The best way to improve your search engine ranking is to make your website SEO-friendly. Google ranks websites based on several factors and once you get them right, you’ll see a boost in organic visibility. This article outlines 7 on-page SEO factors that can improve your website ranking.
What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is the practice of improving your website’s rankings and user experience by optimizing individual pages. This is the opposite of off-page SEO, which relates to optimizing for aspects outside of your site. On-page SEO entails matching keywords to page-specific components like title tags, headings, content, and internal links.
Why Is On-Page SEO So Crucial?
Google’s search algorithm is continually changing. It conducted 800,000 trials in 2021 and modified its search algorithm 5,000 times.
Despite its continuous advancements, it isn’t flawless. Google crawlers still need assistance to understand new information. On-page search engine optimization (SEO) helps with this.
On-page SEO isn’t as difficult as some people make it out to be. The truth is that there are only a few ranking elements to be concerned about. It’s not about over-optimizing your content for bots, but generating an amazing user experience. Below are some on-page SEO ranking elements you should consider.
On-page SEO Factors That Improve Rankings
1. High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality content is the first and most essential aspect of on-page SEO. This is because when your content isn’t intriguing, engaging, or shareable, you won’t be able to engage your audience.
Read More: How to Find Low Competitive, High-Value Keywords
To begin with, your content should be unique. Google frowns against copied or duplicated content, and it can lead to your site being blacklisted. It’s nice to get ideas from other well-known websites. But simply follow their lead. Create unique content that reflects your brand’s personality.
Secondly, choose topics that address your audience’s pain and concerns. Your content is more likely to engage them if you provide answers to their questions.
2. Meta Title Tags
The title tag is an HTML tag that appears in the head section of each webpage and provides a first indication of the topical subject matter of the page it is on.
It is prominently displayed in both the search engine results pages and the browser window. Because the title tag has such a small impact on organic results, it is frequently neglected. However, missing, duplicate or poorly worded title tags can all have a detrimental impact on your SEO rankings, so make sure you’re optimizing for it.
3. Search Intent
Google has a knack for figuring out what a person is looking for without relying on traditional SEO parameters. Search intent has become a more essential aspect, often taking precedence over SEO elements like headers, links, titles, and others. Search intent can be classified into the following.
• Navigational: looking to get to a specific spot or location.
• Transactional: Looking to buy or learn about a product or service to make future purchases.
• Informational: Looking to gather the information that is displayed on a specific website or page.
- Commercial investigation: Looking to learn something to do.
You must understand the intent and search engines to ensure that your site ranks highly for search queries.
4. Page Load Time
Page speed has long been considered one of the most essential SEO ranking factors. Google strives to enhance the web experience for users, and a fast-loading website will help them do that.
Read More: On-Page SEO Factors That Improve Ranking
If your site doesn’t load quickly on mobile devices, it may not rank high on search engines. Use the Google speed testing tool to determine your site’s speed performance. Google also introduced Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to help websites create a mobile-friendly and fast-loading version of their web pages.
5. Internal Linking
This on-page SEO component intersects with off-page SEO in that external links to trustworthy sources should be included in your text, especially when mentioning figures, facts, and quotes.
Internal linkages are also vital not only for SEO but also for the benefit of your readers. It offers links to relevant information on your website.
6. Mobile Friendliness
Since more people now use mobile devices to access the internet than desktop computers, Google has changed how it ranks search results.
Google’s mobile-first index is now live, which means it prioritizes mobile-optimized sites over desktop-optimized sites in its search results. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you risk being buried in the search results.
7. Optimized Images
Optimizing images is a great way to improve your search engine ranking. Start by giving them descriptive file names with hyphens between words. Next, reduce the file size to ensure that it loads quickly while retaining image quality. If your site has large photos, your page load time will suffer, which will affect your Google ranking.
Also, make sure to incorporate content in the image alt tags, with the appropriate keyword sprinkled throughout. The alt text aids help search engine crawlers understand your images.
Read More: SEO for Beginners, How to Rank #1 on Google in 2022
In conclusion, increasing your site’s search engine ranking is not a one-time job. It requires continuously optimizing various aspects of your site to make it more search engine friendly, and the above-listed steps can help you do that.