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On-Page SEO Part 2: How to Optimize a Page for a Keyword

On-Page SEO Part 2 How to Optimize a Page for a Keyword

As was mentioned in the previous article, top ranking pages on search engines tend to rank for roughly a thousand different keywords. For example, the healthline page about how to lose weight fast is clearly targeting the keyword “how to lose weight fast”. They are ranking in the top spot for this keyword. However, the traffic to this page does not solely come from this keyword. This page sees well over a hundred thousand monthly visitors from just the US. When analyzing the page the target keyword only sends the page about 10,000 monthly visitors.

How to Optimize a Page

In order to be able to get a lot of search traffic to page two things are required. The first is a web page that is optimized for ranking for certain keywords and the second thing is backlinks. This article will cover the process of optimizing a page for ranking and backlinks will be covered in a later article. For on-page SEO there are two main things which need to be covered. The first is ensuring that a page satisfies the search intent. This can be analyzed using the three C’s of search intent which are content type, content format and content angle. The second important point is the actual content of the page itself.

If a website owner is wondering what to write about to satisfy searchers they should be looking to their competitors pages to find this out. Google and other search engines have deemed these pages to be the best candidates for satisfying a searcher’s query. While the specific content which a page contains will vary from topic to topic the manner in which this is researched will be the same. To research this process an individual will need an SEO tool. These tools can present users with the top ranking pages for any search query. Using this information an individual can determine what the trend is for search intent and go and analyze the top ranking pages to understand how their content has been optimized to rank so highly.

Another recommendation which can be useful before writing begins is to conduct a content gap analysis at the page level. This type of analysis will reveal the keywords which the top pages are ranking for where an individual’s page may not. To conduct a content gap analysis an individual will need an SEO tool. The exact process of this analysis will depend on the tool which an individual decides to use. This analysis will reveal the keywords which top pages rank for across a number of different search queries. As a general rule of thumb, the more URLs are ranking for a keyword the more relevant these pages will be to an individual. This process can reveal more information for an individual to place in their own content and also learn from the language which is used in these pages.

While the content that is produced is the most important part of on-page SEO there are also a few technical things which can be done to better optimize a page. The first of these technical pieces of advice is to include the target keyword in the title of the page when this is able to be done in a manner that makes sense. Adding a target keyword to a title should be a natural process. The next thing which an individual can do to better optimize a page is to use a short and descriptive URL slug. Short and descriptive URLs help users to understand what a page is about before they even visit the page itself. The last part of a URL is known as the slug and the easiest way to choose a URL slug is to use the target keyword and replace the spaces with hyphens. This should only be done when it makes sense to do so and there is no need to force this issue.

The next thing on the list of technical on-page SEO techniques is the meta description. A meta description is HTML code that summarizes a webpage in brief. Search engines will often use this text below the title of the webpage in the search engine results page. Meta descriptions are not necessarily used as a ranking signal for search engines but they do impact click through rates. An SEO company conducted a study of almost 200,000 web pages which rank in the top 10 and they found that Google rewrites meta descriptions almost 63% of the time. This means that they are not worth spending a great deal of time on but they are still important and should be included.

The fourth important point regarding technical on-page SEO is to include internal links to and from a website’s own web pages. An internal link is a link from one page on the same domain to another. Internal links are important because they can pass link authority to other relevant pages and they can help a search engine to better understand a page’s contents.

The fifth important point regarding technical on-page SEO is to optimize images for search engines. The process of optimizing an image for search is threefold. The first step in the process is to name image files appropriately. This is because file names can give google clues about the subject of the image. The second step is to use descriptive alt text. Alt text which is short for alternative text is an HTML attribute which goes into an images tag. Alt text helps to improve accessibility for individuals who are using screen readers or if the image fails to load the alt text will be used instead. The best practice for alt text is to write a short and descriptive sentence on the image. For example, kittens playing with strings. The third step is to compress images. Compressing an image makes the file size smaller which will mean that a web page loads faster. Page speed is one of the signals that Google uses to rank pages.

The sixth and final important point regarding technical on-page SEO is to optimize a page for readability. The following will be five tips which an individual can use to optimize their content for readability. The first tip is to write using short sentences and short paragraphs. The second tip is to use descriptive subheadings. This will help people who are skimming through a page to find the information which they are looking for. The third tip is to use a large enough font that it is easier to read on both desktop and mobile devices. The fourth tip is to avoid using big words which people will be unlikely to understand. The fifth point is to write as an individual would speak. This helps make the content easier to read and easier to digest.

Final Thoughts

This article has broken down the process of optimizing a web page for SEO. This process requires a number of different techniques and technical processes which can help to optimize a page in the most efficient way possible. Each step which has been discussed is important in its own right and using all of these techniques will help an individual to create content that will rank highly on search engines.

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