After launching your business website complete with stunning graphics, interesting content, and relevant information, you’ll want to share it with the world. However, if you can’t be found on the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing, then no one will ever see your beautiful business website. Following these basic steps to on page SEO will get you started in the right direction for search engine success. Today, “getting found online” is not just about plugging in keywords or having the best domain name; it’s also about quality content, readability, and great page descriptions. Focusing on the make-up of every single page on your website will help your search engine rankings.
- Create Unique, Valuable Content
Does your website represent your brand? To attract visitors to your site, it is important that what comes up in search results be representative of your business, brand or product. When arriving at your home page, be sure that your business message is clearly displayed. Do you offer a unique service or product that people are searching for? Make sure you highlight that unique feature on every page of your website, complete with valuable content descriptions.
- Be User-Friendly
How easy is your website to navigate? For websites today, readability is key. It should take as few clicks as possible to get from one page to the other. Keep your menu visible, your images crisps and your load time fast. A slowly loading page will deter even the most dedicated customers. Website Design is also important. Staying simple yet elegant is a recipe for success.
- Choose Targeted Keywords & Titles
What are your business keywords? Have you included those keywords in your page titles? Although “keyword placement” and “keyword density” are somewhat outdated methods for upping your SEO, there is still value in putting the right keywords in the right place at the right time. Determine your “searcher intent” keywords, i.e. what will people type when searching for your type of product or service? Make sure you include that “key phrase” in your page URL, page title and several times within the text body.
- Add Image Attributes
Are you using images? Of course you are. We are living in a visual world and people love media. Videos and GIFs are great as well for generating searchable, shareable content, but images can be the backbone of your page. By adding image titles, alternate image text and image captions to each picture on every page, you’ll upgrade your on page SEO by telling search engines what types of images they will find on your website.
- Include Various Links
Although there are many different “rules” for how many internal and external links one should include on their website, the important thing is to include relevant links. Backlinks to your home page or contact page are common for each page of your website, and a few links to relevant external sites can be a great idea.
- Promote Easily Shared Content
There’s no argument that social media is the driving force behind most websites today. So if people can find your website on your Facebook page, make sure that when they get there and discover content they like, they can easily re-share that content back to Facebook (or any other relevant social media channel). Having widely shared content from your website across various social media channels is great for your overall SEO. Get people talking about your website content.
- Stay Device Focused
How mobile friendly is your site? One of the top things that search engines are looking for is how well your site is optimized for mobile viewing. For most websites today, the majority of your visitors will be on their mobile phone or handheld tablets. Keeping things optimized for small screen viewing in an easy-to-navigate mobile version is key to your website SEO. Focus on your SEO in each mobile page by double checking image sizes, loading times and text formatting. It may also be wise to add a mobile sidebar or “click to call” feature that allows mobile users a quick contact option for your business.
- Provide Great Meta Data
According to Google Search Console, “meta tags are a great way for webmasters to provide search engines with information about their sites.” That’s right. Having great Meta tags and Meta descriptions on each page of your website will let search engines know what your site is all about. Include important keywords in your Meta tag and description so your search snippets will stand out in a crowd of results. Within your website header, you can also add search engine verification. For example, the Meta tag you can add to verify site ownership with Google.
- Give Crawl Bots Access
The only way for search engines to start indexing your website and upping your rankings in results is to let them crawl your site. Blocking search bots from your site decreases your indexing and in exchange lowers your SEO. Use clean URLs and submit a .xml sitemap so search engines can see the pages on your website. If you need to redirect to a different page or URL, use 301 redirects only once so search engines will easily recognize your new location. Redirecting too many times can be bad for your SEO. After updating your business website, you can submit your website to different search engines to be crawled and indexed.
These 9 basic steps to increasing your on page SEO will get you started in the right direction of search traffic success. Remember to focus on one page at a time when optimizing your website. Create unique and relevant content first, and then arrange it beautifully so that the world may find it!
