Is Your On-Page SEO Strategy Outdated?

Feeling like your on-page SEO strategy might be a tad stale? If you’re following simple keyword rules, it very well could be.

Unfortunately, many of today’s marketers are making costly digital marketing mistakes in their approach to SEO. Instead, they’re practising outdated methods of SEO that are destroying their website visibility.

Today, there’s much more to on-page SEO than simply repeating keywords throughout your blog posts.

Google ranks websites based on how happy they make the user. So, the better your user experience, the better your web pages will rank.

In this SEO cheat sheet, you’ll find out how to ensure your on-page SEO is up-to-date. Follow these pointers, and your website will rise through the ranks of Google.

Site Speed

For your website’s on-site SEO to be current, your site’s speed needs to be quick.

Faster loading websites mean better user experiences, equating to higher search engine rankings. And that’s what every web page administrator ultimately wants.

A recent study found that 47% of users expect your page to load in under two seconds. However, under 60% will leave your webpage if it takes longer than 3 seconds or more to load.

Page loading time is one of the many on-page SEO factors that matter to Google. So even your website’s loading speed will affect its ranking.

Is your site loading slow? There are several ways to improve its speed.

You can use a search engine content delivery network to accelerate it. Or, if you’re a WordPress user, delete some of the plugins you don’t use. This will speed up your site’s speed as well.

Here are our exact instructions to achieve a grade A score on GTmetrix for a WordPress website.

Pingdom is one speed test tool that can check your webpage’s load time. However, it would be best if you also compared how your site compares to its competitors. For this, check out WhichLoadsFaster.info. 

Pay Attention To Meta Tags

Next on your SEO cheat sheet is meta tags. Meta tags can improve your site’s visibility and make your content more accessible for search engines to understand.

To improve your website’s on-page SEO, you’ll have to spend time detailing these tags. Here’s how.

• Title tags: These tags show the title of your web page in search engine results. Your title tag should be short, clear and descriptive. It should be between 50-60 characters long as Google will only show the first 60.
  
  A title tag should never duplicate content from its web page. Instead, you want your meta tag to be fresh content. We’ll talk more about new content in a second.
  
• The meta description: This is the written preview that a search engine shows detailing what your webpage is about. Your meta descriptions should be short and no more than 160 words. Using synonyms instead of keywords in your meta description will also help your search engine ranking. 

Publish Content That Will Encourage Search Traffic

You’ll have to produce quality content to drive traffic to your website. Excellent in-depth content will improve your website’s user optimization (user experience). And Google will reward you for providing great user experiences.

Let’s look at a few more ways to improve your site’s user optimization.

• Instead of simply repeating keywords, target user questions easily read the content. Create content that focuses on why the user searches for a particular keyword. Address the user’s intent.
  
• Another way to improve user experience is to ensure your site has a functional design. This means all your web pages should be easy to follow and have a polished design.
  
• Don’t produce low-quality content. Instead, spend time researching and then write better in-depth blog posts. Leave generic and thin blog posts behind. Each published piece on your site should be 2000 words or more. Recent stats found that content length affects rankings.
  
• Keep your content fresh. Google loves fresh, new content like breaking news, for example. So the more fresh content your site consistently has, its rankings will be better. 
  
  Keep in mind that duplicate content will be penalized by Google. However, you can quickly spruce up older content by adding a new fact or statistic.
  
  Hot trends worldwide and recurring events can also improve your site’s freshness index. In addition, this kind of content automatically allows for frequent updating.
  
  Another SEO cheat sheet quick tip is to publish at least twice a week to ensure that your website remains fresh.

Utilize Content Writing Tools

To keep your on-page SEO current, you must also automate some of your website’s operations.

This is because speed matters to search engine rankings. The faster you can create quality, engaging content; the higher your rankings will be.

One thing you can do is automate your blog’s writing tasks.

Need help coming up with ideas for content? There are many tools available online such as the HubSpot blog topic generator. In a matter of seconds, HubSpot will generate five blog post headlines for you.

Optimize Crawlability

Another way to improve your on-page SEO is by making sure your site’s crawlability is intact. 

If any links are broken, Google won’t be able to crawl your website easily. Once this happens, Google will not keep looking for the correct link. Instead, it will just stop searching.

This will lead to poor search engine ranking. So paying attention to link building is crucial. 

Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly 

Having a responsive website is another way to improve your on-page SEO.

Remember when we mentioned how much Google loves excellent user experiences? That passion extends to its mobile users in particular.

Mobile usage has been steadily on the rise around the world. As a result, most users will access your site from a mobile device. 

So having a responsive website will earn you rewards in the world of Google.

Not sure if one of your web pages is responsive? Use Google’s free Mobile Friendliness Tool and find out in seconds.

SEO Cheat Sheet Wrap Up

As you can see, the common thread in this SEO cheat sheet is providing great user experiences. Gone are the days when repetition of keywords alone would successfully carry your on-page SEO.

Your goal for your website should be to understand what your site’s visitors want and to deliver it to them. 

Give your visitors the content they want first, then fit it with your keyword rules.

Your page rankings will be rewarded if you provide Google with on-topic, well-thought-out credible information. As a result, your visitors will be more satisfied, likely providing you with a more successful business.

Follow the plan laid out in this SEO cheat sheet and take your site to the next level. 

Find out more about our SEO services, or get in touch for a free consultation.