On-Page SEO: Optimizing Website Pages and Content for Search Engines

On-page SEO is the elements that decide if your site is streamlined for web indexes saw from inside its own site.

That is, you will do the optimization in your own website.

On-page optimization aims to let search engines know if your website is relevant to what the user is looking for. And really that has the best quality.

Therefore, the key 2 things: relevant, quality.

Without meeting both, it is impossible to get a ranking of 1 in search engines.

In this article, we will study in which parts of your website have to apply on-page optimization as well as how to optimize it.

The concept of on-page SEO

In SEO, the concept of on-page optimization is the MAIN thing you must understand.

There is another category of optimization besides on-page (off-page, discussed in the next chapter), but without applying on page optimization it will be useless to do other strategies.

The essence of simple on-page SEO ...

... you will optimize the website so that:

High benefit for visitors
Make it easier for visitors to explore
Visitors feel at home in it
Search engines understand the structure of your website

After reading those 4 points, you may ask,

"I'm optimizing for search engines, why even focus on visitors?"

The answer, this ...

Search engines can find out whether visitors are satisfied or not with the pages they visit.

Imagine if you are looking for something on Google, then go to one of the websites. Apparently the content is not satisfactory. Most likely after a few seconds you will click the 'back' button to search other websites. Yes, right?

Because Google certainly wants to display websites that satisfy users, then your website should satisfy visitors.

Here's how:

Optimal Website Page Components

There are several factors that affect the satisfaction of website users. We will cover one by one of each of the following categories:

Content
Keyword
Title
URL
Meta description
Image media
Outbound links
Internal links
Social sharing
Speed of website

Content of the highest quality

If you notice, the content is the main component in the website page. That is, content plays the biggest role in on-page optimization.

It is impossible to get a rating of 1 without having quality content.

... but, what is quality content?

Here are the characteristics:

Provide maximum benefits to visitors
More prominent than other similar content
Listened for a long time by visitors
Generating feelings (amazed, entertained, happy, etc.)
Resolving visitor issues

That's 5 quality content criteria.

If you want to get ranked 1 in the search engines in a long duration, then your content should meet the five things.

Without exception.

You need to know also that Google openly states that they are against content that:

Thin (thin), in other words not weighting
Do not add value to readers
Not original
Make the reader frustrated (because of low quality)

If your content goes into one of the categories above, it will be very difficult to get a high ranking.

Worse, such content is at risk of penalty!

Google and other search engines are actively updating its algorithm. The more they go, the more they will understand the quality of content.

So, be careful in publishing content for your website.

Keywords are popular and well targeted

Try to recall the last time when you used Google ... you wrote a few words as the keyword.

Then Google displays results related to these keywords.

The more relevant the keyword, the higher the rank.

So, optimizing the page means optimizing the keyword.

Every page on your website should be optimized for at least 1 keyword.

How?

By including keywords in your website pages.

Precisely within the content, in the title, and in the URL.

Thus, search engines and visitors will immediately understand what the content of your website pages.

One more thing…

You must understand what the meaning behind a keyword is.

Let's say someone did a search on Google with the keyword "buy iphone".

What does that mean?

Does he want to buy an iPhone or does he want to read an article on how to buy an iPhone? Hmm ... it seems the first makes more sense.

Google also understands this.

So Google will display the page selling the iPhone.

Therefore, it is impossible to get a high ranking if you provide an article on how to buy an iPhone.

The title of the page that invites clicks

The easiest way to optimize the title is to include the main keywords that you seek.

For example the keyword "learn SEO", then the title contains the word "learn SEO".

But that alone is not enough ...

... the most important in the title is not keyword optimization, but optimization of human interest.

If the title you create is able to attract many visitors, then the rank will rise.

Logically this:

Suppose there are 2 competing websites, ranked 1 and 2.

It turns out that 2 more rank get visitors than rank 1 ... because the title he made more interesting, so many are click.

Google wants to put the best results, then the website in the ranking of 2 will be raised to the first rank.

Make sense?

Since the title is the most readable page element in the search results, optimizing the number of clicks can increase.

Short and descriptive URLs

Although the effect is not great, but URLs containing keywords can affect your website ranking in search results.

Here's an example of a bad URL. Avoid using URLs like this.

guideim.com/?p=94

Good URLs are always relevant to what the content of the page is.

Example:

Pages about 'bakso recipe'> domain.com/resep-bakso/
'Macbook pro' product page> domain.com/laptop/macbook-pro/

Create URLs that describe the content, better if it contains the main keyword.

Descriptive and invite click meta description

Meta description is 1-2 sentences that appear in search results:

Meta description does not actually affect your page rankings.

In addition, it also does not always appear in search results. Because Google now uses more sentences in the content as a page description.

Nevertheless, there is no harm in this part is optimized.

(Moreover does not take long)

With an interesting meta description, then the chances of others to visit your website will be higher.

As the logic goes, the more clicks from humans = the better the ranking.

High-quality images and optimum size

Imagine a website page that is 100% text content, must be very boring. Therefore, the image and / or video is an added value.

Surprisingly, many thought the image would be detrimental ...

…not true.

There is no loss in using multimedia in the content.

Except, if the amount is so much that makes your website visitors traffic jam. Or if it has nothing to do with the content.

Some tips:

Use related images and explain the content
Use the right type of extension to prevent the file size from swelling
Make sure the image resolution matches what is displayed
Compress images optimally
Add alt attribute when putting image

References in the form of links to other websites

This point is very important especially for the new website.

Google, as the information center of course want to provide reliable content. So that the information does not mislead many people.

This is why large websites are easier to enter the first page ...

... because its reputation has been awakened since long.

Well, because your website is new, Google considers its contents can not be trusted. Because not trusted, it will be more difficult to get a high ranking.

Here is the reference link can help.

Links to other reputable and relevant websites will make your content reputation better. .

The analogy looks like this:

Try taking one of the non-fiction books.

In the book there must be a list of libraries or footnotes. It contained quotation information from other sources.

Books without other source citations will be considered untrustworthy.

Internal links to facilitate navigation

There is a term whose name bounce.

Bounce means when someone enters your website, then he goes straight out without doing anything.

If the bounce rate of your website is high, it could be because:

The quality is disappointing
Navigation is difficult

Remember again, websites that disappoint visitors will not be able to get high rankings.

So the bounce rate could be a factor that shows visitor satisfaction.

One attempt to lower the bounce rate is to install internal links (links between pages), so that visitors easily visit other pages in your website.

Can be shared to social media

Currently Google does not regard the number of shares as a ranking factor in Google, but that does not mean social sharing is not important.

Quite the opposite.

Social share has an indirect impact on website rankings.

It benefits from social sharing:

Additional visitors
Branding, your website will be known
The satisfaction factor increases (if your website can satisfy the visitors who come)
Some of the visitors will provide backlinks (discussed further in the next chapter)

Compared to SEO, social media will build your website brand more quickly.

This is what has an effect on SEO.

When your website is known, then people will search your website via Google ...

... because many are searching through Google, meaning your website reputation will be considered good by Google.

Therefore, put the share button on your website.

Then use the popularity trigger element to create compelling content to share.

Speed of response and speed barriers

A faster website will get a better ranking.

In an article written by Billy Hoffman in MOZ, it appears that websites that are in the top rank have a shorter response time.

Time to First Byte (TTFB) means the time taken by the website server until the user gets the first 1 byte. In other words, the server response time.

Speed improvement is not just for search engines. Visitors will also be more comfortable to be on the website that the loading time is short.

There are several things that affect speed:

The quality of hosting used
Number of .js and .css files in <head>
The size of the page is too large to disturb the visitor

Keep in mind: the presence of images and videos will not be considered to reduce the speed of the website. Unless the amount is excessive and unnecessary.

You can test the speed of your website through Google Page Speed Test. Immediately make improvements if the score is below 75.