The Basics of On-Page SEO

On-page Search Engine Optimisation is an important aspect in getting the webpage ranked in the Google Search Results. On-Page SEO should be a priority because the elements are within the website and the factors can be controlled by the website owner or web developer. On-page optimisation has several factors including the quality of the code, quality of the content, and the User Experience (UX).

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page Search Engine Optimisation is defined as streamlining elements of the webpage to improve the ranking in the Search Results and therefore increase website traffic. The On-page elements include the content of the webpage and the HTML source code on the page.

Google’s crawling, indexing and ranking process has evolved dramatically over the years that it can automatically access and rank the pages according to the relevance of the content with respect to the keywords used by the search query.

Elements of On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO focuses on the many elements that are present on the webpage. They include how the webpage is built, the quality of the content and how the content is presented. Optimising the elements help improve the chances that the webpage to have a high rank in the Search Engine results. Here are some of the different elements:

URL

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or otherwise known as the web address specifies the location on the internet of the resource like the webpage. The URL also provides information or protocol on how the resources are retrieved like HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and etc.

HTML tags

Web page elements like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags to help Search Engines find and index the content on the web pages. HTML tags include the Title Tags, Meta Description Tag, HTML Heading Tags, and Alt text. Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress has made it easier for website owners and web developers to create the HTML tags but getting an understanding on the tags may help in creating better tags that increase the chances of being ranked.

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HTML Title Tags

The title tag of the webpage is one of the most important elements for Search Engine Optimization. The title tag acts like a signboard for Search Engine Crawlers like Googlebot to identify and determine the title and theme of the webpage. The title tag is based on the targeted keywords and should be relevant to the content of the webpage. The typical format of the title tag is (Brand/ Company)- primary keyword- secondary keyword.

Meta Description

Meta Descriptions do not directly affect the page ranking factor but it helps Search Engines in indexing the content by providing a relevant summary of the content on the webpage. Meta Description should contain at least 156 characters and contain primary keywords related to the content.

Heading Tags

The Heading tags help search engines index the structure and content of the web pages. The Heading tags not only help search engine crawlers it also helps improve the appearance and structure of your content to your audience. The web page should contain H1, H2 and H3 tags and the keywords should be present in the tags.

H1 Tags: The H1 tags are for the Title on top of the page and should contain the target keyword, The H1 Tags can also be used for main categories or main subject line.

H2 Tags: The H2 tag is used for the main subcategories on the web page. A general guideline is to include the target rules and also keywords that are similar.

H3 Tags: the H3 tags are used for subcategories under the H2 tags.

Alt Tags

Alt tags are HTML markups that provide information about an image to the Search Engine Crawlers, they then index the data. So if you add an alt tag to say “business man” the image will be more likely to come up if someone does an image search on Google for the term “business man”.

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Device Optimisation

The recent breakthroughs in the development of smartphones and tablets have made them an increasingly popular platform for viewing content on the internet and it can no longer be ignored that audiences viewing from their mobile devices contributes a major part in website traffic. It is now a major element in Search Engine Optimization that webpages should take into consideration the mediums that their target audiences may access it from like iPhones, Android Phones and Tablets.

Optimising the website for mobile devices improves the user experience of customers and decreases bounce rates and increases click-through rates. Making the website responsive across all devices makes it user-friendly and at the same time improves content delivery.

Webpage Loading Speed

The Loading Speed of a webpage is an important factor in Search Engine Optimization. An average user expects a webpage to load in under 4 seconds and over that threshold, you risk bouncing the customer off your website.

There are plenty of ways to ensure that the webpage loads faster like getting the fastest server available for the website, minimize the size of images without degrading the quality, and using caching whenever possible. Faster loading pages improve user experience and encourage users to click through other pages in the websites.

Optimising Content for SEO

Optimising content for Search Engine is a delicate balance of satisfying the Google crawlers and your target audience. Google highly discourages a number of SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, Content Cloaking, Duplicate Content and low-quality backlinks.

The quality of the content outweighs all other SEO factors in generating improve ranking because if the content you present answers the user’s search query or provides relevant information then the higher the likelihood that user will engage with your website and share the content across social media channels increasing the reach.
Conclusion

On-Page SEO helps improve the chances of Google ranking your page but the content is always king. No matter how fast your webpage loads, how beautiful it looks or how streamlined it is for mobile phone none of it will matter if the content of the web pages won’t answer the user’s questions or provide relevant information.

Our Wirral SEO Service can help you optimise your site.


We are based on Wirral, near Chester and Liverpool. With clients throughout the UK.