On Page Optimization: Important Factors To Consider In 2019
The process of search engine optimization involves two major parts – Off Page Optimization & On Page Optimization. Off page optimization has more to do with promotional methods outside the website like posting links, using social media to achieve a better ranking in the search results etc.
On the contrary, On Page optimization forms the base for search engine optimization and refers to all the steps that can be taken directly within the website to improve its search engine ranking. It is the process of optimizing the individual web pages that comprise the website. It includes the content of the webpage as well as the HTML source code of that page. Basically, on page optimization techniques involve optimizing the code and content of each web page of the website. When looking for a business to do your optimization, look for a reputable Kansas City Online Marketing company. You need a company that will focus on the following factors to achieve better On Page Optimization of your website.
1. Optimize the title tags
The title tags are one of the most important factors that can help with page optimization. Title tags are used to determine the intent of your page by search engines. A Google bot will list your website in the search results only if it sees the searched keywords included in your title tag. The closer your keyword is to the first few words of the title tag, the higher priority it is given by the search engines. That is why it is recommended that you start your title tag with the keyword. Another great idea is to add modifiers in your title and title tags. Words like ‘2019’, ‘review’, and ‘best’ are considered modifiers. These words are likely to be used when a user conducts a Google search and using them in your title tag can help you increase your ranking for long tail versions of your keyword.
2. Meta Description and Meta Tag Optimization
A Meta description tag is a short summary that is used to describe the content of a web page. Your website should have a Meta description focusing on your business and services. This piece of information is called ‘the selling snippet’. This snippet might be picked up by Google to display in the search results. If the user finds this information useful, they are more likely to visit your website. Increasing web traffic is the goal, and therefore, it is important to make your meta description interesting and precise. You can also add your contact number or a toll-free number so if someone is looking to contact you, they can directly call instead of visiting your website. Like the Meta Description, Meta tags are a set of keywords that you select for each web page. These keywords have to be well researched and relevant to your web page and posts.
3. Keyword Optimization
It is important to decide relevant keywords with appropriate research. There should be an optimum number of keywords in your posts to drive traffic to your website, but this does not necessarily mean that you should overuse those keywords. This would make your website unreadable and would turn away visitors. You can make use of several free tools available online and shortlist a few that are relevant to your subject matter. You can also use some long tail keywords involving common words like “top”, “cheap”, “best” that can be easier to rank for. To please the Google Gods, try to keep the keyword density between two to five percent.
4. Optimizing URL Structures
A study found that the shorter a webpage URL is, the better its Google rank turns out to be. That being said, it is important to make your URLs keyword rich. Use hyphens or dashes to separate words in your URL as Google does not identify underscores.
5. Content Optimization
Longer content is ranked higher by Google search engines as compared to shorter articles. Make sure your articles and blog posts are long and engaging, ideally ranging from 1800 to 3000 words. Of course, they should have good quality, and include relevant information for the reader. Also, make sure you add the relevant keywords within the first 100 words of your post. Don’t forget to add adequate internal links in every post. This helps the user browse related information within your website itself instead of doing a Google search again. The best example of internal linking is Wikipedia.
6. Heading Tags
Using proper HTML tags <h1> and tags <h2>on your post’s headings and subheadings is a good idea. This effect not only makes your post readable and structured but also makes navigation easy. Headings are the largest words on your post and hence the search engines tend to give them a little more weight than the rest of the page. It is even better if your keywords can be included in your headings although using it repeatedly without relevance will make it less important.
7. Image Optimization
A webpage is bound to have many images inserted in its posts. The images should always have an alt tag and an image description. They help in describing the image to the user and also help them to understand the purpose of the image. These tags help the search engine crawler index the image more accurately. Thus, the image description should always consist of the relevant keyword to improve your search rankings.
8. Video Optimization
Any business should concentrate on two types of videos: educational and emotional. It is important to optimize the multimedia content just as we optimize the written content to get the best out of it. Also, it is important to make your messages easily understandable through videos. The title of the video should be simple, short, engaging and should include the keywords. The description of the video should be concise, precise and target oriented. It should include your primary and secondary keywords through text. A perfect thumbnail image is the deciding factor as to whether or not a visitor will watch your videos – it is even more important than the title! An eye-catching and relevant image can get the audience’s attention quickly. Also, always include subtitles in your videos as many people tend to watch videos with audio off.
These eight techniques by a reputable Kansas City Online Marketing company for on page optimization will help search engines crawl your entire website effectively. This will lead to a better ranking in the search results and create enough traffic to your website.