on-page search engine optimization

On-Page Search Engine Optimization Focusing on the techniques that really matter to search engines and website visitors.

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BEFORE YOU WRITE CONTENT OR OPTIMIZE IT 1

Web Savvy Marketing & iThemes Media LLC Copyright © 2016, All Rights Reserved

What’s Your Keyword Focus?

v  Brainstormthetopicyouplanonwri3ngaboutandwritedownthekeypointsyou’llcoverinthepieceofcontent.

v  Writedowna5-10searchphrasesyouthinkwouldpertaintothistopic.

v  SearchforeachphraseinGoogleandreviewwhoandwhatshowsuponpageoneofthesearchengineresultspage.

v  Documentanyphrasesthatshowaweaknessand/orwhereyoucreatebeEercontent.

v  U3lizetheGoogleAdwordskeywordplannertooltoviewmonthlysearchvolumesforeachphrase.

v  Narrowyourop3onsdowntoobtainablesearchterms–akanot60,000phrasespermonthinsearchtraffic.

v  ThinkabouthoweasyitwouldbetocraOa3tleoropeningsentencewiththeexactphraseyou’reconsidering.

Before you write your first word, ask yourself what keyword phrase you would like this content to rank for in search. Not sure? Let’s walk through picking the right one.

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Keyword Selection Warning! Before you proceed further, as yourself two very important questions.

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Isthekeywordpreciseenoughorisitgeneric?

Haveyouusedthiskeywordbeforeinpages,posts,products,categories,ortags?

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Keyword SearchVolume GoogleResults Commentsparsley 201,000 29,700,000 Broad

parsleyrecipes 4,400 19,500,000 BeEer

healthbenefitsofparsley 2,400 729,000 MuchBeEer

parsleyjuicebenefits 260 596,000 Best

WRITE CONTENT THAT USERS & SEARCH ENGINES WILL LOVE 2


Longer Content Wins With Everyone

Better for Keyword Ranking AserpIQ2012showed:•  Theaveragecontentlengthofeachofthetop10resultswasmorethan2,000words.

•  Theaveragenumberofwordsforthecontentinthe#1spotwas2,416.•  Forthe#10spot,theaveragenumberofwordswas2,032.

Better for Obtaining Social Media Shares & Inbound Links Peopletendtosharelongercontentonsocialmediamorethenshortercontent.Peoplealsotendtolinkintolongercontentthantheywouldashorterar3cleorpost.

Better for Conversions Websiteconversionscanalsobealteredbycontent.Thelongerthecontent,themorelikelytheconversion.

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Long-form content has a variety of numbers assigned to in on the web. Long-form content is at least 1,000 or 1,200 words and really approaches towards 2,000 words.

OPTIMIZE CONTENT FOR SEO BEST PRACTICES 3


Elements of On-Page SEO

v  Pagename

v  URLv  Headers(H1,H2,H3,etc.)v  Paragraphtextv  Keywordvaria3onsandrelatedphrasesv  Internallinksv  Linkanchortextv  Images

v  Readabilityv  Meta3tlesanddescrip3ons

We’ll go through these items one by one, but before we dig in, let’s review the list as a whole. When you break each down, you’ll see optimization is complely managable.

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Page Name Apagenameissimplythenameyougiveyourpagewhenyoucreateit.InWordPressthisisimportant,becauseitdefaultsotherimportantelementslikeURLsandH1headers.

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v  Choosea3tlethatisrelevanttowhatthecontentdiscussesv  Makesurethe3tleisuniqueanddoesnotduplicateanotherpage/post3tle

v  Keepthe3tleshortsoitiseasytoreadanddigestedv  Includethekeywordphrase,butdonotrepeatitv  Usekeywordphrasetowardsthestartofthepage3tleifpossiblev  Don’tforceingeographicalreferencesthinkingthishelpswithlocalsearch

Pro Tips for Optimization

URLs 10


v  Thisshouldalwaysincludeyourkeywordv  Thisshouldbeasshortaspossiblev  Thisshouldusewordsandnotunrecognizableparameters(funkycharacters)

v  Usedashestoseparatewordsv  Whilecontentsilosaregreat,keepsilosshortsotheydon’tcreatesomanylayers

thattheURLislongandunreadable

TheURListhewebsiteaddressforapieceofcontent.TheURLisdisplayedaspartofasearchresultinGoogleanditappearsbelowthedocument’s,tleandsnippet.


H1 Headers 11


v  MakesureyourwebsiteorWordPressthemeusesH1tags

v  MakesureyourwebsiteorWordPressthemeusesonlyoneH1headerperURL

v  IncludeyourkeywordphraseinyourH1tagv  Posi3ontheH1tagbeforeothertags(H2,H3,H4,etc.)

TheH1isthemostimportanttaganditshouldneverbeomiUedonapage,post,orproduct.SearchspiderspayaUen,ontothewordsusedintheh1tagasitshouldcontainabasicdescrip,onofthepagecontent,justasthepage,tledoes.

WhilemostWordPressthemeswillautoma,callycreatethisforyou,IseealotofwebsitesthatforgettousetheH1orincludemul,pleH1headerspercontentpiece.


H2-H6 Subheaders 12


v  UseH2-H6headerstobreakupgroupsofcontentv  Includethefocusedkeywordphrasewhereapplicablev  Includevaria3onsofthefocusedkeywordphrasev  Keepheadersin3tlecasev  Avoidlongsentencesasheadersv  Avoidduplica3ngyourH1headerwithinH2-H6subheaders

SearchenginesandhumanwebsitevisitorswillusethesetobeUerunderstandthestructureofthepage.WhileheaderscanhelpwithSEO,theyarenotamakeorbreakSEOfactor.


Paragraph Text 13


v  Includeyourkeywordphraseanumberof3meswithinthecontent

v  Don’tkeywordstuffv  Usethekeywordinthefirstsentence

ofthepageandifthatisnotpossibleinthefirstparagraph

v  Usevaria3onsandsynonyms

v  Don’tworryaboutkeyworddensityv  Insteadfocusonwri3nggreatcontent

aroundatopicandusethefocusedkeywordinanaturalmanner

Thissimplyreferstothecontentitselfandthiscouldresideonthehomepage,interiorpages,blogposts,products,etc.


Keyword Variations 14


v  Brainstorming

v  Compe3torwebsites

v  GooglerelatedsearchesattheboEomofasearchpage-->

v  GoogleKeywordPlannertoolforAdwords

v  Googleautosuggestphraseswhensearchingforthephrase

Akeywordvaria,onissimplyanalternatephraseforafocusedkeyword.Theyhelpyourankonthefocusedkeywordaswellasalternatephrases.

Pro Tips for Finding Keyword Variations

Images 15


v  Imagefilenamesshoulddescribetheimageanduseyourkeywordifpossible

v  Imagealttextshoulddescribetheimageanduseyourkeywordifpossible

v  Usetherightimagesizesoperformanceandspeedareprotected

v  Writeandaddagood,keywordrichdescrip3onforanyimageyouwanttorankinGoogleimagesearch

ExampleofAltTextUsage

ReallybadaltaEribute:<imgsrc=”puppy.jpg”alt=””/>

BeEeraltaEribute:<imgsrc=”puppy.jpg”alt=”puppy”/>

ReallygoodaltaEribute:<imgsrc=”puppy.jpg”alt=”Dalma3anpuppyplayingfetch”>

SpammyaltaEributes:<imgsrc=”puppy.jpg”alt=”puppydogbabydogpuppuppies”/>

ImagesaregreatforSEO,usability,andsharingonsocialmedia.Whileallcontentwon’thavetheop,onforanimage,useanimagewheneverpossible.


Internal Links 16


v  Placelinkswheretheyhelpthereaderandprovidevaluev  Linktoyourcornerstonecontent,services,andproductsv  Linkwithgoodkeywordrichanchortextv  Varyyouranchortextforalinksoitdoesn’tappearforcedv  Don’toveruselinksandindoingso,makecontentunreadable

Aninternallinkconnectsonepageofawebsitetoadifferentpageonthesamewebsite.Internallinksprovidevaluetothehumanreaderaswellashelpsearchengineslocatecontentandknowwhatcontentisofmostvalue.

HereisGoogle’sverbiageonthisreportwithintheirhelpsec3on:

Thenumberofinternallinkspoin3ngtoapageisasignaltosearchenginesabouttherela3veimportanceofthatpage.Ifanimportantpagedoesnotappearinthislist,orifalessimportantpagehasarela3velylargenumberofinternallinks,youshouldconsiderreviewingyourinternallinkstructure.


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Link Anchor Text 17


v  Makesurethisclearlydescribesthedes3na3onlink

v  Ifpossible,includethefocusedkeywordv  Don’tmakeitspammy–don’tforcethekeywordifitcan’tbeusednaturally

v  Avoidclickhere,page,readmore,andar3cleasanchortextasitdoesnotinformhumanreadersorsearchenginesofthenatureofthelink

Anchortextistheclickabletextthatuserswillseeasaresultofalink.Thistextisplacedwithintheanchortag.YousetthisinWordPresswhenyoudefinethelink.Anchortexthelpsuserswithdisabili,esandsearchenginesbeUerunderstandthelink.


Readability 18


v  Useshortparagraphsv  Usebulletstohelpdigestlistsv  Usesubheaderssovisitorscanscancontentv  Userregularverbiageandskiptheindustryjargonv  Don’tallowimagestointerferewithtextflow

v  Saynotobling,brightneon,andunnecessarymovement

EaseofusemaUerinSEO.Ifreadersstayonthepage,thisincreasesyour,meonsite,whichinturnhelpsSEO.

HappyVisitors+HappyGoogle=HigherRank


Meta Titles and Descriptions 19


v  Apage’smeta3tleshouldbea3tle(notasentence)

v  Makesureitisuniqueanddoesn’tduplicateothermeta3tles

v  Makeitinforma3ve,yeteasilyreadable

v  Includethefocusedkeywordphrasev  Ifpossible,keepthekeywordphraseasfartothebeginningaspossiblev  Thisisyourfirstopportunitytoreachpoten3alvisitors,somakeiten3cing,butnot

cheesy

v  Keepitunder55characters

Ameta,tleanddescrip,onaretheveryfirstthingapoten,alvisitorseesforyourwebsite.Theyshowupinsearchengineresultpages,sothisisyourfirstopportunitytograbsomeone’saUen,on,gaintheirtrust,anden,cethemtotakeac,on.

Pro Tips for Optimization of Meta Titles

Meta Titles and Descriptions 20


v  Apage’smetadescrip3onmightbeasentenceortwoorashortparagraph

v  Makesureitisuniqueanddoesn’tduplicateothermetadescrip3ons

v  Makeitinforma3ve,yeteasilyreadable

v  Includethefocusedkeywordphraseinitv  Ifpossible,keepthekeywordphraseasfartothebeginningaspossiblev  Thisisyourfirstopportunitytoreadpoten3alvisitors,somakeiten3cing,butnot

cheesy(yepthiswasrepeatedbecauseitisimportant)

v  Keepitunder150characters

Pro Tips for Optimization of Meta Descriptions

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Crappy Content

Peoplewritecontenttofillwhitespace.Don’tdoit!Youneedtoproviderealvaluetowebsitevisitors.

Youhavetohavesomethingreallygoodtoresonatewithreaders.

NoamountofSEOwillhelpbadcontent,sostartwithsomethingsolid.

Writegoodcontentandyouwillberewardedforittenfold.

You’vedoneyourkeywordresearchandyou’vewriEenyourcontent.

Whenyoulookcloselyatthecontent,yourealizeyouusedvaria3onsofyourkeywordphrase(good)buttotallyforgettousetheactualkeyword(bad).

Takethe3metogobackthroughyourcontentandweaveintherightfocusedkeyword.

Becarefulaboutwhatyoureadontheinternetandwatchar3cledates.

Un3lyouareconfidentwithyourSEOknowledge,refrainfromop3mizingyourpagesandposts.

Takethe3metolearnbestprac3ces.Anddon’ttrysomethingunlessyouhaveasolidgraspofthetac3candtheposi3veornega3veramifica3onsthatmayresult.

Forgetting the Keyword Inaccurate SEO Knowledge

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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ?


Thanks for Coming Today!

RebeccaGillFounder of Web Savvy Marketing Instructor at DIYSEOcourses.com @rebeccagill on Twitter

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