Is your website the lead generating machine or super salesman the marketing department thought it might be? Has your return on investment in digital marketing lived up to your expectations? If the answer is no then you should consider this.
There are many number of reasons for a website to perform in a less than stellar fashion but the leading cause is often a lack of targeted organic search traffic. You’ve got a great site but nobody knows it’s there.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a moving target. It continues to evolve as Google tweaks its algorithm in its never ending quest to return the most relevant content for a given search. While sophisticated optimizing techniques may change the basics remain constant and those basics start with on page optimization.
Optimized pages create an optimized site
When we talk about on page optimization we’re talking about structuring a page to enhance the likelihood of it being selected for page one in the search engines for a specific keyword or keyword phrase. Content is still king but there are techniques involving keyword placement that make it easy for Google to quickly identify what the page is about and that is after all, the starting point in a search return decision.
There’s nothing tricky or overtly technical about on page optimization techniques but they are surprisingly overlooked by many websites. When you evaluate your pages take into consideration if they meet these best practices:
- Page Title. Always include the targeted keyword in the page title. For example the keyword phrase for this article is “On Page Optimization” and if you look at the address bar in your browser you’ll notice that it includes the term “On Page Optimization.” This is the first notification to the Google bots regarding the page content.
- Meta Description. There’s some dispute over how important having the keyword phrase in the meta description really is but why take a chance. Also this little blurb gives you 160 characters to pique the interest of the searcher. This description often is used by Google as the text that appears below your listing. If you don’t use a description Google will grab the first 160 characters that appear on the page and that often doesn’t do much to explain the content.
- H1 and H2 Tags. You want a killer headline to pique reader interest but what Google is looking for is the use of the targeted keyword phrase in the h1 tag. Use h2 tags for subheadings. These don’t necessarily have to have the keyword phrase in them but should contain related phrases like “optimized page” or “optimized website.”
- Alt Text. If you have images on the page be sure you assign them labels that are relevant to the targeted keyword…not image 1, image 2, image 3.
- Internal and External Links. Use of anchor text to link out to an authority site (be sure to have the authority site open in a new window) or a related internal page is not only helpful navigation for the reader but tells Google you’re not a one trick pony. You have other relevant content on the site and you’re confident enough in your own content to link to an authority source to prove your point.
- Content. The first thing you want to do is erase “keyword density” from your SEO vocabulary. The days of Google counting the number of times a keyword is used to favorably rank a page are long gone. In fact if you are perceived as keyword stuffing you’ll be saying hello to page 500. Quality content, content that is informative and not fluff will naturally include the keyword phrase and related terms. There is no need to “force” keywords into the content structure.
If you’re struggling with your traffic numbers it would be well worth your time to go to your dashboard and examine each page for these six elements. Will correcting deficiencies guarantee you a page one placement? No.
There are too many other elements to consider but you can count on continued low traffic numbers if your pages are not optimized.
If you’re like most of our clients you know this has to be done but either you don’t feel comfortable “doing website stuff” because you don’t understand it or you simply don’t have the time. We can help with that.
Contact us today and we’ll be happy to explain what we can do not only in on page optimization but your total SEO program.