In the SEO world, relevancy is the key. The goal of search engines is to provide the most relevant content to internet users. As small business owners and marketers, we want to be found online when someone is looking for us. So we have to let search engines find us first To achieve this, we have to create useful and relevant results for search engines. But search engines are not humans. They can’t read and consume pages like we can. That’s why we need to have a nice strategy. We need to establish our content as relevant as we can. Also, we need to use tactics to structure our content in a way that search engines can easily understand. This helps provide the relevance element of SEO. As a result, we can rank higher in search results!
SEO is both science and art. It’s more than keywords. It’s more than content writing. It’s more than web design and formatting. In fact, there are a handful of basic things that will establish our content as being highly relevant to our target keyword. Writing good content is not enough. As SEO gurus, we need to know how to “communicate” to search engines. Mastering the SEO techniques helps to provide better signals as to what our content relates to. Eventually it helps our content to rank higher in search results. In this article, we’ll explore a couple of basic on-page SEO techniques.
But first of all, what is on-page SEO? How is it different from off-page SEO? On-page SEO is a strategy that focuses on internal content and structure. It is the practice of optimising individual web pages and content. As a result, website owners can earn more relevant traffic. To optimise pages, both the content and HTML source code are important. As we mentioned earlier, search engines are not humans. They can’t read like we can. Therefore, we have to know how to improve the site structure and format. On the other side, off-page SEO refers to links and other external signals. They are off-page factors. Getting links from other websites is one of the examples. If you focus on off-page SEO, you have to reach out to others website owners and get more links to your site. The more high-quality links you get, the higher your ranking in search results will be.
In the following paragraphs, we’ll talk about some of the ways in which Google could determine on-page relevancy. And you’ll learn some important concepts to establish your content as relevant as possible!
Concept 1: E-A-T
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a must-known concept in SEO. E-A-T is the framework that Google uses to evaluate content creators and webpages. Google wants to present high-quality content to their users. So they have to make sure that high-quality websites will receive better rankings. In contrast, Google penalizes websites that create low-quality content. As a result, they will get less visibility. So, to make sure your websites are rewarded with better rankings, follow the E-A-T framework. Writing good content is the first step to the success of on-page SEO.
Concept 2: Keyword Usage
Every article should have a target keyword. You need to do clear research to find the right keyword. And you should also find related terms for the topic. For example, if “pet” is your keyword, you can include other relevant terms like pet food, pet shop and how to play with a pet. In the first paragraph, you should clearly state the main focus of the article. Make sure you include the target term in the beginning. And keywords should be all over the page too. These locations included the headlines, title tag, alt attributes of images, and throughout in the text. This serves a good signal to search engines. So they can discover keywords in important areas. By placing keywords and related terms in these areas, your pages can receive higher visibility for a certain keyword. It is the most basic form of on-page optimisation.
Concept 3: Title
Every good article starts with a good title. The title tag is an HTML tag that exists in the head section of each webpage. The title tag is very important. It provides a crucial cue or signal as to what the topic of the article is about. Also, the title is shown prominently in the search engine results pages. It is typically used as the clickable link. The title tag by itself has little impact on rankings, because it is just a minor thing. But, missing or poorly written title tags can all negatively affect your SEO results. Make sure you’re optimising for this minor element. Sometimes, the devil is in the details.
Concept 4: Headers
Remember to include the keyword and related terms in headers within the article. Headers are HTML elements like H1, H2, H3…etc. They are used to highlight headings and subheadings within your content. Headers are different from paragraph text. They are like a one-sentence summary of the paragraph texts. They make your content easier and more enjoyable for visitors to read. While they are not critically important for your site rankings, these tags still serve an important function for your user. And they can indirectly impact your rankings too. It provides keyword-rich context about your content for the search engines.
Concept 5: Image Alt text
The original purpose of Alt text is to describe images to people who are unable to see them. Using alt text on your images can make for a better user experience, but it may also help earn better SEO benefits. As we mentioned earlier, search engines are not humans. They cannot “see” the images on a webpage like we can. So when we include relevant images in our webpages, it’s possible that search engines don’t understand or get wrong. To make sure you will not rank for unintended keywords or miss out on ranking, you need to use alt text to tell search engines about the images. Alt text is a good practice of on-page SEO.
Concept 6: Synonyms
There are many ways to express a thing. Google has an advanced system behind to determine what users actually mean when typing queries into a search box. As different people have different backgrounds, habits and language usages. Synonyms actually play an important role in Google’s search algorithm. For example, photos and pictures are actually the same thing. To address this problem, search engines are engineered to process synonyms and close variants for billions of phrases. When your web page focuses on the keyword “dog photos”, search engines should know how to match your content to users when the query is “dog pictures”. As a content creator, it is important for you to create content using natural language and variations. Instead of using the same strict keywords over and over again, pay attention to diversity and variations. This can improve your SEO ranking.
Concept 7: Internal Links
Internal Linking for SEO is important. While external links connect your pages to other websites, an internal link is any link from one page on your website to another page on your website. Both your users and search engines use links to discover content on your website. You can use internal links to point your users to interesting and related content on your website. Moreover, they allow search engines to find out what content on your site is related. This helps search engines determine the value of that content. Therefore, good internal links are important to your SEO.
And sometimes, it can be beneficial if you include external links to other websites. Linking to other authoritative websites can make your content rich and trustworthy. And remember what we said? E-A-T is important to your SEO!
After learning 7 concepts of on-page SEO, I’m sure you now have a better idea of how to optimise your content. Are you ready to start? However, mastering the art of on-page SEO isn’t easy. It requires broad knowledge. So We’ll guide you through the key action items you need to consider if you want to optimise your website properly. We’ll also tell you the common pitfalls you should avoid!
Action 1: Research your top keywords
In SEO, everything begins with good keyword research. Keyword research forms your foundation. You need to know what terms you are targeting, the competition around those keywords, and the difficulty of those terms. Ultimately, your aim is to connect your content with the very keywords people type into the search box. Also, you need to explore the research around topics and themes. Examine the secondary keywords related to each keyword. When people talk about your topic, what terms do they use to describe it? What are the hot topics of your subject? Make sure you have a keyword and a list of secondary keywords. This helps enrich and diversify your content. Use these supporting keyword phrases to build stronger content around your central theme. Also, use natural language and variations. During your keyword research process, it’s useful to identify other common ways searchers refer to your topi. And include these in your content when appropriate.
Action 2: Research your audience
Even if your content is full of keywords, it doesn’t mean you deserve the top ranking. At the end of the day, relevancy is the key. When creating your content, provide as much value as you can. Good content answers people’s questions. You need to offer a good user experience to visitors by answering their questions. A top ranking for any query implies the search engine trusts your content answers the question best. Make sure your content is natural and useful. Write for a good purpose!
Action 3: Don’t do keyword Stuffing
Don’t do keyword stuffing. It is the practice of adding as many SEO keywords onto a page as possible. Google considers this as a bad practice as you are trying to manipulate the search results by cheating. So don’t add keywords crazily in your article. Place them naturally and make sure your content provides value to searchers.
Action 4: Put your content in the right place
Put your important content and keywords in the most important sections. Make sure your title, headers and paragraphs contains the right keywords naturally. Avoid using footers and sidebars for important content. Your important content should be highly visible. They should go in the places where it is most easily found by readers. Don’t use fancy CSS or JavaScript tricks. It affects your site’s loading time. Do not place your content in an overlay or hidden table. It’s very difficult for search engines to discover them.
Action 5: Structure your content appropriately
Make good use of headers, paragraphs, lists, and tables. They all provide structure to your content. This helps search engines understand your central idea easily. A clear webpage contains structure similar to a good essay. How did you write essays in high school? Proper introductions, paragraphs, conclusions, spelling and grammar, and citations!
Action 6: Plan your content wisely
If you write your articles for similar keywords, it might have some potentially disastrous consequences for your SEO! cannibalization! Targeting a specific keyword across multiple pages can cause “keyword cannibalization”. Keyword cannibalization means that you have various articles on your site that can rank for the same search query in Google. It happens when the topic you cover is too similar. Or you optimized pages for the same key phrase intentionally. If you do so, you’re competing with yourself for ranking in Google. It is because Google can’t distinguish which page should rank higher for a certain query. So plan your content wisely, don’t compete with yourself.
Hope now you know how to make your content as relevant as possible and find this article relevant!