On-Page SEO: Optimizing Pages and Website Content for Search Engines
On-Page SEO: Optimizing Pages and Website Content for Search Engines. On-page SEO is the factor that determines whether or not your website is optimized for search engines from within the website itself.
This means that you will do the optimization on your own website.
This post is CHAPTER 2 of 7 SEO Chapters that we will discuss. For the first CHAPTER please visit this link: What is SEO?
On-page optimization aims to make search engines know whether your website is relevant / in accordance with what users are looking for. And really that has the best quality.
Therefore, the key is 2 things: relevant, quality.
Without fulfilling both of them, it is impossible to rank 1 in search engines.
In this article, we will learn which parts of the website you need to implement on-page optimization and how to do it.
The concept of on-page SEO
In SEO, the concept of on-page optimization is the MAIN thing that you must understand.
There are still other optimization categories besides on-page (off-page, discussed in the next chapter), but without applying on-page optimization it will be useless for you to do other strategies.
The essence of on-page SEO is simple.
You will optimize your website so that:
- High benefit for visitors
- Make it easy for visitors to explore
- Visitors feel at home in it
- Search engines understand the structure of your website
After reading these 4 points, you might ask,
“I’m optimizing for search engines, why do I focus on visitors?”
The answer is this.
Search engines can find out whether visitors are satisfied or not with the pages they visit.
Imagine if you searched for something on Google, then entered a website. It turned out that the contents were not satisfactory. Most likely after a few seconds, you will click the ‘back button to find other websites. Yes, right?
Because Google certainly wants to display websites that satisfy users, your website must satisfy visitors.
Here’s how:
Optimal Website Page Components
There are several factors that affect website user satisfaction. We will discuss one by one from each of the following categories:
- Content
- Keyword
- Title
- URL
- Meta description
- Image media
- Outbound links
- Internal link
- Social sharing
- Website speed
On-Page SEO: Optimizing Pages and Website Content for Search Engines
1. The best quality content
If you pay attention, content is the main component in website pages. This means that content plays the biggest role in on-page optimization.
It’s impossible to get 1st place without having quality content.
But, what is quality content?
These are the characteristics:
- Provide maximum benefits for visitors
- Stand out more than other similar content
- Listened to for a long time by visitors
- Generating feelings (amazed, entertained, happy, etc.)
- Resolving visitor problems
Those are the 5 criteria for quality content.
If you want to rank 1st in search engines for a long duration, then your content should fulfill all five of those things.
Without exception.
You should also know that Google openly states that they are against content that:
- Thin (thin), in other words, weightless
- Does not provide added value for readers
- Not original
- Frustrating the reader (because the quality is low)
If your content falls into one of the categories above, it will be very difficult to get high rankings.
Worse yet, content like that carries a risk of penalties!
Google and other search engines are actively updating their algorithms. In the future, they will increasingly understand the quality of content.
So, be careful in publishing content for your website.
2. Keywords are popular and right on target
Try to remember the last time you used Google … you wrote a few words as the keyword.
Then Google displays the results associated with this keyword.
The more relevant the keyword, the higher the ranking.
So, optimizing a page means optimizing for keywords.
Every page on your website must be optimized for at least 1 keyword.
How?
By including keywords in your website pages.
Be precise in the content, in the title, and in the URL.
Thus, search engines and visitors will immediately understand what the content of your website pages is.
One more thing…
You have to understand what is the meaning behind a keyword.
For example, someone does a search on Google with the keyword “buy an iPhone”.
What do you think that means?
Does he want to buy an iPhone or does he want to read articles on how to buy an iPhone? Hmm… looks like the former makes more sense.
Google also understands this.
So that Google will display a page that sells iPhones.
Therefore, it is impossible to get high ratings if you provide articles on how to buy an iPhone.
3. The title of the page that invites clicks
The easiest way to optimize the title is to include the main keywords that you are looking for.
For example the keyword “learn SEO”, then the title contains the word “learn SEO”.
But that’s not enough …
the most important thing in the title is not keyword optimization, but optimization for human interest.
If the title you create is able to attract a lot of visitors, then the ranking will go up.
The logic is this:
Suppose there are 2 competing websites, ranked 1 and 2.
It turns out that rank 2 gets more visitors than rank 1, because the title he makes is more attractive so that many clicks.
Google wants to prioritize the best results, so websites in rank 2 will be raised to the first rank.
Make sense?
Because the title is the first-page element read in search results, by optimizing the title the number of clicks can be increased.
4. URLs are short and descriptive
Although the effect is not large, URLs containing keywords can affect the ranking of your website in search results.
Here’s an example of a bad URL. Avoid using URLs like this.
- mobitricks.info/?p=94
A good URL is always relevant to what the page is about.
Example:
- The page about ‘Making Pizza’> https://mobitricks.info/making-pizza/
- ‘Macbook pro’ product page> https://mobitricks.info/laptop/macbook-pro/
Make a URL that describes the content, even better if it contains the main keyword.
5. Meta description that is descriptive and invites clicks
The meta description is 1-2 sentences that appear in the search results:
The meta description doesn’t really affect your page ranking.
Also, it doesn’t always appear in search results. Because Google now more often uses sentences in content as page descriptions.
That said, there’s no harm in this section being optimized.
(It doesn’t take long after all)
With an attractive meta description, the possibility of other people visiting your website will be even higher.
As the logic goes, the more clicks from humans = the better the ranking.
6. High-quality, optimally sized images
Imagine a website page that is 100% text content, it must be very boring. Therefore, images and/or videos are a plus.
Surprisingly, many think that images are detrimental.
not true.
There is no downside to using multimedia in content.
Except, if the numbers are so large that it makes your website visitor’s computer stuck. Or if it has nothing to do with content.
A few tips:
- Use pictures that relate to and describe the content
- Use the right type of extension so that the file size does not increase
- Make sure the image resolution is as shown
- Compress the image for optimal
- Add alt attributes when placing images
7. References in the form of links to other websites
This point is very important, especially for new websites.
Google, as an information center, of course, wants to provide reliable content. So that the information does not mislead many people.
This is why it is easier for large websites to enter the first page.
because its reputation has been built for a long time.
So, because your website is new, Google considers its content untrustworthy. Because it is not trusted yet, it will be more difficult to get high rankings.
Here is where reference links can help.
Links to other reputable and relevant websites will make the reputation of your content better.
The analogy is like this:
Try picking up one of the non-fiction books.
In the book, there must be a bibliography or footnote. It contains quotations from other sources.
Books without other sources will be considered untrusted.
8. Internal links for easier navigation
There is a term called a bounce.
Bounce means when someone enters your website, then he immediately leaves without doing anything.
If the bounce rate of your website is high, it could be because:
- The quality is disappointing
- Navigation is difficult
Remember again, websites that disappoint visitors will not be able to get high rankings.
So that the bounce rate can be a factor that shows visitor satisfaction.
One of the efforts to reduce the bounce rate is by placing internal links (links between pages), so that visitors can easily visit other pages on your website.
9. Can be shared on social media
Currently, Google doesn’t consider the number of shares to be a determining factor for ranking on Google, but that doesn’t mean social sharing isn’t important.
On the contrary.
Social shares have an indirect impact on website rankings.
These are the benefits of social sharing:
- Additional visitors
- Branding, your website will be known
- The satisfaction factor increases (if your website can satisfy visitors who come)
- Some of the visitors will provide backlinks (discussed further in the next chapter)
Compared to SEO, social media will build your website brand faster.
This is what has an effect on SEO.
When your website is known, people will search for your website via Google.
because many are searching through Google, it means that the reputation of your website will be considered good by Google.
Therefore, install a share button on your website.
Then use the popularity trigger elements to create compelling content to share.
10. Response speed and speed resistance
The faster the website will get the better ranking.
In an article written by Billy Hoffman at MOZ, it appears that websites that are in the top rankings have shorter response times.
Time to First Byte (TTFB) means the time it takes for the website server until the user gets the first 1 byte. In other words, the server response time.
Speed increases aren’t just for search engines. Visitors will also feel more comfortable on a website with a short loading time.
There are several things that affect speed:
- Quality of hosting used
- The number of .js and .css files in
- The page size is too large so it disturbs visitors
Keep in mind: the presence of images and videos will not be considered to reduce website speed. Unless the amount is excessive and not needed.
You can test the speed of your website through the Google Page Speed Test. Immediately make improvements if the score is below 75.
