Here are 10 On-Page SEO Tips to Optimize Your Website for Google:
1. Do your research.
Keyword research is essential for on page optimization. Chances are you are naturally including keywords without realizing it simply by providing valuable content on a topic. However, there are a variety of tools and techniques for finding related keywords relevant to your blog post or website that you may not have considered. The Google Adwords Keyword Tool and semrush.com both offer great tools that allow you to find keywords related to your topic and even spy on your competition to see what words and phrases they are targeting to bring traffic to their sites.
2. Utilize keywords throughout your site.
Once you have targeted a couple of valuable, relevant keywords, it is important to place them where they will have the most impact for humans and search engine crawlers indexing your site.
Try to include them in the following places:
- Title
- Headings and subheadings
- Introductory sentence
- Concluding paragraph
- Anchor text (text you hyperlink to other related pages on your site)
- Title tags and Meta descriptions
A word of caution: Don’t engage in keyword stuffing, which is the act of filling your content with so many keywords that it becomes difficult to read. Not only will this irritate your blog followers, it will also get you penalized by Google. A couple of strategically placed keywords will do the trick.
3. Optimize your images.
Whenever you upload a photo to your website, be sure to include keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a brief, keyword rich description of the photo.
4. Reference others with links.
When you mention another blogger or article in your blog post, include a link to the information you are referencing. Not only is it good blogging etiquette, but you may also get lucky and receive a link back. Quality links are a valuable commodity for any site looking to rank higher in search engine results pages.
5. Give readers the opportunity to subscribe to your posts.
Include prominently placed RSS or Feed Subscription Buttons and offer viewers the ability to subscribe to your posts via email when possible. This allows your blog followers to have instant notification of your latest posts without having to periodically check your site for new content.
6. Use social media to broaden the reach of your blog posts.
As a small business, you may be utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or other social media sites to create connections with potential and current customers. Why not promote your blog content on these sites for even more web exposure? Free programs like Hootsuite make it easy to post links to your latest blog post on all of your social media sites with just a couple of clicks. You can even schedule your posts ahead of time!
7. Give readers the opportunity to share your content.
Include social media sharing buttons on each of your blog posts and encourage your readers to share your content with their networks. The more people that share your content, the more exposure your site will get, and the higher the chance that someone will click through to your site.
8. Encourage comments.
Blogging is a two-way street. In order to create a successful blog, you need to be just as interested in what others have to say about your posts as you are in promoting your own ideas. Make it easy for readers to leave comments by asking thought-provoking questions and using commenting systems like Disqus or Intense Debate. Respond to comments left on your blog in a timely manner to encourage further dialogue.
9. Take advantage of Google Authorship.
If you are a regular blogger or author of articles for other sites, you can take advantage of Google Authorship to have your photo appear next to your articles in Google search results. This is a great way to increase the click-through rate to your articles and build your personal brand.
10. Keep an eye on your traffic.
Use Google Analytics or another similar program to track the number of visitors to your site, where they come from, and what pages they are viewing. This information can help you tailor future blog posts to the interests of your readership and make changes to the design or layout of your site if necessary.
Conclusion:
By following these simple SEO tips, you can encourage higher rankings in SERPS, increased web traffic, and higher customer conversion rates.
