On-Page SEO is optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic from search engines. If you own a small business, you need to ensure your website has well-structured on-page SEO.
Of course, there are estimated to be over 200 ranking factors in Google’s search algorithm, but some of them weigh a bit more than other signals. This is why focusing on the ranking factors that matter most is essential.
This article will give you a rundown of essential on-page SEO factors to help your business website rank higher and drive more relevant traffic.
1. Everything starts with keyword research.
Before optimizing your website for search engines, you need to know which keywords to target. After all, what good is it to target keywords no one is even searching for?
Start by brainstorming a list of keywords that are relevant to your business. While some tools can help you with this, such as Semrush Keyword Magic Tool and Moz Keyword Explorer, sometimes the best way to come up with keywords is to sit down and brainstorm a list.
For example, if you’re a family lawyer, think about what services you provide. Family lawyers generally offer divorce, child custody, and adoption legal services. You can brainstorm a list of relevant keywords, such as “divorce attorney Katy, TX” or “child support lawyer NYC.”
Once you have your list, organize them using Google Sheets or Excel. Then, add additional data for each keyword by using a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to assess the monthly search volume and competition level for each keyword.
At this point, you should have a solid list of keywords you can target on your website. The next step is to start optimizing your web pages for those keywords.
2. Create your content around the keywords you’re targeting.
Start by choosing one of the keywords from your list and create content around it. This could be a blog post, an infographic, or even a service page on your website.
As you’re creating your content, make sure to include the keyword throughout. But don’t go overboard with it — using a keyword too many times will hurt your chances of ranking in search engines. However, not using it enough will make it difficult for search engines to understand your content. This is a balancing act, and takes some time to get right.
Remember to break your content down into sections using headings and subheadings. Not only will this make your content easier to read, but it will also help search engines understand the structure of your content and index it accordingly. We’ll discuss headings shortly.
3. How to optimize your content for search engines.
Now, it’s time to optimize the content we’ve just written. This is the nitty-gritty of on-page SEO. Google places more emphasis on certain aspects of website pages, and it’s crucial we optimize those aspects to include our targeted keywords.
Page title and meta description.
These are the two most crucial on-page SEO factors, so you want to ensure you get them right.
Your page title is the main headline for your web page. It should be 50-60 characters long and include your target keyword. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “family lawyer Kansas City,” a good page title would be “Kansas City Family Lawyer | Prestige Legal Team” or something to that effect.
Your meta description is the short paragraph of text that appears below your page title in search engine results pages (SERPs). It should be 150-160 characters long and provide a brief overview of what your page is about. The meta description isn’t necessarily a ranking factor, but it can affect your click-through rate (CTR), so it’s still important to write a good, catchy meta description.
Headings.
Your content headings (i.e., H1, H2, H3, etc.) should include your targeted keyword and variations of your keyword. This helps search engines understand your content and index it accordingly.
Start by adding your targeted keyword to your H1 tag to optimize your headings. Then, break your content into sections using H2 and H3 tags for each subheading, focusing on related keywords as you go.
Image file names, titles, and ALT tags.
Images are an essential part of any piece of content, but they’re also an important part of on-page SEO. Whenever you add an image to your website, include alt text — a short description of the image with your target keyword.
Adding alt text helps search engines understand what your images are about and index them accordingly. Keep in mind search engines can’t view an image like a person, so they rely on the alt text to understand what an image is about.
In addition to adding alt text to your images, you should also optimize the file name of each image. For example, if you have a dog photo, don’t save the file as “IMG_1234.jpg.” Instead, save it as “dog.jpg” or something similar.
Finally, you should also compress your images before uploading them to your website. This helps reduce the image file size without affecting the quality, which makes your pages load faster — an important ranking factor for search engines.
Internal linking throughout the article.
Chances are, your content has phrasing that you could be linking to different articles on your site. This helps with SEO in a few ways: first, it keeps the user on your site longer, allowing them to easily visit other pages (and reducing your bounce rate); second, it helps search engines understand what your page is about, adding context; and third, it sends signals to the search engines about the other pieces of content, allowing them to find them more easily.
For example, if you’re writing an article about “filing for divorce,” you could link to another one of your articles about different forms required to file. This would help the search engines understand what your page is about, and it would also help keep readers engaged on your site.
A good rule of thumb is to include 2-3 internal links in each piece of content you write.
External linking to credible sources.
In addition to linking to other articles on your website, you should also link to external sources. This shows that you’re well-informed about the topic you’re writing about and are not afraid to link to other people’s content.
Ensure you only link to high-quality, credible websites when linking to external sources. You don’t necessarily want to link to competitor websites, but you can link to other websites in your industry or relevant to the topic you’re writing about.
A good rule of thumb is to include 1-2 external links in each piece of content you write.
4. Improve your website’s user experience.
With your content optimized and published, it’s time to focus on your website’s overall user experience (UX). Improving your website’s UX can help you rank higher in search engine results pages, and it can also help increase your CTR.
To improve UX on your website, start by using clear and concise headlines and subheadings. You should also use bullet points and white space to break up long blocks of text. And remember call-to-actions (CTAs)! Make sure your CTAs are clear, noticeable, and easy to understand.
Following these tips can improve UX on your website and encourage visitors to stick around longer. Ultimately, you want your visitors to take action on your website, whether subscribing to your email list, downloading a PDF, or making a purchase.
Ready to implement these on-page SEO techniques?
On-page SEO is essential if you want your small business websites to rank higher in the SERPs.
Luckily, there are several on-page SEO techniques that you can use to improve your website’s ranking performance. By focusing on fundamental on-page SEO factors like the title tag, meta description, headings, and images, you can give your website the boost it needs to rank higher in the SERPs.
As you continue to develop content for your website, keep these on-page SEO tips in mind to ensure that each piece of content is optimized for the search engines.
