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On-Page SEO | #10 Best Practices For Website Content Audit

For beginner SEOs, there’s a low-hanging fruit opportunity when it comes to both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO content audits. And whether or not your existing content was SEO optimized when you created it, there’s still an opportunity. Especially, to make a few quick tweaks and reap the rewards of more organic traffic from SERPs like Google, Bing, and Yandex.

Clearly, talking in terms of Content SEO Audit, organic search drives almost 51% of all web traffic and 40% of revenue. That’s why organic search marketing teams (say jmexclusives) continually aim to generate more search traffic. Perse, try to rank on page one for a keyword in a search engine, and you’ll see how your organic traffic increases.

Likewise, if you rank in the top 3 positions or the featured snippet for that keyword, you’ll likely see an exponential traffic jump. However, fail to rank on page one, you’ll see that the missed opportunity to drive bottom-line revenues will be tangible. As such, that’s where the term On-Page SEO content optimization comes in handy.

Related Topic: WordPress SEO | A Full Guideline On How To Do It Right

But, what’s the difference between On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO? Basically, your Search Engine Optimization Strategy can be divided into two different categories: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. And although they sound quite different, both are crucial to the success of an SEO campaign. But, they’re on completely different sides of the fence.

However, it’s not about choosing between On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO, that matters. For one thing, it would be like having to choose between a foundation or a roof for your house. Meaning, both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO work together to improve your Search Engine Rankings in a very complementary fashion.

That said, there are five different types of SEO that are all equally important. So, you should have a good grasp of each type in order to fully optimize them. And then, you can best utilize the ones that best suit your needs. For instance, Off-page SEO (or things that happen off your site that often can’t be controlled) and On-page SEO.

The five types include:—
  • On-Page SEO
  • Off-Page SEO
  • Technical SEO
  • Local SEO
  • International SEO

Some if not all should be incorporated into a successful SEO strategy. Overall, web content SEO audit involves a wide range of strategies that fall into other main categories as we’ll learn below. More often than not, when someone talks about improving their SEO they mean on-page SEO. And, as new Google algorithm changes develop, so should your website.

#1: On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO (aka On-Page Optimization or On-Site SEO) is the practice or rather the process of maximizing the results your web content achieves from search engines query. Including improvements in rankings, organic traffic, and conversions.

These existing content optimization opportunities tend to come in two scenarios though. It helps you identify issues regarding your content, title tags, h1 tags, meta descriptions, and images all play into your website’s on-page SEO. In order to optimize, you’ll want to avoid any duplicate content, titles, descriptions, or h1 tags.

You’ll also need to make sure that your content, titles, and descriptions are all at an optimal length. Site Audit checks for over a dozen of the most common on-page SEO issues, so you can identify all of the mistakes on your site that could be hurting you. For instance, it could be that you did Keyword Research before creating the content.

Related Topic: SEO Best Practices | SERP Tools For Ranking Sites No #1

Sometimes, it could also be general content SEO Audit afterward. In that case, opportunities might look different depending on which of these two scenarios apply to you. In other words, On-Page SEO content optimization refers to all measures that can be taken directly within the website.

As I mentioned, your website’s appearance on the Search Engine Results Page is highly determined by a number of ranking factors. Including your general website accessibility, page speed, optimized content, keywords, title tags, etc. In short, On-page SEO is about optimizing the stuff that you have control over and can change on your own website.

Oftentimes, we do so in order to improve our position in the search rankings. Examples of this include measures to optimize the content or improve the meta description and title tags. Conversely, Off-Page SEO refers to links and other signals.

#2: Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO is the practice or rather the process that focuses on maximizing or increasing the authority of your website domain through the act of getting links from other similar or related websites. Including improvements in the backlink building, organic anchor text linking, and website mentions lead conversions.

Unlike On-Page SEO, a good analogy for how authority works is this. Let’s say you have a bathtub with rubber duckies in it (the ducks are your pages). And then, you start filling the tub with water (links). Well, in the end, all your duckies are going to rise up.

Moz Link Explorer For On-Page SEO

You can use this link to Meet Link Explorer by Moz: The world’s best backlink checker with over 40 trillion links. Talking of Off-Page SEO, there’s a score called “Domain Authority (DA) Score” which is the key determinant factor. For one thing, it calculates how authoritative your website is compared to other sites.

As an example, you can type your domain name into the Moz Link Explorer to see your score. Technically, this is how even a huge website like Wikipedia ranks for pretty much everything under the sun. Bearing in mind, it has so much water in its bathtub. Such that; if you throw in another rubber duck, it’s going to float to the top effortlessly.

#3: Technical SEO

When you improve technical aspects of your website to get a higher ranking on search engines, that is technical SEO. Any SEO task that doesn’t relate to creating content can be considered technical SEO. An example of Technical SEO is the user experience, which consists of page speed and load times, as well as how easy your website is to use and navigate.

You want your website to load quickly for users because if it takes too long, people might give up and go to a competing website. Optimizing your site for technical SEO also decreases the bounce rate. Bounce rate is an important factor search engines take in when ranking search engines. Your website should have well and quality structured data too.

So that search engines can quickly tell what kind of information your website presents. For similar reasons, you also want your website to include an XML sitemap that lists all the pages on your website. Another example of technical SEO is having a mobile-friendly version of your website.

#4: Local SEO

Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to increase traffic, leads, and brand awareness from local searches. Common tasks associated with local SEO include finding local keywords, optimizing a business’s Google My Business profile, and building “NAP” citations. It’s an SEO strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google.

When you optimize it, you are focusing on reaching customers and increasing visibility in a targeted geographic area. This type is important for local businesses that have a brick-and-mortar location. It can increase both web traffic and foot traffic. Targeting local SEO can help your website and business rank first when a customer in your area does a search.

Using local SEO can help you increase traffic for the specific cities, suburbs, or neighborhoods that you wish to target and serve. An example of utilizing local SEO is a Google My Business (GMB)  page, which appears at the top of a Google search and includes information such as your hours, location, phone number, and website.

#5: International SEO

International SEO refers to optimizing your search presence for people who are in different countries or speak different languages. Whereby, for it to be successful, it uses elements such as geo-targeting, Hreflang tags, and other localization signals. More so, in order to target web content on basis of users from around the world.

Google makes efforts to match search results to the language and location of the searcher. Special signals you add on your website help Google or other search engines know when your site has content that would be suitable for someone who is in a particular country or is searching in a specific language.

In other words, if you know that a good share of your website visitors come from a different country than where you’re located, speak different languages, or both, then it may be time to make some changes to your website. More so, in order to create a better experience for all of your international visitors.

On the surface, International SEO may seem like a totally foreign concept, but in reality, you may be more familiar with it than you know. In nutshell, think of international SEO as a Geotargeting practice. But, instead of optimizing your website to attract traffic from your city or state, you’re optimizing it for different countries and languages.

Why Is On-Page SEO Important?

By all means, succeeding in organic search today requires optimizing for a combination of factors that search engines consider important – technical, on-page, and off-page. That’s why over the years, we’ve seen increased focus toward off-page techniques – such as link building – and other technical elements.

But the reality is, off-page SEO won’t do much good if you don’t pay attention to the fundamentals – of on-page SEO. Smart SEO practitioners know that on-page optimization should be constantly prioritized. And because the search landscape is ever-evolving, it’s important to make sure your on-page SEO knowledge is up to date.

Learn More: Content Webmasters | Their Role In A Web Design Strategy

Notably, most search engine algorithms by SERP like Google analyze the content of web pages to assess whether the page contains information that might be relevant to what you are looking for. But, the question is; does traditional on-page SEO still make a difference today? Yup! In fact, Google’s own “How Search Works” report states the following:

” The most basic signal that information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search query. If those keywords appear on the page, or if they appear in the headings or body of the text, the information is more likely to be relevant. And, beyond simple keyword matching, we also use aggregated and anonymized interaction data too.”

Related Read: WordPress SEO | A Full Guideline On How To Do It Right

But, why interaction data? Well, to assess whether search results are relevant to queries. Transformation of that data into signals helps their machine-learned systems better estimate relevance. Of course, even though Google is much smarter than it was back in the day, they still use old-school stuff (like looking for a specific keyword on your page).

There’s data to back this up! An analysis by Backlinko of 11M Google search results didn’t find a correlation between keyword-rich title tags and first-page rankings. But, if you search for any competitive keyword, you’ll notice that the top-ranking pages almost all use that exact keyword in their title tag. Consider the following example of the term ‘SEO Audit.’

Web SEO Audit

 

As you can see, On-Page SEO helps SERPs arrange the way content is arranged on their search result pages. But, coupled with other SEO Audit Tools, they are also able to rank each page accordingly even though the titles are almost the same.

With that in mind, it is essential that your website and its content, including what is visible to users (i.e. media, content, images) and what is visible to search engines (i.e. metadata, HTML), are well optimized. Especially, to the latest practices used by SERPs like Google and Bing. This way search engines can understand your site and how to rank it.

Related Read: Keyword Cannibalization | Key Steps To Identify & Solve It

In addition to publishing relevant, high-quality content, on-page SEO includes optimizing your headlines, HTML tags (title, meta, and header), and images. It also means making sure your website has a high level of expertise and authoritativeness. Equally important, it takes into account various aspects of the webpage as well such as trustworthiness.

That, when added together, will improve your website’s visibility in the search results. Thus, search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, and the rest can better understand your website and its content. As well as identify whether it is relevant to a searcher’s query as I mentioned.

Additionally, we can also say; as search engines become more sophisticated, there is a greater focus on relevance and semantics in search engine results pages (SERPs). For instance, Google, with its plethora of complex algorithms, is now much better at a variety of search-related elements.

Consider the following:
  • A better understanding of what users are actually searching for when they type a query.
  • Delivering search results that meet user intent (informational, shopping, navigational).

Adapting to this development is essential, and you can do it by ensuring that your website and its content – both what is visible to users on your web pages (i.e., text, images, video, or audio) and elements that are only visible to search engines (i.e., HTML tags, structured data) – are well-optimized according to the latest best practices.

The Most Important Elements For On-Page SEO 

You can’t simply ignore on-page SEO because you have more control when optimizing for on-site elements – as opposed to off-page SEO that consists of external signals (i.e., backlinks). Luckily, if you put effort into on-page strategies, you’ll see a boost in traffic and a rise in your search presence.

Whether you have a big or small business, it is important to optimize a website’s on-page SEO. SEO represents one of the most common digital marketing strategies, and it remains super popular because of its reliable Return On Investment (ROI), per see.

In fact, on-page SEO offers the best ROI out of nearly any digital marketing strategy. Relatively, with its low-cost and long-term benefits that can help websites grow and bring in passive traffic for years. As much as half of all website traffic comes from search engines like Google or Bing, this means that close to 40% of online revenue comes from search traffic as well.

That said, there’s more to on-page SEO than cramming keywords into your page’s HTML. Meaning, in order to rank your content nowadays, you also need to optimize for various factors. And they all work together to bring in results.

Consider the following:

Here’s something else to think about: The top 1st result on Google gets more than 32% of keyword traffic. And that the first page of search results grabs as much as 91.5% of traffic.

This is why on-page SEO is important. Without it, your site could be seriously missing out on opportunities to rank for search queries specific to your business. Likewise, without an SEO strategy then your site might get pushed down search results by competitors. This’s a big part of why many companies hire SEO agencies.

Simply, because the world of Search Engine Marketing has grown to represent approximately $79 billion. Aside from the on-page SEO strategies mentioned before, there are other important site elements that are so crucial too. Optimizing these are key to maintaining an on-page strategy. Below is just a few main ways to do this successfully, if you are a beginner;

#1: Metadata

Your metadata will be in the HTML code of each page and specifically includes your page’s title tag and meta description which are used in search engine results to list your pages. Let’s say you use a search engine to look up a query, right?

On that note, the meta title and meta description are all located in the link on that page. Having your metadata optimized with good keywords and detailed content will help users and search engines know what your page has to offer.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
''Content Metadata Values''
<meta name=''Description'' CONTENT=''Author: J.M. Author, Canva: G. picture,
Catgory: Graphics Design, PRICE: $10.50, Layout Pixels: 1700 x 1100>
<meta name=''google-site-verification''
Content-''inxGUDJ4ONAZ5l9Rsidi02+LVC21ATh5d1N123907vVuEHs34-''/>
<title>Example Design - high-quality web design graphics</title>
<meta name=''ROBOTS Content= noindex,nofollow''>

Just like SERPs, I strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to all the Quality Content Guidelines as well. Some outline illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index. Or otherwise, affected by an algorithmic or manual spam action.

#2: Content 

Well-written content associates the words on your site with the keywords in your metadata. Quality writing with proper keyword placement will both reassure the search engine’s queries and match the needs of users. Content marketing is also important for other areas of marketing. Following the General Guides will help Google find, index, and rank your site.

For instance, if a site has been affected by a spam action, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites. Notably, even Google Webmaster Guidelines on content give guidance on what it should be like.

Consider the following:
  • Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
  • To help Google fully understand your site’s contents, allow all site assets that would significantly affect page rendering to be crawled: for example, CSS and JavaScript files that affect understanding of the pages.
  • Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. In other words, don’t try to deceive your users by any means. Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.

Google has outlined guidance for websites and businesses to create content that is EAT-friendly for Google results. That means content that is Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy. EAT is not a specific ranking signal for on-page SEO, but the content is. Make sure your content is high-quality and well-focused on the intent and meaning of your target keywords.

#3: Linking

Website structure is essential for a search engine to be able to properly crawl your site. Having easy-to-use navigation bars, footers, and anchor links will allow engines to link a user to a page relevant to their query. If you have a site that is confusing to navigate, it might only result in the search engine struggling to identify your site’s pages.

Here too, Google’s Webmaster Guidelines emphasize that a site should have a “clear conceptual page hierarchy” and that important links should be easily Crawlable for Googlebot indexing. Always remember, it’s good to create quality link juices for your content. Below is a great example of great content linking within your website pages. Something that is worth considering:

It’s good to know more about: <a href=''https://josephmuciraexclusives.com/seo-specialists/''> The Role Of SEO Specialists </a> and also make sure that <em> Consult them if need be </em> especially, if you want your content well audited for SEO in order to rank high in SERPs.

#4: Sitemaps

Another key thing is to make sure that SERPs can easily find your main web-based content pages through what we normally call Sitemaps. Sitemaps are a way of organizing a website, identifying the URLs and the data under each section.

Previously, they were primarily geared toward the users of the website. However, Google’s XML format was designed for search engines, allowing them to find the data faster and more efficiently. Google’s new sitemap protocol was developed in response to the increasing size and complexity of websites.

Business websites often contained hundreds of products in their catalogs, while the popularity of blogging led to more awareness among webmasters.

Learn More: Sitemaps | What They Are, Uses, Benefits & Creation Steps

Like updating their material at least once a day. Not to mention, the greatness of popular community-building tools like forums and message boards. As websites got bigger and bigger, it was difficult for search engines to keep track of all this material, sometimes “skipping” information as it crawled through these rapidly changing pages.

Through the XML protocol, search engines could track the URLs more efficiently, optimizing their search by placing all the information on one page. So, how do you help SERPs like Google or Bing find your pages?

Consider the following basic guidelines:
  • Ensure that all pages on the site can be reached by a link from another findable page. Make sure the referring link includes either text or, for images, an alt attribute, that is relevant to the target page. Crawlable links are <a> tags with an href attribute.
  • Provide a sitemap file with links that point to the important pages on your site. Also, provide a page with a human-readable list of links to these pages (sometimes called a site index or site map page).
  • Limit the number of links on a page to a reasonable number (a few thousand at most).
  • Make sure that your webserver correctly supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature directs your web server to tell Google if your content has changed since we last crawled your site. Supporting this feature saves you bandwidth and overhead.
  • Use the robots.txt file on your webserver to manage your crawling budget by preventing the crawling of infinite spaces such as search result pages. Keep your robots.txt file up to date. Learn how to manage crawling with the robots.txt file. Test the coverage and syntax of your robots.txt file using the robots.txt Tester

In addition to the above guidelines, there are more ways to help Google find your site. For instance, by making sure that any sites that should know about your pages are aware your website is online. You can also ask Google to crawl your pages as well.

#5: Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness (E-A-T)

E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, is the framework that Google raters use to assess content creators, webpages, and websites as a whole.

Google has always put a premium on high-quality content. It wants to make sure that sites producing high-quality content are rewarded with better rankings and that sites that create low-quality content get less visibility. There is a clear relationship between what Google considers high-quality content and what appears in the search results.

Call it correlation or causation – whatever it is, E-A-T is somehow playing a role in Google’s organic search results. This means E-A-T must be a consideration in your overall core web vitals and SEO strategy.

How To Optimize Website For On-Page SEO

In reality, a majority of SEOs generally advise getting your On-Page SEO ducks in a row before focusing too much on Off-Page SEO. Take it from me, just like building a house, you want to set the foundation first before building the rest of the house. Not forgetting, just like a foundation, you may need to come back thereafter.

More so, in order to do some maintenance to your On-Page SEO from time to time. Eventually, balancing the two will help make your website “bilingual.” So that your users can understand it as well as the Search Engine Robots from Bing, Google, and the rest do. And, that’s how your rankings start to improve.

In order to optimize your overall website for On-Page SEO, you’ll need to consider a variety of things. Like monitoring your site for hacking and removing hacked content as soon as it appears. As well as preventing and removing user-generated spam on your site. So, what else do you need to make sure your On-Page SEO tactics are up to snuff?

Well, there’s a helpful checklist for On-Site Optimization and content audit that can help curate your strategy. Let’s consider a few of them below that you can utilize in your content audit strategy.

#1: Overall Website URL structure

First of all, make sure that you create fast-loading pages or web pages with the best load speed. Google wants to help its users find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible to provide the best user experience.

Therefore, optimizing your pages to load faster helps your site rank higher in the search results. Secondly, put sellable keywords into your URLs if possible. However, do not go changing all of your current URLs just so they have keywords in them. You shouldn’t change old URLs unless you plan on redirecting your old ones to your new ones.

Consult a professional before doing this:
  • Label your directories and folders in a way that makes sense for users
  • Don’t repeat keywords in your URL more than once.
  • Always remember, keywords are helpful, but overdoing them affects user experience.
  • Always make sure that you keep your site URLs as short as possible

Google uses PageSpeed Insights (PSI) Tool to analyze sites on both mobile and desktop. and then suggest tips to optimize page speed. There’re also several quick fixes to eliminate whatever is bogging your site down and slowing page load time.

Consider site speed factors like:
  • Minimizing HTTP requests
  • Make sure server response time is <200ms
  • Setting browser caching to at least a week or longer
  • Enabling Gzip compression
  • Having image sizes under 100kb (.jpg, .png, .gif)
  • Placing all CSS in an external style sheet
  • Minifying all JS, CSS, and HTML
  • Prioritizing above-the-fold content loading

In addition, Schema Markup is also another great element here. Adding structured data helps Google better understand the content of a page. Google also uses certain types of structured data to display “rich results” in SERPs such as a recipe with start ratings or step-by-step instructions with an image carousel.

These rich results often appear at or near the top of SERPs. And, as a result, they generally have a higher Page CTR (click-through rate) than normal organic listings. Google prefers structured data to use schema.org vocabulary and recommends using JSON-LD format. They also provide a handy Rich Results Test tool to check your code.

#2: Mobile-Friendly Web Content

While there are a variety of ways to add structured data to your website (plugins, Google Tag Manager, etc.), it’s always best to get a professional involved if you’re not comfortable writing code. For more information, you can check out Google’s guide on structured data and rich results in detail. Mobile-Friendly Web Content is also a very useful element to consider.

Keep in mind, the content on your pages needs to be useful to people. If they search for something too specific to find your page, they need to be able to find what they’re looking for.  It needs to be easy to read and provide value to the end user. Google has various ways to measure if your content is useful. Thus, it’s equally to make sure that your site is on the safe side.

Consider the following:
  • Aim for at least 500 words of copy. Although there is no exact formula for how many words a page should have, Google seems to prefer when a page has a lot of great content surrounding your targeted keywords.
  • Copy must be unique to each page, not duplicated from other pages on your site, and should directly address your visitors’ search queries. Push the keyword closer to the beginning of the title, but ONLY if it sounds natural.

In recent years, Google has prioritized mobile page loading speed as a key ranking metric. How do you know if your website is mobile-friendly? Well, you can test it for free. Google will tell you how friendly the website is based on its current algorithm.

Beyond mobile page load, website design needs to factor in the mobile user experience. One way to check and optimize website layout for mobile is to generate a Mobile Usability Report which identifies any issues your website may have.

#3: Web Content Headline Tags

Want your website content to perform well on search? Then start writing compelling headlines. Coming up with a title for a blog post might seem too basic, but a great headline can mean the difference between a click and an impression – that’s why it’s important to create them strategically.

Headings are usually the largest words on the page, and for that reason, search engines give them a little more weight than your other page copy.  It is a good idea to work your target keywords into the headings of each web page but make sure you accurately reflect your page’s great content. That said, it’s also good to consider the title tags as well.

To enumerate, the title tag is an HTML tag that exists in the head section of each webpage. The title tag provides an initial cue or context as to what the topical subject matter is of the respective page it is on. It is featured prominently in the search engine result pages (typically used as the clickable link) as well as in the browser window.

Always make sure that you put your targeted keywords in the title tag of each page on your site. There are many best practices that go into writing an effective title tag as I’ll list a few below.

Consider the following:
  • Limit your title tags to 55-60 characters (including spaces)
  • Push the keyword closer to the beginning of the title (ONLY if it sounds natural)
  • Include the brand at the end of the title tag, separated by a pipe bar (|)
            For example:  “Web Content SEOs | The jmexclusives Agency”
  • Make sure that you don’t stuff your web content keywords

The title tag by itself has little impact on organic rankings, this is why it’s sometimes overlooked. That said, missing, duplicate, and poorly written title tags can all negatively impact your SEO results, so make sure you’re optimizing for this element.

Your headlines need to spark interest for them to stand out on the SERPs – enticing users to click through and continue reading the rest of the content. Make sure your H1s are limited to one per page, all other headers are H2 or H3.

#4: Meta Description & Content Headers 

On one side, a meta description is an HTML tag used to describe the content of a web page. This description will show up below the title and URL of your page as it appears in the search engine results. So, how do you remain visible within Google?

Well, your meta description should be kept somewhere between 140-160 characters. While Google maintains that meta descriptions don’t help with rankings, there is anecdotal evidence that indirect attributes of better descriptions do help.

Meta Descriptions Can Help:
  • Improve your website Page CTR (Click-through rate)
  • Create a perception based on the quality of the result
  • Create a perception of what your website offers and all changes, etc.

On the other side, just like title tags, header tags are HTML elements (H1-H6) used to identify headings and subheadings within your content from other types of text (e.g., paragraph text). Header tags aren’t as critically important for your site rankings as they used to be, but these tags still serve an important function – for your users and your SEO.

Header Tags Indirectly Helps:
  • Make your content easier and more enjoyable for visitors to read
  • Provide keyword-rich context about your content for the search engines

Since the early days of SEO, both headers and meta descriptions have been important optimization points. Bearing in mind, meta descriptions are the key meta tags that provide a description of what the page is about. And, as a result, they are often displayed in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) in most cases. More so, underneath the title of the web page.

#5: Alt Text Description Tags (Image Optimization)

Also called alt tags and alt descriptions, alt text description tags are the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.

As an example, any Content Management System (CMS) should allow you to add something called “alt text” to all images on your website.  This text isn’t visible to the average visitor – alt text is in fact used by screen reader software to help blind internet users understand the content of your images.

Search engines crawl images in a similar way, so inserting some relevant keywords while accurately describing the image will help search engines understand your page’s content. Writing an alt attribute for each image keeps your website in compliance with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

When Writing Your Alt Texts:
  • Thoroughly describe the image in 8-10 words
  • Include your targeted keyword where it sounds most natural
  • Include, if relevant, a geo-locator (e.g., Chicago)

Whether or not you perform SEO for your business, optimizing your website’s image alt text is your ticket to creating a better user experience for your visitors, no matter how they first found you.

Adding images is a good way to make your web pages more appealing. But, not all images are created equal – some can even slow down your website. Optimizing images properly will help you make the most of a valuable SEO asset.

More image optimization advantages are:
  • Additional ranking opportunities (show up on Google Image Search).
  • Better user experience.
  • Faster page load times.

Images shouldn’t be an afterthought. So, incorporate images that support your content and use descriptive titles and alt text.

#6: SEO Writing & Content Audit For User Engagement

On one side, SEO Writing means writing content with both search engines and users in mind. There is a strategy behind writing solid SEO content – and it is more than just keyword research and fill-in-the-blanks. Simply producing content for the sake of it won’t do. Remember that you’re writing content for people – therefore it must be high-quality, substantial, and relevant.

On the other side, you’ll also need some Content Audit Skills unique to your site. Most content creators are focused on creating new content that they forget to audit their existing content. A big mistake! Auditing your existing content is crucial because it helps you in so many ways. Like evaluating whether your existing content is achieving its goals and gaining ROI.

A good audit also helps you identify whether the info in your content is still accurate or has become stale (or even outdated). As well as determine what types of content are working for you. Meaning, content audits can greatly help your SEO strategy and they should be done on a regular basis. Enhancing your website’s on-page SEO elements is only half the battle.

The other half lies in making sure that users will not bounce – but instead, they’ll continue viewing your content, interacting with it, and keep coming back for more. Retaining engaged users is a great challenge in itself, but it’s certainly doable. To increase user engagement, focus on aspects such as site speed, user experience, and content optimization, among others.

#7: Social Tags & Internal Linking

Having your content shared on social tells Google that people find your content relevant, helpful, and reputable. However, not every page on your site is share-worthy. But, you can optimize the pages that are within various aspects.

For example, make sure you have Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards installed. Make it easy to share with “tweet this quote” links, or social share buttons. Likewise, linking internally to other pages on your website is useful to visitors and it is also useful to search engines.  Here’s an internal link to another blog post on our site that talks more about internal linking.

When adding internal links, make sure to have relevant anchor text — the clickable text in a hyperlink (usually indicated by blue font color and underlining). To optimize it, make sure the selected word or phrase is relevant to the page you’re linking to. On-page SEO ensures that your site can be read by both potential customers and search engine robots.

With good on-page SEO, search engines can easily index your web pages, and understand what your site is about. It also helps search engines easily navigate the structure and content of your website, thus ranking your site accordingly. As a best practice, make sure your page content includes 1-3 relevant internal links.

#8: Consider Page Experience & Core Web Vitals

Google is working on a new ranking signal (likely to come out in 2021) that prioritizes websites with positive user experiences. The ‘page experience signal’ will consist of Core Web Vitals, plus mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, and the like.

As well as HTTPS security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines. ”Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve toward user expectations on mobile. We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction.”

User experience is key to a website’s long-term success. In spring 2020, Google unveiled Core Web Vitals, a common set of signals that they deem “critical” to all users’ web experiences. The purpose of these signals is to quantify the user experience with a website, from page visual stability and load time to interactive experiences.

Consider the following signals:
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):– It measures perceived page loading speed. And then, it marks the point at which the majority of the page content has been downloaded.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift:– It quantifies the amount of layout shift on the visible page content. And then, it measures the visual stability of a page. It’s usually caused by images without dimensions. As well as dynamically injected content, web fonts causing FOIT/FOUT, and other embeds added without dimensions.
  • First Input Delay:– It quantifies the user experience of a user’s initial engagement with a page.

To check your LCP score, access your Google PageSpeed Insights and make sure your page hits LCP within 2.5 seconds. To accomplish this, remove unnecessary third-party scripts that may be running, upgrade your web host, activate “lazy loading” so page elements load only as users scroll down the page, and remove any large page elements that may be slowing it down.

One of the simplest ways to optimize cumulative layout shifts is to add height and width dimensions to each new site element. Also, avoid adding new content above existing content on a page (unless responding to user interaction).

#9: Edit Your Website’s JSON-LD Schema

Have you ever wondered how some businesses or even your competition manage to have extra information when displayed on the search engine results page? Or how does Google know to generate that interesting additional information that appears on the right side? It’s all about how you Edit Your Site’s JSON-LD Schema with Semantic SEO Markup Solution.

Why JSON-LD? Online, people navigate through mountain-loads of information. JSON-LD simply makes data more accessible. Not just for humans, but also for machines, the kind of machines Google is powered by. Google’s crawlers can overlook information that we humans might find vital. It’s all about structuring the data!

And with the JSON-LD feature that Squirrly SEO Plugin smoothly offers, you can do just that. All you have to do is enable the JSON-LD semantic SEO markup meta. More so, from the settings and then simply fill in the necessary fields. It’s that easy! Next time your site is crawled, Google will be able to offer your future customers additional information and make a difference.

Remember, it all can start with a simple search. By using JSON-LD, you can highlight various important details of your website to search engines. But, wait a minute; does JSON-LD as a semantic SEO markup solution sound complicated? Don’t worry, by using Squirrly, it becomes incredibly simple to implement. No coding skills are required.

#10: Avoid Bad SEO Techniques

True or false? The more pages you have targeting a keyword, the better you’ll rank for that keyword. In this case, you can consider things like Keyword Cannibalization, Keyword Stuffing, etc. False! Targeting a specific term across multiple pages can cause “keyword cannibalization” which has some potentially disastrous consequences for your SEO.

Keyword Cannibalization occurs when you have too many identical or similar keywords spread throughout the content on your website. As a result, a search engine like Google can’t discern which content to rank higher. This means that sometimes it will give a higher ranking to the web page you don’t mean to prioritize.

When you have multiple pages ranking for the same keyword, you’re actually competing with yourself. It’s important to identify whether keyword cannibalization exists on your website and resolve it right away. There are so many other bad SEO techniques that you should always look out for. 

Consider the following:

As you’ve learned, always follow the Good Practices with the help of some of them indicated above.  For one thing, if your site violates one or more of these guidelines, then Google may take manual action against it. Although, once you have remedied the problem, you can submit your site for reconsideration.

How To Use The On-Page SEO Checker Tool 

By definition, the On-Page SEO Checker (formerly titled “SEO Ideas“) Tool offers a complete and structured list of things you could do to improve the ranks of pages on your website. You’ll receive on-page SEO ideas, semantically related words to include on your pages, target content length and readability, and backlink prospects.

Their precise optimization ideas are based on the top 10 real-time competitors for each of your target keywords. The On-Page SEO Checker Tool makes it easy to improve a website’s SEO, by providing a structured list of actions to take to improve the landing pages of a website.

The tool generates these ideas by analyzing tactics from your rivals combined with Semrush data. This means that all of the ideas you’ll receive here will be supported by data and trends in your niche. To help you organize the workflow, ideas will be broken down into the following categories: content, semantics, strategy, backlinks, user experience, SERP features, and technical SEO.

Why should you use the On-Page SEO Checker?
  • It has a user-friendly interface with a great workflow for even beginners
  • Easy to find low-hanging fruit when importing data from other sources
  • Its resources include Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Organic Research, Position Tracking, Excel file, etc.
  • Clear prioritization of your to-do list based on how to make the most impact in the shortest amount of time
  • Benchmarking against your rivals in the top-10 results
  • Ideas to target SERP Features
  • Idea Tasks report for you to follow your trend of recommendations over time

Uniquely, the On-Page SEO Checker Tool tells you what can be done to your site to optimize your SEO. Additionally, it’ll also tell you why these ideas will benefit you. If you are new to SEO or just looking for a deeper understanding of how SEO actions can help your website, you can read the explanations for each idea. You’ll be an SEO wizard in no time!

The Key Reports And Features:

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get yourself the SEMrush On-Page SEO Checker today. However, this tool is limited by the number of keywords you are able to gather ideas for each month. Each keyword analysis in the On-Page SEO Checker is one unit. Besides using the On-Page SEO Checker Tool I’d also recommend you try out SEMrush Toolbox as well.

How SEMrush Toolbox Works

In the SEMrush Toolbox Expert Video Webinar below, Craig Campbell will showcase how the tool works in detail. So that you can see its main functionalities in action. Whilst, Andy Crestodina will share the best practices for using OPSC. As well as provide valuable tips that can be applied to your business. It’s more of a Q&A session:

Generally, your limit refreshes each month on the first day of the month. So if you have set 100 keywords in the On-Page SEO Checker and are going to analyze these 10 times during one paid month, it would require 1000 units. Below is an illustration of what that would look like in your SEO Checker Tool Dashboard. That’s as long as your logged in.

On Page SEO Checker Limits

 

For more information, their Prices Page details how many units each subscription gets per month. Pro plans get 500 monthly units, Guru plans get 800, and Business plans get 2,000. But, in order to add more limits to your account, you can go to the subscription summary page and add your desired number of limits.

Resource User Manual:
Frequently Asked Questions (Get Answers):

Personally, I think this is a very great tool for Optimizing Your Website For Target Keywords if I may add. To start this workflow, you’ll need a list of target keywords to base your optimization plan around. And then, set up the best steps for Position Tracking. As well as optimizing existing pages with on-page SEO, and creating new content to target new keywords.

Final Thoughts:

Be that as it may, when it comes to the best SEO tactics, this is any activity that helps you improve your site ranking. Particularly, based on search engines or SERPs such as Google, Bing, and others. Now that there are over 3.9 billion internet users. With an overall 3.3 billion + searches being performed each day, securing a good rank isn’t easy.

That’s exactly why SEO techniques are so important for businesses. So, what if you have a local business, selling products or services? Of course, you have to think about the local ranking of your website. Local optimization will help you surface related search queries in your area.

The Topmost SEO Tools:
  1. Yoast SEO Plugin
  2. All-In-One SEO Plugin
  3. Google XML Sitemaps
  4. Marketing 360
  5. SE Ranking
  6. ContentKing
  7. Keyword Hero
  8. SEOPress
  9. Rank Math
  10. DataForSEO

In nutshell, On-page SEO is so important. That’s if you want to increase your website’s chances of showing up in the search results. Optimizing for on-site factors on a regular basis can help improve your rankings, traffic, and conversions. For more support, you can always Consult Us and let us know how we can sort you out. You’re also free to share more with us below.

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