Want to to learn more about on-page SEO factors? Check out this article from guest blogger Tyler Nalbach with SEO Align.
My name is Tyler Nalbach and I am the owner of SEO Align. We help companies with both local SEO and national SEO to increase the organic traffic to their site and bring in more leads. We help companies create high quality content and get that content ranked in the search results. This helps you become an authority in your industry and ultimately bring in more customers or clients.
The two main areas of SEO that are important to ranking higher in the search results are on-page SEO and off-page SEO. I am going to go over 5 important on-page SEO factors that will help you increase your organic traffic and outrank your competitors.
Title Tags
Title tags are important for a few different reasons. It helps show search engines what your content is about, and it helps users determine if your page is relevant to them.
It’s important that you use a title tag that users are going to want to click on. I would be sure to include your target keyword in the title tag, but to also focus on search intent.
Try to determine what problem users are trying to solve, or what they are trying to have answered when searching for your target keyword. If you can include your target keyword, as and show users it will help them, you will get the best results.
Quality
Putting together quality content has become more and more important. Search engines are getting good at determining if your content is accurate and high-quality.
A good way to make sure that you are producing high-quality content is to find some frequently asked questions around the topic you are writing about. After that, be sure that you are answering these questions as clearly as possible in your content.
The more in-depth you go on a topic, the higher quality it is going to be. Many people think it’s about having a high word count, but it’s just going in-depth on your topic. If you can go in-depth on a topic without using 4,000 words, then do that. Nobody wants to just read filler content.
Keyword Usage
Keyword usage is an important on-page SEO factor, because this is the biggest part that shows your page’s relevance to a keyword. You should use your target keyword a few times in the content, but only when it is natural.
One of the biggest mistakes website owners try to do when improving their SEO is keyword stuffing. They think if they put their keyword in their content a bunch of times, it will help them rank. Doing this sacrifices the quality and will likely hurt your rankings.
Using different variations of your keyword is also very important. It makes your content sound more natural, and it helps you rank for other keywords. Instead of just ranking for your one target keyword, you can also rank for variations of your target keyword.
In this article I wrote, I was targeting the keyword “chiropractor SEO”. You can see that I included that keyword, along with keyword variations. It makes the content more natural and shows real relevance towards that topic instead of just keyword stuffing.
Media
With so much focus on user experience, including media in your content is a great way to help your content rank better. Users are going to have a better user experience if they can look at screen shots, infographics, and videos, as opposed to just big blocks of text.
I would recommend including as much media as possible in your content. If you have many images or videos in your content, there is a much better chance you will outrank your competitors who only have text content.
Alt Text
When using images, it is important to include alt text. Search engines cannot read images the same way they can read text. This means that search engines base what the content is about off what is used in the alt text.
The alt text is there so that you can describe what the image is about. I wouldn’t recommend manipulating the search engine, and lying just to use your keyword, but I would use your keyword if it makes sense. Using natural phrases or sentences that include a variation of your keyword can help you improve your rankings.
Conclusion
If you already have a blog or pages you want to rank higher in the search results, implementing these on-page SEO tips can give you a quick boost in your rankings when done correctly. If you are just starting out, I would recommend following these tips to be sure your content is optimized effectively. Remember to always focus on user experience and creating high-quality relevant content.
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