On-Page SEO Basics and How To Rank High In Google

I hope everyone has a website by now! If not go back and read some of my earlier blog posts and get your website online now! Once your website is online you’ll need to attract traffic to it which is where the real work begins. It’s time to learn about on-page SEO basics.

There are many different ways to get people to come to your website. The best ways are always the ones that are free! Most people get their free traffic from search engines. The top search engine by far is Google which is also the most popular website on the Internet.

“Build it and they will come,” does not work on the Internet. You have to use the tools and tricks of the trade to get people to your website. The #1 source of website traffic is the Google search engine. If you can get ranked at the top of the Google for highly searched for keywords you can make a good living on free traffic.

Google does not just send you traffic for no reason. You’ll need to let the search engines know what your page is all about so they will know when to display it and for which keyword searches.

The way Google looks at what information to rank has really changed over the years. In the past Google liked to rank websites. A website could be an authority on a particular subject, whereas today, Google looks more at a single page for ranking factors. They will rank internal pages at the top of the search results no matter what the website is about.

You need to think of an internal webpage as a one page website. Google wants to rank the most authoritative page for a keyword search. Be honest with yourself and ask, “Would I consider this the best, most informative page on the planet for this subject?” If not, you’ve got work to do!

Ideally you want a page so valuable with information that other websites link to your page as a resource for the topic without you even having to ask! Link building is an external SEO tactic that we will cover later.

With today’s search engine optimization (SEO) you can build an authoritative single page. There are several factors that will help a webpage rank high in the search engines. Below is a list of the basic SEO on-page factors.

On-Page SEO Ranking Factors

1. Keyword Phrases. You must have the keyword phrase on the page for search engines to know what to rank the page for. Keyword research can be an entire episode in itself. Basically start with the keyword phrase you think your audience will be searching for. Example would be “On-Page SEO”. The best keywords are words that are highly searched for but have the least amount of competition. Example: I ranked high for Tatoo Designs back in the day because tons of people were searching for tatoo (tattoo) designs but couldn’t spell tattoo. Other people didn’t want to spend time ranking for the misspelling so I had limited competition.

2. URL. Once you decide on your main keyword phrase you will want to use it in your URL. A URL is the address of the page on the Internet. You should have the keyword phrase in the URL with dashes in between words. Don’t stuff a URL with lots of keywords and try to keep it as short as possible. Example: the URL for this page is CurtisTucker.com/on-page-seo-basics.

3. Title Tag. Many times your page title will be the same as your URL but it does not have to be. Hidden in the header of a pages HTML code are Meta Tags. These tags can be filled out using SEO plugins in WordPress. If you use a different platform you’ll need find out where you go to add that tag. The title tag shows up on the title bar of a browser and it also shows up as the title of the page in a search result. Keep your title between 45-60 characters. Use as much of it as you can but stay below 60 characters which is the amount Google will display in their search results. Example: the title for this page is “On-Page SEO Basics and How To Rank High In Google.” Notice how it is not an exact match of the URL?

4. Description Tag. The description tag is also a meta tag hidden in the header of the page. It is a great place to quickly describe what the page is about. Keep the character count between 145-160. Use your keyword phrase in the description along with any associated words. Example: the description for this page is “Learn how to rank high in the Google search engine with these on-page SEO tactics. Optimize your page for more targeted traffic.”

5. Header Tags. Be sure to use H1, H2, H3 and H4 header tags throughout the page. You don’t have to use every size. Include your main keyword phrase in a few of them. H1 tags carry the most weight and authority. Example: I added the H3 title “On-Page SEO Ranking Factors.”

6. Body Text. Use your primary keyword phrase within the first paragraph or two. Avoid duplicate content meaning don’t go copy information from another website and paste it into your website. Google knows. Be sure to break up your long body text using subheadings and bullets. Example: I used numbered points in this article.

7. Word Count. Write a detailed article about you subject matter/keyword phrase. Try to type at least 800 words if possible and shoot for 1800! When it comes to body content more is better as long as the content is good and informative. Keep your keyword count around 3% of total word count. Example: this blog post has over 1500 words.

8. Images. You can’t have a very authoritative page without at least one image. Choose an image that is related to the subject of the page. Actually name the image using your primary keyword like “your-keyword.JPG”. Once you upload your optimized image add the keyword phrase in the image title and image alt tag. Images don’t just have to be photos, they can also be informative graphics. Example: the image at the top of this article was 3.7mb in size. I reduced the size to 900px by 470px at 72 dpi which dropped the size to 178kb. The image is called “on-page-seo.JPG”. The alt text is “On-Page SEO Tactics”and the title is “On-Page SEO Factors”.

9. Links. Link to external authoritative websites. Use keywords in the link text. Also use internal linking! Have high ranking pages on your website link to your new page and be sure to use the keyword phrase in the text link. Example: this is a link I created to the Google Search Engine (“search engine” being the keyword phrase).

10. Loading Speed. Loading speed is an on-page ranking factor. If you’re page loads slow Google will not reward you and your visitors may leave before the page loads. You’ll need to learn about optimizing photos to keep their size small. You also need to make sure code and scripts on your page are not taking a long time to load. If I get some time I’ll time this page for loading speed.

11. Above The Fold. Above the fold is basically the area that can be seen on the screen without having to scroll down. Have your best keyword phrases and related keywords above the fold. Move big slow loading images and graphics below.

12. User Experience. You want the visitor to your webpage to have the best possible experience. Google knows exactly how their experience is going. Google is aware of load speed, bounce rate, time on page, click thru rate, etc. Your goal is to attract a visitor to your page using the correct keywords, have them find valuable info very quickly, entice them to stay and read or learn more and then have them follow one of your links to another website for additional info.

13. Extras. It can’t hurt to embed a podcast about on-page SEO and also embed a video about on-page SEO! See how I just used that keyword phrase two more times?

This blog post was created to help with on-page SEO tactics. Is it the best page on the Internet for that subject? No. I’m more into creating the podcast and vlog than I am into ranking for the blog post. Do I want to rank high in Google for this subject? Of course! I can always go back and improve on this page over time.

Also be aware that you can niche down and try to rank for less competitive keyword phrases. There will be less traffic overall but you might rank #1 and actually get more traffic! I could try to optimize this page for “On-Page SEO Basic for a WordPress Website”. Less popular keywords and longer keyword phrases are called long-tail keywords. You can gather lots of traffic with dozens of long-tail keywords.

Be sure and check your facts and your spelling! Google knows!

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