Of the 200+ SEO ranking factors, many of the most important have to do with on-page optimization, and the way you optimize your website will greatly affect your visibility in search engines. Combined with keyword research, technical SEO, and schema markup, creating quality content can significantly improve your on-page SEO. If you want to improve your business's search engine rankings, it's worth considering why on-page factors are important and how you can optimize them for best results.
Why On-Page SEO is Essential for Your Business Website
On-page SEO helps search engines understand your website's content, allowing Google, Bing, and other search engines to accurately display your pages for the best searches. Optimizing each page also provides users with high-quality, relevant information and a positive user experience.
Of course, off-site factors like backlinks, directory citations, and social signals are also essential to SEO, but you have complete control over what happens on your website and can build a solid foundation based on fast load times, clear navigation, and useful content.
How to apply on-page SEO techniques for optimal results
As we discussed in a recent post about why technical SEO is essential, the back-end functionality of your website is important for SEO. Today, we’ll focus on the visible elements of on-page optimization, from content to anchor text.
1. Content Writing
Before you write any content, consider the user intent: are they looking for information or trying to buy a product or service? Once you know the answer, you can create content that is tailored to your users, integrating primary and secondary keywords without compromising readability.
2. Headings
H1, H2, and H3 tags incorporating keywords help search engines categorize the content on your page. This approach makes your content more understandable to readers, which typically results in higher engagement and lower bounce rates.
At Rocks Digital, we tell people who are new to writing to think about the essays they wrote in high school.
The title of your page will be the title of your essay. Your H1 can be the same as or similar to your title.
H2 is the topic the author plans to cover within the essay paragraph. It should support the title and H1.
H3s go below each H2 and support the H2 above it. Note that you won't always have an H3 on a page.
There should always be only one Title and only one H1. We recommend using at least two H2s, and preferably three H2s.
3. Formatting
Proper formatting directly impacts whether a user stays on your page or clicks the back button, so spending a few extra minutes fine-tuning your formatting can greatly improve their on-page experience.
Best practices include using short paragraphs, adding bullet points, using numbered lists where it makes sense, and leaving enough white space to make it easy to scan.
Using these items (and/or questions and answers) also increases your chances of showing up as featured snippets in search results.
4. Pillar Page
Pillar pages are comprehensive pieces of content built around a broad topic. For a business website, these pages will likely be about key services within your industry.
Subsequent blog posts and supporting pages can link to your pillar page, helping to increase its authority and search engine visibility.
It’s essential to both build supporting content on your website and also off your website via off-page SEO.
5. Anchor Text
Anchor text is an important ranking signal because it helps search engines and users understand what a page is about.
Professional SEO services involve keyword research and building a site hierarchy so that internal links with natural, descriptive anchor text communicate authority and relevance throughout your website.
At Rocks Digital we always try to include keywords within our anchor text links, and if you look at the text of the links above you will see that they are all SEO related and at least one is related to the main topic via on-page SEO.
On-Page SEO Specialists for Local Businesses
If you want to improve your visibility in search engines and increase traffic to your website, talk to the SEO team at Rocks Digital. We offer a variety of services, including comprehensive content creation, SEO strategies, on-page SEO services, and more. Call us at (214) 989-7549 or request an SEO assessment today.