Tips on On-Page SEO

01. Use the main keyword in the Title​(Up to 55 characters will be displayed in Google search results.) Study your future competitors’ title tags. In order to search for the clickable Title, use Buzzsumo and enter your keyword, or any news and sites you’ve visited. Incorporate your ideas into the Title.

02. Write unique text with a Call To Action in the Meta Description​(Up to 117 characters will be displayed in Google search results.)

03. Divide your content into titles and subtitles​based on meaning, which will facilitate the reading process. Use the keywords in the headings H1­H3.

04. Make your text appealing. Make sure that you use lists and bullets​whenever possible. Ensure that the size of your font is at least 16px. Divide sentences into paragraphs of no more than 3­4 sentences. Make sentences as short as possible​, since the information is perceived much easier in this way.

05. Complete the keyword research before writing the article​. Enter your main keyword in Google Keyword Planner / KWFinder / Keyword Tool, and read the list of suggested new phrases.

06. When you look for new keywords, use question and answer sites​like Quora, and thematic forums​like Reddit. Type in your search query and closely examine the words and phrases used both in the headlines of questions and in the answer text.

07. Make a list of all the keywords you’ve found, and check the frequency of queries in Google.​Type these queries into Google Keyword Planner and carry out the purge. If your blog is still young, remove the high­frequency queries, as it will be difficult to compete in them. Choose keyword phrases that consist of three or more words​with the highest number of queries. This will make it easier for you to get traffic.

08. Evaluate the promotional difficulty​of received and sorted keywords. To do so, you can use the free version of KWFinder. This took will make it easy to determine the difficulty of achieving results. All data will be displayed in the section Google SERP > Rank.

09. Get instant access to your competitors’ strength assessments​in Google results. Install the MozBar browser extension. Once it is enabled, you will be able to see indicators such as: DA (Domain Authority), PA (Page Authority), and the number of referring domains and social media shares. Pay attention to the indicators PA and RDs​(unique domains). The higher these parameters, the more difficult it will be for you. Use the keywords in which your competitors are weaker.

10. Create the right amount of content for each article. Just look at the content length of your Top 10 competitors​in Google. Do not write articles that are less than 800 words long. 2,000 or more words per article is considered the average index for all niches.

11. Use a long­tail keyword strategy​. Select relevant keywords and synonyms for your article. Think it over, find out what words are used to describe your topic on forums and social networks. Determine which words your competitors use. Any tool that identifies keyword density will be of great help — for example, SEOquake browser extension.

12. The main key phrase must be used at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the article​. You shouldn’t necessarily use the exact phrase. Rather, it can be a synonym, or another phrase with the same gist. iwannabeablogger.com

13. Do not reuse the keywords selected specifically for search engines more than you should. Do not spam! Elaborate on the subject matter, and you won’t even notice when all the necessary words have been used.

14. Incorporate phrases such as why, what, how to, free, and help into your material. Users’ questions can’t go without these words​. Otherwise put, these words will get you more traffic.

15. Lend color to your pages​. Use different formats of media content (images, videos, slides, PDFs, spreadsheets, graphs, etc.).

16. Add internal links​from other posts. By all means, this should be done within the meaning!

17. Internal linking is a powerful tool. If you want to increase traffic​to certain articles, add these articles to the sidebar​that is shown on each page. Do not use more than 10 links in the sidebar. Or, simply add the links to all necessary articles to the content of your old posts content. Specify the search query on Google to locate the suitable pages on your blog: “keyword” site:yourblog.com

18. Use the right anchor text for internal links​. The exact match of keywords should not exceed 5% of all links. Use the expanded entry for anchors of no more than 20%. Other anchors should be of a general nature, not to mention diverse and relevant.

19. Create clean and SEO­friendly URLs.​You shouldn’t make them too long. Just include the main key phrases.

20. Develop the structure of your blog.​Move from more important to less important pages. Add articles to the necessary pages, and post links to them.

21. Breathe new life into your old posts​. Update the information, make it topical. Add clarifications and comments. Visualize the content, and add a bit of humor.

22. Carry out a purge of your menu. Since you have it on every page, get rid of links to the sections users are not interested in​(Check their attendance in Google Analytics.) The fewer permanent links there are, the better it is for both users and search engines.

23. Make a portrait of your ideal user​according to the data regarding your blog’s and competitors’ attendance. SimilarWeb will help you.

24. Study your audience​. The sooner you do this, the easier it will be to achieve results. Conduct a brief survey using Google Forms, or question your readers in the newsletter and the comments section of the article. Just ask users what they want to know!

25. Choose a clean and SEO­friendly template​for your blog. Replace the old template with a modern one that can adapt to any device (a computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc.).

26. Reduce the load speed of your blog​. As soon as a new post has been published — or when you analyze old posts — open PageSpeed Insights from Google. Type in your URL and apply the recommendations. Also, check your speed in a free tool, such as GTmetrix.

27. In order to increase the overall load speed of your blog,​use a reliable host. Test your competitors’ load speeds (http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/). With help from the site https://www.webhostinghero.com/who­is­hosting/, determine what hosts your competitors use. Select the suitable one for you in terms of price and speed. iwannabeablogger.com

28. Optimize your images​. Choose the correct formats for each type. Use Photoshop or free tools such as https://compressor.io/, http://optimizilla.com/.

29. In order to receive traffic from your images, add alt tag​, including a description of the image. Use the keyword in the file name for the image​. This keyword must characterize the image in the best way possible.

30. Create an xml site map​. If you have already done so, make sure it was compiled correctly, and that all new pages appear as needed. Add your site map to Google Search Console.

31. Find the nonexistent pages of your blog​(404 pages). Use Search Console: Crawl > Crawl Errors and the program Screaming Frog (Response Codes).

32. Make your 404 error page a real knockout. Add a Call To Action​so that users know how to proceed.

33. Get rid of dead links​. Online Broken Link Checker is a free tool that will help you to find them.

34. Check the comments plugin on your blog. Outbound links should be no­followed.​Carry out a purge of spam and unnecessary comments.

35. Add a micromarkup schema.org, richsnippets or structure the data​(Search Console: Search Appearance > Structured Data), so that the search engines understand your content better and improve the CTR of your organic results.

36. Increase your conversion using content upgrades​(free PDFs, checklists, cribs, movie tutorials, etc.). The longer the user stays on your blog, the more he or she will returns to it, and the better your blog is in the eyes of search engines.

37. Check whether you have duplicate pages​. In terms of SEO, duplicate pages result in a significant disadvantage. It’s very easy to find them — just open your Search Console account and browse to Search Appearance > HTML Improvements. Pay attention to Duplicate title tags, as the duplicates are very likely to be there. As soon as you find these pages, rectify the situation by removing them or disabling their indexing. You can also use the rel=canonical tag to indicate which page is the main one.

38. At the end of the post, make sure to add a CTA​(instructions for the user to do something beneficial for you). This could be a call for comment, transfer to another post or subscription to your newsletter.

39. Always optimize the page for no more than one keyword​. Don’t aim to kill two birds, or a dozen of them, with one stone. Just try the remaining keywords that reveal the main topic of the seed keyword.

40. Create different types of articles​: how­tos, list posts, guides, infographics. Learn what your competitors do, and keep track of the posts your audience prefers.

41. Use social sharing buttons, which are optimized for different devices. According to research, floating buttons lead to better results​.

42. Do not be afraid to place outgoing links to other bloggers’ posts​in your articles. If this link helps your readers and reveals more information, it will certainly prove advantageous to your SEO. Google sees whether the link is relevant, and whether you manipulate its meaning.

43. One on­page SEO is not enough to occupy top positions and get heavy traffic. You must work on off­page SEO​as well.




5.2
Implementation: 4 hours
Effectiveness: 3/5
Difficulty: 6/10
TAGS
#Acquisition SEO