SEO is constantly evolving even as Google tries to deliver more meaningful results to users, taking into account the various changes in the search environment. Check out the on-site SEO best practices that you should implement to boost & improve your website organic traffic.
Rather than viewing search as being under limits to factoring in only content and links, it is very apparent that Google, as well as other search engines, is no longer relying only on conventional analysis of text and documents to rank pages but factoring in much more.
There are many factors that SEO practitioners think are important. While not everyone agrees on the same ones, here are a few on-site SEO best practices that seem to have universal acceptance:
Best Practices Of SEO
Relevant Content
Even though the content is perhaps the most important SEO factor, it does not help to have content, and I hope it will boost your rankings. A study startlingly points out that Google does not generate traffic from as much as 91% of the content on the web.
Now more than ever, the relevance of the content about the user’s intent is becoming the performance parameter that search engines focus on.
Google is trying hard to understand both the semantics and the syntax of the search queries of users and trying to match its understanding of the content that will best cater to the information requirement of the user. Content that is up to be not relevant to the user intent is down in the search results.
Deep Content: On-Site SEO Best Practices
Short content has always with suspicion by search engines which interpret the brevity of the content as being thin or non-informative.
While it is natural for long content to be under interpretation as informative, nobody knew how long it needed to qualify for an SEO ranking boost.
However, a recent study suggests that content in the range of 2,250-2,500 words tended to generate the most organic traffic; the underlying assumption being that given this length, the content would have addressed as many user issues as possible as well as provided more updated information as well as a fresh perspective on the subject.
While it is not up if the content that deviates from this sweet spot would be down the rankings, it stands to reason that, if necessary, content longer than 2,500 words can be in a host if called for, suggests the sales manager of a top SEO company in New York. Keep reading to discover more on-site SEO best practices.
User Engagement
Website design considers the benefit of users or search engines, preferably both. It is always a good idea to develop a fresh perspective on the design and content to determine how engaging the site is for users.
Even though Google has never come out directly with any statement regarding whether it factors in user engagement as a signal in its ranking, it stands to reason that increased dwell time would indicate that users find the website contents useful.
The user signals you can consider for evaluating user engagement are pager per session, bounce rate, and click-through rate.
You can use Google Analytics to discover the number of pages the average user views on your website before leaving. Combined with the session time. It will tell you how much your site engages the viewer and how interactive it is.
Suppose the user is reading multiple pages per session. In that case, it proves that the site does deliver some satisfaction on the user intent. Moreover, you can improve on plugging the gaps to extend the journey along the sales funnel or remove obstacles.
Bounce Rate: On-Site SEO Best Practices
The bounce rate metric is also something that you should examine. Because it indicates how satisfied users are with your website’s home page or landing page. If there is a high bounce rate. Users don’t like what they see or experience when they first arrive on your website and decide to quit.
High page loading times, intrusive advertising, and confusing navigation are the top reasons for high bounce rates. Similarly, you should analyze the click-through rate because if it is low. It indicates the Meta description or even the title tag may not be powerful enough to compel the user to click on the link.
You can improve on it by inserting keywords that are an exact match into the title tags and Meta descriptions. So that they automatically display in bold in the results page. Adding a key benefit that users will get in the description also helps. Check out the on-site SEO best practices that you should implement to boost & improve your website organic traffic.
Technical Structure of the Site
The site structure is a very important factor affecting user engagement and search engine rankings. Google can only rank the website if it can index it, and for that. It needs to crawl through all the pages of the site.
It is important for you to decide which pages you want the search engine to crawl. So, even which pages should have priority.
You should create a clean site map and submit it to Google and other leading search engines. Block all the pages not to be crawled, set the dynamic URL parameters, and clean up the redirect chains.
Mobile Optimization
As mobile devices increasingly generate website traffic, the website must be ready for mobiles (mobile optimization). A responsive website design ensures that your website displays properly across all screens of varying sizes.
Google has also become sensitive to mobile-optimized sites. So, not only does it update its mobile index before the desktop index. But it also downgrades websites that are not optimized for mobiles.
While optimizing for mobiles. It is also important to revisit the navigation to ensure all buttons are easily visible. Moreover, clickable on the small screen. That the users do not have to unnecessarily travel from one page to another to access the contents. Review top on-site SEO best practices that you should implement to boost & improve your website organic traffic.
Optimize Your Images
Images have a significant role in enhancing the user’s experience. When employed correctly, images can enhance the overall search engine optimization of a website and increase organic traffic. Check out the on-site images SEO best practices that you should implement to boost & improve your website organic traffic.
Image alt tag
Alt text is short for alternative text, it is text that is included in HTML code to describe an image on a website. It serves as a background to web crawlers and people with vision impairments. Despite the advancement of Google’s image understanding, the addition of alt text to images is still necessary.
Here are several methods of substituting alternative text:
- Keep it below 125 characters.
- Contain one primary keyword that serves as context.
- Don’t include terms like “imaged” or “pictured”
Select the Most Effective File Formatter
Images are often the largest component of the overall page size and loading time. And page speed is an important ranking factor.
The first step is choosing the most appropriate file format. The most popular formats for images on the web are JPEG and PNG. Both formats utilize different methods of data compression. This is why the volumes of files between these two can be vastly different.
Examining the disparity in file sizes above, it would be simple to state that JPEG was the victor. However, that would be a mistake. Keep reading to find out more on-site SEO best practices.
While JPEGs look great for pictures, PNGs are better for images that have text, lines, etc. WebP is another popular option. It’s an image format that’s modern in nature and provides superior lossless and lossy compression for web images.
Google claims that the size of WebP images that are lossless is 26% smaller than PNGs and 34% smaller than comparable JPEGs.
Compress Your Files
Image compression is the process of reducing the size of an image without compromising its quality. The larger the image file’s size, the longer it will take your page to load. As a result, it’s crucial to compress your images before submitting them to a website.
Lazy-load your pictures
Lazy loading is a method of app and web development that delays the loading of non-essential resources (images, videos, etc.) until the page is fully loaded. Images and videos are only loaded if they are needed by the user.
Conclusion
While there are many more SEO practices than the point present here. It must be kept in mind that the SEO environment is extremely dynamic. So, subject to change due to technology and changes in user behavior and expectations. You need to constantly monitor the SEO performance of your website and make necessary changes on the go.
