website’s URL structure tells Google about the site’s hierarchy and helps users navigate through your website. Avoid using URLs that are not descriptive, such as www.domain.com/?page_id=2, and opt for descriptive URLs such as www.domain.com/houses/repairs/plumbing/ that help users and search engines understand the page content.
4. Meta description
Although not a direct ranking factor, a good meta description can increase click-through rates, which in turn can improve your website’s rankings.
5. Keywords
Conducting in-depth keyword research can help you target the right audience and improve your website’s relevance.
6. Fast Load Time
If your website takes to long to load, people won’t wait for it and they click away – Google sees this and doesn’t like it – it’s a poor user experience.
Get on a fast server and make your site nice and light.
7. Mobile Device Compatible
Can your website be viewed easily on multiple platforms?
Test it out with Google’s mobile testing tool here. There’s nothing worse than not being able to read a website on a small screen especially when you’re out and about.
Thankfully, Google are de-ranking sites that are not mobile friendly. See my blog post about this here.
8. Optimise your images
Smush them, make them small and describe them well with titles and alt text to let Google know what they’re seeing.
9. Make your content accessible and shareable
Another obvious yet overlooked element is how your customers consume their content?
Do they like reading it? Listening to it? Watching it? Downloading it and printing it out?
Everyone is different and you’ll be surprised how many people consume content differently.
To get as many of your target market as possible actually ‘consuming’ your content, turn it into audio for an iTunes podcast, make a YouTube video and put it in your blog post, transcribe it and make that your blog content, make a pdf and have that downloadable from the blog post page as well.
Not only will these extra elements improve consumption, the SEO benefits from iTunes, YouTube etc will flow on.
(i) Make Social Sharing Easy
An important part of your content for SEO purposes is to have it shared on social media sites.
Have some strategically placed sharing buttons in your post that make this easy for the reader. If you’re a WordPress user, we recommend the Digg Digg floating Share Bar.
10. Make Your Website Easy to Use
The quickest way to lose a website visitor is with a poor user experience. There are many ways to improve UX but the most important ones:
- Easy Navigation
- Large menu Buttons
- Fast website
- Anticipate user behaviour flow
- Provide contact information
So there you have it. The most important on page ranking factors. Get these right and you’re well on your way to ranking success.
As part of my SEO services, I fix all our clients on page SEO elements. To learn more contact me here.
