We attended Digital Olympus, an online webinar conference all about digital marketing, and are excited to share our findings. Specifically, we found Raven Tools’ Jon Henshaw’s presentation on Essential On-Page SEO especially enlightening. Below we recap his nine tips for optimizing your on-page search engine optimization (SEO).
1. Host with a Good Provider
Often overlooked, hosting your website with a reputable and trustworthy provider is essential to your SEO. A slow server can affect your search results and constant downtime can be seriously detrimental to your web presence.
2. Make Site Navigation Keyword-Centric
While developing your sitemap (navigation) and URLs, keep your targeted keywords top-of-mind. The more your keywords are used on your website, the better chance you have of ranking in search results. While we would never recommend keyword stuffing your content, including your keywords in the H1s and URLs of their relevant pages is a definite must.
3. Use SSL
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser (SSL.com). Historically, SSL was relegated to e-commerce websites and other sites where confidential information (i.e. social security numbers and credit card information) was being exchanged. With more cyber securiyt threats popping up each day, Google decided that all websites should switch to SSL in order to give the user peace of mind. Thus, Google made SSL a slight ranking signal in their complicated algorithm. Henshaw recommends switching to SSL as soon as you can.
4. Make Your Website Responsive AND Mobile-Friendly
Believe it or, having a responsive website and having a mobile-friendly website are not the same thing. Your site can be responsive (which we recommend) without truly being mobile friendly. This discrepancy can occur when images and files are too large, or mobile load times are too slow. You can test your website’s mobile-friendliness by using Google’s new and improved tool.
5. Make Your Website Faster
Having a fast site is vital to SEO. You can speed up your website by reducing the size of all images and assets. Additionally, Henshaw recommends creating smaller image versions for mobile. Special code can be used to ensure that not only does your image resize, it compresses as well.
6. Don’t Forget Meta Data
Meta data is another important piece of on-page optimization. Make sure that every page on your website has a unique page title and a unique Meta description. Don’t forget to include your keywords!
7. Use Structured Data
Structured data is code used to enhance the relevance of search engine results. By using structured data you can provide search engines with context regarding your site content. Created by Google, schema.org is a great resource for finding and creating structured data.
8. Do What Makes Sense to Google
Above all, do what makes sense to Google! Google is king in the SEO world and it is the digital marketer’s job to meet its demands. While Google won’t come right out and tell us what to fix, we can take some hints. For example, the fact that Google has a mobile-friendly testing tool lets us know just how important mobile-friendliness is.
9. Check and Monitor for Errors
Search engine optimization is an ongoing process. Google likes to change the game and new browser, CMS and device updates are constantly affecting our website’s performance. Thus, it is important to continually monitor and fix errors on your website. Some great monitoring tools include Google Search Console, Moz, and of course, Raven Tools.
If you need assistance with on-page search engine optimization, contact Informatics today.
