On Page SEO Tips – Part 2

It’s time for the second part of our On Page SEO guide. Whether you are using it to rank here in Detroit or elsewhere does not matter. SEO is the same everywhere.

Optimize your images for Google Image Search

There is also a lot of potential in this area that you should not ignore. There are two possibilities here.

Name the image files with your keywords. Your keywords definitely belong in the names of images. If you write an article on Detroit SEO, then name your image the same way. It should then be called detroit-seo.jpg. Google Image Search will then know how to associate your images based on the keywords.

Another good idea is to always use the Alt tag of the image (absolutely!) and then fill it with relevant keywords.

Add internal links to your posts

Internal links provide a better click-through rate for your articles. They also help the search engine to index your website better. Both are very beneficial. On the one hand the average bounce rate of your blog will decrease, on the other hand Google will get to know your blog better and weight it higher with a low bounce rate.

By the way, the bounce rate is defined like this:

The bounce rate is the percentage of visits to a single page (i.e., sessions in which the user has left your site on the home page without interacting with the page).

The internal links should be set in two parts. The most important are integrated into the text as early as possible. At the end of your post, you can then set two or three more thematically matching links. Don’t exaggerate and only set links that give the reader added value, i.e. a benefit.

Link relevant Detroit resources

This is also about the benefit for your reader here in the city. Don’t be afraid to give him good information that can complement your articles well. This gives your texts more credibility.

Relevant content from websites with high authority should be given preference.

Pay attention to spelling mistakes and grammar

Spelling mistakes and poor grammar are the enemies of a good ranking. Both make your posts difficult to read. Not only your readers will notice this, but also the search engine.

Rumor has it that Google already devalues posts with many errors and a bad grammar, which would be logical. Because Google attaches great importance to good content that offers added value for visitors. You won’t be able to eliminate every mistake, but with good will and some effort your texts can become almost error-free.

Produce long SEO content

In general, long contents rank much better than short content. The deeper you get into your topics, the longer your articles become, the better they will rank. Because then they offer your visitors a comprehensive insight into the topics they are interested in.

Comprehensive, long content is therefore considered more valuable by Google than short articles that only touch on the topic. In addition, long posts increase the time you spend on your website. How long visitors spend on average on your blog is another quality mark for the search engine. This means that Google will rate websites higher if they have a high retention time.

Produce only high quality content

Don’t make the mistake of just adding your articles because you may not feel like it. You won’t do yourself a favor. Publish fewer articles and write high-quality, long articles. Quality is an important ranking factor next to detail.

In addition, it has the important side effect that you will be perceived as an expert over time. This is really good for your ego and your website.

Use multimedia elements

Another factor search engines use to determine the ranking position of your articles is how many visitors interact with your content. That’s why it’s a good idea to use multimedia elements in your posts.

There are many possibilities, it doesn’t always have to be a video from YouTube. For example, you could create and embed a slideshare presentation. You could also create polls or quizzes, both of which encourage your visitors to interact.

Always respond to comments

The comment area of a blog is the most neglected instrument of visitor retention. Reply to the comments you get on your content. This can trigger a valuable discussion, because Google doesn’t miss out on the fact that an article with lots of comments has to be more valuable than one without any feedback at all.

Even critical comments should be published as long as they are not offensive. Swallow the criticism and try to learn from it and improve your articles.

Optimize your images for the web

On many websites you can find image material that has been uploaded in unnecessarily high resolution. This slows down the page structure of a website tremendously. Slow websites are not liked by visitors and search engines at the same time. So always cut your pictures to the largest variant of your contribution pictures and optimize the file size.

You can use Photoshop to do this by selecting “Save for Devices and Web”. A really good idea is to use a good WordPress plugin for optimization.

On Page SEO Tips – Part 1

This article covers all the optimizations that an article that has been prepared for good ranking should have. Such content tells Google what the text is about and for which keywords it should appear in search results. I’ll show you the things you can do for a good ranking before you press the “Publish” button.

A good text will:

rank better

reduce your bounce rate

make sure that other posts are read by you as well because it contains some suitable links to other posts by you.

The preparation for good SEO

Before you can begin to optimize your articles, you should meet a number of requirements so that you can also track how your posts are developing. Therefore, make sure that you have already addressed the following requirements.

Install Google Analytics

A Google Analytics account is a basic requirement for good optimization. Because with it you can quickly determine how your contributions develop. You can get a lot of useful information through the analysis software. For example, which articles could still have potential, but should be revised. This is how you set up Google Analytics correctly and in compliance with data protection regulations.

Display

So that you can check all important data also in your WordPress, it is recommended to install an appropriate plugin. I have had good experiences with the Google Analytics WD Plugin.

Use the Google Search Console

The former Google Webmaster Tools tell you a lot about the quality of your website in the search results. You’ll also get tips and clues on how to optimize your text and average position in search results. A lot of other useful information is just waiting to be used by you.

Install a good SEO plugin

The Yoast SEO plugin is recommended here if you use WordPress. You can set many important things and also create a sitemap.xml which you link in the Google Search Console. In my experience, this will make indexing your posts faster.

The big On-Page SEO Checklist

Now that you have created the basic conditions to be able to control your results, we’ll get down to business and optimize your texts as much as possible for a perfect ranking.

Use the Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is an excellent tool for optimizing your posts because it helps you to find the keywords that your potential readers are really looking for.

You can see how many searches are made per month for a keyword, and how much competition there is for that particular keyword. This helps you to choose the keywords for which there is less competition, but which still has a lot of effect. Sometimes it seems more sensible to use less popular keywords or phrases and thus “rank more accurately” instead of just generally.

Example: Instead of trying to get the hell out of climbing up for T-shirts, it makes more sense to be at the top for “T-shirts in pink” if you sell shirts in fancy pink.

Use short URLs

Google now loves short URLs, whether they’re talking or not. Some time ago, the keywords were supposed to be in the URL. But in the course of the own conversion of the URLs to short IDs, the search engine no longer weights the speaking variants of the permalinks so highly.

Google is clearly going over to want very short URLs. So make sure that the permalinks are very short, no matter which schema you use.

Add the keyword to your blog post title (H1)

Keywords should always be found in the name of your article. You should also make sure that the title of your article is integrated into an H1 tag <h1>Your title</h1>. This indicates to the search engine the highest importance and also which topic your post deals with. If the title of your text is only in a <h2> tag, change it or let it change.

Use the keyword in the first paragraph

Also in the first paragraph should be your keyword, because this is of high importance for the search engine and therefore also for your ranking. Insert your keyword as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph.

Insert the keyword in subheadings

Subheadings are equally important for man and machine. Also here your ranking word must be in at least one <h2> or <h3> subheading if you are looking for good positions in the search results. By the way, you can convert scanners to readers with good subheadings.

Use your keyword in the continuous text

Use the keyword a few times in the normal continuous text. Don’t exaggerate, you shouldn’t do it more than four to five times, otherwise, Google could consider your contributions as keyword stuffing. This would have considerable disadvantages for the ranking of your articles.

Also, don’t always use the correct keyword, but try to vary it. Describe your keyword and use obvious combinations.

This was part 1 of our onpage SEO tips 🙂