Search Engine Optimization Made Simple

Search Engine Optimization Made Simple. Do you think this is a pipe dream? Do you struggle with getting found in the search engine result pages (SERP)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is something you’ve likely heard about before. It can help you attract organic (unpaid) traffic to your website. There is a lot more to SEO than keywords for you to learn. This report is not all comprehensive since entire courses can be taught on this topic; but read on if you want to understand the meat of what SEO is, the different types of SEO, what it does, and how to do it.

In this article, we will discuss On-Page SEO.

Search Engine Optimization Made Simple: On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is any optimization that occurs on each of your pages of your website. Specifically, it revolves around the content that is on the page. Now, that is not the ONLY factor, on-page SEO  also includes the website architecture that was used on the site as well as the actual code within your website.

Content

What is content? Well, anything that appears on your website that visitors can read and see is considered content.  This includes all the pages on your site, any blog posts, all the articles you share, the pictures, the images, the graphics, the White Papers, just about EVERYTHING on your site is considered content. The key to your content is having a variety of different types of content for maximum SEO value. You don’t want to have just words… you want graphics. You don’t want to have only pages; you want to share content via blog posts.

When it come to content there are a few factors you should keep in mind:

• Quality vs. Quantity – The age old adage of Quality, Not Quantity that your High School teachers would spew at you in regards to the report that was due at the end of the week holds true! Yes, you want to put up a fair amount of content for your audience to consume, it is more important for the content to be of high quality. You do want to put up content more often than monthly, but you don’t need to put up several things each day if it compromises the quality of the information you put up for your audience.

• Keyword Research – many people choose not to do keyword research, but if you do it, you will be more efficient by creating content that gets results in the search engines. You won’t be spinning your wheels and wasting time otherwise.

• Choose Your Words Wisely – Words that invoke an emotional response are more powerful that regular words. Try to come up with of power words make your audience feel something and want to do something. There are general power words that you can use such as “heart-wrenching experience” or “sensational results” or something that gets their attention and makes them feel something.

• Current Events & “In The News” – One way to get good search Engine results is to create content that revolves around current affairs, hot topics, and the things are trending now. You can keep your content updated and fresh by using headlines of the day to evoke curiosity. Warning: Don’t try to trick your readers with a subject or headline that is completely different than what you are actually talking about! Besides being just WRONG! It will only tick off your readers and discourage them from coming back again! Do NOT loose their trust in you.

• Horizontal & Vertical –You want a combination of both types of content. Here is how you can think of it: horizontal content covers everything on your site – it goes WIDE. I’m talking about all your pages –  your About Us page, your Services Page, and even your Home Page. Vertical content is about DEPTH. In this case, it is about how deep in a specific topic you go. Which should you have? You guessed it… BOTH of them!

• Provide Solutions – Your content also should seek to provide solutions for your audience. They want you to help them solve their problems. They should be able to solve some of their problems without buying anything, and your content can fulfill that need.

• Authoritative – A question that always comes up revolves around blog post length. How long should a post be? Every sort of answer is out there. Longer more in-depth content such as long blog posts, posting white papers and articles can help people and search engines know that your site is the “go-to source” and that you are there to help your audience.

When it comes to content and SEO, you have a lot of ways that you can improve your content by using good SEO practices such as using keywords within the first paragraph, the title, subheadings and headings as well as anchor text.

HTML – UGH! Say What?

Don’t worry – it is not that bad… The other aspect of your on page SEO that you need to consider is within the HTML code that makes up your website. If you use a good website builder like self-hosted WordPress this will be handled easier for you (for the most part) and you still have some work to do!

Let’s get started on some of the things you need to consider.

• Titles with Keywords – All your titles for every page and blog post should include a keyword, say what’s on that page, and what’s in that blog post. This will help that page rank higher due to it being clear what’s on it.

• Meta Descriptions – Within the website, behind the scenes are meta codes. These bits of code tell search engines what’s inside. You’ll be given an opportunity to fill out the meta descriptions if you use a good plugin like Yoast SEO to help you. Don’t skip this as you create your website, it’s important. If you are NOT on WordPress and unable to use a plugin like this, you can still manually entethisis information on your site.

• Is Your Navigation Well Structured? – Also, you want to be sure that your audience can take one look at your home page or landing page and know exactly what to do and how to get around your site. If it is necessary, you can always create a “start here” guide to help visitors know what to do first and how to get around if your site is large.

• Using Headers – Headlines, subheads, and proper H1/H2 tags are really important to use not only for your audience, (because it’s easier to read chunky content online) but for the search engines because these clues to the content on your site help them send the right audience.

If you hire a web designer, ensure that they’ll help you with these things because they’re super important for your success. If you are doing it yourself, learn all you can, and use a great website builder like self-hosted WordPress.

If you want, you can get a complimentary Web Audit where we can talk about your website and SEO! After speaking with us, you will see that  Search Engine Optimization Made Simple can be a reality for you!

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