In this post, we are going to discuss the essentials of On-page optimization in SEO.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimising a website so that search engines will rank it high on their search results pages. There are two broad types of SEO – On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.
On-page SEO is a specific type of optimisation that takes place on your website; while off-page SEO is optimisation that takes place outside your website.
On-page SEO includes both the content and the underlying coding structure (discussed previously in Technical SEO). In this article, we will be focusing on the content aspect of On-page SEO.
Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, feed on content. They require content is understand a website so they can match it to users’ search intent. That is why when it comes to SEO, you often hear the phrase “content is king”.
Search engines favour content that has high value for its users. This means they rank websites that contain useful information that is well-written, well-organised and presented clearly.
Here are some essential On-page SEO factors:
relevance and length of content
The most important component of On-page SEO is content that provides value to users.
“Content is the reason search began in the first place.”
~ Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing
It is vital that the content is relevant to your website, target audience. and target keyword. If your target keyword is “protein shakes,” your webpage content should be about the quality of protein shakes, how they are made or where to buy them.
Relevant content also means people are more likely to spend time on your website to enjoy the content, share it and discuss it. All these factors will contribute to your search engine ranking performance.
The content should be well-structured, with title headers that help structure and organize the information. This provides a pleasant reading experience and a positive user experience which search engines reward.
For written content, it is generally recommended to provide long-form content over very short content. Search engines rank relevant content that has a certain level of detail. In general, most webpage content should be at least 500 words per page. Content that has less than 300 words is generally considered “thin” and do not typically rank well.
Here is checklist of on-page SEO:
- Target Keyword & Keyword Difficulty
- SEO Page Titles
- Keywords in Title Tags
- Avoid Duplicate Content
- Internal Links
- Outbound Links
TARGET KEYWORD & KEYWORD DENSITY
All content should be optimised for SEO with target keywords. This means including relevant keywords throughout your content, as it helps search engines rank your website based on the relevancy of your content.
Keyword density is the number of times a target keyword appears in a page of content, relative to the rest of the words. Search engines favour webpages that have just the right keyword density. A good SEO keyword density for your content should be once for every 100 words. This includes the keywords appearing in your title and headings.
Avoid excessively repeating and overusing keywords, also known as keyword stuffing, as this search engines can detect this tactic of trying to “game the system”. Having too high a key density can lead to a website being penalised by the search engine.
SEO PAGE TITLES
SEO page titles are one of the most important on-page search engine optimization factors on your website. These pages will be visible when you hover your cursor over the open webpage tab in your Internet browser. In the case of our website, the SEO page title is “Premium Singapore SEO Agency | Grow Digital Pte Ltd.
Each of your pages & posts should have its unique title, which includes the target keywords for that page. It is good branding practice to include your company name at the end of the page title.
KEYWORDS IN TITLE TAGS (H1, H2, H3, H4, ETC.)
You should include your keywords in title headers, also known as header tags. Title headers refer to <h1>, <h2>, <h3> to <h6> HTML tags.
These H-tags are used by many search engine crawlers to differentiate relevant content. Try to include target keywords in all H-title tags.
You should have only one <h1> tag on the page, usually the topic title right at the top of the page. All title tags should be used according to their importance levels, with an <h2> indicating the most important subtopics within a <h1> tag.
For example, if your targeted keyword is “buy protein shakes,” the title headers should be “Buy protein shakes from professional nutritionists” or “Best protein shake for men.”
When writing your articles, you should break up your content into sections with headings defined with H1, H2, H3, H4, etc. tags. This helps organise the content visually for users, but they also help Google better understand your content.
AVOID DUPLICATE CONTENT
Avoid duplicating content on different pages of your website as this is frowned upon by search engines. In severe cases, Google may even deindex pages that feature duplicate content. This is the case whether the duplicate content is your own content or taken from another online source.
If you have strategic reasons to have duplicate content on different pages, you need to do a bit of Technical SEO which involves creating canonical links.
Canonical URLs help search engines identify the original piece of content and prevent duplicate content or syndicated content pages to be indexed. This will prevent Google from penalising the pages that feature duplicate content as you have voluntarily highlighted the pages with the duplicate content and referred to the pages with the original content.
INTERNAL LINKS
Internal links are links that connect other pages or posts within your website. Internal links should help Google make sense of your web pages by directing them to other relevant content.
Internal links provide context and structure to your website and content. In addition, a well-structured internal linking improves page navigation, helps visitors find content faster, contributing to the better user experience that Google is looking for. Links also help to build the relevancy of a page to relevant keywords and phrases, while also helping to increase the Google PageRank of your pages.
For example, if you write a post or article about “protein shake,” you might consider linking to other posts on your website that are relevant to the readers of that post or article. You should also include menu breadcrumbs to help improve your internal linking efforts.
OUTBOUND LINKS
This might sound like a counter-intuitive SEO tactic as you are linking out of your website. However, search engines like Google really like webpages that provide reference links to other websites.
These are known as outbound links or external links. Google recognises that relevant outbound links offer value to users by offering more information or context on a topic. And, as we have learnt, Google rewards sites that provide value and a positive user experience by ranking them higher in search engine results pages.
Keep in mind that you should link to external web pages that only provide relevant content and complement your content.
WHY ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION IN SEO IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR WEBSITE?
On-page optimization in SEO is important for any website because it is one the most important factors for ranking any online business in Singapore. It is the process of making sure your website is as search-engine friendly as possible. This includes things like titling your pages correctly, using the right keywords and providing quality content. The better optimized your website is, the higher it will appear in search engine results pages – and that means more traffic for your business in Singapore!
