On page SEO

On page SEO is one of the most important aspects to website marketing. Many of the techniques have been widely publicised and can be found with ease. However, mystery or not, it is an essential part of getting a website to promote well within the search engine rankings and many websites need to be reminded they need to get back to the basics.

It is often helpful to seek professional advice with on-page optimisation once a website is up and running, because it can provide additional help to ensure that everything is where it should be and that the site is truly optimised in order to get the best ranking results from the search engines.

Some of the main focuses within on page SEO include:

• Keywords
• Meta tags
• URL structure
• Content
• Site Map
• Patience

To better understand each of these, we’ll break down each one.

KEYWORDS. It is imperative to know what keywords potential customers are using to find your Website. Keyword research is the first step, and reliable methods will ensure that the highly sought keywords are being discovered. Choosing keywords that accurately represent the optimised page are essential. Some of these keywords can be very short, often called ‘short tail’, and some are longer than four words, called ‘long tail’. The keywords can include a target location, such as London or Miami, but they don’t need to.

META TAGS. Meta tags are what web pages use to tell a search engine what is to be found on a particular Website. Without these, the search engines are blind to what is actually going on with a Website, which means that they are not necessarily going to get the ranking they deserve or need on a particular query. Optimising the meta tags with the researched keywords will accurately reflect what is actually on the page.

URL STRUCTURE. Creating a URL structure that indicates what is on each page can help with search engine rankings. This means using a more descriptive keyword instead of letting the website creator name everything with a page number.

CONTENT – On-page optimisation needs to focus on what is actually on the website. Having informative and engaging content is critical. No one wants to read a bunch of keywords. The web copy needs to be sufficiently engaging so that the reader stays on the page. There is a very delicate balance to get the right content on a page that will enhance the quality of a website. The criteria that search engines use includes how long a user stays on a site.

SITE MAP – A site map will be useful for site visitors and search engines for the same reason. A well-planned map of the site will help navigation so that every user can easily find what they are looking for.

PATIENCE – Many things can be done immediately to improve the SEO rankings of a site, however some will take months to fully develop. You must have patience in order to see all of the hard work pay off.