Focusing on your On-Page SEO and the quality of the content on your website should be a crucial part of your SEO strategy for your business this year.
The content that search engines crawl on your website and the way that your users interact with your pages are ranking factors for your website.
Fail to adhere to guidelines and create exciting content that your users enjoy? Say goodbye to those top spots on Google. Google is getting cleverer, and tightening its grip on what websites it chooses to rank.
Our guide will help break On-Page SEO down so you can understand how it works, and what you can do to improve the visibility of your website in 2024.
What is On-Page SEO?
The term ‘On-Page SEO’ is used to refer to the optimisation of a website based on internal practices that are made to improve the quality of content for both search engines and users. On-Page SEO and content are each common terms that are associated with one another, as they make up how Google and how your users perceive your website once they have landed on a page.
Google crawls and ranks the content on your website using several complex ranking systems. These ranking systems are designed to ultimately understand the quality and the purpose of your pages. Google expects your website to produce quality content that is useful for your users, in order to offer them the best experience possible for their search query.
If you are able to meet your user’s search intent and help them with their browsing journey them it can send signals to Google that your website is useful for users, which they can reward you with an increase in rankings.
On-Page Ranking Systems
Google is a complex search engine that is made of multiple ranking systems which assess your website’s content to influence where it ranks for search terms.
It’s important to stay up to date with the latest systems that they release to know what they are looking for when they crawl your page, and how you can adjust your On-Page SEO strategy to keep them happy.
- BERT
- Helpful Content System
- Multitask Unified Model (MUM)
- Neural Matching
- Passage Ranking System
- RankBrain
You can find out more about Google’s ranking systems with their guide: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide.
Why is On-Page SEO Important?
On-Page SEO is not only important for Google but also your users. The content on your website should aim to help Google understand your website and its main topics, as well as providing users the information to encourage them to convert.
Your On-Page SEO has a direct impact on your website’s keyword rankings on search engines and therefore your visibility for your audiences. By investing in your On-Page SEO and producing quality content, your website is more likely to rank higher for search terms and encourage clicks to your website.
The content on your website also directly influences how well users behave on your website. If your content is relevant to your audiences and offers rich information that they want to see, they are more likely to stay on there and become a new customer for your business. Failure to do so can result in users leaving and looking elsewhere at your competition.
How to Create an On-Page SEO Strategy
Looking to create an On-Page SEO strategy that takes your business to the next level? There are multiple processes that you should look at implementing to make sure that your content is top.
Detailed Keyword Research
Keyword research is the bread and butter of On-Page SEO and without doing it properly, it can cause your On-Page SEO strategy to come crashing down.
Millions of people each day are searching for things on Google so the number of keywords that people are typing into the search bar is endless. But your job is to choose what ones are directly relevant to your business.
Use keyword research tools to identify what search terms people are searching for, and target keywords that are relevant and attainable for your website.
To ensure that the keywords you are targeting are attainable for your website, you should look at search volume, competitiveness, and keyword difficulty as metrics to make judgements.
We use SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool to conduct keyword research and identify opportunities for keyword optimisation.
Here are some things that you should consider about your business when researching keywords for your website:
- Where are your business services?
- Who are your target audience (B2B vs. B2C)?
- Where are your target audience based?
- How new is your website’s domain?
- What type of content do you want to create?
- Ultimately: what do you think your audiences will be searching for?
Here are our top 4 tips for keyword research to give your page the best chances of ranking for them:
- Keep keywords as relevant as possible (consider audience demographics and intent)
- Target secondary keywords for your content
- Target attainable keyword variations for less competition
- Target keywords to create content around related, broader topics
Content Planning
Plan your content out accordingly by creating a landing page for each with a target, primary keyword that you want to rank for.
Your website should consist of core, internal pages that target users seeking your main services and encourage them to convert.
Plan other content through your blog and other resource types to create content that is related to your business and can attract other audiences to your business.
Content Structure
The structure of your content is important for Google to judge the hierarchy of your content and understand what topics you are covering on the page.
Use H2’s, H3’s and H4’s to structure your content accordingly and break up topics to make your content easier for bots to crawl and easier for users to read on their devices.
Content Intent
The intent of your content and what you are trying to communicate with your audiences is vital. What are you trying to talk about? Are you trying to sell your audiences something or educate them? What angle are you creating for your business?
Google determines the main intent for search terms and judges your content to see if it matches what users are looking for. If your content doesn’t offer the same content that you users are looking for then it isn’t likely to rank.
Internal Linking
Providing links to other content on your website that may be helpful for your users is an essential practice for On-Page SEO.
If users may not find the content useful on the page that they are currently on, you could direct them to a more specific service page, blog page or contact page that will improve their browsing journey and provide them with a good overall experience.
Meta Tag Optimisation
Your meta tags include the title tag and meta description, which show on your listing on Google. These are the first things that your audiences see before landing on your website, so it’s important to get it right.
It’s important to keep your title tag as relevant as possible, so that users know what your page is about.
Your meta description should be enticing, letting users know about what is on your page in more detail and why they should click on the listing.
Here you can see we’ve included a primary keyword and secondary keyword variation in our title tag with an engaging CTA, as well as a meta description that tells the user how we can help them:
CTA Optimisation
Your On-Page SEO strategy shouldn’t just focus on creating great content. You need to optimise your pages to making your conversion methods eye-catching and providing users an enhanced journey from landing to purchasing/making an enquiry.
Where you place your CTA’s is vital, as well as giving quick, snappy taglines and making users do minimal work to enquire.
On our key landing pages, we like to add a visible form stands out at the top of the page and enables them to enquire without having to look elsewhere:
Using AI for On-Page SEO
AI is now the norm for many industries, and it’s no different when it comes to SEO. AI and Automation can help you with your On-Page strategy to help create engaging content on your website, as well as review your pages for issues.
Generate Content Ideas
Content ideas can be difficult at times, which means endless scratching of heads and brainstorming that can lead to procrastination.
AI is a great tool for gaining inspiration or content ideas for your website. Using prompts can help you with keyword research for new content and allow you to plan content for covering various sub topics that are related to your business and your audiences.
Content Structure
Once you have planned an idea for a new piece of content, it’s important that it’s structured optimally for an easy read and to help Google understand the hierarchy of the page.
If you prompt AI to provide a structure for your content, it can lay out headers, with their titles, and give a brief description about what you should discuss in the paragraph.
Review On-Page SEO
AI tools can help you with your On-Page SEO strategy and tell you what you should do to optimise your pages or website.
You can prompt AI tools to review your pages and give a list of recommended changes that will help it appear for keywords on search engines.
We can take your On-Page SEO strategy to the next level.Want Help From an SEO Agency?
Things to Consider for Your On-Page SEO in 2024
Before developing an On-Page SEO strategy, it’s important that you stay up to date with important trends in SEO on the back of Google’s updates.
Here are some things that we think you should consider for your On-Page SEO for 2024.
Commercial or Informational Search Intent
The search intent of your targeted keywords are an important factor for your keyword research and the content that you want to create for your audiences.
Commercial Keywords
A commercial intent keyword refers to a keyword that a user will type in looking for a service or product. They will be looking for concise content that provides rich information specifically about the business, product/service and information that will influence their purchasing decision such as costs, delivery etc.
This type of keyword is likely to be searched by users that will turn into actual customers on your website.
Informational Keywords
An informational intent keyword refers to a keyword that a user will type in looking for information around a topic and are not necessarily ready to splash the cash. These type of users, on the other hand, will be looking for long form content, providing detailed, factual information about a topic and it’s related topics.
This type of keyword is likely to be searched by users that may have no interest in purchasing a product, but it may also be interested by users that are considering it; they just want to do a bit of research before they make the decision.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T is a term used by Google as main pillars that should be consistently shown in your content. It stands for:
- Experience – tell users about how you have helped your customers in the past
- Evidence – show examples of your work
- Authenticity – your content shouldn’t be fabricated and display genuine knowledge in your specialist area
- Trustworthiness – show examples of why your business is trusted to offer a quality service and genuine customer satisfaction
By showing each of these things across your website, the quality of your content will improve and your keyword rankings will reap the rewards. Even more so, your users will trust what you have to say and are more likely to enquire.
Speak to an SEO Agency For Your On-Page Optimisation
If your business is looking to execute an effective On-Page SEO strategy then you can speak to an SEO agency for your digital marketing.
Maxweb are a digital marketing agency that specialise in helping businesses improve their visibility through professional SEO services. For years our SEO team have helped businesses scale online and generate traffic to their website.
If you want to execute an On-Page SEO strategy that helps drive traffic to your website and generate leads then we’ll be happy to help. Speak to our team today to find out more about how we can help your growth in 2024.
Give us a call o151 652 4777 or send us a message to receive a quote on info@maxwebsolutions.com.
Posted on Thursday, April 11th, 2024 in SEO.