On-Page SEO Factors to Consider

If you are new to SEO but feel that you can’t keep up with the changing search engine algorithms, take heart. There are tried-and-tested elements that you can include in your online article or write-up to help your site’s ranking among the search engines.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the discipline of influencing how a website appears among the results presented by a search engine.  The closer the website appears to the first page of results, and the closer it is to the top of the list, the higher its search ranking is.

Content is king

People visit your page for a reason. Whether they do so because they want to learn something or they want to be entertained, it is your job to provide them what they want or they won’t come back, or worse, won’t spread the word about your site to their friends.

By keeping your website well-supplied with interesting, or better yet, compelling information or images that your visitors will want to know more of, or experience, again and again, you ensure that your site will merit repeat visits which search engines will definitely take note of.

Creating quality content involves getting to know your audience: what appeals to their curiosity or sense of humor, what they talk about or what they like to share with their friends.  Keeping your audience in mind will help you create content that is relevant and engaging.

Take note of your title tag

Title tags are texts that describe your page. After content, it is the second most important factor that affects your site’s SEO ranking.  Since it appears as the clickable text in the search engine’s results page, having a descriptive, relevant and compelling title tag – which also includes the keywords you want to optimize – will generate more click-throughs for your site. 

Kick things off with your keyword

A search engine’s crawler will always begin its job at the start of the page.  By ensuring that your keyword appears in the start of your article, you are alerting the search engine that your page has what it is looking for.

Mind your internal links

Don’t be shy about promoting your best content on your site; that’s what internal links are for.  Be sure to include relevant keywords in your internal links as well; these alert the search engines that the page being linked to is important.

Don’t go crazy with keywords, though

It’s a fallacy to think that the more times your keyword appears in your page, the better your page’s ranking will be.  Search engines have evolved enough to detect this tactic.  Besides, seeing certain phrases appear again and again, regardless of their relevance to the article as a whole, will simply irritate your site’s visitors. 

Don’t forget your headings

When you break long write-ups into sections, headings make it easier for the reader to locate the section they want to refer to, right?  The same applies to search engines.  To differentiate your headings from the rest of your article, you use H1 tags.  Placing these tags on your headings will also give search engines a good indication of what your page is all about.