On-Page SEO Techniques: Rank Higher on Google

Before we get started On-page SEO techniques Let’s talk first, it’s importance. To rank any webpages for a particular keyword on Google, you must have a well-optimized on-page and have a great link building strategy.

In my word On-Page SEO work like fuel in the vehicle, and off-page SEO work like an accelerator, So without having fuel, you can’t even start your car, similarly without press the accelerator you can’t speed up.

So both have their importance in SEO, But this time we will only talk about On-Page SEO.about:blank

Let’s start the topic without wasting more time.

1. Keyword Research

Before writing any piece of content, you should be very clear about what problems are you going to resolve in this guide or content.

Not only I think, but also all Digital marketers agree with this point that a well-researched keyword gives more value in On-Page SEO.

A keyword is a search term or search query which you can use to target your customers.

If you are a Marketer, then a “keyword” is an opportunity for you. I’ll personally suggest you use it very wisely.

Try to use the most specific term or query for your product and services by performing keyword research. There are so many tools available for keyword research. Use those tools to choose the best keyword.

2. Content Optimization

There is a famous phrase for content that “Content is the King, “all know the importance of content.

So content should convey the story, full of information, user intent, unique, and well presented. Content can be any form of (Video, Text, Infographic, and Images).

Content optimization is main priority of on page SEO.

Use your keywords in the first 100 words in your content. It gives more value.screenshot from Moz

Keep your content length average of 1900 words. 1900 Words for a page is an average length to rank the first page on Google.Image resource https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking

A study by Backlinko found that longer content ranks higher than short content on Google’s first page.

3. Meta Title Tag

Must have including keyword at the beginning of the title tag of the page. In On-Page SEO, the Title tag is one of the most important factors in SEO.

Starting with the keyword in the meta title tag has a big impact on the ranking. Because the Title tag helps the search engine to understand the topic better. Here’s an example of my post, Profile Creation Sites.

A title tag is the second most crucial On-Page SEO factor, after content. Moz says

4. Meta Description Tag

A meta description is HTML elements that briefly describe the page. Search Engine display this meta tag in the search result page. It also called search snippet.

See the above image, and this is how Google displays meta descriptions on the search result page.

A meta description is so important because it increases the CTR of a page. This is what a user guesses about the page after seeing this snippet. So write a meta description wisely.

People are not going to see what is inside the page, so this is the only way you will tell the people in a brief that what is inside. And you will have to give your audience a strong reason why they click on your page.

An optimal length for the meta description tag is between 50 to 160 characters. Recommend by Moz.

It can vary the optimal length depends on the situation, but Google generally truncates snippets 155 to 160 characters. So write your best description to describe the page.

5. URL Optimization or SEO Friendly URL

It’s another important in SEO to optimize the URL of web pages. Try to choose your best-targeted keyword in the URL and keep it short. Don’t keep your URL longer than five words.

Do’s and Don’t in URL Optimization

Don’t

Never keep your URL like.
https://digisprit.com/2/3/19/seo
or long URL https://digisprit.com/2/3/19/seo=?optimzation.html

Do’s

Always keep your URL in the hierarchy manner
like https://digisprit.com/digital-marketing/seo/on-page
or keep it simple like https://digisprit.com/seo-on-page/

Here more Backlinko Explain, If you want SEO-friendly URLs, make them short and sweet.

6. Heading and Subheading

Heading (h1) should be sexy, crispy, and eye-catching, H1 is the most flirting weapon you use to attract more audience, and it also helps Search Engine to understand the page better.

Here’s Clue:

80% of the first-page search results in Google use an h1. Stated by Neil Patel.

Keep your H1 length between 20 to 70 characters.

Use only one H1 tag in a post. don’t try to use more than one H1 tag. More than one H1 tag may confuse the search engine to understand the page topic.

Use H2 in pages, it gives search engines a deep understanding of the topic of a page. You can use more than one H2 tag in your pages as per requirement.

7. Alt Tag or Image Optimization

Alt Text (Alternative text) is an HTML tag that is used to describe the images. It is also known as “Alternative description” and popularly “Alt tag.”

And if you are using any CMS like WordPress, then you don’t need any code to write for Alt Text.

WordPress and other CMS have designed the functionality which lets you put your Alt Tag while uploading your images.

Try to use focused keyword in your Alt Tag

Alt Tag not only helps search engines to understand the images but also helps in SEO ranking.

As Search Engine Journal Says,” Optimizing the alt tags gives Google another indication of what your page is about. The alt tag should be used to describe what’s on the image”.

8. Internal Link Optimization

Internal links are the hyperlinks that point a (target) pages to the same domain. Use a descriptive word or phrase in the anchor text that describes the target pages topic.

How internal link help in SEO:

There are three ways that internal linking help in SEO.

It helps Google to discover, index, and understand the pages.
This helps the user engage longer with your website.
It also passes the link juice or page rank to other pages.

I would suggest you to link your pages each other as much as possible while doing on page seo. It helps your content to get discovered by search engine and also pass juice which helps in ranking.

9. External Linking optimization

External links are hyperlinks that point a (target) pages to another domain. This is also called the outbound link.

An external link is more powerful than an internal link because the search engine prefers to listen to you from other people than you say about yourself.

If your website is getting more external links, then Google appears your website as the most credible source.

If you are managing a website on page SEO make sure linking out a authoritative source. It helps your content.

How it will be beneficial for you if your website linking out:

Well, that’s the point we will discuss over.

If your website linking to another site, then it helps Google to understand your pages, and Google understands that your pages have quality information.

10. Keyword Cannibalization Optimization

What is Keyword cannibalization?

It is having more than one Article or Blog post targeting the same focus keyword that’s called Keyword cannibalization.

If you are doing so, that means you are competing with yourself or losing a chance to rank higher.

So while optimizing On page SEO make sure that more than one pages is not optimized for a same keyword. Otherwise you will loose ranking.

How can it harm your SEO?

This kind of practice confuses Google. Google unable to decide which article should rank higher for that particular keyword. Or maybe rank low both articles.

So be careful while optimizing on-page SEO, make sure that you are not cannibalizing your keywords.

11. Setting up Canonicalization Tag

Canonical is an HTML tag that is used to tell the search engine the master page and prevent duplicate or identical content for pages.

It is a very important part of on-page SEO, and should be done for all pages correctly. If not done properly then your mistake may be the reason of duplicate content on your website.

For example, search crawlers might see my homepage in all of the following ways.

http://www.abcd.com
https://www.abcd.com
http://abcd.com
http://abcd/index.php

See the above list of URLs for a single page, but all are different.

For humans, these all URL is the same page, but search crawler considers all URL is a unique page. When a search engine crawls all these URLs with identical or similar content, it can cause duplicate.

Duplicate content is the biggest problem for SEO. Google has already designed a specific algorithm named “Panda” to penalize this kind of practice.

Now come to the technical part of SEO.

12. Sitemap Creation

A sitemap can be categorized into two parts HTML and XML, and both have their importance in SEO. You need to care for both sitemaps while optimizing on-page Seo.

HTML sitemap is used for humans, while XML sitemap is used for a search crawler.

Can you assume that a website without having an HTML sitemap (Navigation-link) a human can access all its webpages by visiting the homepage?. Your answer will be “Never.” Similarly, without having a sitemap.xml file in your website search, crawlers can’t access your all web pages. And if you can’t, then your website, all web pages will not be indexed by Google and other search engines.

An XML sitemap consists of a group of your website URL. and it helps search engines to navigate and discover all pages of your site quickly.

See the example below.

How to create a sitemap.xml file for a website?

Most of the site owners use CMS like WordPress to build their website, so it’s effortless to create a sitemap.xml for them. Almost all website owners this time use Yoast plugin for their WordPress website. So Yoast automatically creates a sitemap file for your website. You do not need to create this manually.

And if you are using other technology like HTML and PHP, then you need to create it manually by using the XML sitemap generator web tool.

13. Robot.txt File Creation

Robots.txt is a text file that tells search engine bot or crawler to which pages of a website to crawl and which not. It’s a very important part of On-page Seo and you need to submit it perfectly.

Robots.txt file can consist of more than one rule. Each rule allows or blocks access to the given path of your website.

The basic format of robots.txt file.

User-agent: * 
Disallow: /

It means you are blocking all crawlers/spiders or bot from all of your website content.

User-agent: * 
Disallow:

It means you are permitting all web crawlers to access all of your website content.

See below how Google itself has created.

You can not create more than one robots.txt file, your file must be named robot.txt, and file type should be text. This file should be located in the root directory of your website.

14. Site and Page Speed Optimization

Site speed and page speed both are different, but most of the people understand the same.

Page speed is the amount of time taken to load a particular page, and site speed is the amount of time taken to load the whole website.

See in the above image it’s analyzed by Gtmetrix, which shows the full load time of a website. The total load time is DigiSprit is 2.1 seconds.

See in the above image this page is analyzed by Google PageSpeed for desktop.

This is the page speed analyzed by Google PageSpeed for mobile, which scores lower than the average level, which is not good to rank for mobile.

Why Speed is matter in SEO?

If your website is taking more time to load, then more than 50% of the user leaves your site, and Google Analytics will consider this as a bounce rate.

If your website bounce rate is high, then Rankbrain will consider what a user is searching for your website doesn’t have. So if your website is ranking high, then google will down your rank because of bad user experience.

Research by Google found that 53% of the mobile user leaves the website, which takes more than 3 seconds to load.

15. Google Search Console / Webmaster Setup

It’s essential to set up Google Webmaster for your website.

This free tool by Google is fantastic for SEO. It will let you know if your website is suffering from any issues like coverage issues, AMP issues, valid pages, and manual action, etc.

It not only shows you the issue on your website but also shows how well your site is performing on Google. See the performance and enhancement report below.

By analyzing these reports, you can do SEO better and able to know where your website is lacking. So Google Webmaster is a beneficial tool for SEO.

Conclusion of On-Page SEO Guide

By following these on-page SEO methods, I hope you can boost your website ranking. All methods are essential and to be optimized properly to rank effortlessly.

I think you should bookmark this on page SEO checklist to read it once it require. And don’t forget to share it with your friends and colleagues.

Stay tuned for next guide…..