Orange County SEO Expert: 15 On-Page Strategies That will Get Google to Notice You
I’m sure you have heard a lot about SEO keywords, meta-descriptions, keyword density, etc. to last you a lifetime but do you know how to optimize your on-page SEO properly? SEO expert, Michael Brandt, tackles a few important on-page SEO factors to leverage your existing strategies with the proper and guaranteed techniques to help your Orange County business succeed and get awarded by Google with high ranking.
- Use keyword-Rich Permalinks. According to Brian Dean of Backlinko, the first 2-3 words in your blog or page URL is given importance by Google. Eventhough the search engine has updated its ranking algorithm through the Hummingbird update, if you notice, highlights on the URLs are still implemented in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Thus, never ignore keywords on your on-page SEO checklist.
- Use your keywords as Titles. Same as your URL, it is ideal to use your keywords in the first part of your content title as Google still place weight on it.
- Optimize your content with visuals. Another SEO expert strategy which you can use in your Newport Beach or Orange County website is to use your keywords, city and your company name on the images, videos or diagrams you place on your content. It serves the purpose of reducing your website bounce rate and increases the probability of your web visitors in spending more time on your site. With the latter, it signals the search engine that your content is important and useful to web users thus benefiting your SEO efforts.
- Outbound Links are still important. “Not linking out might be the #1 on-page SEO mistake that I see people make. I usually link out 2-4x per 1000 words. That’s a good rule of thumb for most sites.” As advised by Brian Dean of Backlinko. This helps Google determine what your topic is all about and linking to authority sites tells the search engine that your content is made up of good quality information.
- H1 tag should only be used in the Title. Make sure to check your website code to verify if your content title is wrapped in H1 tag as some WordPress theme settings sometimes overrides this. If you see enlarged texts or fonts on your content, be sure to check your website codes as this might be wrapped in H1 tag as well which is a big no-no.
- Website Loading Speed is also important in SEO. Make sure to use a reliable and fast website host that would allow your pages to load less than 4 seconds as Google rewards sites that are fast. Again, this conforms to Google’s objective to provide the best user experience to site visitors. You can use GTMetrix to measure the loading speed of your website. If your GTMetrix result falls above the 4 seconds mark, it’s time for you to switch to a premium hosting plan that would help your site rank well.
- Entice your audience with a captivating title. Need I say more?
- Social sharing buttons should be placed prominently. Although not playing a role in Google’s algorithm, the social media sharing buttons allow more exposure to your content thus increasing the likelihood of getting more ‘shares’ or content boosters.
- Produce Long and Quality content. This SEO technique is important as it signals Google that your content is useful and although the search engine does not have a direct way of measuring quality, it has tons of indirect tools that could gauge the user experience metrics which is focal in its algorithm. Brian Dean recommends at least 1000 words on the content you produce.
- Reduce Bounce rates. This can be done by adding internal links at the beginning of your content. Bounce rates shouldn’t be ignored as the length of your visitors’ stay on your site signals Google that your contents are useful and relevant.
- LSI keywords should be used in your contents. What are LSI keywords? These are latent semantic indexing keywords which acts as synonyms of your primary keywords and are used by Google to determine how relevant your site is. Wiki explains it in detail and you can also find a sample of LSI keywords at the bottom of Google in the section “Searches Related to…” when you search for certain keywords. So if you want to rank well, spreading the synonyms you can find at the bottom of Google all over your content is a great SEO strategy.
- Increase “Dwell-time” by producing long contents. How is it different from bounce rate? Wordstream explains it and lists steps to increase it but to summarize, it is the duration of time the web visitor stays on the site before they click on the back button while bounce rate is the percentage of people leaving your site as defined by Wikipedia.
- Use internal links if you can. We all know why interlinking is important but to refresh your minds, interlinking are highlighted keywords which when clicked points to another post or content on your site and its value lies on prolonging the time your web visitors spend on your site. Brian Dean recommends that you use 2-5 whenever possible.
- Mention your target keyword in your H2 and H3 tags at least once. The purpose of this SEO strategy is to spread your keyword and it makes it easier for web visitors to know what your content is all about, giving them a gist of your topic and thus rendering it easily readable to your audience.
- Optimize your images. Make sure to include your target keyword in your image filename. Google search bots have the ability to read your alt-text and ranks your content based on this additional widgets.
These SEO factors, when implemented correctly and consistently on all your contents, can aid your SEO efforts and ensure your continued top ranking on the search engine. Need an SEO expert to do it for your Orange County business? Call us at 949-800-6990 and receive your free website reports today.
Sources:
On Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page by Brian Dean of Backlinko
On Page Local SEO Checklist Infographic by Jan Kearney