On-Page SEO Optimization: Some Basics

Presentation of an infographic of 8 SEO optimizations particularly appreciated by search engines. Various “On-page” recommendations on the program will constitute a reasonable basis for optimizing your natural referencing. As a reminder, “On-page” recommendations correspond to technical and editorial improvements that can be applied to each of the strategic pages of your website.

They differ from “Off-page” recommendations which affect more general criteria concerning the site (for example, accommodation). As the infographic produced by “Business2community.com” is in English, I suggest an additional accompanied reading to detail specific points. Of course, a list of 8 criteria is not enough to deal with all the aspects to be taken into account to improve the positioning of its pages.

Therefore, I invite you to take note of the recommended actions on the infographic and consider integrating them into the follow-up of your site(s)! However, despite the benefits of the recommendations listed below, problems of another type may interfere with this work if you wish to be accompanied in identifying blocking factors on your site.

8 “On-page” SEO Criteria Appreciated By Search Engines

Favor Short, Simple URLs That Include The Targeted Keyword

The advantages of such a practice are manifold. The reading of the URL by the search engines considers the presence of the keywords and affects, in the same way as the other factors on the page, the understanding of the theme by Google. So adding the term that best defines the page’s subject within the URL is a good start in establishing an SEO strategy. Moreover, a clean URL encourages clicking much more than a URL with too many directories or numbers and special characters.

As a reminder, the URL is an element found in Google’s search results pages. This is one of the elements on which Internet users will judge the result’s relevance concerning their request. Who says more incentive says better click rate? As far as Google is concerned, this notion of click rate (associated with the bounce rate) indirectly affects the ranking of the American search engine.

Pay Attention To The Optimization Of The Title Tags Of Its Pages

As frequent readers of our blog, you no longer have any doubts about the importance of optimized Title tags on a website. Small precision is all the same on the position occupied by the keywords in your label. Title labels that begin with the designated catchphrase on the page are more successful than labels that don’t have this watchword or, on the other hand, assuming it shows up more in the center or toward the finish of the title.

Practically, this requires integrating this notion when writing the tags. A straightforward tag construction with the colon “:” often makes proposing a label with the keyword in mind possible. I invite you to return to my guide to writing the Title tags mentioned above for all the writing constraints to be respected!

Also Read: SEO Tips That Can Benefit Your Small Business

Use Graphic Resources Within Your Content

Whether it’s images or videos, the presence of these elements in your content allows you to take advantage of new SEO opportunities by respecting the image optimization instructions; for example, these can be indexed under Google Images and bring you additional visibility.

As a reminder, the decisive technical criteria for images are, on the one hand, the Alt attribute of the image and, on the other hand, its file name. Using targeted keywords on the page within these elements, the image can be found on Google Images on queries associated with the
keywords used.

In addition, images and other graphic resources make it possible to attract the eye of the Internet user. It’s a different way to present your traditional text content and influence the bounce rate of a web page. Indeed, after having clicked on a Google result, when an Internet user comes face to face with a page that contains only text content that is not aired, this one can take fright and leave the site prematurely. With images, interest can be more easily aroused and allow the site to improve the behavioral statistics of visits to its pages.

Use External Links To Relevant Sites

Like a footnote in a book that refers to another work, external links within the pages of your website allow Google to locate the theme of your content. The more the linked page is relevant to the subject, the more the approach will be natural and benefit Internet users.

Insert The Keywords You Are Working On In The First 100 Words

As with the Title tag, you must show the keywords you want to position yourself as early as possible in your content. Thus, making them appear in the first 100 – 150 words of your texts is advisable. Search engine robots, therefore, have confirmation that your content addresses the themes announced in your Title and H1 tags.

However, remember that you should not over-optimize your pages. If the keywords, their synonyms and related expressions appear several times in significant content, these must be spread over the entire text length. Thus, three repetitions of keywords on a content of 300 words are correct if these keywords are repeated once every 100 words approximately.

Place Your Article Title In An H1 Tag

As a reminder, having only one H1 tag per page is mandatory! This is one of the most essential aspects of optimizing a page editorially. It is therefore recommended to place the title of your article in an H1 tag because you will be sure that the page will have an H1 tag optimized for the targeted keywords. Also, be careful not to have two or more H1 tags per page. Most themes respect this standard, but you could have surprises with H1s on certain parts of the site (H1 tag on the logo, for example).

Optimize The Loading Time Of Your Site

Loading time is an increasingly important factor for Google: Google’s recent AMP project confirms this, with maximum optimization of loading times for mobile sites. This factor would indeed influence the bounce rate of websites and the commitment of users and is therefore taken into account by the algorithm of search engines and, in particular, by Google.

To reduce this loading time, we advise you to optimize your future images by compressing them before integrating them on your website. Compression tools like Krakeneasily perform this compression. Using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) also improves your site’s performance. This system is based on an extensive network cooperating and allowing the transmission of content to users located directly to one of the computers on the web, significantly reducing the response time during a request.

Finally, many other elements can improve your site’s loading times: the implementation of Gzip compression, the proper structuring of your code, the use of CSS sprites, etc. A tool like GTmetrix allows you, for example, to learn about the points to be improved to optimize the loading time of your site.

Have Substantial Content On Your Pages

It’s no longer a secret that content has become an essential factor in obtaining good positioning in search engines. The various updates related to the Google Panda algorithm are proof of this. So remember, the more important, unique and optimized your content will be (main and associated keywords well repeated in the content). Plus, it will respond to requests from the famous Google search engine.

But don’t neglect the Internet user either! Content dedicated to machines does not have the same editorial line if it is dedicated to Internet users. It is, therefore, necessary to make it enjoyable so that it is pleasant to read and potentially be shared on social networks. Go for a blog post with a minimum of 300 words. But we strongly advise you to exceed 1500 words, especially when the theme is highly competitive!

Also Read: 8 Best SEO Strategies to Try And How They Can Help You With Leads