It all starts with on-page SEO, this sets the foundations for your Search engine optimization strategy. For best practices, taking an technical approach to SEO is key.
When you are first starting out, understand that the algorithm can not interpret your content and determine whether its quality or not.
Use on-page strategies to put keywords in the right places so the algorithm likes it.
Keyword Research
The meta keywords tag is a tag which can be used to highlight keywords and keyword phrases which the web page is targeting.
It is essential to define a list of relevant keywords that will generate the highest quality traffic when the site is optimized for those specific words and phrases.
The key with search engine optimization is how the keywords are used to generate traffic.
Analysis is required to better understand keyword phrases that potential customers commonly use when searching for your company related products and services in the search engines.
Title Tags
Title tag is an element which defines the title of the document.
It defines the web page; it holds utmost importance in search engines. Title meta tag is the one which appears during search results in bold letters. The primary keyword of the webpage should be present in the title tag.
Meta Descriptions
The meta tag description tag is an element which provides a description of what the page is about to the search engines.
It’s a brief overview of the content that lies within the page itself. This tag is important as it is often used within the actual search results beneath the web address. This is useful as the description tag can be leveraged in many instances as a call to action. The description tag should not exceed 200 characters.
URL Structure
The URL is the address of a Website page.
The main keyword you are trying to rank for needs to be in the URL. This makes it easier for the algorithm to better understand what your web page is all about.
Image Optimization
Reduce Image Sizes
You can manually compress your images using website like TinyJpg or use a plugin like Smush for wordpress to compress your images automatically.
Titles
Another measure for search engine relevance. Try to avoid over using exact keywords matches. Instead use latent semantic indexing keywords.
Alt Text
The alt attribute allows web pages to assign specific text as the “alternative” content for images for those that cannot view the images themselves. This can be search engine crawlers or text-only web browsers.
Geo Tagging
When done correctly, embedding the longitude and latitude to an image gives location relevancy to the website.
Header Tags
Header tags are heading tags in HTML. There are 6 predefined headings, ranging from <H1> to <H6> which tells a visitor and search engines the topic of the web page. Correct use of H Tags are a ranking factor.
SSL Certificates
What is SSL?
SSL means “Secure Socket Layer” This is represented with a Padlock shown the URL once the certificate is applied.
SSL means “Secure Socket Layer” This is represented with a Padlock shown the URL once the certificate is applied
Simply explained…
A typical connection is your computer is like a direct path that brings up a website.
Now when we add an SSL Certificate in the middle of that path the connection goes through a tunnel that basically protects all of the information you have on your website from the rest of the outside world.
Google credits your website for having a SSL Certificate assigned to your site.
If you are having trouble with your page not showing the padlock in the URL field
You can run a scan through Why No Padlock. The result will tell you what the problem is so you can correct the issue detected.
Content Hierarchy / Structure
The structure of your site should reflect the table of contents of a regular book. With set categories and content assigned within those categories. It is not advisable to have a poor directory structure, especially with most content hanging directly off the root.Outbound Authority Links
When structured correctly your Inner pages will rank for relevant terms searched.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is vital to carry link weight onsite.
It’s important to have all internal links use the correct anchor link and descriptive text on all hyperlinks that point to appropriately named pages of relevance.
Outbound Authority Links
Search engines see these as a highly trusted indicator.
Make each web page have an outbound link that has a high Domain authority that is relevant to your business niche.
Schema Markup
Schema is a piece of code, either Microdata or Json
By adding schema to your website, it gives your business a more realistic touch to it while helping Google figure out what your pages are about.
Measure Performance
Monitor your website using Google Search console and Google Analytics.
Connecting your website is straightforward and a free service to use.
Over time you will be able to see where your traffic is coming from, what Google sees as your most powerful pages and a tonne of other useful data.
In Conclusion
If you choose to ignore setting the correct essential foundational on-page search engine optimization elements to your website the outcome of trying to rank won’t be good. Any additional off-page SEO efforts will mount to nothing.
Take your time to keep Google happy.
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