Especially in the age of ChatGPT where you can create a relatively well-written blog with just a few prompts. Just because a blog is published does not mean it is optimized for SEO, this is where you come in.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the set of practices and optimizations implemented directly on a website's pages to enhance its visibility and ranking on search engine results. This involves various strategies aimed at making the content more appealing and relevant to search engines, ultimately improving its chances of being prominently displayed in search results.
Key on-page SEO elements include optimizing meta tags such as title tags and meta descriptions, ensuring the use of relevant and strategic keywords throughout the content, creating descriptive and user-friendly URLs, incorporating header tags for content structure, and optimizing images with appropriate alt text.
On-page SEO involves improving the overall user experience by enhancing page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and the overall usability of the website. These efforts collectively contribute to a website's search engine friendliness, making it more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract organic traffic.
On-Page SEO
Headings
- Only 1 H1
- H1 tags should be used to denote the most important text/keyword with H2 and H3 tags used as subheadings
- H1 should contain the most important keyword that you want the page to rank for
Metadata
- Title tag 20-73 characters
- The general template is [blog post title] | [company name]
- Avoid duplicate h1 & title tag (h1 being the same as title tag
- Meta description 100-155 characters
- Avoid duplicate metadata (same metadata on multiple pages)
URL
- No underscores, spaces, excessive folders, and special characters
- Include the title of your web page or keywords
- 2000 characters or less, the shorter the better for the most part
Linking/Anchor text
- Find areas to link to other relevant pages on your website
Link to the most important pages first - Avoid using terms like ‘click here’, ‘learn more’, or ‘next page'
Don't use the same anchor text for multiple pages on the same page
Alt text
- All images besides those that are purely decorative or described in text nearby should have alt text
- Important for accessibility compliance
- Less than 125 characters
- Don't start with 'picture of' or 'image of'
Include keywords if possible
Length & Age
- The ideal blog post length is between 1,500 - 2,500 words, with a sweet spot at 2,450
- It can be as short as 300-1,000 words but likely not to perform as well
- If your blog post isn’t performing well and is more than three years old it might be time to rewrite it & republish, i.e. updating the published date
Conclusion
On-page SEO is a critical part of any SEO strategy and cannot be put on the back burner or done without thought. If you want to get the most out of your SEO work then you have to strategically go about your on-page SEO. If you need any help with your SEO feel free to reach out to us at Instrumental Group and we can assist you.