A lot of factors go into search engine optimization (SEO). It can be hard to keep track of everything you should be doing for SEO. When you are working on SEO, a good place to start is with the factors right on your website, also known as on-page SEO. Here is our quick list of on-page SEO factors that you need to be utilizing.
Title Tag
This is (usually) the title that shows up in a Google search. While Google is known to change these, the better your title tag, the more likely it will stick. Your title tag should be enticing and include relevant keywords. Your website visitor should know exactly what to expect on the page from the title tag.
Meta description
A meta description (again, usually) shows under the title in search results. Your meta description should entice searchers to click on your website instead of any other on the search results page. You do have limited space (somewhere around 150 characters), so be sure to carefully craft your description.
Headings
You want to be sure that you use appropriate headings (also known as H1, H2, etc tags) in your text. This helps both readers, by breaking up and organizing content for easier reading, and search engines, by helping them know what’s important on the page. Your page should only have one H1 (the title), and then H2s and maybe H3s to break up the content as appropriate.
Keywords
Let me be abundantly clear: when I say you need keywords, I am not referring to keyword stuffing. Your goal is not to fit the keyword in as often as you can. Instead, you should do some research to determine what type of keywords your customers are searching for, and then work those naturally into your text. Weaving a few well-chosen keywords naturally into your text is much better than shoving in every keyword you can think of.
Images and Alt Text
Images are important to the experience of your readers, but you need to be sure that they are relevant to the content and used in moderation. Too many images will slow down a page, but not including any images makes a page less engaging. When you include images, be sure that they are properly labeled with alt text. This is how search engines understand what your image is about and is also useful to blind customers visiting your page with a screen reader.
Links
There are two types of links: internal (links to other pages on your website) and external links (links to other websites). Linking to pages on your own site is a great way to help users and Google discover other relevant pages on your site, as well as pass along some authority in Google. Where it’s applicable, you can also link to other high-quality sites.
As you have probably noticed, all of these factors are beneficial not just to search engines like Google, but to your readers and customers as well. There is no reason not to take advantage of all of these factors to improve your website.
If you need help building a great website or optimizing your existing website, we can help! Our team of web designers and SEO experts can help you create a site that both search engines and users will love! Contact us today to get started!