Sometimes marketers get so caught up in the social aspects of running an online business that they forget to keep things tidy at home. SEO is, technically, limited to the optimization of content on a website to make it more search-engine friendly. Bloggers who simply throw up a new post every week are missing out on the more intricate SEO that packs all of the punch. These are the top five on-site SEO tips to begin implementing on your site today.
Link to Your Own Pages
Linking between different blog posts and pages accomplishes two things: It invites readers to navigate deeper into a site, and it helps search engines place both pages into their proper context. Place one or two internal links per article with the primary keyword as an anchor text. Keep in mind that it’s important to vary both the keywords used within the links as well as the targeted pages. Also try and link back to the homepage where possible in order to improve the flow of link juice throughout the site.
Add More Keyword-Rich Text
Videos and interactive media are becoming more popular as marketers strive to provide as much information as possible to their viewers in an easy format. Bear in mind, however, that indexing bots always analyze text and only rarely media. Depending on the page in question, a meager word count may either harm the page or do nothing at all to rankings. Both of these scenarios should be avoided. One quick way to introduce more content is to enable comments on the post or page.
The search engines LOVE content, so try and add as much keyword-rich content to the homepage and other pages as possible. When explaining the importance of keyword-rich content to clients I tell them to “think like a search engine robot” > if a certain page wants to rank for a certain keyword, press CTRL + F and enter that keyword. If you don’t see it at all on the targeted page then you’ve done a poor job of optimizing that page for the search engines. If you see it once or twice that’s OK, but would be great to mention it a few more times in combination with other keywords/phrases and potentially city locations as well.
Use Tags Properly
HTML tags may not be visible to readers, but they are like fine literature to a Google bot. These tags provide detailed information about a particular element on a page and are powerful SEO tools. For example, the “alt” tag attached to an image can be used to provide a brief, keyword-rich description of that picture. Title tags tell bots what a page is all about and lay out targeted keywords in a single sentence. Headings, or H1 and H2 tags, are given extra weight by bots. The meta description is extremely important in terms of helping to improve Click Through Rate (CTR). A well-written meta description should promote the company/brand and its main offering while also having a good call to action as well.
Keep in mind that there are character limits to both title tags and meta descriptions, also don’t overstuff any of the HTML tags with too many keywords as it looks spammy and will lead to lower CTR’s and conversions.
Don’t Spam Advertisements
SEO is not all about text. Web design is just as important, and a cluttered layout is bad news for marketers. Google does not like to see too many advertisements, especially above the fold. It is a sign that the marketer is putting profit before value, and that is exactly what Google wants to avoid. Find better ways to monetize your site, for the sake of both your rankings and your profits.
Keep Keywords Manageable
Keyword density is one of the oldest and thorniest debates in SEO. The proper ratio has varied from over 50 percent to a mere 3 percent over the past few decades, leaving many marketers poring over outdated information and wondering who to trust. The truth is that, under Google’s current system, there is no magic number. An increasing emphasis on organic content means the right percentage is however much it takes to convey an idea.
On-site SEO is extremely important to do ethically while still promoting your keywords in a user-friendly and informative manner. Focus on providing information that others need, both humans and indexing bots, and the rest will fall into place soon after.
